When we think of medieval friars (a member of a religious order that, living away from society), we can imagine Robin Hood’s cheerful Friar Tuck, known for his plump figure and love of food and drink.
But it turns out that some of these monks were full of more than just cakes and beer.
According to a study released on Friday, Augustinian friars in medieval England were almost twice as likely to suffer from intestinal parasites as other people, despite the fact that most monasteries were equipped with sanitary facilities — a rarity. for ordinary citizens.
Researchers from the Department of Archeology at the University of Cambridge excavated the remains of 19 friars from the grounds of a former Augustinian convent in Cambridge, England.
By comparing soil samples taken from around the pelvises of the friars and 25 low-socio-economic townspeople from the same time in the 12th to 14th century, the researchers were able to compare the prevalence of parasites in people with very different lifestyles, according to the study, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
The analysis revealed that 11 of the monks (58%) were infected with worms, compared to just eight of the sites (32%).
The percentage of parasitic presence at the sites was as expected, similar to that found in previous studies of medieval European burials, but the researchers said infection rates from the remains of the former convent are high.
“The friars of medieval Cambridge appear to be full of parasites,” Piers Mitchell, the study’s lead author, said in a press release.
It is the first time anyone has tried to find out how common the parasites were in people with different lifestyles from the same medieval town, he added.
Researcher Tianyi Wang, who did the microscopy to find the eggs of the parasite, said the most common species found was the roundworm, followed by the whipworm, both spread by “poor hygiene”.
Although the friars had access to latrines and washing facilities — usually with running water, although this has yet to be confirmed at the Cambridge site — the researchers suggest that the big difference in the rate of infection must be due to differences in the treatment of human waste. .
“One possibility is that friars fertilized their gardens with human feces, which was not uncommon in the medieval period, and this may have led to repeated infections by the worms,” Mitchell explained.
Compared to the latrine—very fancy by medieval standards—that monks were used to, ordinary people had to make do with a pit, a simple hole in the ground.
Source: CNN Brasil
