Editing Hygiene (section)

====Middle Ages====
Contrary to popular belief,<ref>{{cite web|first=Melissa|last=Snell|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/weddings-and-hygiene-1788715|title=Middle Ages Weddings and Hygiene|website=ThoughtCo.|access-date=2008-03-05|archive-date=2017-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130223521/http://historymedren.about.com/od/dailylifesociety/a/bod_weddings.htm}}</ref> [[bathing]] and [[sanitation]] were not lost in Europe with the collapse of the [[Roman Empire]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vlib.us/medieval/lectures/black_death.html|title=The Great Famine and the Black Death – 1315–1317, 1346–1351|website=Lectures in Medieval History |first=Lynn H. |last=Nelson}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-hygiene.htm|title=Middle Ages Hygiene|work=middle-ages.org.uk}}</ref> Starting in the early Middle Ages, [[popes]] situated baths within church [[basilica]]s and monasteries.<ref name="Mary Thurlkill" /> Pope [[Gregory the Great]] promoted [[bathing]] as a bodily need.<ref name="Paolo Squatriti" /> The [[Anal hygiene|use of water]] in many [[Christian countries]] is partly due to Biblical toilet etiquette which encourages washing after all instances of defecation.<ref name="Clark 2006">{{cite book|last=E. Clark|first=Mary|title=Contemporary Biology: Concepts and Implications|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7216-2597-3|page=613|quote=Douching is commonly practiced in Catholic countries. The bidet... is still commonly found in France and other Catholic countries.}}</ref> [[Bidet]] and [[bidet shower]]s were used in regions where water was considered essential for [[anal cleansing]].<ref name="Clark 2006" /><ref>{{cite book | last=Forgione | first=Angelo| title=Made in Naples: Come Napoli ha civilizzato l'Europa (e come continua a farlo) | publisher=Addictions-Magenes Editoriale | date=2013 | isbn=978-88-6649-039-5 | language=it|trans-title=Made in Naples. How Naples civilised Europe (And still does it)}}</ref> [[Public bathing|Public bathhouses]] were common in medieval [[Christendom]] larger towns and cities such as [[Constantinople]], [[Paris]], [[Regensburg]], [[Rome]] and [[Naples]].<ref>{{multiref2
|1={{cite book|title=The Middle Ages: Facts and Fictions|first=Winston |last= Black|year= 2019| isbn=  978-1-4408-6232-8| page =61 |publisher=ABC-CLIO|quote=Public baths were common in the larger towns and cities of Europe by the twelfth century.}}
|2={{cite book|title=Perception and Action in Medieval Europe|first=Harald|last=Kleinschmidt|year= 2005| isbn=978-1-84383-146-4| page =61 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer}}</ref> Great bathhouses were built in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine centers]] such as [[Constantinople]] and [[Antioch]].<ref>{{citation | editor-first = Alexander | editor-last = Kazhdan|editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan | title = Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1991 | isbn = 978-0-19-504652-6}}{{page needed|date=August 2023}}
|3={{cite book |last1=Kourkoutidou-Nikolaidou |first1=E. |last2=Tourta |first2=A.|year=1997 |title=Wandering in Byzantine Thessaloniki |publisher=Kapon Editions |isbn=960-7254-47-3 |page=87}}
}}</ref>

[[File:Βυζαντινό λουτρό Άνω Πόλης 1788.jpg|thumb|[[Byzantine Bath (Thessaloniki)|Byzantine Bath]] in [[Thessaloniki]]]]

In the 11th and 12th centuries, bathing was essential to the Western European upper class: the [[Cluniac]] monasteries (popular centers for resorting and retiring) were always equipped with bathhouses. These baths were also used ritually when the monks took full immersion baths at the two Christian festivals of renewal.<ref name=PB>{{cite book|first=Philippe|last=Braunstein|chapter=Solitude: eleventh to the thirteenth century|title=A History of Private Life|volume=II. Revelations of the Medieval World|editor-last=Duby|editor-first=Georges|year=1988|page=525}}</ref> The rules of the [[Augustinians]] and [[Benedictines]] contained references to [[ritual purification]],<ref>{{cite book|title=The English Spa, 1560–1815: A Social History|first=Phyllis|last= Hembry|year= 1990| isbn= 978-0-8386-3391-5|publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press}}</ref> and, inspired by [[Benedict of Nursia]], encouraged the practice of therapeutic bathing. [[Benedictine]] monks also played a role in the development and promotion of [[spa]]s.<ref name=ASpiritualHistory>{{cite book | title = Water: A Spiritual History| first =Ian |last=Bradley| year =2012| isbn= 978-1-4411-6767-5|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref>

On the other hand, bathing also sparked erotic phantasies, played upon by the writers of [[Romance (heroic literature)|romances]] intended for the upper class;{{citation needed|date=May 2024}} in the tale of [[Melusine]] the bath was a crucial element of the plot.
{{Blockquote|text=Bathing and grooming were regarded with suspicion by moralists, however, because they unveiled the attractiveness of the body. Bathing was said to be a prelude to sin, and in the penitential of [[Burchard of Worms]] we find a full catalogue of the sins that ensued when men and women bathed together.{{r|PB}}}} Cities regulated public bathing – the 26 public baths of Paris in the late 13th century were strictly overseen by the civil authorities {{r|PB}} and guild laws banned prostitutes from bathhouse admission.<ref>{{cite book|title=Women's Lives in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook|chapter=Le Livre des Métiers|first=Etienne|last=de Boileu|publisher=Routledge|page=162|year=1993|editor-last=Amt|editor-first=Emilie}}</ref> 

{{anchor|Dürer}}[[File:Albrecht Durer, "Woman's Bath".jpg|thumb|''Women's Bath'', 1496, by [[Albrecht Dürer]]]]

In 14th century Tuscany, newlywed couples commonly took a bath together and we find an illustration of this custom in a fresco in the town hall of San Gimignano.<ref>Fresco of {{circa|1320}} illustrated in {{cite book|first=Charles|last=de la Roncière|chapter=Tuscan notables on the eve of the Renaissance|title=A History of Private Life|volume=II. Revelations of the Medieval World|editor-last=Duby|editor-first=Georges|year=1988|page=232}}</ref> 
As evident in [[Hans Folz]]' ''Bath Booklet'' (a late 15th century guide on European baths)<ref>{{cite book | title=Bodily and Spiritual Hygiene in Medieval and Early Modern Literature: Explorations of Textual Presentations of Filth and Water|first=Albrecht|last=Classen|year=2017|isbn=978-3-11-052379-9|publisher=de Gruyter|page=535}}</ref> and various artistic depictions such as [[Albrecht Dürer]]'s ''Women's Bath'' {{see above|[[#Dürer|above]]}}, public bathing continued to be a popular past time in the [[Renaissance]]. In Britain, the rise of [[Protestantism]] also played a prominent role in the development of [[spa]] culture.<ref name="ASpiritualHistory"/>