The Middle Ages - what centuries are they? What is the Late Middle Ages? Eight myths about the Middle Ages...

What a blessing that you and I live in the modern world, where there is adequate medicine and high technology that allows us to live in comfort. With enviable consistency, manufacturers release new gadgets, and doctors tirelessly search for cures for all sorts of diseases, but our distant ancestors were not as lucky as you and me. Ancient people relieved themselves in public toilets, which could explode at any moment, and also panicked when they noticed a pimple on their face, which was then often mistaken for leprosy.

Great need

Every person has probably once gone to a terribly neglected public toilet, which seemed to him simply the embodiment of all nightmares. However, this is nothing compared to ancient public toilets. Toilets in ancient Rome were a real test of courage. They were simple stone benches with a jagged hole cut into them that led to the city's primitive sewer system. Such a direct connection to the sewer meant that all sorts of nasty creatures living in the sewer could sink their teeth into the bare buttocks of the unfortunate toilet visitor.

To make matters worse, the constant accumulation of methane levels led to the fact that toilets often simply exploded. In order to simply survive when visiting the toilet, the Romans painted images of the goddess of fortune Fortuna and spells designed to ward off evil spirits on the walls of toilets.

Job search

In England in the 1500s, it was illegal to be unemployed. The government treated unemployed people as second-class citizens, and penalties for crimes were much harsher for them. Also, unemployed people should not travel, because if they were caught, they were branded as vagrants, beaten and sent back.

Problem skin

Skin conditions such as acne or psoriasis can certainly seem like a nightmare to many. However, thanks to hundreds of creams and tablets, today it is possible, if not to cure them, then at least to stop exacerbations. But this was not at all true in the Middle Ages, when a large pimple could mean panic and anticipation of imminent death. Due to rampant paranoia surrounding leprosy, many less serious skin conditions such as psoriasis were often mistaken for signs of the dreaded disease.

As a result, people with psoriasis or dermatitis were often evicted to leper colonies, as if they had leprosy. And if they lived among “ordinary” people, they were forced to wear special clothes and a bell to warn the healthy of their approach. And in 14th-century France, many people with psoriasis were mistakenly burned at the stake.

Going to the theater

Today, going to the theater or cinema is considered a completely cultural and safe way to spend leisure time. But a couple of hundred years ago this was a deadly activity. Playhouses and music halls of the 1800s were notorious for being haphazardly built, constantly overcrowded, and highly flammable. Therefore, even if you were lucky that there was no fire with many deaths, there were often crushes at the exit caused by false fire alarms.

In England alone, more than 80 people died in theaters in just two decades. And the worst theatrical tragedy in history happened at Chicago's Iroquois Theater in 1903 - a fire claimed the lives of more than 600 people.

Fights

Although fights do not happen every day, in the Middle Ages any minor altercation could quickly escalate into a deadly massacre. For example, Oxford University in the 14th century was not nearly as refined as it is now. In February 1355, a group of drunken students in a local tavern insulted the quality of the wine they were served.
The irritated innkeeper did not hesitate to answer. This ultimately led to the epic massacre that became known as St. Scholastica's Day. 62 students were killed.

Vote

Today, at worst, voting can involve frustratingly long lines and the slow realization that the vote cast has little impact. However, in the 19th century, only the most die-hard supporters of democracy were brave enough to take to the streets on election day. Everyone else barricaded themselves in their houses to avoid being kidnapped.

So-called "cooping" was a common practice in which street gangs, bribed by political parties, kidnapped people from the street and forced them to vote for their candidate. Victims were kept in a dark basement or utility room, threatened with torture, and forcibly drugged for several days to make them more compliant before being taken to the polling station.

Working with the police

While admittedly no one likes dealing with the police these days, it's nothing compared to what happened a couple of centuries ago. Residents of 18th century London had significant cause for concern when they encountered a policeman. Many of these policemen were impostors who used the trust of the populace for their own nefarious purposes.

Some simply used a fake police badge to get some easy money out of people, but the real thugs went much further. These false officers caught young women at night under the pretext of "suspicious activity." This led to townspeople avoiding real police officers at all costs, which only made them easy prey for criminals.

Buying spices

In the Middle Ages, many spices were considered medicines or even hard currency. Moreover, they were even regularly killed for spices. For example, nutmeg was once only found on the remote Banda Islands. Over the course of several centuries, the spice wars virtually wiped out the indigenous population as various European powers sought to seize control of these islands. More than 6,000 people died.

Going to the hospital

They had no education, and the newspapers were full of advertisements for the recruitment of medical personnel “without work experience.” This crazy practice has led to more than one tragic incident in hospitals.

Walk around the city

Apparently people in the Middle Ages couldn't even calmly walk around the city without doing something outrageous. For example, nudity in public places was quite fashionable during the 17th and 18th centuries. Ironically, most of the followers of this liberal new trend were religious.

Representatives of such movements as Ranters and Quakers argued that God is in everything, therefore nothing can be considered evil or inappropriate. They reveled in sex and drugs and walked naked in the streets. It turns out that 20th century hippies were pretty frugal.

Spices as currency, books on chains, beauty standards a la naked rodent and getting rid of headaches through trepanation. How did they live in the Middle Ages, and most importantly, how did they survive?

You get up but don't brush your teeth because you've never seen a toothbrush. Towards noon, eat bean soup. If you are a woman, shave your forehead and completely pluck your eyebrows. If you get sick, go to the doctor, who will cover you with mercury or perform a craniotomy (he knows best). If you're lucky, you'll survive and even eat a second time (don't count on breakfast, only lunch and a light dinner).

We're exaggerating. Of course, a day in the Middle Ages could look completely different (again, depending on who). But the main points can still be traced.

Bob daily

Overall, most evidence suggests that medieval foods had a fairly high fat content

At the beginning of the 2nd millennium, there were no kitchens in castles, much less in simple houses, so they cooked directly in the open air in clay pots on the hearth. A separate room - the kitchen itself - appeared only in the late Middle Ages. Before this, where they slept, they also cooked and ate food.

The peasants' diet was based on cereals and legumes, so in the event of a crop failure, they were doomed to starvation (and crop failures were quite common in those days). Pieces of black bread were placed at the bottom of the bowl (white was intended for the nobility) to make the stew thicker and more satisfying. In general, stew is almost the only dish on the peasants' table. Only its color changed. At the end of autumn and winter it was dark brown (the color of peas and beans), with the onset of spring it became lighter (onions, first nettles and sometimes a little milk were added there), in summer it was green (cooked from vegetables).

The right side of the meat carcass was valued higher than the left, and the front was valued higher than the back. What portion was served to the guest at the table determined his social status

Fish is a rarity on the tables of peasants. It was very expensive because it was caught mainly from ponds and lakes owned by the rich. Ordinary people were not allowed to fish there. Meat was also almost a museum exhibit on the tables of the poor, although it was much cheaper than fish. Not to mention the fact that it was not always possible to eat it; the sacred post could last up to a third of the year. It was also not easy to stock it for future use - there were no refrigerators, and winters in Europe were warm. Simple salted meat lost its taste, and the spices with which it could be preserved cost incredible amounts of money and were a kind of currency (they were supplied from distant eastern and southern countries, and the journey to the consumer generally took about two years). In medieval France, for example, 454 g (1 lb) of nutmeg could be exchanged for one cow or four sheep. Spices could be used to pay a fine or pay for purchases.

Until the 18th century, the medieval library was simply a reading room filled with shelves. Numerous long chains descended from the shelves, to which each book was chained.

Interestingly, the right side of the meat carcass was valued higher than the left, and the front - higher than the back. What portion was served to the guest at the table determined his social status.

The peasants ate only twice a day - in the morning (women, old people, workers and the sick) or closer to noon (men) and in the evening. Such standards were set by the church, which for some unknown reason considered breakfast and snacks during the day to be something sinful or indecent. We had dinner early - around five in the evening, because we went to bed and got up early.

Books on chains

The invention of the printing press was an epoch-making event for the development of printing. Before this, the volumes were handwritten, and their price was fantastic, because monks spent hours poring over each book and the copying process sometimes stretched for years

The peasants, the overwhelming majority of the population of medieval Europe, were uneducated, and they had no time to read: they worked hard to feed their families and pay tribute to the lord who allowed them to his lands, as well as pay taxes. They were required to work for the owner 50–60 days a year. Reading for a long time remained the lot of the clergy and perhaps only people from the educational system.

This did not abolish the existence of libraries. True, volumes were practically not issued at that time, so the medieval library until the 18th century was simply a reading room filled with shelves. Numerous long chains descended from the shelves, to which each book was chained. The goal is simple - not to be taken away.

The practice of “chaining” books lasted until the end of the 1880s, until books began to be published en masse and their cost decreased.

Books in those days were piecemeal and therefore very expensive. They were written by hand, and gold and silver were used in the design of capital letters. There is also evidence that they used earwax, from which pigment was extracted and used for illustrations.

Marilyn Monroe of the Middle Ages

This is, of course, the “Mona Lisa” - pale, with an S-shaped silhouette, thin and flexible, and most importantly, with completely plucked eyebrows and a shaved forehead (the higher the forehead, the more beautiful, by medieval standards). Because of this fashion, evil tongues even called the Middle Ages “the age of naked mole rats” (there is an African rodent that has no hair at all, you can even look at it and similar creatures in our wonderful selection of Anti-mi-mi-mi).

According to theories about fluids, women were classified as cold and wet, whose task was only one - to seduce an innocent and gullible man

Oddly enough, small breasts and narrow hips were a great honor in the Middle Ages. The words of a medieval song have survived to this day: “Girls swaddle their breasts tightly with a bandage, because full breasts are not cute to the eyes of men.” Considerable attention is also paid to the hair - it is desirable that it be blond and curly. The gait is in small steps, the eyes are modestly fixed on the floor.

Mercury and the dead

James Bertrand. Ambroise Pare. Patient examination. Second half of the 19th century

The theme of medicine in the Middle Ages, like the song of an akyn, has no end. Here you will find amulets, spells, and the doctrine of the four “juices” of the body: warm, dry, wet and cold (this was associated with the use not of medicines, but of the corresponding products; in case of fever, for example, lettuce leaves are “cold” foods) - and bloodletting, which was done not by doctors, but by bathhouse attendants and barbers.

But there were even more terrible “procedures”. Very often, real craniotomies were performed on living people who complained to the “doctor” of headaches or convulsions. History is silent about the painful shock that patients received during such “treatment”, because the “operations” were carried out using tools like a chisel and a hammer. The most dangerous thing was to damage the brain. But what is even more surprising is that quite a few patients survived after this procedure and even got rid of symptoms.

Perhaps one of the oldest forms of medical intervention in the human body is trepanation. Essentially, it is drilling holes into the skull to treat problems such as seizures, migraines and mental disorders

True, if a person survived after trepanation, other trials could await him. For example, treatment with mercury, which was widespread in the Middle Ages (why, mercury ointments, as you know, were very popular even in the 20th century). Mercury was especially popular in the treatment of syphilis. The deterioration of the patient’s well-being only proved to the medieval doctors that mercury works.

Another popular drug was medicine made from ground mummies powder, which was openly traded. To acquire the strength and health of the deceased (say, on the gallows), people came up and, without a twinge of conscience, dismembered the corpse, drank its blood and made tinctures and medicines from all this. Read more about this in our material.

In the Middle Ages, dentists were ordinary hairdressers.

Despite all the tricks, they lived very briefly in those days (due to the lack of normal medicine). The average life expectancy of men is about 40–43 years, women - 30–32 years (they, as a rule, died during childbirth).

I can't bear to get married

Wedding of young newlyweds in the Middle Ages

Girls were married off at the age of 12; several years before that they were already engaged. So there was probably no talk of special love there (although there were, of course, other examples). Thanks to church “morality,” the beautiful half of humanity was considered something sinful and unclean. According to theories about liquids, women were considered to be a cold and wet element, whose only purpose was to seduce an innocent and gullible man.

Early marriage of Mary Adelaide of Savoy (age 12) and Louis, Duke of Burgundy (age 15). The wedding took place in 1697 and created a political alliance

Violence against women was something commonplace. A woman, in principle, was perceived as a commodity. A description of the “examination” of the future wife has survived to this day: “The lady has attractive hair - average between blue-black and brown.<…>The eyes are dark brown and deep. The nose is quite even and even though the tip is wide and slightly flat, it is not upturned. The nostrils are wide, the mouth is moderately large. The neck, shoulders, her entire body and lower limbs are quite well formed. She is well built and has no injuries.<…>And on St. John’s Day this girl will be nine years old.”

