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The 'Dirty Middle Ages': Bathing and Cleanliness in the Middle Ages

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The 'Dirty Middle Ages': Bathing and Cleanliness in the Middle Ages Albrecht Classen The ‘Dirty Middle Ages’: Bathing and Cleanliness in the Middle Ages. With an Emphasis on Medieval German Courtly Romances, Early Modern Novels, and Art History: Another Myth-Buster Modern Misconceptions About the Middle Ages Most medievalists are only too aware about the many myths that blur ordinary people’s understanding and conceptualization of the Middle Ages, that is, both negative and positive views. Extreme and miserable conditions in everyday life seem to have existed then, since everything must have been so much worse than today, at least according to the global, but certainly wrong, notion that history, hence also cultural history, is determined by a linear, or progressive, develop- ment.1 We can often only shake our heads considering the extent to which mis- 1 See the illuminating discussion by Otto Borst, Alltagsleben im Mittelalter. insel taschenbuch, 513 (Frankfurt a. M.: Insel, 1983); this is now impressively complemented by Peter Dinzelbach- er, Lebenswelten des Mittelalters 1000–1500. Bachmann Basiswissen, 1 (Badenweiler: Wissen- schaftlicher Verlag Bachmann, 2010); see now also Albrecht Classen, “Survey of Fundamental Reference Works in Medieval Studies,” Handbook of Medieval Studies: Terms – Methods – Trends, ed. id., vol. 1 (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2010), XXV–LXVI. See also Philosophy of History After Hayden White, ed. Robert Doran. Bloomsbury Studies in American Philosophy (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013); Progress, Apocalypse, and Completion of History and Life After Death of the Human Person in the World Religions, ed. Peter Koslowski (Dor- drecht and London: Kluwer Academic, 2002). The discussion about progress in human history is legion, of course. As to progressivism, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism (last accessed on April 16, 2015). A solid, philosophically oriented discussion of this issue, outlin- ing the contrast between the eschatological worldview in the Middle Ages and beyond and the optimism exuded by the Enlightenment, is offered by Friedrich Rapp, “Fortschritt,” Lexikon der Geisteswissenschaften: Sachbegriffe – Disziplinen – Personen, ed. Helmut Reinalter and Peter J. Brenner (Vienna, Cologne, and Weimar: Böhlau, 2011), 194–202; Ronald Wright, A Short History of Progress (Edinburgh and London: Canongate, 2009). Of course, the entire concept of ‘progress’ is the result of Enlightenment theory and developed further in the nineteenth century, while the twentieth century experienced a dramatic decline in this optimistic world view; see, for a Albrecht Classen, The University of Arizona DOI 10.1515/9783110523799-017 Brought to you by | Cambridge University Library Authenticated Download Date | 3/30/17 2:22 AM The ‘Dirty Middle Ages’: Bathing and Cleanliness in the Middle Ages 459 conceptions and prejudice dominate popular opinions about the medieval world, which is mostly seen only through the lens of the modern film industry or popular writing. Binary oppositions make good stuff for fantasy, but they are highly det- rimental to a rational and critical approach to the study of the pre-modern world based on a careful analysis of the rich panoply of sources and historical objects.2 Aside from truly simplistic perspectives regarding the infantile character, ignorance, boorishness, crudeness, simplicity, or outright incompetence of medi- eval people, we are often confronted with such absurd notions as that the Black Death eliminated a large portion of the entire population; that medieval thinkers believed the earth was flat; that lords had the right to deflower the wives of their subjects after the wedding (ius primae noctis); that the medieval Inquisition had invented and used the most abhorrent torture instruments, as obviously docu- mented by countless but mostly silly modern-day torture museums; that everyone drank wine and beer instead of water because of wide-spread pollution; that most people did not reach an age beyond thirty or forty years; that medieval medicine was largely based on superstition; that virtually everyone in the Middle Ages was stationary and did not travel; that the hygienic conditions were simply horrible and people reeked unbearably because they did not wash and clean themselves properly; that women were totally subjugated and had no rights, living an exist- ence comparable to sex slaves; that the witch craze raged already in the Middle Ages; that the medieval Catholic Church ruled supremely and dominated every- one’s personal lives, hence that there were no counter-movements, no heretics, or no atheists3; that peasants barely carved out an existence and were constantly victims of famines; that physical violence was very common and criminals were hardly ever punished; and that husbands commonly employed the chastity belt to control their wives’ sexuality during their own absence.4 good overviews https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idea_of_Progress; and http://plato.stanford.edu/ entries/progress/ (both last accessed on June 12, 2016). 