Contact Admin. Posted on September 9, by Tony McMahon. The reason being that the brothels that served Londoners on the south side of the Thames , in the district of Southwark, fell under the Bishop of Winchester.
Far from being displeased by the presence of these licentious houses, the good bishop taxed them with gusto β as recorded in the court rolls. You can still see remains of the 12th century Winchester Palace today in Southwark.
The bishop took his title from the city of Winchester, which had been the capital of England during the Saxon and early medieval period. Southwark cathedral, which was part of a large complex of religious buildings, is still there β though heavily restored. They plied their trade and unfortunately, on occasion, contracted and spread venereal disease.
Syphilis, in particular, was a killer in those days. In fact, a Saxon graveyard has just been unearthed in Ipswich, Suffolk and among three hundred skeletons, many been found bearing clear signs of the disease. The humour, no doubt, intended to detract from the sometimes dire consequences.
Medieval attitudes to prostitution seem to be mixed. Sex was clearly for procreation but these fallen ladies seem to have been viewed as a way of preventing good Christian men falling into even worse practices β like sodomy or masturbation seen as mortal crimes by the church.
