Lascivious Middle Ages. Domestic Essays on Western European Culture

Welcome to the Middle Ages — a brutal and joyful era when people fervently prayed and killed, feasted and fasted, sinned and repented. A time of fanatics who died for the faith of Christ in the Crusades, and hypocrites who called beavers fish so they could be eaten on fasting days. In this book, the author will tell how people fell in love and indulged in debauchery, bathed and practiced contraception, drew genitals on church walls. Readers will also learn about the age at which people got married, how they lived without baths, what marital duty meant, why "prostitute" is better than "whore," and even understand why the accusation of witchcraft against Joan of Arc fell apart.