Digestive Woes of 14th Century Monks

Excerpts from a report in The Guardian:

Research by English Heritage sheds light on the day-to-day lives and digestive troubles of monks at Muchelney Abbey in Somerset – in particular the consequence of a change in papal law, in 1336, which permitted the twice-weekly consumption of meat from four-legged animals.

The monks already had, by modern standards, an unbalanced and calorie-rich diet. Adding meat as a luxury meant constipation and diarrhoea soon became a major problem, said the English Heritage historian Michael Carter.

Carter has been interested in monks and their digestion since visiting Kirkstall Abbey on the outskirts of Leeds and seeing the surviving latrines. “I remember being fascinated by the idea of it being a 900-year-old monastic toilet block,” he said.

Was he an odd child? “There wasn’t an awful lot to do on Sunday afternoons in the 1970s.”

His research has led to new interpretation at the abbey which is interesting on a wider level.

“I do think there is something about monastic latrines,” he said. “People have this idea of people in the middle ages being filthy and not caring about human waste, but when you look in to it you discover that is far from the case. They developed sophisticated architecture and plumbing. It is fascinating stuff.”