In a message dated 10-26-1999 9:08:46 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
> However these are legacies and not declarations. I have it in the back of
> my mind that condemned criminals were mindful to clear the decks when
> execution was imminent but trying to pull an example out of a hat is going
> to
> be difficult. I suspect I have seen them in the published Elizabethan
> assize circuit accounts so it won't be a medieval example.
>
> Regards
>
> John A.W. Lock
Thanks John. I seem to recall a few blurbs in the newspapers about cases
where "the real criminal" confessed on his death bed, and it seemed to be
assumed he was telling the truth because a dying person has nothing to gain
by lying. But of course that's a goofy assumption, because the person could
be lying to protect someone else. Then there's the related idea that if you
promise something to a dying person, it's especially important to carry out
the promise. In Joyce's _Ulysses_, Stephen refuses to kneel and pray when
his dying mother asks him to. And we're asked to weigh which is more
important--his principles or that he should have done what his mother asked
because she was dying. Maybe the underlying premise has something to do with
the solemnity of the deathbed. The Last Rites of the Catholic Church are
maybe related, though I don't know exactly what's said.
I was actually trying to understand 2 Sam. 23.2, where David says "The spirit
of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue." That's a pretty bold
assertion, because he's actually identifying himself as a conduit for the
word of God...I suppose in Psalms.I don't think he meant to imply he was, so
to speak, speaking ex cathedra when he went chasing after Bathsheba. In any
case, he's supposed to have made this statement when he was dying, and I
was wondering if it's status as a deathbed declaration would carry special
weight for a Medieval reader, or lend weight to what might otherwise be seen
as a prepostrous or fanciful assertion. I think maybe it would, but it's
hard to explain why. As people aren't coming up with commentary on the issue
by Augustine or Ireneus, maybe it's just a very old folk belief that still
seems to carry a certain amount of weight today.
pat sloane
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