8. Bathing was Discouraged During the Black Death
Cleanliness is now mostly inseparable from ideas of health, but without germ theory, the people of the 14th Century had no reason to see any link between the two. With the strong religious ideals of the time, a popular theory of the plague’s origin was that God was angered by the sinfulness of the population, including the sin of vanity. The miasma theory also contributed to the avoidance of bathing, as physicians argued that opening the pores of the skin would make it easier for foul miasmas to enter the body.
Bathing was considered a luxury and a sign of vanity in the 14th century. With no indoor plumbing, drawing even a cold bath took a great deal of energy. A heated bath required even more time and energy. Thus, enjoying a bath with any frequency would have been viewed as wasteful and vain. Changing clothes in the 14th century, at a time when most people likely had one or two significant items of clothing, was also viewed as vanity and discouraged to remain pious and in God’s good graces.
The miasma theory reared its head to cause trouble again in the form of physicians encouraging people not to bathe. Physicians at the time were aware that exposure to hot water opened the pores of the skin, and they believed these “openings” into the body could allow foul air and water into the body, thereby transferring disease. The belief that opening the pores could allow an infection to enter the body persisted in Europe well into the 19th Century.