medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
No, you have it backwards...no offence. The belief was that water was
pure and so rejected impurities. Ergo, if the accused floated, he was
rejected and guilty. If he sank, he was accepted as pure and not
guilty. Nice irony!: if you float you get put to death, or something
awful gets done to you for your guilt. If you sink, you do so
innocently and perhaps drown, but that's justice. yrs, tom ault
On Thu, 4 Nov 2004 10:31:47 -0000
Dr Rosemary Hayes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>culture
>
> How does this all relate to the ordeal for witches who floated if
>guilty and
> sank if innocent - or do I have it the wrong way round?
>
> Best wishes
> Rosemary Hayes
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Denis Hue" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 6:49 AM
> Subject: Re: [M-R] Water and drowning
>
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>culture
>
> a curious case in Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis: a Crusader falls
>in the
> sea, he cannot swim but doesn't sink: he's put his life in the hands
>of Mary
> so, very peacefully, he floats until another boats picks him up.
>
> ***********************
> N'en sai plus dire
> ***********************
> Denis Hüe,
> responsable du Master Lettres Langues Communication
> Centre d'Etude des Textes Médiévaux, (CETM-CELAM)
> Université de Haute Bretagne
> http://www.uhb.fr/alc/medieval
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>From: Chris Daniell <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2004 3:57 PM
> Subject: [M-R] Water
>
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
>>culture
>>
>> The recent thread about 'holy water' has another aspect - that of
>> Christians being unable to drown and pagans / unbelievers drowning.
>> This
>> has Biblical examples (Parting of the Red Sea, Noah, Christ walking
>>on
>> water etc) and was a motif used extensively by Medieval Christian
>>writers.
>> If anyone is interested I can supply some additional examples
>>
>> Chris Daniell
>>
>> PS As I am leaving my current job I will only be on this e-mail
>>address
>> until end of play Thurs 4th Nov
>>
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