From prayer to cocaine: How depression used to be treated

Laxatives, leeches, immersion in ice water, beating with nettles and “melodies” from a cat’s cry - over the centuries, humanity has invented the strangest ways to get rid of melancholy.

"An illness whose cause

It's time to find it long ago,

Similar to the English spleen,

In short: Russian blues

I mastered it little by little;

He will shoot himself, thank God,

I didn't want to try

But I completely lost interest in life.”

"Eugene Onegin", Chapter I, stanza XXXVIII

Laxative and philosophy

The word “melancholy” (the term “depression” came into use much later) came to us from Greek and literally means “black bile”. Both the term itself and its first definition belong to Hippocrates: “If the feeling of fear and cowardice continues for too long, then this indicates the onset of melancholy... Fear and sadness, if they last a long time and are not caused by everyday reasons, come from black bile.” He also formulated the accompanying symptoms: despondency, insomnia, irritability, anxiety, and sometimes aversion to food.

Hippocrates proposed treating the disease with a special diet and infusion of herbs, which give a laxative and emetic effect and thereby free the body from black bile. “Such a patient needs to be given hellebore, clear his head, and then give him a medicine that cleanses the bottom, then he should be prescribed to drink donkey milk. The patient should eat very little food unless he is weak; food should be cold, laxative: nothing caustic, salty, oily, sweet. The patient should not drink wine, but limit himself to water; if not, the wine should be diluted with water. There is no need for gymnastics or walking at all.”

“Such a patient should be given hellebore, cleanse his head, and then give him a medicine that cleanses the bottom, then he should be prescribed to drink donkey milk.”

Hippocrates' opponents on this issue were Socrates and, later, Plato. They considered his approach too mechanical and argued that melancholia should be treated by philosophers (Hippocrates, in turn, swore that “everything written by philosophers in the field of natural sciences applies to medicine in the same way as to painting”). Today, apparently, Hippocrates would advocate antidepressants, and Plato and Socrates would advocate psychotherapy.

Work and Prayer

Medieval philosophers looked at melancholy much more harshly than the beautiful-minded Greeks: in those days, despondency was officially recorded as a mortal sin. The theologian Evagrius of Pontus writes about it this way: “The demon of despondency, which is also called “midday,” is the most severe of all demons. He approaches the monk around the fourth hour and besieges him until the eighth hour. First of all, this demon makes the monk notice that the sun moves very slowly or remains completely motionless and the day seems to be fifty hours long. This demon also instills in the monk hatred of the place, type of life and manual labor, as well as the thought that love has dried up and there is no one who could console him.”

“Despondency makes the monk notice that the sun moves very slowly or remains completely motionless and the day seems to be fifty hours long.”

Hildegard of Bingen - nun, abbess, author of mystical books and works on medicine - blames melancholy even for the fall of Adam: “When the fire in him went out, melancholy curled up in his blood, and from this sadness and despair arose in him; and when Adam fell, the devil breathed into him melancholy, which makes a person lukewarm and godless.”

It was believed that despondency arises from excessive idleness. This means that you just need to load the patient with physical labor and prayer, so that there is no time left for abstract reasoning.

Moderation in food and sex

In 1621, English prelate Robert Burton published a 900-page work, The Anatomy of Melancholy. The author also explains the disease as “black bile” (which was still the leading cause of depression) and notes that “temperament does not affect the risk of the disease: only fools and stoics are not susceptible to melancholy.”

Burton classifies the causes of melancholy in detail, dividing them into supernatural (divine or diabolical intervention) and natural; congenital (temperament, hereditary diseases and “wrong” conception - for example, while intoxicated or on a full stomach) and acquired; inevitable and not inevitable.

“Only fools and stoics are not subject to melancholy.”

As a remedy, Burton advises limiting consumption of meat and dairy products, avoiding cabbage, root vegetables, legumes, fruits and spices, hot and sour foods, overly sweet and fatty foods, and generally all “complex, flavorful” foods. Burton also calls for balance in sexual life: after all, “with excessive sexual abstinence, the accumulated semen turns into black bile and hits the head,” but “sexual unbridledness cools and dries up the body. In this case, moisturizers can help: there is a known case when a newlywed was cured in this way, who got married in the hot season and after a short time became melancholic and even insane.” What exactly the author means by “moisturizers” is anyone’s guess.

Theater and sunbathing

Over time, melancholy begins to be considered a “privileged” disease, characteristic of aristocrats and people of mental work. Thus, the Renaissance thinker Marsilio Ficino directly associates melancholy with excessive expenditure of the “subtle spirit” as a result of intense intellectual activity. It was proposed to replenish the “subtle spirit” with aromatic wines, sunbathing, special music and theatrical performances. Subsequently, melancholy will completely become fashionable, which can easily be seen in world literature: both prose and poetry will be filled with languid heroes, tired of life.

Centrifuges, scabies and cat “music”

Meanwhile, in “serious” medicine, a new explanation for melancholy is emerging, according to which the blues are caused by dysfunction of the nerve fibers. This theory gave rise to a number of bizarre techniques designed to direct the “electricity” in the patient’s body in the right direction using external stimulation. The unfortunate patients were spun around in centrifuges, lashed with nettles, doused with dozens of buckets of ice water, or immersed in an ice bath with their heads “until the first signs of suffocation.” The most desperate doctors, in pursuit of external irritants, specifically inoculated patients with scabies or rewarded them with lice.

The most desperate doctors, in pursuit of external irritants, specifically inoculated patients with scabies or rewarded them with lice.

The champion in exoticism can be called the “cat org” A n” is a psychotherapeutic remedy of the Baroque era, which is described in his book “Ink of Melancholy” by cultural scientist and psychiatrist Jean Starobinsky: “The cats were selected in accordance with the range and seated in a row, with their tails back. Hammers with sharpened nails struck the tails, and the cat that received the blow produced its note. If a fugue was played on such an instrument, and especially if the patient was seated in such a way that he saw in all details the faces and grimaces of animals, then Lot’s wife herself would shake off her stupor and return to reason.”

Russian medicine did not lag behind in terms of radical methods, especially if depression took severe forms and the patient ended up in a mental hospital. According to the recollections of the chief physician of the Moscow psychiatric hospital, Zinoviy Kibaltitsa, in the first half of the 19th century, treatment in his institution was as follows: “As for brooding madmen, subject to mental despondency or tormented by fear, despair, etc., it seems that the cause of these diseases exists in the abdomen and affects mental abilities, then the following is used to use them: emetic tartar, potash sulfate, sweet mercury, laxative according to the Kempfick method, camphor solution in tartaric acid. Henbane, external rubbing of the head with cream of tartar emetic, application of leeches to the anus, blister plasters or other types of protracting medicines. Warm baths are prescribed in winter, and cold baths in summer. We often apply moxas to the head and both shoulders and make burns on the arms.” If the patients were not cured of melancholy after this, then at least there were good reasons for this condition...

Cocaine and more cocaine

This method of “treatment” was especially advocated by Sigmund Freud, who in the mid-80s of the 19th century actively experimented with cocaine (primarily on himself). He published a number of articles on cocaine in medical journals and initially considered it a remedy for almost all diseases - from melancholy to alcoholism, eating disorders and sexual problems. “Taking it causes pleasant excitement and long-lasting euphoria, which is no different from the normal euphoria of a healthy person,” he enthusiastically writes in the article “About Coke.” - At the same time, the individual feels increased self-control, increased performance and a surge of energy. It seems that the mood produced by coca is due less to direct stimulation than to the disappearance of those physical factors that cause depression.” People will start talking about the dangers of cocaine only a few years later, but it will be used as a medicine for another couple of decades.

Interestingly, many of the recommendations of doctors from the past coincide with the advice of their modern colleagues. Hippocrates was especially close to the truth: today, those suffering from depression are also prescribed to limit alcohol, excessive exercise and heavy food. A grain of truth is also found in the treatise of Evagrius of Pontus: modern research shows that depression actually has pronounced daily fluctuations, and it is felt especially intensely in the morning. Marsilio Ficino’s recommendations regarding sunbathing have also been confirmed in modern psychology: it has been proven that even improving the lighting in a room can have a positive effect on the emotional state of residents, and light therapy has become a fairly popular method of treating depressive conditions. Overall, however, treating depression today has become much less traumatic.

In the Middle Ages, 9 out of 10 people died before reaching 40 years of age

Of course, we do not have accurate data regarding the average life expectancy in the distant past, but historians claim that in the Middle Ages it was somewhere around 35 years. (In any case, 50% of those born lived to this age). But this does not mean that people died only after reaching 35 years of age. Yes, the average life expectancy was approximately this, but many died in childhood. We don’t know exactly what percentage this is, but assuming that somewhere around 25% died before reaching five, we will not be far from the truth. About 40% died in adolescence. But if a person was lucky enough to survive childhood and adolescence, he had a good chance of living to both 50 and 60. In the Middle Ages there were even people who lived to be 70 or 80.

In the Middle Ages people were much shorter than us

Not true! People were a little lower. Judging by the skeletons discovered in the Mary Rose carrack, the sailors were somewhere between 5 feet 7 inches and 5 feet 8 inches tall (that is, about 170 cm). Burials from the Middle Ages and other periods also show that people were slightly shorter than our contemporaries, but not by much.

People of the past were very dirty and rarely washed

The facts clearly show that people tried to keep themselves clean. It is also absolutely certain that most people washed and changed clothes very often. They also tried to keep their houses clean. The idea that people were dirty and smelled bad is a myth.

Perhaps it arose because people rarely took baths. Until the 19th century, it was difficult to heat large quantities of water at once. Imagine that you have heated a pot of water and poured it into a tub. While you heat up the second portion, the first one will cool down. The Romans solved this problem with public baths that were heated from below.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, it became easier to bathe naked. In hot weather, people washed in rivers. It is also known that people washed their clothes quite often.

There was once a woman named Pope John

It's unlikely that this is true. According to legend, the female Pope was on the Holy See for 2 years - from 855 to 858. In fact, Leo IV occupied the papal throne from 847 to 855, and Benedict III from 855 to 888. The gap between them is only a few weeks.

According to legend, the female Pope was dressed as a man, and no one suspected anything strange until the head of the Catholic Church gave birth to a child in front of the amazed eyes of those around him. It's amazing that no one even noticed the pregnancy.

The first mention of a female Pope appeared 200 years after her supposed existence. If this is true, why didn't anyone write about it at the time? This should have been a sensation throughout Europe, so why didn't anyone do it?

Probably because the story is fictitious.

King John signed the Magna Carta

No, he didn't sign! He put a wax seal on it, but did not sign it.

In the Middle Ages, scientists spent hours debating how many angels could fit on the head of a pin.

There is no evidence that anyone in the Middle Ages asked such a stupid question. People who lived in the Middle Ages were far from fools.

Some medieval armor was so heavy that knights were lifted onto their horses using ropes

It is not true. The armor, of course, was heavy, but not that heavy.

On the eve of 1000 AD. people all over Europe panicked. They were afraid that Jesus Christ would return and the world would end

There is no evidence that such panic occurred. Not a single chronicler of that time mentions anything unusual. Only centuries later did writers begin to claim that this was the case before the year 1000. This is part of a larger myth that the people of the Middle Ages were stupid and gullible (even more than we are!)

Vikings wore helmets with horns

There is no evidence that the Vikings wore horned helmets into battle. Just as there is no evidence that they wore helmets with wings.

Most churchyards had yew trees because the men used yew wood to make bows

This is almost certainly a myth. Records indicate that bowmakers preferred yews from southern or eastern Europe (English yew was not well suited for this purpose). In fact, yew trees grew in churchyards because their leaves are poisonous. Villagers could allow livestock to graze in church yards. Yew trees were a good way to stop them.

Joan of Arc was burned as a witch

It is not true. She was burned for heresy (because she dressed like a man).

Before Columbus, people thought the Earth was flat

In fact, in the Middle Ages, people were well aware that the Earth was round.

Columbus discovered America

No. It is known for certain that the ancestors of today's Americans came to North America thousands of years before Columbus. Moreover, Columbus was not even the first European to discover America. The first European to see the continent was Bjarni Herjulfsson. He was sailing to Greenland in 985 AD when he saw new land (he did not go ashore). About 15 years later, a man named Leif Erikson led an expedition to a new land. He gave the names to several areas of North America: Helluland (the land of flat stones), Markland (the forested land) and Vinland (the land of grapes). Erickson spent the winter in Vinland. He never returned there again, but other Vikings returned, but they were never able to create a permanent colony there.

