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Dear Jessalynn the penance thing is, I think, a GREAT idea (which is, of course, no more than one expects from you ;-) ) cheers john arnold On Wed, 11 Mar 1998, Jessalynn Bird wrote: > An angel draws seven P's into Dante's forehead with the point of a > sword at the base of mountain in Purgatory [canto IX]. Here the > physical mnemonic sign/blow is used to remind Dante of the sins he > must wash away in purgatory. Like many medieval writers, he compares > the act of memory as impressing a seal upon wax (James of Vitry > thought children could learn better b/c they hadn't 'hardened' up > yet). > > I wonder what relation the blows meted out in solemn public penance > had to memory of the sins committed (in addition to their function of > public humiliation?) Certainly visual symbols meted out to heretics > as penance--yellow crosses and the voluntary crosses of crusaders were > meant as a sort of mnemonic device to remind them of their past sins > and as a symbol of the 'cross' of the penance they were undertaking > (as well as serving a social function of marking them out as a special > group--similar to the rotae imposed upon Jews in many church > councils). > > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%