Did People in Medieval Times Really Not Bathe?

In today's video, we answer fewer questions because Mark R asks us why

people

in the Middle Ages never

bathe

, but just before we get into that, Bag Blaze offers you this video with a 15-day free trial. de bag blaze com forward slash Brain Food, so there are a variety of common ideas about what it was like to live in

medieval

times

in Europe from a hygienic point of view, starting from the idea that

people

tracked the contents of their chamber pots through the windows to the ground. Streets to that, they rarely if ever bothered to

bathe

, but hey, is any of this

really

true?

Since the previous question, be sure to watch our video on whether people in the Middle Ages

really

threw fecal matter out of windows to learn more about that, but move on. As for bathing habits, for starters, when it comes to diverse cultures spanning a large area and time period, such as the

medieval

period, which is generally considered to be between the 5th and 15th centuries, there will be no definitive one-size-fits-all. . answer, but hey, obviously, that's not very interesting, so let's give it our best college try. It turns out that humans during medieval

times

were just as interested as humans are now in not stinking or having dirt and grime on themselves, so in general.

In case it seems that, contrary to popular belief, they still had some basic hygienic practices for this purpose, we definitely know from surviving texts that people bathed in some form with reasonable regularity and that it generally varied according to their circumstances, for For example, it seems at least like washing. Face, hands and teeth cleaning were done very frequently every morning on tooth night, beyond rags, twigs were also used for cleaning. The general method here was to chew on one end of a twig for a while and then once it was properly crushed, use that end. In fact, in some cases, although they did not know it at the time, the twigs or roots used actually contained antibacterial substances, perhaps this explains why certain plants became so popular for this purpose.

People observed the effects even if they didn't understand. why they worked so well in cleaning their mouth and teeth and then washed their hands, in addition to doing it during the morning, they rubbed their body in a bowl, usually they also washed again before and after eating, which This was a time before the widespread use of utensils and at one point, fork use was considered sinful for a variety of fun reasons that will be covered in the additional facts a little later, beyond eating with your hands, especially those of the lower classes, who often also ate and drank from the fork.

In addition to this, it should come as no surprise that cleaning your hands before eating was considered good manners and cleaning your fingers afterwards was a necessity to get rid of leftover food, returning to bathing at least during medieval times. While some medical professionals advised against excessive bathing, many others extolled the benefits of bathing regularly for maintaining health, for example the Italian physician Magnus Medial, a nurse who worked as a court physician and for a time as a regional master in the University of Paris. The 14th century noted that bathing cleanses the external parts of the body of the dirt left behind exercised on the outside of the body, if any of the waste products remain under the skin a third digestion that was not resolved with exercise and massage, these will be resolved with bathing, also recommended bathing as a means to cure or relieve discomfort, such as for the elderly and women who were pregnant, of course, when talking about full body bars, only people reasonably well off in At this time they could afford to own a bathroom of some kind. and to supply it with hot water, so most depend on bathhouses, rivers, lakes, hot springs, etc., so the poorest of the poor who cannot afford to go to a bathhouse usually They think they have had extremely poor hygiene during the winter months outside of washing.

Basins, but for the rest of our homes, were common, especially after the 11th century, when the crusaders, who had become accustomed to them and to the excellent hygiene habits of the Muslim and Jewish people, popularized and regularly frequented these establishments. only for bathing but also for socializing. Fast forward to the 15th century, bathing and eating in bathhouses were often combined, as noted in Virginia Smith's clean, a history of personal hygiene, impurity, and in the 15th century, banquets in bathhouses in many city bathhouses they appear to have been as common as going out to a restaurant would become over centuries later in German baths.

Fifteenth-century broadcasts often featured the city bathhouse with a long line of bathing couples eating naked in bathtubs, often several at a table, with other couples smiling and in between. distance, while this may seem a little strange at first glance through a modern lens, consider that today many people enjoy soaking in a hot tub or pool with their friends while drinking alcoholic beverages, which is not much different than these ancient bathing practices, except that they now generally feature scarce Bathing suits returned to bathhouses since many were connected to bakeries to use the heat from their ovens to heat the water.

Let's face it, there was no way one could sit in the water smelling freshly baked bread and not develop a voracious appetite. appetite and speaking of voracious appetites, given that many bathhouses were not divided by gender and featured now clean naked people having a good time together, it should also not be surprising that bathhouses were known for being places to go to spend a good time. Those who did not have an unpaid partner, these establishments were also frequently places where you found or engaged the services of exceptionally good smelling prostitutes, as you may have guessed from all this, many church groups despised bathhouses for that very reason.

