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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture To make sure we know what we are talking about is here the relevent passage from the Life of S. Jerome, translated by William Caxton, and cut out of the Medieval Sourcebook (Legenda Aurea vol.5) "And when he was nine-and-twenty years old he was ordained cardinal priest in the church of Rome. And when Liberius was dead all the people cried to have S. Jerome sovereign priest. And when he began to blame the jollity and lavish life of some clerks and monks, they had indignation and despite of him, and lay in a wait to hurt and slander him. And as John Beleth saith: They scorned and mocked him by the clothing of a woman. For on a night when he arose to matins, as he was accustomed, he found a woman's clothing Iying by his bed which his enemies had laid there. And he weeping that they had been his own, did them on, and so clothed came in to the church, and this did they that had envy at him because others should ween that he had a woman in his chamber. And when he saw that, he eschewed their woodness and went unto Gregory Nazianzen, bishop of Constantinople. And when he had learned of him the holy Scripture and holy letters, he went into desert, where, what, and how much h e suffered for Christ's sake, he recounted to Eustochium, and said that when he was in that great desert and waste wilderness, which is so burnt by the sun that it gave to the monks a right dry habitacle, I supposed me then to be at Rome among the delices, and my members scalded, burnt, made dry and black like to the skin of a Morian or an Ethiopian, and I was always in tears and weepings. - - - " Medieval Sourcebook: The Golden Legend (Aurea Legenda) Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, 1275 Englished by William Caxton, 1483 http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/goldenlegend/index.htm The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470. Englished by William Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922, 1931.) The credit goes to Paul Halsall - please give the site a peep once a while Best Erik Drigsdahl At 14:29 -0500 21/10/09, John Dillon wrote: >As I noted when I first brought this up), the text -- and therefore its intended audience -- is considerably later than the seventh century. When I last thought about its dating (back in 2005), I accepted the view that it probably was written in the later twelfth century. But that's only a guess. The Vita could be later still. Does anyone on the list know when the St. Jerome version of the trick (which I presume is earlier) is first attested? Not that that's likely to matter much in the issue of the clothing. Underlying all this is Deuteronomy 22:5, a text that presumes differentiation between men's and women's clothing. That text, however unverisimilar it may have been in the seventh century or in the twelfth, will have been known to Christian religious of every century. > > ********************************************************************** 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