<P> Renewed religious fervor and fanaticism came in the wake of the Black Death . Some Europeans targeted "groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims", lepers and Romani, thinking that they were to blame for the crisis . </P> <P> Differences in cultural and lifestyle practices also led to persecution . As the plague swept across Europe in the mid-14th century, annihilating more than half the population, Jews were taken as scapegoats, in part because better hygiene among Jewish communities and isolation in the ghettos meant that Jews were less affected . Accusations spread that Jews had caused the disease by deliberately poisoning wells . European mobs attacked Jewish settlements across Europe; by 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed, and more than 350 separate massacres had occurred . </P> <P> According to Joseph P. Byrne, women also faced persecution during the Black Death . Muslim women in Cairo became scapegoats when the plague struck . Byrne writes that in 1438, the sultan of Cairo was informed by his religious lawyers that the arrival of the plague was Allah's punishment for the sin of fornication and that in accordance with this theory, a law was set in place stating that women were not allowed to make public appearances as they may tempt men into sin . Byrne describes that this law was only lifted when "the wealthy complained that their female servants could not shop for food ." </P> <P> The Black Death hit the monasteries very hard because of their proximity with the sick who sought refuge there . This left a severe shortage of clergy after the epidemic cycle . Eventually the losses were replaced by hastily trained and inexperienced clergy members, many of whom knew little of the rigors of their predecessors . New colleges were opened at established universities, and the training process sped up . The shortage of priests opened new opportunities for laywomen to assume more extensive and more important service roles in the local parish . </P>

What effects did the plague have on europe