Communal coffins, cinnamon toothpaste, and a surprisingly enlightened work schedule. A
love-hate relationship with cats and an official Office of the Dead. Life in the Middle Ages had
its weird parts, but here's the strangest thing — it wasn't all that different from our lives today.
Let's start with a quick disclaimer: The term "Middle Ages" covers a lot of ground. Like,
a millennium's worth. History says it's generally considered to be the period
between the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, all the way to the 14th century and the Renaissance.
That said, defining what life was like is a little difficult — and no,
it wasn't the same for everyone. But there were some massive cultural changes that stayed
consistent through and through, impacting people from the highest of the high to the
lowest of the low. These changes included things like the rise of organized religions,
Christianity and Islam the most popular among them. Rural life was the norm, city life was
constantly evolving, and everyday life? It looked a lot different than it does today.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health,
around 40 million Americans live with anxiety disorders. That's actually nothing new, and,
according to Hunter College professor Tracey Dennis-Tiwary, those 40 million
people can thank the Catholic Church for making anxiety a thing in the Middle Ages.
The word 'anxiety' predates the Middle Ages, but it meant the sensation of
being suffocated. Then, the Church came along and decided it was something else:
the soul's frenzied, desperate desire for redemption through God.
People were told they needed to pray, say their penances, and give confession, lest they end up in
the clutches of eternity's torture demons. Saint Augustine summed up the whole idea like this:
"God can relieve your troubles only if you in your anxiety cling to Him."
"Don't apologize! Everytime I try to talk to someone, it's 'sorry' this,
and 'forgive me' that, and 'I'm not worthy.'"
Michel Bourin, a professor at the University of Nantes, added that there were other things at
work here, too. Daily life in the Middle Ages was filled with prophetic visions about the
end of the world. Death was agonizing and messy, and it lurked around every corner;
simple accidents could take away a family's livelihood in a heartbeat. In short,
those living in the Middle Ages were finding out just how many things there were to worry about.
It's a commonly agreed upon idea that people should get around eight hours of sleep a day. But,
according to the BBC, that wasn't the case during the Middle Ages. Virginia Tech professor
Roger Ekirch has done some fascinating research into the sleep patterns of medieval Europeans.
Ekirch found scores of references to what's called biphasic sleep, or double sleeping.
People would sleep for a few hours in the late evening, wake up for a few hours,
and then go back to sleep. That bit of waking in the middle was incredibly important. Called 'the
watch,' it was a last minute chance to socialize, as well as tend the fires and candles, or check on
their animals. The devout had specific prayers that were said at this time, and it was also a
time when families, who often shared a bed out of necessity, could just kind of hang out and talk.
Interestingly, modern experiments suggest that there’s something to this. A study in the 1990s,
which removed external stimuli to get its subjects into the most natural sleep rhythm,
found that the body defaulted to these two sleeps. Maybe ... bring that back?
Boston College sociologist Juliet Schor is the author of The Overworked American, which taps
into her study of work-life balance, something that was surprisingly healthy in the Middle Ages.
The idea of medieval peasants working from dawn to dusk wasn't exactly true. There were
three breaks for meals in there, along with other rest periods. In many agricultural jobs,
it depended on the season, too. While planting and harvesting seasons were
long and back-breaking, that wasn't a year-round thing.
Schor also found that people were still working fewer hours per year than might be expected. In
the 13th century, a peasant working 12 hours a day would accumulate about 1,620 working hours
per year, while that number rose to between 3,150 to 3,650 working hours per year in the 1850s.
Why? Holidays. The ever-growing Church mandated time off for the observation
of saint's days throughout the year, as well as vacation time during the
big holidays like Christmas and Easter. Nobody tell the Sheriff of Nottingham.
"Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans. No
more merciful beheadings. And call off Christmas."
In medieval France, workers were guaranteed 180 days off every year, while in Spain,
they could expect not to work five months out of the year. In England, manor records
from the 14th century say their workers only labored for 170 days out of the entire year.
Life in the Middle Ages wasn't all dirt and sweat. Medieval people put
more stock in beauty and cleanliness than they're often given credit for.
Nobility tended to bathe regularly, in water scented with oils and herbs,
and they plucked their eyebrows and the front of the hairline to adhere
to beauty standards at the time. Perfumes were common, and rosewater became all the
rage when it was brought back from the Middle East by soldiers and pilgrims.
Powders were used to give the illusion of pale skin, and to cover any skin blemishes
that might be mistaken for the mark of the Devil. This was arguably pretty practical
at a time when no one wanted to be called a witch. On the grosser side, saffron and urine
were often used to lighten hair, and pastes of milk and blood were used to whiten the skin.
There was even a 12th-century text, called the Trotula, that was pretty much a recipe book for
women's beauty routines. Some instructions, like hiding a bundle of cloves, nutmeg,
or other scents up in an elaborate hairstyle, kind of make sense. Others, like using a daily mix of
powdered cuttlefish bones and frankincense to remove freckles, were a bit stranger.
