Quotes from Philip Ziegler

Fourteenth-century men seemed to have regarded their doctor in rather the same way as the twentieth-century men are apt to regard their priest, with tolerance for someone who was doing his best and the respect due to a man of learning but also with a nagging and uncomfortable conviction that he was largely irrelevant to the real and urgent problems of their lives.

Bad drove out bad, and to imbibe foul odors was a useful protection. According to another contemporary writer, John Colle: "Attendants who take care of latrines are nearly all to be considered immune." It was not unknown for apprehensive citizens to spend hours each day crouched over a latrine absorbing the fetid smells.