{"id":4807,"date":"2014-03-21T22:24:46","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T03:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=4807"},"modified":"2014-03-21T22:24:46","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T03:24:46","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-march-21-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=4807","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for March 21, 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Unwashed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The signers of the Declaration of Independence probably stank; so did Queen Elizabeth I; so did the Renaissance popes. \u00a0And, without a doubt, poor people of those eras stank. \u00a0We’re talking body odor from weeks of unwashed flesh, armpits that would empty a modern day elevator. \u00a0Simple daily hygiene that we take for granted and expect was actively discouraged as downright sinful for more than a thousand years. \u00a0 Although we’ve heard repeatedly the Christian piety, “Cleanliness is next to godliness,” this is a\u00a0relatively recent\u00a0<\/em>piety.<\/p>\n

From the fall of the Roman Empire through the Victorian era, it could be said that personal dirtiness was next to godliness. \u00a0The Romans and their conquered subjects built elaborate public baths that could rival modern-day health spas, with art galleries, libraries, gorgeous gardens. \u00a0Bathers – poor or rich – stripped, selected perfume oils, perhaps exercised, sweated in the dry heat, then entered the main domed “caldarium. \u00a0Many of the little walled-off areas featured wall jets spouting various perfumes: you might choose between sensual, flowery or invigorating scents, depending on what activity you planned for later. \u00a0Nearby, masseurs stood ready to unknot muscles. \u00a0Prostitutes lay ready for further relaxation.<\/p>\n

While public baths started out as male only, soon certain hours were set aside for females, then eventually mixed bathing became the fashion. \u00a0This nude mingling of the sexes outraged the early Christian Fathers. \u00a0“Women are not ashamed to strip before spectators as if exposing their person for sale,” complained Clement of Alexandria. \u00a0“[They] bathe with their own servants and strip naked before their slaves, and are rubbed by them.” He pointed out that seeing naked flesh could lead to… sex.<\/p>\n

When the barbarians overran the Roman Empire, they physically trashed the marvelous marble and tiled baths. \u00a0The Christian Fathers finished the destruction of bathing for a millennia by sanctifying disdain for the body. \u00a0If chastity were higher than marriage, then ignoring the body was higher than indulgent grooming. \u00a0“The cleanliness of the body was regarded as a pollution of the soul,” writes William Lecky in\u00a0History of European Morals<\/em>, “and the saints who were most admired had become one mass of clotted filth.”<\/p>\n