Did Europeans bathe or not? | AskHistorians Archive Observer

Did Europeans bathe or not?

by argh52

I realize that I'm asking about an entire continent over the course of a thousand years, so the answer will have a heavy does of "it depends" but I have read a million quotes saying that bathing will kill you. I've also read a million quotes saying not bathing will kill you. So which is it? Did Europeans bathe or not?

edit: I say a thousand years b/c I'm asking about post-dark ages Europe specifically.

edit 2: If Europeans did bathe, where do all the anti-bathing quotes come from?

DanKensington

We have actual parish records from the Middle Ages that list 'died bathing in river' as a semi-common cause of death. More can always be said of course, but as this is one of the more common questions we get in this time period, we do have quite a few previous posts covering this matter:

u/BRIStoneman covers the topic of bathing, for the Early Medieval era;
and also clears up why the Church disliked bathing;
u/sunagainstgold covers the topic of bathing in the Late Middle Ages;
and u/Somecrazynerd examines bathing and attitudes to hygiene in a general Medieval sense.