Concordia University professor Lucie Laumonier looked at data from medieval cities to find out
what the most common professions were. She specifically looked at the French city of
Montpellier, which had a pre-plague population of around 30,000 people. What did they do?
About 25 percent of the people living in the city and suburbs were farmers. In addition to
working large fields, they also raised livestock, worked in orchards, and tended vegetable beds.
The next most popular occupation was carpentry. Carpenters worked on major construction projects,
built furniture, and chopped firewood. Butchers accounted for about 4 percent of Montpellier's
population, meaning there was roughly one butcher for every 300 people. There was about the same
percentage of shoemakers, and around 2 percent of the city's people were working for the church.
At lower percentages, but still significant numbers, were the tailors, notaries, barbers,
retailers, and stonemasons. As far as working life as a Medieval woman,
Laumonier says they often spent their days occupied with at-home work, like spinning,
weaving, and needlework. Some women were employed as maids, while others ran their own businesses,
including bakeries and pastry shops. Interestingly, 20 percent of Montpellier's
apprenticeship contracts from between 1300 and 1400 were for women learning a trade.
Other cities had much lower rates, indicating a diversity of attitudes toward women in business.
"To think that any girl, let alone you,
would have the audacity to engage in matters of business, it's insane."
If you think carbs are life, the Middle Ages may be your paradise. Bread was the
end-all-be-all of diets throughout the era, so important that most areas had laws governing
everything from the making to the sale of bread. The idea was to guarantee everyone had some,
and the recommendation was a lot. According to Medievalists,
it was advised that people had at least two pounds of bread every day. And Europeans
could bake bread out of anything, from rye and spelt, to oats, rice, acorns, and peas.
At the heart of bread's widespread popularity is the connection with Christ and the Last Supper:
If it was good enough for him, it was good enough for everyone else. Historian Debby Banham notes
that Christianity is also behind white bread's ridiculous popularity. In spite of the fact
that it was much more difficult to make, it was long thought to be the best of the best,
starting with the Christian conversion of three seventh-century kings. The
missionaries who converted the kings insisted on wheat-based white bread for the Eucharist,
and it became wildly popular as a result. It was, however, expensive,
and most of the working classes ate darker, whole-grain bread instead.
Life is about more than just what people did, it's about what surrounded them,
too. And, in the Middle Ages, life in the city was defined by the bells.
Ringing bells called the devout to worship, and they also rang to signal other events,
like deaths. As the Middle Ages rolled on, more and more bells were built. Medievalists
notes that belfries — towers with bells at the top — were seen as signs of a city's success,
and dozens of surviving bell towers have been earmarked as World Heritage sites.
It might have been obnoxious, but it meant that life in a medieval city was always on schedule.
We've all heard that people in the Middle Ages didn't have the life expectancy that
people have today, but that's not to say that everyone died suddenly in
the prime of their life. So, what kind of support was provided to the elderly?
According to Medievalists, elderly family members were typically cared for by their
relatives. For those who had no family, evidence from historical records suggests that others in
the community would offer support, friendship, and comfort to their elderly neighbors.
There were a few different social structures in place to make sure
the elderly were fed and cared for when they could no longer work,
with part of the responsibility falling on the wealthy. Many would provide pensions for their
own servants so they could live comfortably once they aged out of work, and donated heavily to
provide for other elderly individuals in need. Monasteries would typically devote
alms to the support of not just the elderly, but also widows, orphans, and the disabled.
If someone had been a part of a guild or fraternal society, these organizations also
had resources devoted to elder care. It was widely considered just the good thing to do,
with many of the elderly cared for and housed in hospitals associated with religious communities.
Perfectionism is so deep-seated in so many of us that it's not always recognizable as
a harmful drive. According to the BBC, the need to be perfect, and the mental
and emotional struggles that happen when we inevitably fall short, are linked to a slew of
health problems. Interestingly, people in the Middle Ages were living with the same burden.
That's according to medieval scholar Irina Dumitrescu. She says that a study of medieval
literature reveals just how obsessed the era was, not only with perfection,
but also with reminding people how deeply fallible they were.
She cited works like the autobiography of Margery Kempe, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and the
works of Geoffrey Chaucer — particularly the story of the Wife of Bath. These illustrated the purity
of the lives of saints, the ideals of chivalry, and the perfection of virginity, respectively.
"I give to you the seeker of serenity,
the protector of Italian virginity, the enforcer of our Lord God."
Dumitrescu found it was a recurring pattern:
Medieval literature told people how perfect they should be, then added more thoughts
on why they were never going to achieve that perfection. It was truly a millennium of flops.
Religion helped shape the daily life of countless
people throughout the Middle Ages, but it was also pretty complicated.
According to World History, Christianity did a slow crawl across the world over the course of
centuries, dividing people into new Christians and old pagans. This often changed old practices like
fortune-telling, offering gifts to earth and water spirits, or saying spells and incantations while
planting crops. They were deemed heretical in some circles, and allowed to continue in others,
particularly where people also embraced Christian rites like prayer and confession. The clergy had
a habit of looking in the other direction when it came to many old pagan rituals.