Centuries later, Columbus decided that he could sail directly from Europe to China across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus underestimated the size of the Earth. He did not know that North and South America and the Pacific Ocean existed. Columbus made four voyages across the Atlantic and, although he landed on several Caribbean islands, he never set foot on the continent of North America.

Blackgate (Black Moor) in London got its name because victims of the London Plague (the so-called “Black Death”) were buried there.

This is definitely not the case. This place was called the Black Moor at the time of the Cadastral Register (a land inventory of England made by William the Conqueror in 1086), almost 300 years before the plague of 1348-49. It is also a myth that the Black Waste got its name because black slaves were sold there. It is unknown where this name actually came from. Perhaps because of the black soil. In any case, it has nothing to do with the plague or black slaves.

Golf is an English acronym that means “gentlemen only ladies forbidden.”

The word "golf" comes from the old Danish word "kolf", which meant "club". (In the Middle Ages, the Danes already played with clubs, but golf itself originated in Scotland). The Scots changed the word to “golf” or “goff”, over time it turned into the “golf” we know.

Archers carried their arrows on their backs

Only when they rode horses. Typically, archers carried arrows in containers fastened to their belts (it is much easier to get a bow arrow from a belt than from a shoulder). Robin Hood is usually depicted with a quiver of arrows on his back. If Robin Hood ever existed, he most likely carried arrows on his belt.

In the Middle Ages, spices were used to hide the fact that meat was spoiled.

This is not true for one simple reason - spices were very expensive and only rich people could use them. They certainly didn't eat spoiled meat. They ate only the highest quality meat! Spices were used to enhance its taste.

Introduction: Myths of the Middle Ages

There are many historical myths about the Middle Ages. The reason for this lies partly in the development of humanism at the very beginning of the modern era, as well as the emergence of the Renaissance in art and architecture. Interest in the world of classical antiquity developed, and the era that followed was considered barbaric and decadent. Therefore, medieval Gothic architecture, which today is recognized as extraordinarily beautiful and technically revolutionary, was undervalued and abandoned in favor of styles that copied Greek and Roman architecture. The term "Gothic" itself was originally applied to the Gothic in a pejorative light, serving as a reference to the Gothic tribes that sacked Rome; The meaning of the word is “barbaric, primitive.”

Another reason for many myths associated with the Middle Ages is its connection with the Catholic Church (hereinafter referred to as “Church” - approx. New). In the English-speaking world, these myths originate in disputes between Catholics and Protestants. In other European cultures, such as Germany and France, similar myths were formed within the anti-clerical stance of influential Enlightenment thinkers. The following is a summary of some of the myths and misconceptions about the Middle Ages that arose as a result of various prejudices.

1. People believed that the Earth was flat, and the Church presented this idea as doctrine

In fact, the Church never taught that the Earth was flat during any period of the Middle Ages. Scientists of the time had a good understanding of the scientific arguments of the Greeks, who proved that the Earth was round, and were able to use scientific instruments such as the astrolabe to determine the circumference quite accurately. The fact of the spherical shape of the Earth was so well known, generally accepted and unremarkable that when Thomas Aquinas began work on his treatise “Summa Theologica” and wanted to choose an objective undeniable truth, he cited this very fact as an example.

Context

Buried like vampires

New-old hero of Kyrgyzstan

The Russian question or the force of destruction

Medieval darkness as the basis of the “Russian idea”

And not only literate people were aware of the shape of the Earth - most sources indicate that everyone understood this. The symbol of the earthly power of kings, which was used in coronation ceremonies, was the orb: a golden sphere in the king's left hand, which personified the Earth. This symbolism would not make sense if it were not clear that the Earth is spherical. A collection of sermons by 13th-century German parish priests also briefly mentions that the Earth is “round as an apple,” with the expectation that the peasants listening to the sermon would understand what it was about. And the English book “The Adventures of Sir John Mandeville,” popular in the 14th century, tells about a man who went so far to the east that he returned to his homeland from its western side; and the book doesn't explain to the reader how it works.

The common misconception that Christopher Columbus discovered the true shape of the Earth and that the Church opposed his voyage is nothing more than a modern myth created in 1828. Writer Washington Irving was commissioned to write a biography of Columbus with instructions to present the explorer as a radical thinker who rebelled against Old World prejudices. Unfortunately, Irving discovered that Columbus had in fact been deeply mistaken about the size of the Earth and had discovered America by pure chance. The heroic story didn't add up, so he came up with the idea that the Church in the Middle Ages thought the Earth was flat, and he created this enduring myth, and his book became a bestseller.

Among the collection of catchphrases found on the Internet, one can often see the supposed statement of Ferdinand Magellan: “The Church says the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round. Because I saw the shadow of the Earth on the Moon, and I trust the Shadow more than the Church." So, Magellan never said this, in particular because the Church never claimed that the Earth was flat. The first use of this "quotation" occurs no earlier than 1873, when it was used in an essay by the American Walterian (Walterian - free-thinking philosopher - approx. New) and the agnostic Robert Greene Ingersoll. He did not indicate any source and it is very likely that he simply made up this statement himself. Despite this, Magellan's "words" can still be found in various collections, on T-shirts and posters of atheist organizations.

2. The Church suppressed science and progressive thinking, burned scientists at the stake, and thus set us back hundreds of years

The myth that the Church suppressed science, burned or suppressed the activities of scientists, is a central part of what historians who write about science call the “clash of ways of thinking.” This enduring concept dates back to the Enlightenment, but became firmly established in the public consciousness with the help of two famous 19th-century works. John William Draper's History of the Relations Between Catholicism and Science (1874) and Andrew Dickson White's The Controversy of Religion with Science (1896) were highly popular and influential books that spread the belief that the medieval Church actively suppressed science. In the 20th century, historiographers of science actively criticized the “White-Draper position” and noted that most of the evidence presented was extremely misinterpreted, and in some cases completely invented.

In late Antiquity, early Christianity did not really welcome what some clergy called “pagan knowledge,” that is, the scientific work of the Greeks and their Roman successors. Some have preached that a Christian should avoid such works because they contain unbiblical knowledge. In his famous phrase, one of the Church Fathers, Tertullian, sarcastically exclaims: “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” But such thoughts were rejected by other prominent theologians. For example, Clement of Alexandria argued that if God gave the Jews a special understanding of spirituality, he could give the Greeks a special understanding of scientific things. He suggested that if the Jews took and used the gold of the Egyptians for their own purposes, then Christians could and should use the wisdom of the pagan Greeks as a gift from God. Later, Clement's reasoning was supported by Aurelius Augustine, and later Christian thinkers adopted this ideology, noting that if the cosmos is the creation of a thinking God, then it can and should be comprehended in a rational way.

Thus natural philosophy, which was largely based on the work of Greek and Roman thinkers such as Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy and Archimedes, became a major part of the curriculum of medieval universities. In the West, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, many ancient works were lost, but Arab scientists managed to preserve them. Subsequently, medieval thinkers not only studied the additions made by the Arabs, but also used them to make discoveries. Medieval scientists were fascinated by optical science, and the invention of glasses was only partly the result of their own research using lenses to determine the nature of light and the physiology of vision. In the 14th century, philosopher Thomas Bradwardine and a group of thinkers who called themselves the Oxford Calculators not only formulated and proved the mean velocity theorem for the first time, but were also the first to use quantitative concepts in physics, thus laying the foundation for everything that was achieved by this science since then.

Multimedia

Memento mori

All the scientists of the Middle Ages were not only not persecuted by the Church, but also belonged to it themselves. Jean Buridan, Nicholas Oresme, Albrecht III (Albrecht the Bold), Albertus Magnus, Robert Grosseteste, Theodoric of Freiburg, Roger Bacon, Thierry of Chartres, Sylvester II (Herbert of Aurillac), Guillaume Conchesius, John Philoponus, John Packham, John Duns Scotus, Walter Burley, William Heytsberry, Richard Swineshead, John Dumbleton, Nicholas of Cusa - they were not persecuted, restrained or burned at the stake, but known and revered for their wisdom and learning.

Contrary to myths and popular prejudices, there is not a single example of anyone being burned for anything related to science in the Middle Ages, nor is there evidence of the persecution of any scientific movement by the medieval Church. The trial of Galileo happened much later (the scientist was a contemporary of Descartes) and had much more to do with the politics of the Counter-Reformation and the people involved in it than with the Church's attitude towards science.

3. In the Middle Ages, the Inquisition burned millions of women, considering them witches, and the burning of “witches” itself was commonplace in the Middle Ages

Strictly speaking, “witch hunts” were not a medieval phenomenon at all. The persecution reached its apogee in the 16th and 17th centuries and almost entirely belonged to the early modern period. As for most of the Middle Ages (i.e., V-XV centuries), the Church not only was not interested in hunting for so-called “witches,” but it also taught that witches did not exist in principle.

Somewhere before the 14th century, the Church scolded people who believed in witches and generally called this a stupid peasant superstition. A number of medieval codes, canonical and secular, prohibited not so much witchcraft as the belief in its existence. One day, the clergyman got into an argument with the residents of a village who sincerely believed in the words of a woman who claimed that she was a witch and, among other things, could turn into puffs of smoke and leave a closed room through a keyhole. To prove the stupidity of this belief, the priest locked himself in a room with this woman and forced her to leave the room through the keyhole with blows of a stick. The "Witch" did not escape, and the villagers learned their lesson.

Attitudes towards witches began to change in the 14th century, especially during the height of the plague epidemic of 1347–1350, after which Europeans became increasingly afraid of a conspiracy of harmful demonic forces, most of them imaginary. In addition to persecuting Jews and intimidating groups of heretics, the Church began to take covens of witches more seriously. The crisis came in 1484 when Pope Innocent VIII issued the bull Summis desiderantes affectibus (“With all the strength of the soul” - approx. New), which launched the witch hunts that raged throughout Europe for the next 200 years.

Catholic and Protestant countries were equally involved in the ongoing persecution of witches. Interestingly, the witch hunts seem to follow the geographical lines of the Reformation: in Catholic countries that were not particularly threatened by Protestantism, such as Italy and Spain, the number of “witches” was small, but in countries on the front line of the religious struggle of the time, countries like Germany and France have felt the brunt of this phenomenon. That is, the two countries where the Inquisition was most active also happened to be the places where witch-related hysteria was least. Contrary to the myths, the inquisitors were much more concerned with heretics and Jewish Christian converts to Judaism than with any “witches.”

In Protestant countries, witch hunts became rampant when the status quo was threatened (such as the witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts), or during times of social or religious instability (as in Jacobin England or the Puritan regime of Oliver Cromwell ). Despite wildly exaggerated claims of "millions of women" executed on charges of witchcraft, modern historians estimate the actual number of victims to be approximately 60-100 thousand over several centuries, and 20% of the victims were men.

Hollywood has perpetuated the myth of "medieval" witch hunts, and few Hollywood films set in the period can resist the temptation to mention witches or anyone being hunted by a creepy priest for witchcraft. This is despite the fact that almost the entire period of this hysteria followed the Middle Ages, and belief in witches was considered superstitious nonsense.

4. The Middle Ages were a period of dirt and poverty, people rarely washed, smelled disgusting, and had rotten teeth

In fact, medieval people of all classes washed themselves daily, took baths, and valued cleanliness and hygiene. Like any generation before the modern hot running water system, they were not as clean as you and I, but like our grandparents and their parents, they were able to bathe daily, keep themselves clean, value it and not loved people who didn’t wash or smelled bad.

Public baths existed in most cities, and in metropolitan areas they flourished in the hundreds. The south bank of the Thames was the site of hundreds of "stews" (from the English “stew” - “stew”, hence the name of the dish of the same name in English - approx. Newochem), in which medieval Londoners could steam in hot water, chat, play chess and pester prostitutes. There were even more such baths in Paris, and in Italy there were so many that some advertised themselves as catering exclusively to women or aristocrats, so that nobles would not accidentally end up sharing a bath with workers or peasants.

