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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture >>There is this local saint in Oosterhout (the Netherlands): Oelbert. A >>farmer who found the booty which robbers on the run left behind on his >>land, while he was ploughing. The police thought Oelbert was the robber >>and he was immediatly executed: decapitated. Oelbert walked (lead by his >>oxes) to the city to proof his innocence. Then he died and became a saint. >>I don't know his day. >> >>Bas Jongenelen I will definitely add Oelbert to my collection. In fact, he deserves a new subcategory: led about by animals. But he doesn't get the distance prize--that's held by Big Headless Jim. And the elevation prize (climbed highest while headless) is held by Libaire's brother (whose name I forget), a Gaulish martyr who climbed a mountain after being decapitated and even stopped to sit in a stone "chair" and deliver a sermon. I guess that after climbing, his body was too tired to hold the head while it jabbered on. When pilgrims climb the mountain, the stone "chair" is one of the places they stop at. Incidentally, Bas, in Ireland there were no "police"--as you noted--but there were what I think of as "enforcers." They were called fe/nnidi and if someone you sued failed to comply with a judge's decision, you could hire the fe/nnidi to force the party to pay the judgement. Francine Nicholson _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com ********************************************************************** 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