2 Rémi Brague, The Legend of the Middle Ages: Philosophical Explorations of Medieval Christi­ anity, Judaism, and Islam, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (2006; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009). 3 For a significant and solid analysis of atheism in the Middle Ages, see Peter Dinzelbacher, Unglaube im “Zeitalter des Glaubens”: Atheismus und Skeptizismus im Mittelalter (Badenweiler: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Bachmann, 2009); Paolo Golinelli, Il Medioevo degli increduli: mis­ credenti, beffatori, anticlericali. Storia, biografie, diari (Milan: Mursia, 2009); for a useful text anthology, see Dale McGowan, Voices of Unbelief: Documents from Atheists and Agnostics (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood, 2012). 4 The internet offers numerous good pages where many of those myths about the Middle Ages are well summarized, and often also busted, see, for instance: http://www.medievalists. net/2014/06/27/15-myths-middle-ages/; http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/medmyths.html; Brought to you by | Cambridge University Library Authenticated Download Date | 3/30/17 2:22 AM 460 Albrecht Classen Most stunningly, we also hear from serious scholars in the field of sociology or anthropology that rationality and reasonable operations were the characteris- tic features only of the early modern age, as if individuals such as Roger Bacon or Albertus Magnus never existed.5 At the same time, current youth culture, just as in the age of Romanticism, seems to colonize the Middle Ages once again for its own purposes, playing out its characteristic needs for fantasy somehow situated in the past.6 Undoubtedly, mythical concepts about the past have been of greatest influ- ence both on the lay public and also scholars, as the history of literature, the visual arts, music, and architecture especially mostly since the early nineteenth century has demonstrated.7 Just as much as the Romantics can be credited with having http://listverse.com/2009/01/07/top-10-myths-about-the-middle-ages/; http://io9.com/10-worst- misconceptions-about-medieval-life-youd-get-fr-1686799982 (all last accessed on April 5, 2015). To the credit of the internet, as many of these myths actually circulate today, as many efforts are being made to combat them as well in a critical fashion. I have engaged with the last myth myself intensively, see Albrecht Classen, The Medieval Chastity Belt: A Myth­Making Process. The New Middle Ages (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). This has led recently to online interviews and newspaper reports: Rita Abundancia for El Pais Jan. 26, 2016: http://smoda.elpais.com/placeres/la-verdadera-historia-del-cinturon-de-cas- tidad/; Interviewed by Lauren Oyler for Vice’s Broadly Channel (online) on the medieval chastity belt: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/chastity-belts-arent-real-tell-it-to-the-firemen-who- rescued-a-woman-from-one. See also the contributions to Misconceptions about the Middle Ages, ed. Stephen J. Harris and Bryon L. Grigsby. Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture, 7 (New York: Routledge, 2008). However, neither hygiene nor medicine, neither baths nor the use of water are addressed here. For a critical examination of medieval cosmography, hence of the alleged concept of the ‘flat earth,’ see Frank Schleicher, Cosmographia Christiana: Kosmologie und Geography im frühen Christentum (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2014). 5 See, for instance, Don LePan, The Cognitive Revolution in Western Culture. Vol. 1: The Birth of Expectation (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: The Macmillan Press, 1989). For a range of contrastive opinions, see the contributions to Which Past, Whose Future?: Treatments of the Past at the Start of the 21st Century: An International Perspective. Proceedings of a Conference Held at the University of York, 20 ‒ 21 May 2005 (2007), ed. Sven Grabow. BAR International Series, 1633 (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2007); see also Charles P. Webel, The Politics of Rationality: Reason Through Occidental History. Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought, 87 (New York: Routledge, 2013). 6 Núria Perpinya, Ruins, Nostalgia and Ugliness: Five Romantic Perceptions of the Middle Ages and a Spoonful of Game of Thrones and Avant­Garde Oddity (Berlin: Logos Verlag, 2014). 7 See the book series edited by Ulrich Müller and Werner Wunderlich, Mittelalter Mythen, 1–5 (St. Gall: UVK – Fachverlag für Wissenschaft und Studium, 1996–2008); see also Norma Lorre Goodrich, Medieval Myths, Newly rev. and enl. ed. (New York: New American Library, 1977);
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