The idea that people of the Middle Ages did not wash is based on a number of myths and misconceptions. Firstly, the 16th century and then the 18th century (that is, after the Middle Ages) were periods when doctors argued that taking baths was harmful, and people tried not to do it too often. The inhabitants, for whom the “Middle Ages” begin “from the 19th century and earlier,” made the assumption that irregular bathing was common earlier. Secondly, Christian moralists and priests of the Middle Ages did warn about the dangers of excessively frequent bathing. This is because these moralists warned against excess in everything - food, sex, hunting, dancing, and even in penance and religious adherence. To conclude from this that no one washed is completely pointless.

Finally, public baths were closely associated with prostitution. There is no doubt that many prostitutes offered their services in medieval public baths, and the "stews" of London and other cities were located near the areas most famous for their brothels and whores. That is why moralists cursed at public baths, considering them dens. To conclude that for this reason people did not use public baths is as foolish as to conclude that they did not visit nearby brothels.

The facts that medieval literature extols the delights of bathing, that the medieval knighting ceremony includes an aromatic bath for the initiating squire, that ascetic hermits prided themselves on abstaining from bathing as much as they did from other social pleasures, and that soap makers and bathhouse owners staged noisy trade shows, indicates that people liked to keep themselves clean. Archaeological excavations confirm the absurdity of the idea that they had rotten teeth. Sugar was an expensive luxury and the average person's diet was rich in vegetables, calcium and seasonal fruits, so in fact medieval teeth were in excellent condition. Cheaper sugar only flooded European markets in the 16th and 17th centuries, causing an epidemic of tooth decay and bad breath.

A medieval French saying demonstrates how fundamental bathing was to the pleasures of the good life:

Venari, ludere, lavari, bibere! Hoc est vivere!
(Hunt, play, swim, drink! This is how life should be lived!)

5. The Middle Ages - a dark period regarding technological progress, in which almost nothing was created until the Renaissance

In fact, in the Middle Ages, many discoveries were made that testify to the technological process, some of which rank with the most significant in the entire history of mankind. The fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century had a devastating impact on the entire material and technological culture of Europe. Without imperial support, many grand engineering and infrastructure projects, as well as many of the skills and techniques involved in monumental buildings, were lost and forgotten. The severance of trade ties meant that people became more economically independent and produced everything they needed themselves. But this stimulated the introduction and development of technology rather than vice versa.

Technological advances helped autonomous rural communities increase the popularity of such unions throughout Europe, leading to the development of the yoke, allowing for more efficient transport and plowing; the horseshoe, a moldboard plow, also appeared, thanks to which the cultivation of the heavier northern European soil became possible; water and tidal mills began to be used everywhere. As a result of these innovations, many lands throughout Europe that had never been cultivated during the Roman conquests began to be cultivated, making Europe richer and more fertile than ever before.

Water mills were introduced everywhere on a scale incomparable to the Roman era. This led not only to the widespread use of hydropower, but also to a surge in active mechanization. The windmill is an innovation of medieval Europe, used along with the water mill not only for grinding flour, but also for the production of cloth, the manufacture of leather goods, and driving blacksmith bellows and mechanical hammers. The latter two innovations led to the production of steel on a semi-industrial scale and, along with the medieval invention of the blast furnace and cast iron, advanced medieval technology for metal production moved far beyond the era of the Roman conquest.

By the second half of the Middle Ages (1000 - 1500), wind and water power had brought about an agricultural revolution and transformed Christian Europe into a rich, densely populated and ever-expanding region. Medieval people began experimenting with various methods of mechanization. When they noticed that warm air made the oven work (another invention of the Middle Ages), large medieval kitchens installed a fan on the ovens so that it automatically turned the spit of the gear system. Monks of the time noted that the use of a gear system driven by decreasing weight could serve to mechanically measure the hour of time.

In the 13th century, mechanical clocks began to appear throughout Europe - a revolutionary medieval invention that allowed people to keep track of time. The innovation spread rapidly, and miniature table clocks began to appear just a couple of decades after the invention of the instrument. Medieval clocks could be combined with computing devices. The extremely complex mechanism of the astronomical clock, designed by Richard of Wallingford, abbot of St Albans, was so intricate that it took eight years to learn the full cycle of its calculations, and it was the most intricate device of its kind.

The growth of universities in the Middle Ages also stimulated the emergence of several technical innovations. Optical students of Greek and Arab scientists experimented on the nature of light in lenses, and in the process invented glasses. Universities also supplied the market with books and encouraged the development of cheaper methods of printing. Experiments with woodblock printing eventually led to the invention of type and another great medieval innovation, the printing press.

The very existence of medieval shipping technology meant that Europeans had the opportunity to sail to America for the first time. Long trading voyages led to an increase in the size of ships, although the old forms of ships' rudders - they were huge, oar-shaped, mounted on the side of the ship - limited the maximum size of the ship. At the end of the 12th century, ship carpenters invented a rudder mounted at the stern using a hinge mechanism, which made it possible to build much larger ships and steer them more efficiently.

It turns out that the Middle Ages, not only was not a dark period in the history of technology, but also managed to give birth to many technological inventions, such as glasses, mechanical watches and the printing press - one of the most important discoveries of all time.

6. The medieval army was a disorganized group of knights in massive armor and a crowd of peasants, armed with pitchforks, led into battle, more reminiscent of street showdowns. This is why Europeans during the Crusades often died at the hands of tactically superior Muslims.

Hollywood has created the image of medieval battle as a chaotic chaos in which glory-hungry, ignorant knights control regiments of peasants. This idea spread thanks to Sir Charles Oman's book The Art of Fighting in the Middle Ages (1885). While a student at Oxford, Oman wrote an essay that later grew into a full-fledged work and became the author's first published book. It later became the most widely read book in the English language on the subject of medieval warfare, largely because it was the only one of its kind until the first half of the 20th century, when more systematic research into the issue began.

Oman's studies were greatly undermined by unfavorable factors of the time in which the author worked: the general prejudice that the Middle Ages was a dark and underdeveloped period compared to antiquity, the lack of sources, many of which were yet to be published, and the tendency not to verify the information received . As a result, Oman portrayed medieval warfare as an ignorant battle, without tactics or strategy, fought for the sake of winning glory among knights and noble men. However, by the 1960s, more modern methods and a wider range of sources and interpretations were able to shed light on the Middle Ages, initially thanks to European historians in the form of Philippe Contamine and J.F. Verbruggen. New research literally revolutionized the understanding of medieval warfare and clearly demonstrated that while most sources focused on the personal actions of knights and nobility, the use of other sources painted a completely different picture.

© RIA Novosti Exhibition fight

In fact, the rise of the knightly elite in the 10th century meant that medieval Europe had a special class of professionally trained warriors ready to devote their lives to the art of combat. While some gained fame, others trained from childhood and knew for sure that organization and tactics win the battle. Knights were trained to serve as foot soldiers, and nobility were trained to lead these troops (often called lances) on the battlefield. Control was carried out using trumpet signals, a flag, and a set of visual and verbal commands.

The key to medieval battle tactics lies in creating enough gaps in the heart of the enemy army—the infantry—for heavy infantry to deliver a decisive blow against it. This step had to be carefully calibrated and carried out, ensuring the protection of one’s own army, so as not to give the enemy the opportunity to perform the same trick. Contrary to popular belief, the medieval army consisted primarily of infantry and cavalry, with elite heavy cavalry forming a minority.

Hollywood's idea of ​​medieval infantry as a mob of peasants armed with farming implements is also nothing more than a myth. The infantry was recruited from rural conscripts, but the men called up for service were either untrained or poorly equipped. In lands where universal conscription was declared, there were always men ready to prepare for war in a short time. The English archers who won the battles of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt were peasant recruits, but they were well trained and very effective in force majeure.

The authorities of Italian cities left one day a week to prepare citizens for performance as part of the infantry. After all, many chose the art of war as a profession, and the nobility often levied funds from their vassals for military taxes and used this money to fill the ranks of the army with mercenary soldiers and people skilled in specific types of weapons (such as crossbowmen or craftsmen). on siege weapons).

Decisive battles were often a huge risk and could not be successful, even if your army outnumbered the enemy's. As a result, the practice of open combat was rare in the Middle Ages, and most wars consisted of strategic maneuvers and, most often, long sieges. Medieval architects took the art of fortress building to a new level: the great castles of the Crusades, such as Kerak and Krak des Chevaliers, or the chain of massive buildings of Edward the First in Wales, are masterpieces of defensive design.

Along with the myths of the medieval army, where the mob, controlled by incompetent idiots, went to war, there was the idea that the crusaders were losing battles against tactically more prepared opponents from the Middle East. An analysis of the battles fought by the Crusaders shows that they won slightly more battles than they lost using each other's tactics and weapons, and it was a completely equal fight. In reality, the cause of the fall of the crusader states of Outremer was a lack of human resources, and not primitive combat skills.

After all, there are myths about medieval weapons. A common misconception is that medieval weapons were so prohibitively heavy that knights had to be lifted into the saddle by some kind of lifting mechanism, and that a knight, once thrown from his horse, could not stand up on his own. Of course, only an idiot would go into battle and risk his life in armor that made movement so difficult. In fact, medieval armor weighed a total of about 20 kg, which is almost half the weight with which modern infantry is sent to the front. Battle re-enactors these days love to perform acrobatic feats to demonstrate how agile and fast a fully equipped warrior can be. Previously, chain mail weighed much more, but even in it a trained person was quite mobile.

InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.

HUMAN SEXUAL LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
(superficial judgments that do not pretend to be fundamental)

It is he!
- Who is he?
- Boy!
- You didn't say anything about the boy!
- Because I didn’t want to discuss it!
From America. thin series "Caliphrenia"

Each of us - you, you, you, you and me -
has its own personal life, which does not concern anyone -
neither you, nor you, nor you, nor you, and me too...
Sergei SOLOVIOV, film director (from a television interview)

The world of medieval men and women was filled with strong and powerful passions.
In the medieval world, women were adored.
“I love you more than anyone! You alone are my love and my desire!”
But they also inspired hatred and disgust.
“A woman is just a bait for Satan, a poison for men’s souls,” wrote St. Augustine.
It was a world in which knowledge of medicine, physiology and hygiene was still insufficient.
“The very sight of a menstruating woman can itself cause illness in a healthy man.”
It was a world where bishops grew rich from prostitution and virgins “married” Christ.
“As I stood next to the crucifix, I was filled with such fire that I took off all my clothes and offered all of myself to Him.”
A world in which priests accuse their flock of extramarital affairs and other sexual sins.
“There is so much debauchery and adultery on all sides that only a few men are satisfied with their own wives” (1).
This was the time when in the homes of the church fathers and even in the palace of the Pope, everyone was engaged in a variety of sex, not disdaining relations with boys and young men, which was especially developed in monasteries.
“...the houses of the church fathers are turning into refuges for harlots and sodomites.”
It was a world in which God, according to church ministers, promised to destroy all humanity because of sinful aspirations. (As if one of them communicated with him or could read his thoughts.)
“One must fear human sensuality, whose fire was kindled as a result of original sin, which established even greater depths of evil, producing various sins that caused divine wrath and his vengeance” (2).