For example, consider this. extract from an 11th century minister known as worm bear, if as a married man you have shamed the nakedness of a woman, as I say, her breasts and her shameful pots, if you have done so, you must do penance for five days with bread and water, but if you are not married two days on bread and water you have washed in the bathroom with your wife and other women and you have seen them naked and they, if you have done so, you must first ask for three days on bread and water, even though it is contrary to popular belief in En Generally, at this time it does not appear that most church organizations had a big problem with the act of bathing, just the perceived immorality exhibited by many bathhouses, for example, the 6th century Pope Gregory I is known to have encouraged Christians to bathe.

Muslim and Jewish groups were also known to regularly and as mentioned above be even more demanding than their Christian brethren when it came to staying clean, as the Christian Church in Europe resolved the issue of whether there was so much nudity and love in the bathrooms. It became relatively common for different church groups to build bathhouses near monasteries. The difference between these bathhouses and the others was that they were much less fun, specifically separating men and women instead of mixing them, further proving that most church-organized Asians really had nothing against the act of bathing, many monasteries actually piped water into their own baths, sometimes elaborate, and even required clergy to bathe before many events, for example at Westminster Abbey they required their monks to bathe for Easter of Christmas. and at the end of June and the end of September this does not mean, however, that the monks did not bathe, but rather that they were obliged to do so during these periods;

In fact, the evidence seems to indicate that they bathe much more frequently than that, since they seem to have employed a year-round bath attendant at that Abbey, if people during medieval times really bathed with a reasonable frequency, did they? Where did the perception come from that they were not good? This came about thanks to the latter end of this period and beyond where people actually started bathing less, as to why, to begin with, around the middle of the 14th century, around 60% of the European population died in about seven years, not unlike the instant verses in this case due to the black plague that this saw.

The ancient popular practice of people gathering together in bathhouses began to become decidedly less popular for a time, although it appears to have recovered after things happened again in the early 16th century, when diseases such as syphilis were rearing their ugly heads. ugly heads in In Europe, around the same time, a popular notion emerged in some regions of Europe that water could carry diseases to the body through the pores of the skin, especially hot water. It was not just illnesses caused by the water itself that worried them, although they also felt that By extending the pause after bathing, this resulted in infections from the air having easier access to the body and spasms, especially in homes. of baths, were connected to the spread of disease, of course, given that countless people bathed together in the same warm water sharing food and even sometimes having sex, this probably actually encouraged the spread of disease in these establishments or even in domestic toilets, water was commonly shared with many people, as transporting it all, Lind, was not an easy task and even a lot more work and cost if decided. heat it too, so the popularity of bathhouses began to decline significantly when syphilis was circulating, as Dutch philosopher Erasmus noted in 1526. 25 years ago, nothing was more fashionable with ribbons than public baths, today in day there is none that the new plague has taught. avoid them, but then as now people did not like the stench if they could avoid it, so without bathhouses around or as popular, many began to rely mainly on the old method of washing using a sink and the like as their main means of keeping clean and, when time permitted, taking baths in lakes and rivers to further solve the problem of the stench, people who could afford it too frequently changed their linen underwear and rubbed themselves with fresh linens. clean or scented rags, various perfumes were used.

Also used, in addition to the practice of using small bags containing aromatic herbs, these centers were often rubbed under the armpits and elsewhere to be used as deodorants, which said that although most still bathed occasionally with less frequency than before, it seems that the Sun even among the nobility. He actually gave up on full body bathing at this point, for example a Russian ambassador to France noted that His Majesty Louis XIV stank like a wild animal. Russians were not as particular about bathing and tended to bathe regularly even after their European brethren had largely abandoned bathhouses.

Qing until the 14th, the stench seems to come from the fact that his doctors advised him to bathe as infrequently as possible to maintain good health. He also stated that he found the act of bathing disturbing because of this, he said that he had only bathed in a bath twice in his life, another of this appalling type of couple among the aristocracy was Queen Elizabeth I of Spain, who stated that he had taken a full body bath only twice in his life when he was first born and when he got married, of course, both. In some cases they may be forgetting many times that the servants bathed them when they were children and given certain moral attitudes of the time, particularly in the case of Isabel, it may be that they were simply saying that they never bathed them instead of this being the case. really the case whatever the case may be.

