After the fall of the Empire and the emergence of Christianity man entered into a stage of false modesty, so abandoned body hygiene and water cures.
In the Middle-Ages, the sea was seen as “the Kingdom of the Prince of Winds”, the devil… In Paris we used 15l of water a day compared to 1000l in Roman times.
People of “the middle ages were disgusted and horrified by the sea” (Leroy) and not only in France.