... “The real sexual relationship began in 1963.” So, at least, wrote the poet Philip Larkey. But this is not true. Sexual activity in the Middle Ages was as vigorous and varied as it is today. How diverse it was can be understood from the questions that medieval priests were obliged to ask their parishioners:
“Did you commit adultery with a nun?”;
“Committed adultery with your stepmother, daughter-in-law, your son’s fiancée, mother?”;
“Have you made an instrument or device in the shape of a penis and then tied it to your genitals and committed adultery with other women?”
“Have you inserted a device in the form of a penis into your mouth or anus, moving this instrument of the devil there and receiving indecent male pleasure?”;
“Did you use the mouth and buttocks of your son, brother, father, servant boy for sodomy pleasure?”;
“Have you done what some women do, who lie down in front of the animal and encourage it to copulate in any way possible. Have you copulated in the same way as they?”
Such interest suggests that sexual activity in the Middle Ages was no different from the sexual desires of people today! But the world in which all this happened was completely different! Knowledge about birth and hygiene, about life and death, physiology and human sexual desires was very different from today.
Considering that today people in all countries live to be 75-80 years old, in the Middle Ages people barely reached the age of 40. Everyone has had personal experience with death. Most people have seen a brother or sister die. Most parents lost one child or more. In a medieval village of 100 houses, funerals might take place every eight days. This was due to malnutrition, infections, diseases, epidemics and wars.
Life in the Middle Ages was dangerous. It is easy to imagine medieval life as nasty, cruel and short. At least, this was what was believed until recently: “The early deaths of those years were based on the struggle for survival, the lack of pleasures, passions and the suppression of one’s sexuality.” But was it really so? Far from it! Medieval records suggest passions raging in various parts of society, a deep world of intimacy and sensuality, and close attention to love, sex and various pleasures. And some exotic ways to enhance them.
Many couples wanted to have fun, but without the woman getting knocked up. But the easiest way to avoid fertilization was considered to be to cool the fire of desire. True, in this case it was impossible to get pleasure. To extinguish the fire of your passion, The Guide to Women's Secrets recommended drinking a man's urine. According to the authors of such nonsense, this should certainly work! There were other ways to avoid unwanted pregnancy. The monks, for example, recommended eating sage for this, which was cooked for three days. After this, supposedly, pregnancy does not occur for a whole year! There was also more radical advice: if a woman swallows a bee, she will never get pregnant, and the man who penetrates her deeply will feel pain and probably will not want to ejaculate into her!
Since the church permitted sex only for procreation, it categorically rejected the use of contraception. The jurist Burchard, Bishop of Worms, even introduced a penance (punishment) of ten years for contraception. However, despite all these prohibitions, various contraceptives known since ancient times were used in practice: herbal tinctures, special exercises after intercourse, genital creams, vaginal suppositories and much more. Coitus interruptus was also practiced, perhaps the most effective method of contraception at that time. Termination of pregnancy was resorted to in extreme cases and was mostly done without surgical intervention: heavy physical activity, hot baths, tinctures and other drugs that cause miscarriage. Researcher on the history of contraception John Noonan noticed a very curious thing: if in the early Middle Ages great attention was paid to sexual positions, spells and magical amulets as a means of contraception, then in the high and late Middle Ages it was already interrupted sexual intercourse and ejaculation of a man on a woman’s stomach or on the bed .
It is obvious that the medieval understanding of sexual relations was primitive. Anatomy was undeveloped and dissection was rarely performed. (Which, by the way, the church actively opposed. It was the lack of knowledge in the field of medicine that gave rise to the outbreak of the most dangerous epidemics in crowded areas - primarily in cities.) But this did not stop some of the greatest minds from revealing the secrets of sex. In centers of scientific study throughout medieval Europe, scientists pondered pressing questions.
What is the difference between men and women?
Why do people most often like sex, and are they ready to break all conceivable biblical prohibitions for the sake of sexual pleasure?
What is the nature of sexual satisfaction?
What is attraction? What is its essence? And is the devil to blame for it or is it still a divine gift?
The consensus reached by these male authors, many of whom were clergy, was that the problem was the woman. According to the classic theory of the four humors, men were designed to be hot and dry. Which was good. The women were cold and damp. Which was bad. This made them sexually insatiable.
“Woman desires intercourse more than man, because the dirty attracts the good,” wrote St. Augustine.
The real mystery was how the female anatomy worked. At Oxford in the 14th century, Dr. John Garsdon expressed the generally accepted belief in the Middle Ages that menstrual blood was in fact female semen. Not surprisingly, it was believed that women needed sex to get rid of this seed, menstrual blood.
“This blood is so disgusting that upon contact with it, fruits stop growing, wine becomes sour, trees do not bear fruit, the air darkens and dogs become wild with rabies. The very sight of a menstruating woman can itself cause illness in a healthy man.”
In a word, all women were poisonous in the literal sense of the word! (And not just some mothers-in-law, as they think now!)
Medieval thinking was as logical as ours, but it was based on different assumptions. It often came from religious doctrine or the opinion of ancient authorities. And the biblical story of the Garden of Eden dominated in explaining the nature of female sexuality.
In the story of original sin, the devil decides to deceive Eve, not Adam! As has been said, attack human nature where it is weakest. There was an act of betrayal in Eve's actions that few churchmen could forgive.
“Eve was a bait for Satan, a poison for men's souls,” wrote Cardinal Peter Damiens in the 11th century.
And he: “Evil from a woman! Women are the biggest evil in the world! Don't you women understand that Eve is you! You have desecrated the tree of knowledge! You have disobeyed God's law! You convinced a man where the devil could not win by force! God's verdict on your sex still hangs over the world! You are guilty before men, and you must endure all hardships! You are the devil's gate!"
It is not surprising that with such attitudes towards women, medieval courtship was a rather unromantic activity that few dared to undertake. In general, marriage at that time was different from today's romantic ideal. He had very little relation to love, if at all. This came later.
Most often, this was an alliance between families and an agreement that included the transfer of some property. The wife was considered as part of this property. Such property should have been thoroughly inspected before the transaction was concluded. In 1319, Edward II sent the Bishop of Exater to examine Philippa Edaena as a prospective wife for his young son. The bishop's report reads like a description of a future property:
“The lady has attractive hair - a cross between blue-black and brown. The eyes are deep dark brown. The nose is quite smooth and even not turned up. Quite a big mouth. The lips are somewhat full, especially the lower one. The neck, shoulders, her entire body and lower limbs are moderately well formed. All her members are well adjusted and unmutilated. And on St. John’s Day this girl will be nine years old.”
The report was accepted by the customer with satisfaction. An agreement was reached. Nine years later, Philippa married Edward II's son, who later became Edward III.
And here is how the curiosity of a 13-year-old groom towards his bride is shown in the French fiction series “The Borgias”:

“Have you seen my bride, brother?
- Saw.
- Your silence is alarming, brother! Calm down baby Jofre!
- Be calm, Jofre, she is not horned!
- She's beautiful?
- No.
- She is kind?
- Apparently not!
- Is there anything good about her?
- She has two legs, a full set of eyes, ten fingers!
- So she is not beautiful and not kind... She has two eyes, ten fingers...
- I forgot my toes. Also ten, in my opinion!
- I will only marry once, Mom!
- Brother Joffre! She's not just beautiful!
- Yes?
- She's beautiful!
- Is it true?
- She is an angel who grew up on the soil of Naples! And know: if you don’t marry, I will marry her myself!
- Is it true?
- Yes its true! Do you give me permission?
- No, Juan! She is my bride!
- Yes, that's right! Who is our lucky guy?..”

Let us add that the bride was five years older than her teenage groom. And later brother Juan (this is historical truth) could not resist his lust and right during the wedding celebrations, having improved the moment, he took the girl out of the hall and took possession of her in an empty room, standing, pressing her to the wall, lowering his pants, lifting up her wedding dresses, lifting her legs.
Here's a scene from the movie:

“- Be kind to him! Do you promise?
- Like this?
- He is my younger brother!
- But how, “good”?
<Тут у обоих одновременно наступает бурный оргазм. Оба стонут, извиваются, переживают наслаждения, глубоко дышат...>
- That's it!.. That's it!..
“So I can!.. Yes!.. Yes!..”