Surprisingly, these post-medieval attitudes against regular full-body bathing in certain areas of Europe persisted among some groups until the mid-19th century, but in short, there does not appear to have been a time in recorded history when people were known to he stopped bathing somehow along with the record of being the least hygienic. It does not go back to ultra-distant ancestors like medieval people. All but two of the above are more recent, with some groups abandoning better hygiene around the 16th century and beyond. thanks to widespread illness and the development of more prudish attitudes, but still, with exceptions, most people seem not to have enjoyed being dirty and took steps to keep themselves as clean and fresh-smelling as possible given their circumstances , while they certainly weren't that close to being. hygienic like our modern beings who enjoy hot running water,cheap sips etc.

Overall, they were not covered in dirt and grime as often portrayed in Hollywood and you know, another thing that we can all easily enjoy in the modern world and that is the ease of backing up our digital files using the sponsor of today, Backblaze, the best way to back up your files is absolutely with Backblaze, as you know, I like to try all the sponsors that we have in this program and in fact, today's sponsor, I have not only been trying. I've been using it, I think, for three or four years, long before they started sponsoring this program, it's the best way to do it right now.

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You can see how easy it is to use Bag Blazes by getting a free trial of the service. Just go to Backblaze comm forward slash Brain Food and by going through that link, not only will you get that discount, but it will also help you support this program and let's get into today's program. additional facts, it's okay, everyone is home just to get rid of bacteria. Well I wonder no more, contrary to popular belief, most soap does not actually kill microbes unless it specifically has some type of antibacterial agent added and it is also worth noting here that studies show that antibacterial soap does not it is.

It's actually not much more effective at removing bacteria from your hands, for example, than regular soap. As for that non-antibacterial variety, when you wash your hands with it, it works chemically to break down the oil on your hands that are often riddled with So, the more soap and the longer you rub your hands together once rinsed with water , less oil and microbes will remain on the hands and now, another additional fact, the Chia culture from 2400 to 1900 BC. C. who resided in part of the present day. China is also known to have used forks a couple of thousand years later, the popularity of forks in the Western world spread across the Silk Road to Venice and one of the first recorded cases of forks in Venice comes from a 11th century story about the wedding of a Byzantine princess Theodora and a du Cana to Dominica sold although she supposedly brought gold forks as part of her dowry, yet the God-fearing Venetians saw these spiked monstrosities as a slide against the Lord himself, who gave us perfectly good fingers to eat and if we are now thinking we are exaggerating, consider this quote from Peter Damian Gordon, his wisdom has provided man with natural forks for his fingers, therefore it is an insult to him replace them with artificial metal forks when eating, of course, in the chapter of the book of Samuel. 2 verse 13 which is believed to have been composed around 640 to 540 BC.

C. establishes that the assistants of the Jewish priests used forks and the custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came while the meat was boiling with a meat of three. teeth in hand such trivial mentions as the use in the Holy Scriptures of the bicycle, no less than the priests and servants themselves, did not prevent many religious elites from vilifying Theodora's fork and pour, commanding it as the fact that she used napkins, among other things such as when the princess died two years later of a mysterious degenerative illness, some considered it a punishment for their pride and perceived excesses even though their use was mentioned as okay in the Hebrew Bible.

Forks in the Western world continued to carry this negative stigma due to its association with Eastern decadence and being perceived as an affront to God, the popularity of pork began to grow; However, during the 16th century, due to the infamous historical trendsetter, Catherine de Medici, she helped popularize the fork on French tables after her marriage to Henry II. At the time, everything Italian was in fashion thanks to the Renaissance, the four-course became more popular as hygiene ideals began to change, particularly when people began bathing and washing less frequently in this era, as seen. noted earlier, in reality, the fort began to seem more and more attractive to those who preferred their food to be free of anything in their hands however many men still rejected them because they considered them too feminine this attitude began to change when they began to be made with ruffled cuffs This may seem strange to ask but let's not forget that high heels were originally invented for men who also wore stockings.

In that sense, when forks began to gain popularity, this resulted in less need for a pointed knife during meals, as such in 1669. Louis XIV, the same guy who loved to comb his hair. stockings and high heels, as was the men's fashion at the time, made these overly sharp knives illegal at the table and replaced them with duller, wider knives that they said would not be until the period of industrialization when the classes middle and lower classes began to commonly use forks. Thanks to their price reduction when this happened, forks quickly overtook knives and are the most popular calorie item.

Of course, any discussion of cutlery wouldn't be complete without a nod to the fact that ancient spoons in China a They sometimes also featured a pointed end to be used as a single-pointed fork-cutting knife, perhaps the first known instance of a fork or snipe, depending on how you want to look at it, so I really hope you found the video interesting if you smashed the Like button below and don't forget to Subscribe too, probably the best thing you can do to support this show is to mark it as a sponsor. Backblaze 15-day free trial link below and as always, thanks for watching.