> On a related problem (the hymn worries about "noctium phantasmata . . . ne
> polluantur corpora") is anyone on the list aware of medieval (preferably
> pre- 12th century) discussion of nocturnal pollution? I'm making in a
> point in an article that on the whole, monastic authors of the middle
> Middle Ages didn't worry much about bodily pollution, as much as theorists
> and practitioners of some other religions might--the glaring exception to
> this observation being the problem of "noctium phantasmata". (Were
> medieval monastics indeed worried about this at all, or is this a concern
> of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries?)
Conrad Leyser discusses this issue and (and its
rhetorical significance) in 'Masculinity in flux: nocturnal
emission and the limits of celibacy in the early Middle
Ages', in D. M. Hadley, ed., Masculinity in medieval Europe
(Longman: Harlow, 1999), 103-120. Janet Nelson also has
some useful comments on this topic in her paper in the same
volume: 'Monks, secular men and masculinity, c. 900',
121-142.
Sarah Hamilton
----------------------
Dr Sarah Hamilton
Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
University of Exeter
Amory Building
Rennes Drive
EXETER
EX4 4RJ
Tel: (01392) 264286
Fax: (01392) 263305
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