After this, the bride, well inseminated by her older brother, set off to “be kind” with her inexperienced young husband...
In all marriages, the woman's property and belongings became the property of her husband. Just like the woman herself.
The law often allowed husbands to treat their wives as they pleased. Therefore, on their wedding night, many boys and young men subtly raped their young wives, taking into account only their desires and feelings, sincerely believing that they wanted the same thing and that they would like it. The screams of the young wife being deprived of her innocence during the first wedding night caused delight among all the guests, the parents of the groom and even the parents of the bride. And in the morning the young husband could loudly and in detail savor how, in what position and how many times he took possession of his young wife, how pleasant it was for him, how his dearest wife did not want it, in what way, how he forced her to copulate and how it hurt her during defloration.
“It is lawful for a man to beat his wife when she wrongs him, so long as he does not kill or maim her,” said English law.
The female part of humanity, called by the cause of original sin, feared for her sexuality and taken in exchange for property, livestock or goods, and also at times subjected to violence for her pleasure and satiety, was by no means happy.
During the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, violence against women was a manifestation of the sexuality of young people in Venice as well. Rape was considered a serious crime if it was committed against children, the elderly, or members of the upper class. Sexual violence committed against women of lower or equal status was not criminalized (as long as the victim was alive and not injured), and was sometimes even considered part of a courtship ritual. For example, some Venetian youths proposed to their chosen ones after they had taken possession of them several times, most often with the use of force. With rare exceptions, the rape of a young girl was part of the wedding ritual. When the older generation had already agreed on everything, the parents and their daughter (or son) came to visit the parents of the future groom (bride). The young man and the girl, under some plausible pretext, would retire into seclusion. And while the parents were talking with each other about the weather and city news, the guy behind the wall took possession of his young guest, regardless of her desires. They didn't pay attention to the girl's screams. The children returned to their parents: he was satisfied with the pleasures received and sexual release, she was the one who had learned male power, inseminated by a young lustful baboon, in tears. Both parents were satisfied with the evening, and so was the guy. And the girl?.. Who asked her about this? After some time, there was a return visit, during which the girl no longer resisted her fiancé so much (her mother explained everything to her in detail), but the ritual of returning to his parents - satisfied, and hers - in tears was obligatory. And then, if the key matched the lock, an offer was made. Or they were looking for another bride or groom. It is somewhat unclear how the issue of contraception was resolved in this case. However, there is evidence that many Venetians were not sure that the first-born in their family was the offspring of the head of the family.
In general, in Venice, as in other European cities, there was an illegal but very widespread sexual culture - prostitution, street and domestic rape, forced extramarital cohabitation. All this was the result of young people getting married later in life (3).
Since the early Middle Ages, secular authorities and the church believed that it was impossible to rape one’s fiancée if there was an agreement between the parents, or one’s wife, since she had given voluntary consent to sex when she got married. It was also not considered a crime to rape a prostitute because she earns money with her body. Gang rape was also common in the late Middle Ages. Any woman walking or walking along the streets alone in the evening risked being raped by a pack of young scoundrels. The attackers announced their approach by shouting “Whore!” in order to legitimize their further actions in this way. Often, the cries of raped women either went unnoticed or were attracted to the fact that a townsman, even armed and skilled with a sword, joined the rapists in order to disrupt their pleasure on this wonderful evening, especially if the victim was sexually attractive. A case is described when a very young servant girl, after being raped by three 18-year-old noblemen, was continued to be taken by force by the guys from the city guard who had come running in response to the screams. (If it had been a robbery, then they would have stood up and detained the criminals!) It was an exception if one of the passers-by stood up for an unknown woman out of noble motives. (After all, in his youth, this husband did the same thing: he caught victims and raped him with his friends! Well, let the youth frolic!) Rather, one pack of guys, threatening another gang of youths with weapons, fought off the girl in order to become her first. Sometimes, because of this, real fencing battles broke out in the streets with injuries and deaths of young people on both sides. During these fights, it happened that the girls were somehow forgotten (you had to keep an eye on the enemy so as not to miss a dangerous thrust or blow from a sword!) and they managed to escape. Then it turned out like this: after an intense battle, the rivals retreated, there were wounded or even killed, and the prize with pretty eyes, protruding ass and other fresh appetizing forms, over the possession of which the quarrel began, disappeared! But this was a rare piece of luck for the girls: during skirmishes, the victim was always carefully guarded by younger members of the gang. It must be said that sometimes fights before raping girls were deliberately provoked by older guys, because getting sexual release after a tough battle with a strong opponent was an exotic way to enhance the pleasure from copulation. For this purpose, they did not even take into account the possibility of the death of friends. Therefore, from adolescence, young men constantly studied and then improved their art of wielding a sword. It was not only prestigious, but at that time the lives of these youngsters and the number of girls they could recapture from their rivals depended on the reaction and skill of fencing, and then en masse take possession of those they considered whores. Take possession right here, right on the street...
We returned home in the morning. The servant helped him undress and put the young master to bed. (It was not customary to wash yourself or take care of yourself.) And, the young man, remembering what happened during the evening (those fights in which he took part, and those girls he fucked), falling asleep, thought: yes, the day was not in vain!..
French researcher Jacques Rossiod believes that young men deliberately sought to “spoil” as many girls as possible, thus expressing dissatisfaction with the social order. I believe this is the primitive thinking of a person who, apparently, has read Marxist literature, after which public protests seem to be everywhere, even in obvious criminality (in modern times). How does this researcher imagine this? Probably so:
- Listen, guys, let's express our protest with this girl against the existing order in our glorious Venice! Well, bring her here!..
- Quiet, you fool, don’t let yourself go! We will just express a protest and let you go!.. Now, I’m already lowering my pants to protest!.. There are only ten of us protesters!..
- Spread your legs!.. See how I’m bursting with the desire to protest!.. Spread your legs, whoever they say! It will be worse!..
- Oh, how well my protest went!.. Who’s next to protest?..
- Oh, buddies, how wonderfully we protested today! Wonderful night! Let Venice know: we are against it!..
No! Young people (most often with peer servants who were responsible for their master to his parents, and sometimes took part in the rape of victims after the masters) willingly joined gangs, which usually consisted of five to six (maximum 15) people aged from 18 to 20 years with the goal of having fun and raping a group of girls and pretty women. Apparently, they were attracted not only by the opportunity to assert themselves, to gain sensations unknown in adolescence, to “become an adult,” but also to see the nudity of the female body, which is not available in everyday life (how can one not think about the beneficial effects of pornography, to the horror of the half-witted prudes! ), notice fear in the eyes of your future victim. In addition, some were attracted by the opportunity to gain experience, to watch from the sidelines the sexual intercourse of their half-naked friends (after all, there was no photo and video porn then!), and some were aroused by the fact that they were watching him during sexual intercourse...
This is what one of the Venetian rakes wrote to his close friend:
“...You weren’t with us again in the evening! It's a pity that your father didn't let you go. Yesterday you lost a lot. The two girls we made into whores got to know us. One was crying, trying to pay off, offering us<свой>wallet<с деньгами>. We desired (i.e. took by force) only her honor, not only, as usual, but also in a manner condemned<церковью>(4). Blood and tears from both<было>a lot of.<...>
You said that you admire (in the sense: excite) when you see how guys play (i.e. enjoy) with a girl. This fascinates me too (in the sense of turning me on). What you! Especially when I know that<во время моего сношения>you are watching over me. At such moments, I always want you to be with us (that is, next to us). Feelings from this<когда ты за мной наблюдаешь во время моего полового акта>are Arkhangelsk (5).<...>
Will you come today? Make sure your father lets you go! Do you want my father to talk to yours (6)? After all, our walks cost us nothing but a sleepless night. And now next to her husband or in her father’s house there is a girl whom we will make today the city whore. Cynus!<...>I'm already burning with desire! It would rather be night!..” (7)
At the head of such gangs was a slightly older leader. The appearance of such packs in the late Middle Ages indicated a significant decline in the influence of the church, since the members of the gangs themselves often called themselves a “monastic brotherhood”, and their leader was called a “prince”, “king” or even “abbot”. Young men left such groups on the day of their marriage. But there were exceptions. In particular, if a young man occupied one of the main positions, he could afford to remain in a gang until the age of 30, especially if the guy was one of those who liked to watch others' sexual intercourse from the sidelines, or to have someone watch, how he does it - both are inaccessible in the marital bedroom. It was these men who, when they got older, equipped their bedrooms with mirrors (which were incredibly expensive at that time), which could at least somehow make it possible to “look” at sexual intercourse from the outside or imagine that someone was watching you. For the same purpose, young servants were called into the bedroom, in whose presence they had sex with their spouses, maids or mistresses (where the expression “holding a candle” came from, i.e. seeing copulation). One must think that the young servant boys did not feel particularly disgusted by this - after all, sex has always interested young people, and not just in our time, as some illiterate prudes believe. In addition, the walls of the premises were equipped with secret peepholes, which made it possible to spy on the intimacy of young servants and sometimes eminent guests.
In addition to men, the gang sometimes included girls who lured simple-minded victims into secluded corners, or were “in the wings” during ritual rapes to deflorate innocent girls. They enjoyed immunity as long as they acted as future wives of gang members.
The groups operated openly, local authorities were well aware of what was happening in the cities, because often the sons of these same officials and nobles were members of the gangs. Secular authorities and the church not only did not pay any attention to gang rapes, but, on the contrary, were even interested in them. Sexual violence on the streets of the city acted as a kind of restraining force for obstinate young ladies and overly active prostitutes, and also provided a sexual and emotional outlet for guys. As victims, the rapists mainly chose the wives and daughters of laborers, prostitutes, mistresses of priests, divorced women or simply maids. Therefore, fathers protected their daughters, and husbands protected their wives. But the girls themselves were very careful: they appeared alone on the street only during the day, and in the evening only accompanied by someone, usually armed and able to wield a sword or other bladed weapons. If a girl was dressed provocatively and went out into the street without an escort, then if she was raped, only she herself was to blame. Therefore, many young women dressed very chastely and led a mainly domestic lifestyle.
Only in very rare cases were rapists punished, most often if the woman was seriously injured or died. Injuries from repeated sexual intercourse with several males in a row were not considered as evidence of damage to a woman’s health. In the late Middle Ages, only 14 percent of sexual assault cases resulted in two years' imprisonment or severe flogging for the perpetrators. The penalties in most cases brought to court were either fines or short prison sentences. The most severe punishments were received by offenders who violated the honor of the wives and daughters of the upper class and high-ranking officials. But this was also very rare, because such ladies did not appear on city streets late at night without armed guards.
And suddenly, suddenly, in a society that valued women so low, a revolution occurred that turned everything inside out. It began in southern France in the 12th century. Troubadours, traveling poets and musicians began to talk about women and love in a completely different way. They sang about deep, idealized sexual passion. Their poems reached the ears of one of the most influential women of that time, the daughter of King Louis VII of France, Marie de Champagne. Marie's courtyard was a haven for singers, writers and poets. He soon became famous for the exciting ideas of the troubadours.
>> "When I go to bed, all night and the next day
I keep thinking: how can I serve your honor?
My body rejoices and is full of joy because I think about you!
My heart belongs to you!..”
Poets have placed women on a pedestal. She was worshiped as a distant and inaccessible object. They were her suffering lovers.
>> “I lost my will and stopped being myself
From the moment you allowed me to look into your eyes!”
This is how the idea of ​​falling in love was born.
Of course, people talked about love before this time. But it was more of a lustful love. The poetry that captured the imagination of court ladies such as Marie de Champagne was something special. It was an idealized type of sexual passion, and sex was like a reward for passionate desires and worship of the object of one’s adoration. Sometimes this love is called courtly or courtly love. Her hot ideas spread from court to court throughout Europe. And new generations of writers and poets began to sing of new views on love.
One of the most famous is Etienne de Troyes, the author of a story about passion and adultery. His famous love story of Lancelot and Jenivera, a great knight in the court of King Arthur and the queen, is interspersed with exciting events of true love. For his wealthy patron and ladies of the court, it was a standard by which men's behavior could be measured and an idea of ​​one's own sexual worth. For courtly lovers, such feelings were exquisite love.
“If she doesn’t cure my suffering with a kiss, she will kill me and curse herself! Despite all the suffering, I do not give up sweet love!”
Lancelot tries to win the queen's love, he exposes himself to untold dangers, including crossing a bridge made of a sword blade. Jeneviera eventually gives in and makes a midnight date:
“Today, when everyone is asleep, you can come and talk to me at that window!”
It seems to Lancelot that the day drags on like a century. As soon as night falls, the queen appears in a purple cloak and furs. But iron bars separate them. Lancelot grabbed the bars, tensed and tore them out. Finally, there are all the possibilities for adultery. Now Lancelot had everything he wanted: he held his beloved in his arms. He held her in his arms. Their touches were so tender and sweet that through kisses and hugs they experienced such joy and surprise, the likes of which they had never known.
The impact of this bold, new literature was dramatic. Exquisite love, unrequited love, mutual love, tragic love, adultery. For the first time, noble ladies were exposed to passionate romance literature with sophisticated love fantasies about a devoted noble lover who wanted not so much their naked bodies and the opportunity to copulate with them, but their appearance, their voice, their feelings, and most importantly, their love.
New poets questioned old dogmas. Can love exist in marriage? Or should she be free? Does love survive by becoming public? Is it true that new love puts the old one to flight or is it possible to love two women?
“He who is tormented by thoughts of love, whether for a man or a woman, sleeps and eats little.” These words belong to Chaplain Andrew, of whom it is only known that he was at the court of the said Marie de Champagne. His treatise “On Love” was similar to modern tutorials on seducing ladies and love relationships. Writers like Chaplain Andrew became pioneers of love themselves, blazing trails in this new, bold, emotional world. The most amazing thing is that such writers were able to move away from the far unromantic relationships that existed between medieval men and women.
Why has the cult of exquisite love become so popular? Was this a release valve for emotional pressure and sexual energy? Was all this a natural development of religious love, in which the aristocracy honed its sexual manners? No one can say this for sure! But the basic ideas of this love were adopted by the wider medieval culture. And they caused scandals, even violence. It was one thing to discuss codes of love in aristocratic circles, and another to live by them!
One of the most remarkable medieval stories is a passionate, dramatic and seemingly true story about the love of Adelyard and Aloise.
The young scientist Peter Adelyard arrived in Paris in 1100, when exquisite love had already swept Europe. In Paris, he met the young and beautiful Aloise. She lived with her uncle, a former canon at Notre Dame Cathedral.
“I am burning with the fire of desire for this girl. And I decided: she will be the only one in my bed!” wrote Peter Adelyard.
Peter Adelyard became a home teacher, mentor to a very young girl, Aloise.
“If the uncle of my passion had entrusted the lamb to a predatory wolf, it would have surprised me less! Our books lay between us, but we shared more words of love than reading. We had more kisses than teaching. My hands touched her breasts and her peach under her dresses more often than the pages. Our desires did not leave any position or degree of love untested. I taught her to give herself to a man the way we both wanted. And not a single girl’s cavity was left devoid of innocence...”
Soon, from this unbridled passion of the young insatiable teacher, the girl became pregnant. The young mentor's uncle was angry! And Abeler proposed to his beloved. However, she did not agree to marry her seducer for a long time. Aloise had her own, rather unconventional ideas. According to her, only freely given love had meaning and the right to exist, and not what she called “the chains of marriage.” Yes, and Peter wrote down:
“The name of wife seems more sacred and valuable to many, but for me the word lover, or concubine, or harlot will always be sweeter.”
Aloyse used the thoughts of writers and troubadours about courtly love, which said that true love can only exist outside of marriage. Such attitudes were contrary to the conditions that bound medieval society. In the end, her loved ones insisted and Aloisa agreed to a secret marriage. Peter Adelyard married his beauty. But a little later, the young woman suddenly retired to a nunnery. Her uncle and relatives suspected that Peter had deceived them and avoided marriage by making her a nun. Their revenge was swift and brutal.
“One night I was sleeping peacefully in the back room of my home. They bribed one of my servants to let them in. And they took cruel revenge on me in such a terrible, barbaric way that it shocked the whole world. They cut off the part of my body through which I had committed the injustice of which they complained.”
After this, Adelyard retired to a monastery forever, and Aloise actually became a nun. Their correspondence gives us an inside look at medieval affairs of the heart.
Years later, Aloise, having already become an abbess, in her letter to Adelyard said that she still experienced a strong sexual attraction to her castrated husband:
“The pleasure we shared then was too sweet. It is unlikely that he can be expelled from my thoughts, which awaken melancholy and fantasies. Even during Mass, obscene visions of those pleasures overcome my unfortunate soul. And all my thoughts are in debauchery, and not in prayers.”
The ideas that began with the troubadours have transformed our culture. A language of romance, sexual longing, unrequited love and unbridled desires was born. The principles created in the Middle Ages continue to this day.
However, nothing could be more offensive to the medieval church than the idea of ​​human sexual pleasure. In the 13th century in England there were about 40 thousand representatives of the clergy, 17 thousand monks, 10 thousand parish priests, and they had to interfere in the sexual life of believers. Of course, the church's views on the carnal pleasures of its flock (and not its own) differed significantly from the views of the troubadours.
“The dirty embrace of flesh releases fumes and pollutes anyone who clings to it. And no one escapes unscathed from the bite of pleasure.”
The church fathers worked tirelessly to turn their flocks away from the sensual pleasures they officially denied.
“This is a sinful act, a disgusting act, bestial copulation, a shameless union. This is a dirty, smelly, dissolute business!”
One 12th-century author had a helpful tip on how to manage lustful desires for a woman:
“Try to imagine what her body looks like on the inside. Think about what's underneath the skin inside the body! What could be more disgusting to look at, more disgusting to touch, more offensive to breathe? And if that wasn't enough, try to imagine her dead body! What could be more terrible than a corpse, and what in the world could be more disgusting for her lover, who just recently was still full of wild desire for this fetid flesh?
In the medieval world, people were in the middle between animals and angels. Unfortunately for the priests, the animal always won in sex.
Then the church put forward its own alternative to the immorality of sex.
“Virginity is the highest dignity, magnificent beauty, source of life, incomparable song, crown of faith, support for hope. A mirror of purity, closeness to the angels, food and support for the most lasting love."
In monasteries, virginity was a treasure that would be dedicated only to the divine bridegroom. Here the young woman became the “bride of Christ.” The virginity of these young ladies was a treasure that would be dedicated to Jesus. Medieval texts often say that there is still something sensual about a woman’s passionate devotion to Christ. Jacques Demitres, writing in 1220, describes several nuns who were so weakened by the ecstasy of love for the son of God that they were forced to take a break from reading the Bible. They melted with amazing love for God until they buckled under the burden of desire. For many years they did not get out of bed.
“O noble eagles and tender lamb! O burning flame, engulf me! How long should I stay parched? One hour is too hard for me! One day is like a thousand years!”
At times, the distinction between sensual and spiritual love disappears completely.
One Angela from Folinia took the idea of ​​being the “bride of Christ” quite literally:
“I stood in front of the crucifix and was filled with such fire that I took off all my clothes and offered all of myself to Him. I promised Him, although I was afraid, to always maintain my chastity and not to offend him with any of my members. My feeling is more transparent than glass, whiter than snow, brighter than the sun..."

