MelissaA
Brenton
Shilpa Karhik
Forks Deemed Irreligious
September 12th 2006 02:37
Here is a short history of cutlery, in particular the history of forks, deemed irreligious by the Catholic Church.
Cave men invented the first piece of cutlery ever - the knife. Knives were made from stones, bones and shells. The serrated edge, better for cutting with was achieved by chipping pieces off the edge of the blade.
Next came spoons, carved out of wood, stone or bone.
Eating with a spoon and a knife wasn’t all that fantastic as you might imagine and some of the aristocracy tried eating with 2 knives – one to cut with and one to transfer to their mouths.
Forks are a relatively recent invention. They appeared in the Middle East around the 10th century but only had two tines (points) on them. But quickly it was discovered how useful they were for spearing meat.
By the 11th century they had made their way to Italy where the Roman Catholic Church disapproved of their use and so forks were demonized by the Church, stating that it would be heresy for anything other than hands to touch the food that God created as God had given them natural forks – their hands.
They gained acceptance in the 13th century and very popular by the 14th century both in Italy and France, the noblemen using them to keep their attire clean whilst dining.By the 16th century forks were being used by both upper class and merchant class. Guests would even arrive for dinner with their own fork and spoon carried in a box called a cadena
By the 18th century forks had made their way across many European countries and over the sea to Great Britain. The Germans improved on the design by adding a curve to it, and by the 19th century they possessed 4 tines.
By the time the humble fork made it to the 20th century, another addition was made to create a whole new implement – the spork a utensil that is part spoon and part fork
Cave men invented the first piece of cutlery ever - the knife. Knives were made from stones, bones and shells. The serrated edge, better for cutting with was achieved by chipping pieces off the edge of the blade.
Next came spoons, carved out of wood, stone or bone.
Eating with a spoon and a knife wasn’t all that fantastic as you might imagine and some of the aristocracy tried eating with 2 knives – one to cut with and one to transfer to their mouths.
Forks are a relatively recent invention. They appeared in the Middle East around the 10th century but only had two tines (points) on them. But quickly it was discovered how useful they were for spearing meat.
By the 11th century they had made their way to Italy where the Roman Catholic Church disapproved of their use and so forks were demonized by the Church, stating that it would be heresy for anything other than hands to touch the food that God created as God had given them natural forks – their hands.
They gained acceptance in the 13th century and very popular by the 14th century both in Italy and France, the noblemen using them to keep their attire clean whilst dining.By the 16th century forks were being used by both upper class and merchant class. Guests would even arrive for dinner with their own fork and spoon carried in a box called a cadena
By the 18th century forks had made their way across many European countries and over the sea to Great Britain. The Germans improved on the design by adding a curve to it, and by the 19th century they possessed 4 tines.
By the time the humble fork made it to the 20th century, another addition was made to create a whole new implement – the spork a utensil that is part spoon and part fork
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I love the stuff on this blog - it's always heaps of fun to read!
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"forks were demonized by the Church, stating that it would be heresy for anything other than hands to touch the food that God created as God had given them natural forks – their hands."
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I thought that would be more of a problem than using something other than your hands to eat. And when you think about it from our perspective, that does make a bit more sense doesn't it - the pitchfork theory that is.
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Comment by Anonymous
Good times....good times.......
HaHa!!!!!! lol