In the middle ages, monks, nuns, and friars had it relatively easy.
They lived quiet lives within friaries and monastic complexes, reading manuscripts, praying, and tending to gardens in which they grew their own food.
It turns out that the local Augustinian friars were nearly twice as likely as the city's general population to be infected by one group of parasites: intestinal worms.Our findings suggest that something about the lifestyle of friars in medieval England brought them into regular contact with feces, despite their superior facilities.
More recently, researchers have started to assess what proportion of a population may have been infected by intestinal worms. They measured this by sampling the sediment from the pelvis of burials, where the intestines and worms would have been located during life. Nevertheless, not all those buried in the cemetery of a monastery or nunnery had actually lived there. Wealthy people from the same town could pay to be buried alongside the religious, as they believed it would increase their chance of their souls passing swiftly to heaven.When archaeologists excavated the cemetery of the Augustinian friars in Cambridge, many of the burials were noted to have belt buckles positioned over the front of their pelvis.
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