Daily Life During The Reformation (38 page)

The table set up for dinner usually had a tablecloth,
wooden bowls, a salt dish, another for mustard, and a wooden or pewter spoon.
Children stood to eat, and everyone ate with their fingers. No one touched the
food before grace was said. Two meals a day were sufficient, and beer was the
usual drink.

The Dutch version of the French Sop Jacobine used local
sugar and cheeses instead of bread.

JACOBIN SOUP

Debone a roasted chicken; cut a good cheese into thin slices;
cut wheat bread, into squares and place in the bottom of the dish so the food
won’t burn; arrange some of the cheese to cover and place some chicken meat on
top sprinkled with sugar; then add another layer of cheese and another layer of
chicken and again a layer of cheese; add some broth from fresh beef, put the
dish on the fire, and let it come to a boil; serve hot.

Waffles were part of the diet in the Netherlands, and,
according to custom, if the waffle iron was borrowed from a neighbor, the last
waffle produced was left on it for the loaner’s benefit.

SEAFOOD

Buyers of fish needed to be vigilant as often the gills
were smeared with pig’s blood to make it look fresh, when in fact, it could be
old.

Many Netherlanders worked in the fishing business using
boats called
buizen
in which the fish were not only caught, but also
gutted, salted, and put in barrels on board. Other Dutch ships then picked up
the catch and took it to market so the
buizen
could remain at sea.

People who lived near a river or the sea were able to eat
fresh fish; but, because of difficulties in transporting food at this time,
those residing in urban areas, away from the source, ate theirs salted, pickled
or dried. The North Sea and the Baltic provided fish in huge numbers. Seafood
included eels and herring which were put in pastry, stews and soups, as well as
cooked in beer.

BREAD

Bread was an absolute staple in all European countries, and
everyone ate it—the quality depending mainly on what kind of flour was used.
Wheat had great importance since much bread was made from it. Other crops for
making bread included rye, barley, and buckwheat, which did not require such
good soil. The rich ate the best, which was left for a day after baking since
it was considered unhealthy if eaten fresh.

The working methods in bake houses in England of this
period may be seen in the Ordinances of the York Bakers Company. First, the
grain was measured and milled, then sifted to remove any bran. The fine flour
was swept up with a broom and the wing of a goose, after which it was kneaded
with salt, yeast, and water. It was then shaped into small round loaves and
weighed, pricked, and left to rise.

The next best bread was of whole wheat, the bran having
been removed. Other whole wheat breads included some bran, while brown bread
was sometimes mixed with rye to make a loaf of mixed grains. Froth from ale was
often used to leaven the bread. Laws were passed to regulate size and quality
of each category of loaf. Poor people’s bread was made from barley or rye.

The beehive-shaped oven was very hot, and once the fire was
raked out, the bread was quickly slipped in by means of a long oven slice. The
oven door was then sealed with mud which was not broken until the bread was
ready to be removed, after which it was left to cool.

In France, bread prices were regulated by the government
and people had less to eat when times were bad. In the worst years, bread was
made not from wheat but from oats, barley, millet, peas, chestnuts, or acorns.
In Germany, the bread was mainly black and made from oatmeal porridge and rye,
peas, and sometimes beans. In the poorest areas peasants were often forced to
eat bread adulterated with grass.

BEVERAGES

Water was considered unfit to drink; children drank milk
and other people consumed ale or wine. By the mid-sixteenth century ale was the
favored drink, and in the south of England, although hops were still being
imported from Holland, people were starting to grow them as beer took on a
greater role. It was sold in three strengths: single, double, and
double-double, the latter selling at the highest price. In 1560, Queen
Elizabeth prohibited the production of double-double, considering it too
strong. In addition, resin and salt were sometimes added by the brewer in order
to preserve the ale longer. The flavor was not to everyone’s taste. Many people
produced their own beer. Numerous varieties were the result as people added
various herbs such as sage, mace, and nutmeg to their brew.

French wine was imported into England and that from the
Bordeaux region was especially favored. For cooking, Claret was probably the
most popular. From Crete came a sweet, aromatic wine; while Italy, Portugal,
Greece, and Germany also exported to England. From Spain came the strongest
wine, Sherry, which was, in particular, a favorite. Hot, mulled wine and cider
made from apples and pears was popular.

Wine was mainly drunk by the affluent in England due to
import costs. However, whisky was already being distilled in Scotland by the
sixteenth century and was thought to have medicinal properties. By the seventeenth
century, the Scottish parliament started taxing whisky produced in private
distilleries.

Besides copious amounts of wine, the French drank beer made
from barley; although in Normandy where apples were abundant, apple brandy was
coming into favor, and cider was widely consumed. By 1550, absinthe was
produced from equal parts of dried wormwood leaves, sweet wine, and distilled
water. It was believed that cordials made of distilled water kept the heart
healthy.

The cacao seed was introduced to Europe by the Spanish
shortly after the discovery of the New World in about 1520. It later became
very popular as a drink. The first commercial shipment to Europe was from
Veracruz to Sevilla in 1585. The Mexicans put chili peppers in the drink, but
Europeans found this too bitter and replaced the chili with vanilla and added
milk and sugar. Chocolate was at first drunk in a very thick, viscous state,
helped along with a glass of water. By the end of the sixteenth century, it was
a luxury item among European nobility, commonly drunk for breakfast, and its
popularity filtered down to all classes. By the mid-seventeenth century,
chocolate was consumed all over Europe, and the first chocolate houses were
opened in London and Amsterdam at that time.

