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7. Medieval Europeans who defecated in the open

Well, even if you're lucky enough to travel to medieval Europe before the Black Death, attached to a wealthy aristocratic heir, and not a fanatic mom or dad will force you to rot and not be allowed to take a bath, the family has plenty of money to buy a luxury bathtub, and a beautiful maid has been selected to accompany you in the bath...... But watching her pull a lump of poop at the base of the bathroom wall without any hesitation, and then climb into the tub as if nothing happened, can you still happily bathe in the stench of feces?

-- If it is an exaggeration to say that Europeans "do not take a bath for a thousand years," then it is an indisputable fact that Europeans "defecate in the open for a thousand years."

In medieval Europe, for ordinary people, the floor was their toilet, and after pulling it, it was okay to shovel it into the corner of the wall. Besides, they are usually used to the smell of body odor, so they naturally feel indifferent to the feces and urine that are close at hand.

Only the most discerning nobles and high-ranking priests had special toilets in their living rooms, and they were elegantly furnished and comfortably - because of the somewhat indecent term toilet, it was vaguely called "private room", "comfortable place", "necessary place" or "prayer room".

Hehe, in this way, everyone knows that the prayer room of the church was originally used as a toilet, or later the toilet was changed into a prayer room. Every day, the priests pooped and prayed to God for repentance with a Bible in their hands...... At the end, tear up another page of the Bible and wipe your ass?

Well, that seems a bit too blasphemous, and the Bible is too expensive, wiping your ass too wasteful......

Imagine those priests tearing Bibles and wiping their butts in the prayer room, though...... For some reason, it feels like it's so pleasant?

However, even if the hygienic nobles built private toilets, the problem was that the servants who served the nobles still defecated in the open, so most of the castle was still filthy, and it was usually good to ensure that the places where the lords and wives usually stayed were not too dirty.

Of course, the lords would also order the servants to clean their quarters regularly. However, lazy servants usually dump their excrement and garbage directly into the moat to save trouble...... Over time, the moat became a stinking ditch, and the castle became a skunk chamber surrounded by dung.

No matter how particular the king is, there is nothing he can do about it. Once a king of England stayed in a stinking castle and laughed at himself helplessly: "If you have a moat like this, you can faint people as long as you come to the shore, and there should be no enemy army to attack it!"

In fact, in addition to lazy subordinates, many nobles also like to defecate in the open. For example, in the summer of 1665, Charles II and members of the royal family went to Oxford for a holiday with a large number of servants, and afterwards a local antique dealer wrote in his diary: "Although they looked well-dressed and happy, they were very rude and rude." As they left, everywhere, in the chimney, in the study, in the bedroom, in the cellar, there was feces everywhere. ”

The French, who prided themselves on their romantic elegance, were even more unhygienic than the English and other Europeans, and even the royal palaces and aristocratic residences had no toilets, at most a wooden toilet - and so they defecated in the open in the fireplace, behind the door, on the walls and on the balcony. Urine and urine were everywhere on every stone in the palace corridor and on the grand welcome steps, and it remained unchanged until the end of the Middle Ages. According to records from the early 18th century, the people of Fontainebleau were still "everywhere in the streets......

Louis XIV, the great French "Sun King", had to solve the problem of urinating and defecating in Versailles, the Louvre, and the Château de Fontainebleau, and that was to move in turns—once a month, and when the nobles were ruining one place, they had servants clean the other.

In short, the French after the Middle Ages and the Renaissance have always been the dirtiest and most unhygienic sloppy in all of Europe. Even in the glittering Palace of Versailles, sewers, toilets and bathrooms were not originally designed...... Do you have a feeling of disillusionment?

-- In fact, in the history department of one of our pedagogical universities, there was a famous sloppy ghost who was unkempt and smelled of sewerage, and was not only forced by his teacher to change his clothes and take more showers, but was also ridiculed by his classmates as "the most innocent Frenchman......

In the same way, in connection with the story of Joan of Arc mentioned above, for you female readers, if someone says that you are like a saint, it may not be a praise for your bravery and skill, but a subtle reminder that you have not bathed for too long.

At that time, Europeans defecated not only in their own homes, but also in public. In medieval France, almost every city had a dirty street on the side of the market, such as the street of squatting butts, the alley of thatched houses, etc., and those who came to the market to shop in the open air on the street, even the urinal and dung pit were saved.

In the city of Troyes in the south of France, the street of this "public toilet" is called the Rue de la Wood, and is unfortunately close to the town hall. In the 17th century, the stench-plagued judges of Troyes tried to legislate to prohibit people from using Wood Street as open-air toilets, which led to a civil unrest. A delegation led by a weaver immediately went to the town hall to protest against the judges' violation of basic human rights! The spokesperson of the delegation claimed: "Our parents defecated there, and now I poop there, and my children will go there to defecate!" ”

In the end, the anxious judges had to admit that the citizens of Troyes had a natural right to defecate in the open!

A French writer in the 19th century summed up this matter in a very witty tone: "...... Wood Street gloriously retains its right-to-use, and it has enthusiastically witnessed the butts of its customers. These people come in a habitual way and pay it all the respect they deserve. ”