Cutting your hair is a symbol of the fact that you renounce your earthly beauty... And now you dedicate yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ... You will become Christ's bride, Christ's handmaiden... Christ will be your love, your bread, your wine, your water. ..
(From the French art series “The Borgias”)

The cult of virginity dominated the minds of many women, sometimes giving birth to real tragedies.
Take the story of Christening of Markeith. She was from a prosperous English family. A guy from her circle, Veprod, wooed her and received the approval of her parents. But Christina agreed on one condition: she would remain a virgin for life. She has already sworn to this. Her parents laughed at her, did not allow her to go to church often, attend parties with her friends and gave her love potions. Finally, they agreed with Veprod that he would be allowed into the house at night. But Christina did not allow the guy to talk about love and lure her into bed, but began to tell exemplary stories of chaste marriages. She promised, in the event of marriage, to live with him “so that other townspeople would not mock you for refusing you.” But, nevertheless, she must remain a virgin.
These moralizing conversations were apparently so boring that the guy lost the desire. Veprod was left without sex this time.
His friends laughed at him and teased him. Therefore, he made another attempt to enter the house and take possession of her in order to deprive his love of these absurd ideas once and for all. Burning with lust, not without the help of the girl’s relatives, the guy burst into the bedroom to rape his future wife. But she somehow miraculously disappeared from him in the depths of the house.
Christina's stubbornness and stupidity infuriated her parents. The father threatened to throw her out of the house, and the mother grabbed the girl by the hair and beat her. Only visions of the Virgin Mary supported her in her trials. To avoid the wrath of her family and sexual intercourse with her fiancé, Christina ran away from home and became a recluse. Two years later, Veprod gave in and freed her from her marriage obligations, and soon married another girl who had a less quarrelsome character.
Christina and the cult of virginity emerged victorious from this bitter family conflict. This girl founded a convent where she accepted equally absurd fools and died a virgin, devoted in her “marriage” to Christ. (Lord, there are such complete fools!)
Most, of course, would prefer to marry a man or woman of flesh and blood than with a mythical god, even the most beautiful one. People wanted marriage, sexual intercourse, the pleasures of it, and children. But the bedroom and sex were the territories that the church stubbornly wanted to subjugate and completely control. However, marriages in the early Middle Ages had little to do with the church. They entered into them very informally.
Here is a description of a peasant wedding given by a witness in a court case in Jötta:
“At three o’clock after nine, John Big Shorny, sitting on a bench, called Margeret to him and said to her: “Will you be my wife?” And she answered: “Yes, I will, if you want!” And, taking the right hand of the mentioned Margeret, John said: “Margeret, I take you to be my wife! Both in joy and in sorrow I will be with you until the end of my days!”
This casual approach horrified church authorities. In 1218, clarifications were made to the charter of the diocese of Salisbury. It was legalized that marriages should be celebrated with respect and honor, and not with laughter and jokes in the tavern or at public drinking parties. No one has the right to put a ring made of reed or other material, cheap or precious, on the hand of a girl in order to freely commit adultery with her, since he can later say that he was joking, although in fact he has bound himself to marital duties.” .
“Marriage,” the church maintained, “is not a contract, but a religious event.”
Over time, it was declared a sacrament, like baptism or confession.
As for sex, for the church, marriage did not excuse unrestricted lovemaking. What St. Augustine said became a proverb: “Passionate love for one’s own wife is adultery!” The only legitimate reason for sexual relations was reproduction. And it was a serious responsibility. And no pleasure or thoughts about it!
Only the church, through its religious courts, dealt with what should or should not happen in the marriage bed.
John, a man from York, was accused by his wife of impotence. Various efforts were made to awaken him. This procedure was documented in court records:
“The witness exposed her bare breasts, and with her hands, warmed by the fire, she held and rubbed John's naked penis and testicles, hugging and often kissing them. She excited him before the court to show his courage and potency, convincing him to prove them to the judges and take her right here, on the table in the courtroom. She pointed out to the court that all this time his penis remained barely 7 centimeters long, without any signs of enlargement or hardness...” (6)
In 1215 in Rome, Pope Innocent III sharply intervened in the sexual affairs of believers. He issued a bull requiring all Christians to confess their sins and sinful thoughts at least once a year. This decision was supposed to help the clergy root out debauchery. To help priests accept confession, decide what questions to ask, assess the seriousness of the sins they hear about, and understand what to do about them, encyclopedic publications known as confessor's manuals were widely distributed. The biggest chapter in this sin manual was, of course, sex. The main idea for confessors: sexual relations can only occur in marriage and only for the birth of heirs. Any other form of sexual activity, including sex for pleasure and not for conception, sex through rubbing the penis against the breasts, buttocks, between the wife’s legs without inserting it inside the woman, and especially self-satisfaction, ejaculation outside the woman’s body was considered a sin.
But even in marriage, sexual relations were a complex issue. To avoid sin, the church had a checklist that a husband must first read before screwing his wife:
“Is your wife menstruating?”
"Is your wife pregnant?"
“Is your wife breastfeeding the baby?”
“Is it Lent now?”
“Is this the second coming of Christ?”
"Today is Sunday?"
“Is it a week after Trinity?”
"Easter week?"
“Is today Wednesday or Friday?”
“Is today a fast day? Holiday?"
“Are you naked?”
“Are you at church?”
“Did you wake up this morning with a stiff penis?”
If you answered “no” to all these questions, then the church, so be it, on this day allowed married couples to have sex once a week and never more! But only in the missionary position, in the dark, with your eyes closed, without moaning, even if you want to scream with pleasure and without showing your other half that it was pleasant for you! Otherwise, God's disfavor and hell await you! After all, He is the all-seeing eye, watching over us all, and even such a bastard will not turn away when you are enjoying yourself with your beloved wife (option: with your beloved husband)! And, God forbid, not in the position that He prescribed for us through His prophets or did not do what He likes in human sexual intercourse! Fuck you! In the next world he will definitely punish you!
Thus, the church regulated when, where, with whom, and in what way sex could be had. Those who violated these rules, even in their thoughts, had to be punished. Punishments or penances included a complex system of fasting and abstinence separately for each sin:
For adultery even in thoughts - penance for two years!
For treason twice - five years!
For sex with an animal - seven years!
There were also special questions for women:
“Have you consumed your husband’s sperm to ignite your passion?” - five years!
“Did you secretly add your menstrual blood to your husband’s food to excite him?” - ten years!
“Would you like your husband to bite or kiss your breasts?” - five years!
“Have you ever had a desire for your husband to kiss or lick between your legs?” - seven years!
“Did you want to take your husband’s penis into your throat?” - six years!
“Did you want to swallow your husband’s seed?” - seven years!
“Have you observed your husband’s ejaculation? - two years!
“Have you given yourself to your husband, throwing your legs over his shoulders?” - one year!
“Same thing, sitting on his lap?” - two years!
“Is it the same if you’re on top of a man?” - three years!
“Did you allow yourself to be controlled in a doggy style position, on all fours?” - four years!
“Have you ever had a desire to give yourself to your husband in the anus?” - nine years.
The process of confessions and penances regulated every point of the believers' sexual life and codified a sliding scale of punishments. And for those who decided to flout the rules, there was a completely different level of investigation and retribution.
Away from the secrecy of confession stood the religious court, one where the sins of believers had to be exposed and publicly condemned. The creation of religious courts significantly expanded the church's control over people's behavior, including in bed. Confession was a frequent affair. It was completely different! Because of a misunderstood phrase spoken in a tavern, anyone could be summoned to court on suspicion of his behavior and the assumption that in bed, even with his wife, he was doing something that was not approved by the church. The minds of church authorities were occupied by intimate relationships, and even sinful thoughts of a person. Judges could impose severe punishments, excommunication, fines, public penances, and executions at the stake, by hanging, or by drowning.
Here are entries from books containing reports of court cases heard by the ecclesiastical judicial authorities in the dioceses of some English cities in the 14th century:
“John Warren was accused of having extramarital affairs with Helen Lanson. Both appeared and confessed the sin, and swore not to sin again under penalty of a fine of 40 pence. Both were ordered to be whipped publicly three times near the church.”
“Thomas Thornton, a priest, is alleged to have had an extramarital affair with Aless, daughter of Robert Masner. As punishment for seducing a church minister, she was sentenced to 12 strokes in the market square and 12 strokes near the church, naked, wearing only one shirt.” (“The seduced” church minister, presumably, escaped with a slight fright.)
“Teenager Michael Smith, 13, was caught having sinful thoughts while singing in the church choir, because during the service his pants bulged when he saw the priest bending over a fallen gospel with his back turned towards him. Sentenced to 10 lashes near the church.” (Apparently, the priest who dropped the book, without knowing it, also gave away the fact that the teenager was focusing his attention on it!)
“Edwin Cerncros, a teenager of 14 years old, was caught masturbating with his pants down, lying on his side, while simultaneously inserting his index finger, moistened with saliva, into his anus and dropping his sinful seed in front of him on the straw. Sentenced to 14 lashes in the market square."
“Alain Solistell, 15 years old, the son of a fishmonger, repeatedly allowed his dog to lick his penis, testicles and anus, admitted that several times he received sinful pleasure from this, dropping his seed on his stomach or on the tongue of his dog. Sentenced to 18 lashes near a church. They decided to hang the dog. Alain Solistell cried, asked to spare the animal, showed that it was his fault, having taught the dog to sin. He asked the court to increase his punishment to 40 blows, just to save the dog’s life. The court remained adamant."
“Beatrice, daughter of William Ditis, is pregnant, from no one knows. She appeared in the meeting room and confessed to her sin. She was pardoned. I vowed not to sin again. Sentenced to 6 strokes near the church on Sundays and holidays in front of the entire procession” (8).
Religious authorities relied heavily on fear and shame to maintain order among worshipers and keep them within the bounds of their permissible sexual practices. Church apparatus throughout the country was brought in to have access to the sexual activity of believers! For the church, sexual purity was an ideal. But physiologically it was difficult for any healthy person to live up to the ideal, including priests and members of religious tribunals.
Take, for example, a book copied by the monks of St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury around 1200. The first half of the book is innocuous and rather boring. This is the story of the English bishops. But at the end there are a series of pornographic stories written by the monks with great sexual detail and, obviously, giving them pleasure. One of them concerns the story of a husband and wife who undertook a pilgrimage to the “holy land.” One night they found refuge in the depths of a cave. But then nine Saracens enter the cave (9). They light torches, undress and begin to wash themselves, helping each other. They get excited by touch.
When the woman saw the powerful genitals of the young guys and erect penises, she became so excited that she immediately forced her husband to make love to her repeatedly. (One must think that the Saracens do not hear anything and do not notice anything!) By the fourth time, the hubby could no longer do it and fell asleep. Then the woman offered herself to the Saracens. All nine...
What follows is a fairly detailed description of group sex with young lustful males with her. Nine guys had it in different positions and in all cavities, alternately changing each other, or even two at a time. (It was the husband’s turn to pretend that he was sleeping.) But the Saracens were simply worn out overnight by this lustful female.
In the morning, all of them, sleep-deprived (except for the husband), but satisfied (including the husband), parted, saying goodbye warmly. However, having visited the “holy land” and worshiped the “holy places”, this lady was cleansed of “filth” and sinful thoughts, became a respectable parishioner, and no longer allowed intimacy, even with her husband... (If this is so, all that remains is to sympathize her husband. Although, by the way... I wonder if there is at least one person who will believe in such a nonsensical religious ending to this story? One might think that from the pilgrimage to the “holy land” the physiology of a woman in some miraculous way (in the desired way for bigots from side of religion) has changed!.. But, most likely, without such an artificially created ending, this plot could not be included in such a collection.)
Priests were supposed to be single; it was in the late Middle Ages that church authorities decided that they could no longer marry. However, you can put on the dignity, but what should you do with your physiology? Therefore, most of them circumvented these prohibitions by living in their youth with mistresses, the wives of other men, or finding joy with boys and young servants, skillfully corrupting them. Even then, the people understood perfectly well that priests were endowed with the same human and sexual desires as everyone else. Therefore, he willingly laughed at the servants of God who had taken upon themselves a vow of celibacy. Clergymen became targets of satirical pamphlets and poems:
>> “What do priests do without their own wives?
They are forced to look for others.
They have no fear, they have no shame
When do they take married women into their bed?
Or beautiful boys..."
The medieval clergy had other ways to satisfy their sexual desires, using methods even older than the church itself. Records from a brothel in Dijon, France, indicate that at least 20% of the clientele were clergy. Elderly monks, wandering monks, canons, parish priests - they all visited prostitutes in the city baths. Therefore, sexually transmitted diseases spread very quickly.
Medieval brothels could provide churchmen, in addition to sexual satisfaction, with a good income. The Bishop of Wenchester regularly received payments from brothels in the red light area of ​​Salsford. That is why the prostitutes from there were called “Wentchester geese”.
But what is due to Jupiter is not due to the bull. The behavior of the clergy and their participation in depraved sex did not prevent the churchmen from punishing their flock for most types of sexual activity of believers.
However, there was one type of sex that the church condemned especially harshly among other people... The sin of sodomy! It turns out that medieval churchmen had a pretty good understanding of male homosexuality! And then there was someone to punish! It was a time when thousands of men lived together in communities and rarely saw women.
“My eyes strive to see your face, my most beloved! My hands reach out to your arms! My lips yearn for your kisses! So that I have no desires left in the world, your company will make my future soul full of joy.”
Such words sound erotic even to modern heterosexually oriented readers, if you imagine that they were written to a lady. But such language was quite common among young men of that time and had a pronounced homosexual overtones. And the above lines are addressed specifically to a young man, as the story tells, a young man of rare physical beauty.
What horny rabbit wrote them? Depraved aristocrat? Unbridled city dweller? A peasant who did not fear God? No. These lines were written by the most ardent campaigner against homosexuality, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury. According to Anselm, "this deadly vice has spread throughout England." The bishop warned that the islanders would suffer the same fate as the lustful inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah if they were exposed to this sin. However, the punishment for the sin of Sodom awaits someone else; the bishop himself does not shy away from such relationships, apparently believing that closeness to God will protect him from divine punishment.
Fearing divine retribution, medieval society introduced terrible punishments for any kind of sexual behavior that was considered unnatural. In Portugal and Castile the punishment was castration, in Sieña it was hanging for a man's penis. In 1288, in Polonia, homosexual acts were punishable by death by burning at the stake. But for some reason, at all times, there has always been some indestructible group of people who experienced an irresistible sexual attraction to persons of the same sex, no matter how terrible the punishment could be. For, as Nicholas Stoller argues, “Real delight<…>we experience when we balance between danger and peace.”
According to the church, homosexuals were no better off in the afterlife. Some images from late medieval Italy show sodomites burning in eternal hell. One of the images shows a sodomite being pierced through the anus to the mouth with a skewer and being roasted by the devil over a hot fire. The other end of the skewer coming out of the sinner's mouth enters the mouth of another naked guy sitting next to him. There is a clear allusion here, where the punishment for homosexuals mirrors their methods of obtaining sexual release. We see an allusion to anal sex by piercing the anus. And the pierced mouth is an allusion to oral sex.
At the end of the 14th century in Perugia, an Italian drama about the last judgment lists God's punishments to which sinners will be subjected in hell. At the climax of the drama, Christ describes the punishments for sodomites:
“You stinking sodomites tormented me day and night! Go to hell immediately and stay there in torment! Immediately send them to the fire, as they have sinned against nature! You damned sodomites, roast like pigs!..”
And then Satan tells one of the devils to turn this gay roast over well. This is a very clear allusion to the roasting sodomite...
In general, Christian Europe, the entire flock (except, of course, God’s servants, who sinned in the same way with their lovers - humanity has not invented anything new in sex) faced such a terrible punishment for such unbridled sexual deviation.
A religious court could consider any ejaculation of a man outside a woman’s vagina to be a “sin of Sodom”: between the breasts, thighs or buttocks, into the hand, on the woman’s face, on her back or stomach. Any man could be called a sodomite if he had sex with a Jewish woman, or a Jew if he slept with a non-Jewish woman. And this in Spain, Portugal or France could end in burning at the stake. So, the draconian Nuremberg Laws were not an invention of German Nazism!
At the same time, many of the holiest popes did not hesitate to deal with the “sin of Sodom,” despite the outwardly negative attitude of the Roman Catholic Church and the “holy” scripture towards it.
Of the popes who became famous for their homosexuality: Vigilius (among other things, he loved young boys. And one day he killed with a rod an unfortunate 12-year-old teenager who dared to resist him. This led to a rebellion. The rebellious people dragged the pope out of the palace and dragged him through the streets with a rope Rome, subjecting him to scourging. However, it all ended there. The publicly flogged pope returned to the palace in the evening and continued to rule the Catholics as if nothing had happened, until he was poisoned by his successor.), Martin I (was not content with molesting boys, he also engaged in and bestiality), Sergius I (even issued a bull, according to which everything is permitted, as long as it is kept secret), Nicholas I, John VIII (fell in love with a handsome married man, whom he ordered to kidnap and with whom he then cohabited, until in revenge was not poisoned by the wife of his lover), Adrian III, Benedict IV (under whom, as stated in a letter from his contemporary priest, the houses of the church fathers “turned into havens of harlots and sodomites”), Boniface VII, Boniface IX, Sylvester III, John XII , Gregory VII, Innocent II, John XII (acceded to the papal throne at the age of 18), Benedict IX (received papal power at the age of 15), Paul II (known for collecting antiquities and ancient art, the obligatory attribute of which was a naked, beautiful male figure, seduced the beautiful monks who served him), Sixtus IV (shamelessly elevated his lovers to cardinal dignity), Calistus III (who corrupted his own son and cohabited with him without a twinge of conscience), Innocent X (introduced his lover Astalli, a young man, into the college of cardinals, with whom he fell passionately in love), Alexander VI Borgia, Alexander VII (whom his subordinates called “the child of Sodom” behind his back), Julius II (cohabited with side sons, nephews, cardinals), Leo X (was the lover of Julius II), Paul III, Julius III, Sixtus V, Innocent X, Adrian VII, Pius VI...
Oh, how many of them were there - Sodom and Gomorrah!..
What about dads! St. Augustine himself, the founder of Catholic asceticism (to which he came, apparently, after he became impotent) in his “Confession” repented that in his youth he indulged in this “shameful love.”
The founder of the Jesuit Order, Ignatius of Loyola, who loved young novices, was also homosexual! The founder of the Franciscan Order, Francis of Assian, also loved very young boys and young men! What do they all care about biblical prohibitions when it comes to their own sexuality, personal physiology and their pleasures! Prohibitions are for others, for the flock, for these sheep who sincerely believe in everything that is written in the Bible! schools")
...It must be said that the “prophets” often foreshadowed death. (Otherwise, who will listen to them!?) Soon they demanded terrible protection.
In 1348, William of Edandon, Bishop of Winchester, wrote to all the clergy of his diocese:
“It is with regret that we report the news that has reached our ears. A brutal plague began to attack the coastal areas of England. Although the Lord punishes us for our frequent sins, it is not in human power to understand the divine plan. One must fear human sensuality, whose fire was kindled as a result of original sin, which established even greater depths of evil, producing various sins that caused divine wrath and his vengeance.”
The Black Death killed half of Europe's population. Those infected would swell with boils the size of eggs or apples. They vomited black and green liquid and coughed up blood. This led to a quick and painful death. The relationship was falling apart.
“A brother left his brother, an uncle left his nephew, a sister left her brother, and a wife left her husband,” Boccaccio lamented.
For the Bishop of Rocher, Thomas Brinton, the onset of the plague was God's punishment for the sins of his contemporaries:
“There is so much debauchery and adultery on all sides that only a few men are satisfied with their own wives. But every man lusts after his neighbor's wife, keeps a stinking mistress, or indulges in nocturnal pleasures with a boy. This is behavior that deserves a terrible and miserable death,” he wrote.
The Black Death was an apocalypse of the 14th century. But it was like that! This was a payment for failure to comply with basic hygiene, about which even doctors had a vague understanding at that time. Lack of hygiene, not God's punishment for “sins”! As soon as people began to wash more often, wash their hands before eating, change their bed linen regularly, and “God’s punishments” immediately stopped. Although human physiology and sexual desires remained at the same level!
The medieval world was much less reliable than our present one. A complex world of passions and romance, misogyny and eternal love for your beloved, for whom you are not afraid to die, child mortality and adult cruelty, piety and poetry, human stupidity and the search for truth. In that world there were girls seduced by men, and boys who attracted mature husbands with their youth, virgins devoted to Christ, and priests who indulged in all the pleasures of the flesh. It was a life that, it must be said, became difficult for some and short for others. But just as sexually intense and not entirely cruel, if a person and his love were able to keep the secrets of their sexuality from society, their confessors and the state...

