But you can't imagine how dark and messy medieval Europe was hundreds of years ago: garbage was everywhere, excrement was everywhere, and infectious diseases were rampant, even worse than some African countries.
In ancient Rome, there was a sharp contradiction between civilians and nobles. The common people have found new solace in the Christian doctrine of equality and fraternity. Coupled with Constantine I's tolerant attitude towards religion, he tried to stabilize his position and maintain social stability with Christian culture, and Christianity gradually became the state religion of Rome.
Later, when the Germans led the army to overthrow the Western Roman Empire, they found it impossible to digest and absorb the ideas of ancient Greece. Christian priests with higher education were immediately respected and had a high social status. All the people in Middle-earth are under the control of Christianity.
However, Christianity advocates: to respect God, get yourself dirty first. William Leckie also said in the History of European Morality: "The cleanliness of the body is a blasphemy against the soul. The sages I admire most are those who have clothes that are difficult to shape. " Taking a bath for a month is a routine operation. Going out spotless will not only be regarded differently by others, but also make a big crime and be tortured by the church.
St. Abraham's hermit hasn't washed his face for 50 years, let alone bathed. After St. Simmons Dillet was injured, he not only failed to treat the wound, but also made it worse. People have rejected the question of cleaning up. In Europe at that time, it was common for nobles not to bathe for months, and the king was covered with lice.
If you don't pay attention to personal hygiene, public hygiene is particularly poor, and there is shit everywhere, and piles of shit come into view. We all know that high heels were invented by Europeans. Why did you invent this kind of shoes? The reason is that there is a layer of dirt on the ground, so you can only wear high-top shoes to avoid soiling your skirt.
At first, the government would restrict people from dumping feces from the window, but then the number of people who violated it was too large, so the order was changed to: Just shout "attention" three times before dumping feces, and you can do whatever you want. Imagine that you are walking down the street thinking about what food to eat at night, and suddenly it begins to rain with feces, and your interest immediately disappears.
Moreover, the sewage generated in their lives is directly discharged into nearby rivers without any treatment, and then people rely on the water in the rivers to make a living. As a result, a very serious parasitic problem broke out in European society.
According to the study of some medieval sites, experts found a large number of ascaris eggs and intestinal parasites from them, and because of the backward medical level, these diseases caused by parasites not only have a very low cure rate, but also spread very fast. Therefore, when observing the population of important European cities in the Middle Ages, you will find that the population will basically not exceed 50,000, while the population of some big cities in China during this period was over 200,000.
With the development of society, Europe has opened up new routes and accumulated original capital for it. Only after they had a lot of money did they begin to improve social problems. In particular, a large number of scientists emerged during this period. They dare to break through the black fog hanging over people's hearts and sacrifice their lives to spread the truth. Through the efforts of countless people, we finally have the Europe we see and look forward to.