medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
What an interesting story about the hammer. As far as I know, and the
accounts I've read, it was used on Pope John Paul I, yet I haven't seen any
references to it for Pope Alexander VI (d. 1503) and earlier.
But alas, that's the problem with being an independent scholar...where to go
to find information you need without the backing of a university or a
professor to show you how it's done.
I WILL find out someday though...somehow....
Wendy Reardon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elizabeth McLachlan" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 7:16 AM
Subject: Re: [M-R] The Death Hammer
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> An interesting sidelight: Alexander Stille, in his account of the
> 'defenestration' of Leonard Boyle as Prefect of the Vatican Library
> ("Library Privileges", The New Yorker, Sept. 28, 1998), frelates:
> "But Father Boyle's puckish humor sometimes got the better of him. He
> told one licensee that a silver hammer with which the Pope breaks the
> seal on a door at St. Peter's each jubilee year was actually used to tap
> an ailing Pope's body to tell whether he was dead or alive. The
> licensee, who was Jewish, went around repeating the story until [Elaine]
> Peconi [the California businesswoman who founded Cortile del Bevedere,
> the company producing gift shop items which got Boyle into such trouble]
> told him that Father Boyle had been joking."
> Has the joke entered the mainstream of history? or was he in fact not
> joking at all?
> Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, Art History, Rutgers University
>
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