Suicide in the Middle Ages: Volume 2: The Curse on Self-Murder

Download or read book Suicide in the Middle Ages: Volume 2: The Curse on Self-Murder written by Alexander Murray and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2011-03-03 with total page 662 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A group of men dig a tunnel under the threshold of a house. Then they go and fetch a heavy, sagging object from inside the house, pull it out through the tunnel, and put it on a cow-hide to be dragged off and thrown into the offal-pit. Why should the corpse of a suicide – for that is what it is– have earned this unusual treatment? In The Curse on Self-Murder, the second volume of his three-part Suicide in the Middle Ages, Alexander Murray explores the origin of the condemnation of suicide, in a quest which leads along the most unexpected byways of medieval theology, law, mythology, and folklore –and, indeed, in some instances beyond them. At an epoch when there might be plenty of ostensible reasons for not wanting to live, the ways used to block the suicidal escape route give a unique perspective on medieval religion.