Food - Drink
Why Forks Were Once Considered An Affront To God
By LAUREN ROTHMAN
Most western societies eat with forks everyday, but these utensils did not become popular until the late Middle Ages, according to Leite’s Culinaria. While knives and spoons have been used since ancient times, forks were slow to catch on, and were even considered an abomination against God by the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1004, the Byzantine Emperor Basil II’s niece Maria Argropoulina arrived in Venice for her wedding, and brought along a case of golden forks. A local clergyman commented, “God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks — his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to him to substitute artificial metal forks for them when eating.”
Public opinion of Argyropoulina’s forks was so low that after she succumbed to the plague, many blamed her death on the use of the utensil, with one monk writing, “This woman’s vanity was hateful to Almighty God; and so, unmistakably, did He take his revenge.” And to think: we modern folk use these godless forks every single day.