medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A remote parallel is furnished by the Roman poet Ovid's story of the
secret of Midas' ears (_Metamorphoses_ 11. 172-93): Midas' servant
thinks (wrongly) that by speaking a secret to a hole in the ground and
then filling in the hole with earth he can unburden himself without the
secret's being repeated.
Best,
John Dillon
On Wednesday, December 8, 2004, at 5:23 am, Stella Rock wrote:
> The recent thread about confession to lay people/horses reminded me
> thatone of the accusations made against the late fourteenth century
> northernRussian heretics, the Strigol'niki or 'Shearers', was that
> they confess to
> the earth. They apparently rejected the sacraments offered by a
> clergy they
> perceived as flawed and illegitimate, and in this context advocated
> confession to the earth rather than to a priest. Any Western European
> parallels? Strigol'niki were recorded in Novgorod and Pskov - both
> citieswith active trading links. Apologies if this has already been
> raised during
> the discussion, my email has been playing up and I'm not sure I've
> receivedall messages.
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