» After:

>> My sexuality is just my sexuality. She does not belong to anyone: not my country, not my religion, not my society, not my brother, not my sister, not my family. No way!
Ashraf ZANATI
__________________________
(1) Author's note: So, maybe this is the norm of human existence and relationships, if the majority seeks to have fun on the side? Are those few who are “satisfied with their own wives” some kind of aberration? After all, adultery (sexual infidelity) is common to the entire animal world. Zoologists have established that only two species remain faithful to their chosen partner once and for all – leeches and shrimp. But this is not because they are so “moral”, smart and God-fearing, but because this is due to their physiological existence. Like this! All! Others strive to diversify their sensations! Therefore, the norm is where the majority is! And the sexual relations of a human individual are no exception...
(2) Author's remark: God has nothing more to do - first give a person sexual pleasure, and then forbid him to use it, prescribing what and how to do, and what and how not to do! And watch, watch everyone, literally everyone, so that you can definitely punish them! Not a god, but some kind of sadist!
(3) Guido Ruggiero “The Boundaries of Eros.”
(4) In other words, these young men were from wealthy families, did not need funds, and at night they walked around the city not to rob, but were looking for adventures for their penis and testicles! It’s curious about what “method condemned by the church” - who else could condemn in those centuries? Society, or what? - says this young scoundrel? The Church even then condemned any ejaculation of a man outside the female vagina.
(5) And this is closer to bi- or even homosexuality. These lines clearly show the completely different feelings of the letter’s author towards his friend. This is more than friendship! And according to Freud, through the group’s intercourse with the same woman, guys thus, deep down in their souls, have sex with each other. This is especially true if they are excited by watching the sexual acts of their friends, buddies and comrades. Or for someone to see them having sexual intercourse.
(6) K. Perugio “Psychoanalysis of youthful eroticism. What the letters of the past can tell", Rome, 1959.
(7) It turns out that the parents of the boys are aware of the nightly amusements of their little ones!
(8) Minutes of the Religious Court, York, 1233.
(9) Saracens (literally from Greek - “eastern people”) - a people mentioned by the ancient Roman historian of the 4th century Ammianus Marcellinus and the Greek scientist of the 1st-2nd centuries. AD Ptolemy. A nomadic bandit tribe, Bedouins, who lived along the borders of Syria. Since the Crusades, European authors began to call all Muslims Saracens, often using the term “Moors” as a synonym.

Reviews

God, dear Author, you took writing the article so seriously! Could you recommend to me authors who write about the history of Europe, starting from the fifteenth century? I am especially concerned about France, Italy, Burgundy and Spain... And I am also interested in a more detailed study of the life of people living during the Renaissance. In addition, what the legal system was like is haunting...