throughout most of the second through the fourth centuries. Nudity was also common in this period in other

parts of ancient 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 backwards and assume that early Christians believed the same way mainstream
Christians do now. We credit the present to Breastfeeding moms. Medical science is on the side of breastfeeding moms. Mental . For the first several centuries of Nudity Laws Challenged By Drive-Thru Naturist , it was the custom to baptize men, women, and children
together bare. This ritual played an extremely critical part in the early church. The accounts are numerous and
detailed.218
Margaret Miles notes that “naked baptism was observed as truly one of the two essential components in Christian
initiation, together with the invocation of the Trinity. . . . In the fourth century instructions for baptism throughout the
Roman Empire stipulated naked baptism without any suggestion of innovation or change from earlier practices.” 219
An average historical account comes from Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop of Jerusalem from A.D. 387 to 417:
“Instantly, then, upon entering, you remove your tunics. . . . You are now stripped and naked, in this additionally
Copying Christ despoiled of His garments on His Cross, He Who by His nakedness despoiled the principalities and
powers, and fearlessly triumphed 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 were not embarrassed! Actually you bore the image of
the first-formed Adam, who was naked in the garden and wasn’t ashamed.” 220 J.C. Cunningham notes that “there
is nothing in the present rubrics of the Roman rite against doing this today. In fact, in the Eastern rites the rubrics
even state the option of naked mature baptism.” 221
156. Nudity was common and accepted in pre-medieval (circa 6th century) society, especially in areas like
Great Britain, which had been “barbarian” lands just 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 Are Christian Naturists Doing Anything Wrong as Far As The Religion Is Concerned? as the 17th century, travellers including Coryat and Fynes Moryson discovered the Irish people
living naked or semi-nude indoors. He writes that Moryson, in his Itinery (circa early 17th century), found Irish
gentlewomen “prepared to receive visitors and possibly even strangers inside when fully unencumbered by
clothing.” 223
157. Nudity was pretty common in medieval and renaissance society, particularly in the public bathrooms and
within the family setting.224
Havelock Ellis records that “in daily life . . . a considerable degree of nakedness was taken during
medieval times. This was notably so in the public bathrooms, frequented by men and women together.” 225 Lawrence
Wright detects that nudity was common in the home, also: “The communal tub had . . . one great motive; the great
reason was the physical difficulty of supplying hot water. No modern householder who . . . has bailed out and
carried away some 30 gallons of water, weighing 300 lb., will underrate the labour involved. The entire family and
their guests would bathe together while the water was hot. . . . Ideas of propriety were distinct from ours, the entire
household and 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 indicate that they did thus. Chaucer remarked on the utilization of this fashion in
The Parson’s Tale, written about 1400. Many men’s garments, he wrote, were so short they “covere nat the black
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 totally undone, exhibiting the nipple or even the
whole 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 displayed her bosom “naked down to the pit of the
Belly.” Aileen Ribeiro writes that in the early 15th century, “women’s gowns became increasingly tight-fitting
over the breasts, 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 tell the king that he

Shouldn’t permit 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 creation of bathing suits, swimming naked in the ocean was
Banal; and music halls regularly featured naked models as living “sculpture.” 230