Even devout Christians in the Middle Ages didn't have much to do when it came to saying Mass:
It was recited in Latin, with the priest facing away from his congregation. Instead,
it was baptism ceremonies that presented the everyday person with a connection to their
new faith, with the belief that it was the source of a person's purely spiritual life.
Christianity evolved a lot over the course of 1,000 years. The so-called Cult of Mary
became incredibly important, the church took an increasingly harsher stance toward
heretical groups, and the Crusades formed the backdrop of life for hundreds of years.
Medieval teeth are often rumored to be pretty nasty.
"Bow to her. Bow to the queen of slime. The queen of filth. The queen of putrescence."
But that's actually not the case at all, according to historian Tim
O'Neill. Not only were white teeth and pleasant breath considered desirable,
but people also tended to make dental care a part of their daily routine.
Tooth decay was actually fairly rare, for a few reasons, starting with the lack of
added sugars in the typical diet. The impact of coarsely-ground bread also wore the teeth down
smoother than with more varied diets. That means there were fewer places for bacteria to get stuck,
and when they cleaned their teeth — which they did often, usually with linen
cloths — they would remove particles before they turned into problems.
Historian Daniele Cybulskie says that regularly using toothpaste was absolutely a common thing,
too. She's found some medieval recipes for making homemade toothpaste, and they don't
sound all that terrible. Once called for using powdered walnut shells and rinsing with warm wine,
while others suggested a powder made of ingredients like cinnamon, wormwood, olives,
date pits, and clove. Traveling? There were recommendations for taking toothpaste with you,
in the form of balls of sage and salt that were baked and then chewed for some nice, clean teeth.
Were good boys and girls making life in the Middle Ages better for people? Absolutely!
According to History Today, dogs were cherished pets in addition to serving
their families with hunting, herding and protection. Stories of the intelligence
and loyalty of dogs were lauded as examples of the finest little souls around. They even
came to church with their owners. Names of cherished dogs were documented in medieval
texts to preserve their memory, and they were often, aptly, named after royalty.
Cats had a slightly more complicated relationship with people, stemming from the Christian belief
that cats played with their prey like the Devil played with human souls. Still,
the lives of Medieval people were often made easier by the presence of vermin-controlling
cats. The names of some — particularly those living in monasteries and abbeys — were also
recorded in historical documents. A poem describes the cat of a ninth-century monk named Pangur Ban,
while a cat named Mite kept Beaulieu Abbey mouse-free in the 13th century.
It's a given that rural living comes with gardens, but according to research by historian Caroline
Goodson, gardens in the middle of medieval cities weren't uncommon either. Open areas between and
behind houses were often used for everything from vegetable gardens to vineyards. And,
mentions of urban gardens started showing up in historical records dating back to
the sixth century, becoming more common as the Middle Ages went on.
Some cities were even overhauled to incorporate more greenery inside city walls. Lucca,
for example, went from a city where houses were packed shoulder-to-shoulder,
in the Roman style, to a medieval city with enough green space that
even the hardest city-dwellers could have their own gardens.
Concordia University professor Lucie Laumonier noted in her research that medieval cities were
much greener than their modern day counterparts, and so-called urban peasants often had their own
spaces to provide valuable herbs and vegetables to families. These green spaces started to decrease
as cities became more and more crowded. However, after the population dropped due
to plague pandemics, they were often reclaimed and converted back into gardens by those who survived.
Gardens weren't all about the food, either. Medieval physicians literally recommended
that everyone should take time to smell the roses, citing walks in nature as the
best remedy to lift one's mood, as well as improve long-term mental and physical health.
Respect for the dead has always been a defining aspect of human civilization,
with different cultures showing respect in a variety of ways,
evolving through time. That's especially true of the Middle Ages, and archaeologists
have discovered the fascinating truth about the experience of dying in medieval times.
According to National Geographic, an investigation into burial positions turned up the occasional
face-down burial. There weren't a ton of these burials, but their central location in church
cemeteries, and the finery they were buried with, might lead us to believe it was a favorable
position. Face–down burial was considered a powerful final gesture of humility and penance.
Bodies were typically washed, wrapped, and kept in the home for a few days as the community
said their goodbyes. Services would be held at the church, and deaths would be recorded
by the ominous-sounding Office of the Dead, so names could be recited long after the person had
passed. According to research by the University of Guelph, it was incredibly important for people,
particularly members of the clergy, to remember and pray for the dead. They
believed these services of remembrance would help departed souls on their way to heaven.
"Wait. The bodies, they must be pulled up.
There are words which must be spoken from the book of Solomon to ensure they do not rise again."
Research from the University of Hull adds this not-so-fun fact to the mix:
Coffins were communal. Bodies were often buried in shrouds because families would
have to give the coffin back to the church. What do you think? Should we start going splitsies?