 |
 |
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture The blood taboos is deeply rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and it helps explain the prohibitions of clerical involvement in military bloodshed & capital punishment. Back in the 1970's, Sally Scully wrote a dissertation under Sam Thorne (Harvard) on the prohibition of bloodshed by clerics in the canon law. Of course, the practice of turning over relapsed heretics to the "secular arm" combined the prohibition on shedding blood with the employment of indirect means of coercion. The idea of the 2 swords, spiritual and temporal, as expounded by the canonists is based on the same taboo. Tom Izbicki At 10:46 AM 2/15/2001 -0800, you wrote: >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > >It's perhaps a little late to contribute to this thread, but for the sake >of completeness it seems worth mentioning that some canonists upheld a >prohibition against holding a church funeral for women who died in >childbirth, explicitly stated in Johannis Beleth summa de ecclesiasticis >officiis, CCCM 41-41a, 2:315-316 & Honorius Augustodunensis, Gemma animae, >PL 172, coll. 583, 589. But the canonist Guillaume Durand de Mende >disagreed, noting that if great care is taken to avoid soiling the church >with blood, the dead woman's funeral may be held in church (Gullielmi >Duranti rationale diuinorum officiorum, CCM 140, 1:62). It is pollution >with blood that seems to be the main concern here. > >Aline Hornaday > > At 06:58 AM 2/13/01 -0500, you wrote: >>Women were not supposed to enter the altar area at all--though I suspect >>this was often ignored when it was a question of cleaning. Nevertheless, >>purists would not allow women to touch the sacred vessels either. Thus any >>untoward effect of women's natural functions was contained reasonably well. >>There is a famous letter attributed to Gregory the Great in Bede's >>Ecclesiastical History denying the idea that women could be considered >>"polluting" when menstruating or giving birth or otherwise functioning >>according to God's plan but in general ecclesiastical authorities were >>inclined to take no chances. >> >>Jo Ann >> >>The law locks up the man or woman >>Who steals the goose from off the common >>But leaves the greater villain loose >>Who steals the common from the goose. >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: Stephanie Budin <[log in to unmask]> >>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> >>Date: Monday, February 12, 2001 9:46 AM >>Subject: Re: de[con]secration/de-secration (bloodshed) >> >> >> > Many Greetings from a new member, >> > >> > Concerning bloodshed and sexual acts as defiling, was there any >> >prohibition against giving birth within church space? >> > >> > Stephanie Budin > >********************************************************************** >To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME >to: [log in to unmask] >To send a message to the list, address it to: >[log in to unmask] >To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion >to: [log in to unmask] >In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: >[log in to unmask] >For further information, visit our web site: >http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html