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Cattledog

(6,340 posts)
Thu Feb 14, 2019, 04:01 AM Feb 2019

Archive shows medieval nun faked her own death to escape convent.

A team of medieval historians working in the archives at the University of York has found evidence that a nun in the 14th century faked her own death and crafted a dummy “in the likeness of her body” in order to escape her convent and pursue – in the words of the archbishop of the time – “the way of carnal lust”.

A marginal note written in Latin and buried deep within one of the 16 heavy registers used by to record the business of the archbishops of York between 1304 and 1405 first alerted archivists to the adventures of the runaway nun. “To warn Joan of Leeds, lately nun of the house of St Clement by York, that she should return to her house,” runs the note written by archbishop William Melton and dated to 1318.

Melton, writing to inform the Dean of Beverley about the “scandalous rumour” he had heard about the arrival of the Benedictine nun Joan, claimed that Joan had “impudently cast aside the propriety of religion and the modesty of her sex”, and “out of a malicious mind simulating a bodily illness, she pretended to be dead, not dreading for the health of her soul, and with the help of numerous of her accomplices, evildoers, with malice aforethought, crafted a dummy in the likeness of her body in order to mislead the devoted faithful and she had no shame in procuring its burial in a sacred space amongst the religious of that place”.

After faking her own death, he continued, “and, in a cunning, nefarious manner … having turned her back on decency and the good of religion, seduced by indecency, she involved herself irreverently and perverted her path of life arrogantly to the way of carnal lust and away from poverty and obedience, and, having broken her vows and discarded the religious habit, she now wanders at large to the notorious peril to her soul and to the scandal of all of her order.”

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/11/archive-shows-medieval-nun-faked-her-own-death-to-escape-convent?CMP=fb_gu&fbclid=IwAR35HTraE1vQ4E1RKej3uRunk4WgV5uyZIThEp0gUpzNgSBR1V1xlXW4bwY

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Archive shows medieval nun faked her own death to escape convent. (Original Post) Cattledog Feb 2019 OP
This would make a good plot for a movie. madaboutharry Feb 2019 #1
Way to go Joan!!!! revmclaren Feb 2019 #2
Hideous not Humorous. delisen Feb 2019 #3
Sounds like something from the Decamerone trusty elf Feb 2019 #4
decameron. it does indeed, tho, they may have her escaping a bad priest. or saw a fine looking lad. pansypoo53219 Feb 2019 #8
Escaping rape? czarjak Feb 2019 #5
Go Joan! malaise Feb 2019 #6
Translation: Joan wanted to have a fun life and get laid once in a while leftofcool Feb 2019 #7
Haha, awesome! trotsky Feb 2019 #9
Good for her! She made her own choice. MineralMan Feb 2019 #10
Poverty and Obedience Cartoonist Feb 2019 #11
A lot of women were sent to convents against their will Merlot Feb 2019 #12
In other words, she lived happily ever after. gtar100 Feb 2019 #13

malaise

(278,083 posts)
6. Go Joan!
Thu Feb 14, 2019, 06:20 AM
Feb 2019

We had a standard joke at school
Why do two nuns always walk together?
So nuns can get none
Religion is so much BS

Merlot

(9,696 posts)
12. A lot of women were sent to convents against their will
Thu Feb 14, 2019, 01:02 PM
Feb 2019

There is a film about a laundry convent in Ireland that ws nothing more than a sweatshop prison for women deamed "inconvenient" by their families.

The Magdalene Sisters (2002) - IMDb
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0318411

Aug 30, 2002 · One of many like institutions, the asylums are run like prisons and young girls are forced to do workhouse laundry and hard labor. The asylum, one of many that existed in theocratic Catholic Ireland, is for supposedly 'fallen' women.




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