Europeans were far cleaner during the Medieval Dark Ages than they were during the Enlightenment, and arguably cleaner than even nowadays.
It's actually a pretty interesting question to compare standards of living/level of civilization from the Middle Ages to the historically more esteemed Early-Modern period, and there's no doubt the latter was in many respects worse. The 16th century was a complete disaster for the layman and the ceaseless large-scale wars of the 18th were hardly much fun for many of them either. But since art got better no one really cared.
>>18285679the religious wars and chattel slavery rose during the renaissance and enlightenmentthe middle ages were anti-slavery
>>18285597Blame the plague it broke everything
>>18285679Art, medicine, and architecture vastly improved, and most people got access to goods which previously were unobtainable luxuries for 99% of humanity. Stuff did get better in a lot of ways for a lot of people.
>>18287035>medicineDoes talking about improved medicine really matter before the late 19th century?>architecture Nope, huge downgrade. >and most people got access to goodsTobacco and tea is not a serious argument. It's like saying London is great now because it has pocslop.>Stuff did get better in a lot of ways for a lot of people.In (post-Tudor) England and for the middle-classes everywhere that's surely true, but a lot of the time for a lot of people it was as bad or worse.
