Eggs and Church

A Dealer in Eggs

Fac-simile of a Woodcut,
after Cesare Vecellio, Sixteenth Century.

Une illustration de Franz Kellerhoven du livre
Mœurs, usages et costumes au Moyen Age
et à l'époque de la Renaissance, 1871-1877
Paul Lacroix (P. L. Jacob, Bibliophile Jacob)

The Project Gutenberg EBook, Fig 98
In "Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages, and During the Renaissance Period", 2004
By Paul Lacroix

Illustrated with Nineteen Chromolithographic Prints by F. Kellerhoven and upwards of Four Hundred Engravings on Wood.

Milk, butter, eggs, and cheese were not always and everywhere uniformly permitted or prohibited by the Church.

Butter having been declared lawful by the Church, a claim was put in for eggs, and Pope Julius III granted this dispensation to all Christendom, although certain private churches did not at once choose to profit by this favour.
It is to the prohibition of eggs in Lent that the origin of "Easter eggs" must be traced. These were hardened by boiling them in a madder bath, and were brought to receive the blessing of the priest on Good Friday, and were then eaten on the following Sunday as a sign of rejoicing.

See previous post by Rutix (Medieval Egg Dealer).