parts of early Roman society.
154. The writings of early Christians for example Irenaeus and Tertullian make it clear that they'd no ethical
Bookings about communal nudity.216
Christian historian Roy Bowen Ward notes that "Christian Morality did not originally preclude nudity. . . .
There is a tendency to read history backward and assume that early Christians believed the same manner mainstream
Christians do now. We attribute the current to the past." 217
155.
together http://www.gcvirtualcorporation.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?dnudist-young.com . This ritual played a very critical role in the early church. The reports are numerous and
detailed.218
Margaret Miles notes that "naked baptism was observed as truly one of the two fundamental elements in Christian
initiation, along with the invocation of the Trinity. . . . In the fourth century instructions for baptism throughout the
Roman Empire stipulated naked baptism with no suggestion of initiation or change from earlier practices." 219
"Instantaneously, then, upon entering, you remove your tunics. . . . You are now stripped and naked, in this also
Copying Christ despoiled of His garments on His Cross, He Who by His nakedness despoiled the principalities and
powers, and fearlessly prevailed over them on the Cross." After baptism, and clothed in white albs, St. Cyril would
say: "How wonderful! You were naked before the eyes of all and weren't ashamed! Really you bore the image of
the first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden and was not embarrassed."
is nothing in the present rubrics of the Roman rite against doing this today. The truth is, in the Eastern rites the rubrics
even state the option of nude adult baptism." 221
156. Nudity was common and accepted in pre-medieval (circa 6th century) society, particularly in places like
Great Britain, which had been "barbarian" lands only a few hundred years before.222
E.T. Renbourn notes that nudity was widespread throughout Ancient Britain and northern Europe, in spite
of the climate. Even as late as the 17th century, travellers for example Coryat and Fynes Moryson discovered the Irish people
living naked or semi-nude inside. He writes that Moryson, in his Itinery (circa early 17th century), found Irish
gentlewomen "prepared to receive visitors and possibly even strangers indoors when totally unencumbered by
Clothes." 223
157. Nudity was fairly common in medieval and renaissance society, especially in the public washrooms and
within the family setting.224
Havelock Ellis records that "in daily life . . . a considerable level of nakedness was born during
medieval times. This was notably so in the public bathrooms, frequented by men and women together." 225 Lawrence
Wright finds that nudity was common in the house, also: "The communal bath had . . . one great motive; the good
reason was the physical issue of providing hot water.
carried away http://craxy8.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=nude-beach.net of water, weighing 300 lb., will underrate the labour involved. The whole family and
Thoughts of propriety were different from ours, the whole
Family and also the guests shared the only sleeping flat, and wore no night clothes until the sixteenth
century. It was not always ill-mannered to be naked."226
The high-ranking nobles of Edward IV's court were allowed by law to d isplay their naked genitals below
a short tunic, and contemporary reports suggest that they did so. Chaucer remarked on the use of this trend in
The Parson's Tale, written about 1400. http://www.johnhowland.com/__media__/js/netsoltrademark.php?d=nudist-young.com , he wrote, were so short they "covere nat the shameful
membres of man." 227 Between the 14th and mid -17th centuries, and particularly during the reign of Louis XIV,
Girls would frequently leave their bodices loose and open or even completely undone, showing the nipple or even the
Entire of the breasts, a practice supported by numerous historical accounts.228 The Venetian ambassador, writing in
1617, described Queen Anne of Denmark as wearing a dress which exhibited her bosom "bare down to the pit of the
Gut."
over beach girl , some gowns with front openings even revealing the nipples. . . . In 1445 Guillaume Jouvenal des
Ursins became Chancellor of France and his brother, an ecclesiastic, wrote to him encouraging him to identify the king that he
Shouldn't allow the women of his family to wear gowns with front openings that revealed their breasts and
nipples." 229
158. Even in the Victorian era, before the invention of bathing suits, swimming nude in the ocean was
Trivial; and music halls regularly featured nude models as living "sculpture." 230