Have you ever wondered what jobs medieval people despised the most? While modern lists often point to unpleasant tasks like that of the gong farmer, medieval society had its own views on which professions were truly terrible.
Jacques Le Goff, a highly influential medieval historian, explored what he termed ‘contemptible professions’ in his book Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages. He compiled this list from medieval sources, where people expressed their views on which jobs were considered respectable and which were regarded as undesirable.
Le Goff’s list of the 13 worst jobs:
- Innkeepers
- Butchers
- Jongleurs
- Mountebanks (scam artists)
- Magicians
- Alchemists
- Doctors
- Surgeons
- Soldiers
- Pimps
- Prostitutes
- Notaries
- Merchants
He also created a secondary list of professions deemed contemptible:
Fullers, weavers, saddlers, dyers, pastry makers, cobblers, gardeners, painters, fishermen, barbers, bailiffs, game wardens, customs officers, exchange brokers, tailors, perfumers, tripe sellers, and millers.
Why Some Medieval Jobs Were Considered the Worst
There were various reasons why these professions were looked down upon, many of which stemmed from ancient taboos. For example, butchers, doctors, surgeons, and soldiers were condemned because they worked with blood (in the case of soldiers, for shedding it, which also violated the “Thou shalt not kill” commandment). There was also a strong taboo against handling money, making professions like merchants or exchange brokers socially undesirable.
Some jobs were simply seen as unclean. For Thomas Aquinas, the absolute worst profession was a dishwasher. Around the year 1000, a bishop, while praising the work of clerics, remarked:
They are neither butchers nor innkeepers … and know nothing of the searing heat of a greasy pot … they are not laundrymen and stoop not to boil linen.
The Role of the Church in Defining Good and Bad Jobs
Christianity also played a role in defining good and bad professions. The Church emphasized that the best work mirrored God’s creation—farming, for instance, was highly valued as it involved growing crops. Artisans who transformed raw materials, like blacksmiths, were also considered honourable. In contrast, merchants were viewed with contempt, as their work involved merely transporting goods and taking what was seen as unjust profit.
Additionally, the Church linked many jobs to sin, which made them undesirable. Le Goff explains how certain professions were associated with the Seven Deadly Sins:
Lust, for example, was the basis for condemnation of innkeepers and bathkeepers, whose premises were frequently notorious, as well as jongleurs, who incited lascivious and obscene dances, tavern keepers, who lived on the sale of the triply damned pleasure of wine, gambling, and dance, and even women in the textile trade, who were accused of supplying large contingents to prostitution, which must have been at least partly true, in view of the miserable wages they received. Avarice, or greed, was in a sense the professional sin of both merchants and men of the law-lawyers, notaries, judges. The condemnation of gluttony naturally led to the condemnation of cooks.
The Changing Perception of Work in the Later Middle Ages
Le Goff notes that his list of the worst jobs mainly applies to the Early Middle Ages, a time when Western Europe was largely agrarian. However, from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, as cities grew and trade expanded, new professions began to emerge. This shift prompted a change in medieval writers’ views on work, with increasing emphasis on serving the common good and recognizing the value of labour. As a result, many jobs once considered terrible were reassessed. Le Goff explains:
The case of the merchant is the best known and the most highly charged with consequences. Decried for so long, his trade became the object of an increasing number of excuses, justifications, and even expressions of respect. Having become classics in scholastic exposes, certain of these are well known. They are related to the risks taken by the merchants: damages actually sustained, tying up of cash in long-term undertakings, hazards of trade. The uncertainties of commercial activity justified the merchant’s profit, even the interest he obtained from the money involved in certain transactions and thus, to an ever greater extent, “usury,” hitherto damned.
Thomas of Chobham, writing in the thirteenth century, echoed this changing perspective: “There would be great poverty in many countries if merchants did not bring what abounds in one place to another where these same things are lacking. They can therefore justly receive the price of their labor.”
Even prostitution, long regarded as one of the most condemned and illegal professions, saw a degree of defense from some writers. By the end of the Middle Ages, many European cities had legalized prostitution, though heavily regulated, viewing it as a necessary evil for the greater good.
Old prejudices didn’t entirely disappear—even wealthy butchers, for example, were still looked down upon by society—but by the Late Middle Ages, new ideas about work had taken root. With the emergence of many new professions (in 1292 Paris, for example, there were 130 regulated trades), competition arose over which jobs were more respectable, creating complex hierarchies. Le Goff observes:
Weavers were placed near the bottom of the scale in textiles, but above fullers and dyers; cobblers below bootmakers; surgeons and barber-apothecaries below medical doctors, who became increasingly bookish and were willing to leave practice, which was contemptible, to base practitioners.
By the end of the Middle Ages, a new social hierarchy had emerged: the more you worked with your hands, the worse your job was. Meanwhile, the aristocracy and elites, distancing themselves from physical work, solidified their status as a privileged class. This shift in attitudes toward labor might feel surprisingly familiar to a modern audience.
To learn more, check out Jacques Le Goff’s book, Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages. See also:
The 5 Most Common Jobs in a Medieval City
Top Image: British Library MS Add. 27695, fol. 7v
