It's been far too long since we had one of this series. Today, I would like to discuss hygiene, because this continues to be one of the most misunderstood aspects of the mediæval period. I'd like to be very clear from the outset: mediæval people not only washed, but hygene was important to them. The whole "once a year bath whether you need it or not" canard, if it was ever reality, came with the Enlightenment and was foreign to mediæval sensibilities.
One book that dispels many myths (but unfortunately perpetuates a few others as can be guessed from the title) is The Ties that Bound : Peasant Families in Medieval England by Barbara A. Hanawalt. The author is a liberal university professor, but an honest one at least, who did painstaking research to try to recreate certain aspects of mediæval peasant life. She bases her text off coroner's reports, and given the number of injuries and death she found as a result of trying to heat bath water, she was forced to conclude that people bathed at least once a week if not more often.
Mediæval people always washed their hands before and after meals. In the courts of the nobility, there were formal ceremonies that were scrupulously observed in this regard. Many people today don't wash their hands before and after meals. While an outhouse is not really worthy of the distain it gets, given than our grandparents had to live with them, there is evidence that mediæval plumbing could be quite sophisticated.
In the first installment on the Age of Faith, we mentioned the archaelogical evidence that mediæval folk actually had better teeth than we do. Here is a good website with sources that shows us a variety of aids to mediæval dental hygiene.
Plus, as is the norm for articles in this series, some mediæval goodies:
A big tip of the bowler goes to Mike Fieschko of In Illo Tempore who discovered a number of PDF files and other links to pre-1570 Missals. For those who think of the Traditional Latin Mass as the "Tridentine Rite", these manuscripts are illuminating. It also includes many of the other Latin Masses that were totally abolished after Vatican II including the Ambrosian, Dominican, and Mozarabic to name just a few. This is truly one of the great finds of the year.
Also discovered by Mr. Fieschko and brought to our attention videos of an attempt at recreating a late mediæval parish Mass, using a 1450 missal of the diocese of Linköping, Sweden. Very interesting to watch. It is certainly much more familiar to a traditionalist than even the most "conservative" Novus Ordo.
Posted on the Feast of Sts. Nereus & Companions, Martyrs, a.D. MMVI
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