Coffee arrived in Europe by the middle of the sixteenth
century; and in England, the first coffee house was opened in St Michael’s
Alley in Cornhill. Women were banned from coffee houses in England; in Germany,
they were not.

The first shipments of tea to appear are thought to have
come from China to Holland in 1610. Its use spread to France and England some
time later, becoming very fashionable in England ca. 1657. Initially, it was
only drunk by the wealthy, being too expensive for most people.

SUBSISTENCE LIVING

Workers in Geneva in 1630 seldom earned enough to provide a
good diet for their families. Those in the silk industry, for example, earned
about 2 sols a day, while bread cost 5 sols a pound. As a result, the city council
arranged for wages to be supplemented.

In the Netherlands, about 200 kilos of grain per person,
per year minimum was needed for an adequate diet; but this would have required
more land to be used to produce it than was available. In addition, with any
variations in weather, prices would be greatly affected, so much that grain
regularly had to be imported. The peasant majority of the population mostly
lived on the brink of subsistence. As the population grew, and the land they
worked diminished, they began to lose the ability to feed themselves. As the
process of land fragmentation increased, more and more people starved in times
of crisis; although in Antwerp, where food was more readily available to
ordinary workers, most people lived close to the brink.

The type of crops grown depended on climate and soil; in
southern Europe, olives produced oil, whereas further north, grapes flourished,
and wine was made. In more northerly regions dairy cattle enabled the
production of butter and milk. During winter when there were no fresh
vegetables or fruit, it was even harder to follow an adequate diet, and salted
or pickled meat and fish were used as much as possible. Under great duress,
even putrified meat was marinated and used to the detriment of a family’s health.

In some regions of France, the peasants were continually
undernourished, existing on poor-quality vegetables and pottage. Many sustained
themselves on cereals that were mostly made into bread; in Brittany buckwheat
porridge was consumed, whereas in Burgundy maize was used in porridge and rye
in bread.

Famine, always a possibility everywhere, was caused by
weather and poor harvests, population rises, disease, and war as well as by the
hoarding of profit-seekers. There was a major famine in 1594–1597 in which the
weather was a primary factor, as was the plague in Spain, Italy, and Germany.
The lower classes who lived in the cities could sometimes find relief for their
hunger by begging. There was no such help in the rural areas, and people turned
to carrion.

In England, in the late 1500s, famine, especially in the
north, caused many deaths. Thus, while one portion of society lived luxurious
lives and ate well, other members of the population barely survived if at all.
Farmers would often find themselves out of work as landowners gave their land
over to pastoral use.

Bread riots took place regularly throughout Europe and in
Geneva in 1628, where many were constantly undernourished, one of the pastors
told his flock the reason they were starving was due to their sinfulness,
thereby enraging his audience.

17 – TRAVEL

A
visit home to a country estate for a noble living in the city, a merchant
making the rounds of villages to show his wares, a student going home from
university to another town during holidays or, indeed, anyone who needed to
travel often found it a difficult undertaking. Choking dust, lack of shade, and
swarms of flies, gnats, and mosquitoes in the hot summer months made travel an
unpleasant experience. A journey in winter, especially in the northern
countries, amounted to another kind of ordeal: icy wind, snowdrifts blocking
the route, rain causing swollen streams, and floods all contributed to
slow-going, especially when the horses sank into the mud and had to be hauled
out, often by a pair of oxen owned by a local farmer.

Most roads were dirt tracks at this time. Long-distance
travel was by foot or horse, either one’s own or hired, and carriages used by
the affluent. On rough roads, without springs, traveling in these vehicles was
anything but comfortable and seemingly endless; for instance, it normally took
a week to go from London to Plymouth. The journey from Calais to Paris by horse
and carriage might take two to three days.

Packhorses or covered wagons were used to transport goods,
and the wagons sometimes carried passengers as well. Whenever possible, the
preference was to move goods by water. England had a coastal trade by which
commodities such as coal were moved from one part of the country to another. In
France, the rivers were widely used to transport goods and people as were the
canals in Holland, and rivers in Germany. A major river artery, the Rhine, was
exploited extensively to transport goods inland from Rotterdam to Germany,
France, and Switzerland, and the other way, to board ships bound for England,
Scandinavia, and other Baltic regions. Toll stations along the rivers collected
revenues for the princes who had established frontier barriers that had to be
crossed, a fee paid, and sometimes the baggage searched. All this added to the
expense of a journey.

INNS

The main roads were used for most travel, and inns, such as
they were, had their place along the route. For people in a hurry and with
money, post horses could be hired for each stage. The principal highways were sometimes
risky enough but to take a back road, even though it might be shorter, was
distinctly dangerous. People on the move, such as judges making their circuit
rounds, traders, ambassadors, royal couriers, pilgrims on their way to shrines,
and occasional tourists, normally elected to follow the main roads. There were
some respectable inns where a traveler might expect a form of entertainment
such as music accompanying the meals, reasonably clean bedding, and a knock on
the door in the morning to arouse him from slumber. Some hostelries could
accommodate several hundred people and during fairs in the vicinity, were
packed to overflowing.

Luther and his companions, on his one and only visit to
Rome, walked 800 miles from Saxony to the Holy City. Since they were monks,
they found shelter at night in various monasteries or in humble homes, and thus
were not required to carry much money.