Laudator Temporis Acti

Felix Fabri, O.P. (1441-1502), quoted in Georges Duby and Philippe Ariès, A History of Private Life: Revelations of the Medieval World, tr. Arthur Goldhammer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), p. 588:

The pilgrim must be careful not to hold back on account of false modesty and not relieve the stomach; to do so is most harmful to the traveler. At sea it is easy to become constipated. Here is good advice for the pilgrim: go to the privies three or four times every day, even when there is no natural urge, in order to promote evacuation by discreet efforts; and do not lose hope if nothing comes on the third or fourth try. Go often, loosen your belt, untie all the knots of your clothes over chest and stomach, and evacuation will occur even if your intestines are filled with stones. This advice was given to me by an old sailor once when I had been terribly constipated for several days.

For the original Latin, see Fratris Felicis Fabri Evagatorium in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae et Egypti Peregrinationem, ed. C.D. Hassler, vol. I (Stuttgart: Societas Litteraria Stuttgardiensis, 1843), p. 140:

Magno studio caveat peregrinus, ne ventris alveum obstruat, ductus verecundia puerili et ne nimium laxus fiat, quia utrumque perniciosum est naviganti. De facili constipatur homo in mari. Et consilium bonum est et salubre, ut peregrinus omni die ter quater, etiam absque naturae postulatione, ad locum se ponat, et discreto conatu ventris apertionem promoveat, nec desperet, si venter пес tertia пес quarta vice aperiatur. Accedat crebrius, solvat cingulum et vestimentorum omnium colligationes supra pectus et umbilicum aperiat, et habebit ventris beneficium etiam si lapides essent in eo. Hoc consilium dedit mihi quidam expertus marinarius, cum multis diebus fuissem durissime constipatus.