A city in the Middle Ages lacked all sanitary
arrangements. The only water supply came from polluted streams and wells. There
were no sewers and no sidewalks. People piled up their refuse in the backyard
or flung it into the street, to be devoured by the dogs and pigs which served
as scavengers. The holes in the pavement collected all manner of filth, and the
unpaved lanes, in wet weather, became deep pits of mud. We can understand why
the townspeople wore overshoes when they went out, and why even the saints in
the pictures were represented with them on. The living were crowded together in
many-storied houses, airless and gloomy; the dead were buried close at hand in
crowded churchyards. Such unsanitary conditions must have been responsible for
much of the sickness that was prevalent. The high death rate could only be
offset by a birth rate correspondingly high, and by the constant influx of
country people.
CIVIC REGULATIONS
Numerous petty regulations restricted the private life of
the townspeople. The municipal authorities sometimes decided how many guests
might be invited to weddings, how much might be spent on wedding presents, what
different garments might be owned and worn by a citizen, and even the number of
trees that might be planted in his garden. Each citizen had to serve his turn
as watchman on the walls or in the streets at night. When the great bell in the
belfry rang the "curfew," [7] at eight or nine o'clock, this was the
signal for every one to extinguish lights and fires and go to bed. It was a
useful precaution, since conflagrations were common enough in the densely
packed wooden houses. After curfew the streets became deserted, except for the
night watch making their rounds and the presence of occasional pedestrians
carrying lanterns. The municipal government spent little or nothing on police
protection, so that street brawls, and even robbery and murder, were not
infrequent.
