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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Ellis Peters has a great "Brother Cadfael" mystery, "Pilgrim of Hate" (or title close to it) in which a relic merchant figures prominently (and hilariously). A body is discovered in the improvised pilgrims' hall and Cadfael has a junior monk guard the bones, stripped of their flesh by boiling in vinegar I think, lest they be stolen and passed off as relics. As for mummies and Chaucer's Prologue, how sophisticated were folks in the MA (I know, we're talking almost 1000 years) in human anatomy? Except for skulls, how easy (or not) would it have been to pass off "pigges bones" as human? Unless one wanted to claim possession of the whole body or the head, why purchase a mummy? Chaucer seems to suggest that "pigges bones" worked fine, at least for simple folk. "And in a glas he hadde pigges bones. But with thise relikes, whan that he fond A povre person dwellynge upon lond, Upon a day he gat hym moore moneye Than that the person gat in monthes tweye" MG ________________________________________________________________________ Interested in getting caught up on today's news? Click here to checkout USA TODAY Headlines. http://track.juno.com/s/lc?s=198954&u=http://www.usatoday.com/news/front.htm?csp=24 ********************************************************************** 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