[tlogan]

Later?

Pope Gregory I declared baths should be only used to cure the sick. Of couse, we read his words different today (like he allowed it) but bathing was considered sinful. There was a belief that bathing invited demonic possession and that the dirt, sweqt, etc. actually repelled demonic forces.

In my part of the world, there are still stories how church was telling people that you should take a bath only on Đurđevdan (and joke is that only Gypsies followed that).

You do know that the devil is lurking from the water don’t you? I guess folk tales cannot be used as proof since they are no written records.

[zigzag312]

Can you provide source? I find such claims fascinating, so I did a quick google search, but what I found doesn't support your statements.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_in_Christianity:

  Early Christian clergy condemned the practice of mixed bathing as practiced by the Romans ...

  The Church also built public bathing facilities that were separate for both sexes near monasteries and pilgrimage sites ...

  ... baths were normally considered therapeutic until the days of Gregory the Great, who understood virtuous bathing to be bathing "on account of the needs of body" ...

> You do know that the devil is lurking from the water don’t you? I guess folk tales cannot be used as proof since they are no written records.

As far as I know, these tales were meant for children to stay away from bodies of water to prevent drowning of kids.