[Sca-cooks] period traditions

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Huette von Ahrens wrote:


> I think that using a lack of case law as evidence it
> didn't happen is poor scholarship.  You appear to be
> making the assumption that the serfs/peasants were
> empowered enough to be able to bring a complaint
> against their local lord, who probably was also the
> local magistrate.  If they were oppressed enough to
> feel that bringing such an action would only bring
> them and their family into worse straits, then no
> action or complaint would be even contemplated.  While
> I am not convinced enough to say that "Droit de
> Seigneur" was a myth, I am willing to believe that
> such practice was rare.


I'm inclined to come out on this side, too. As much as many of us would
like to dispel such stories (another being cannibalism) via revisionist
history, it seems unlikely the precendents would exist with no
foundation whatsoever.


> As for stating that such was against canon law, while
> that is true, just because such laws are written
> doesn't prove that they weren't broken or ignored by
> local authorities.  It was forbidden for priests to
> have intimate relations with women, but they did
> anyway.  And those who had higher status were rarely
> if ever punished for having sex or making babies.  It
> is also against canon law to commit murder, but I can
> think of several Popes who weren't punished for either
> in this world.


I have to go with this, too. Regardless of whether you accept the Ten
Commandments as laws handed by God to Moses or as simple common-sense
rules for living together in a community, laws are generally created in
response to some specific need.


> In our modern world, we seem to be inundated with
> reports of child molestation by their parents or
> siblings.  Does this mean that we are now more immoral
> than our grandparents or great grandparents times?  It
> could be or it could be that we have impowered our
> children more so that we are more inclined to believe
> them than grandparents or great grandparents would
> have been.  I have read many books on the Borgias, but
> it isn't until the last 20 years that biographers have
> brought up the very real possibility that Lucrezia's
> first child was fathered by her father.


Interesting, and conversely, have you read anything on what a lovely man
Richard III seems to have been, if it was written, say, also in the past
20 years? Much as I hate to say it, I think at least some of our
tendency to create revised history is driven by the desire of graduate
students to create unusual and eye-catching theses.

"I intend to prove, conclusively, that contrary to popular belief, Henry VIII was really a woman!"


Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98