This trope description has atrocious grammar and needs to be thoroughly rewritten. I will work on this some time that isn't 4 AM.
Germs and alcohol? Well, keep in mind that the germs themselves as well as waterborne diseases were discovered in XIX century. No medieval prson would abstain from drinking clear-looking water (especially rainwater that was as clear as container it was held in).
Also remember that beer and wine had to be bought (and in northern countries wine was rather expensive as it had to be imported) and any peasant who had sheep, cows or goat could always drink fresh milk. It is projected that average consumption of alcohol was way lower than nowadays because (1) alcoholic beverages were weak (think 2-3% in case of beer, 20% in case of liquor) and (2) production process was definitely more cumbersome.
there are indications that in the middle ages the majority of people could read, being educated by a combination of schools and home-schooling. the average peasant was also interested in laws and such, because NO, they did NOT blindly follow the king's orders. germanic tribes had lots of democracy and little need for a king and that attitude spilled over in the middle ages. lots of the supposed 'ignorance' of medieval peasants is just propaganda from a later time-period.
and they were not more religious than renaissance-people. on the contrary, that whole renaissance thing came about because people got fed up with the 'live-and-let-live' attitude of most of the clergy and the general population.
Edited by selena81 Hide / Show Replies