The Cursed and the Holy Body: Burning Corpses in the Middle Ages
Romedio Schmitz–Esser
This essay looks at the practice of burning corpses in Middle Ages. Much research has concentrated on later medieval period; however, punishment and its specific motivations rationales for crimes such as heresy, witchcraft, magic go back to much earlier centuries. Scrutinizing sources earliest burnings heretics witches up eleventh century shows that these were mere lynchings not outcome juridical processes administered by secular or clerical authorities. Not until twelfth did authorities assent punishments eventually accept a legal form punishment. Rejecting purely theological symbolic view dead consigned flames representing hell, this article stresses parallel between saints cursed. If from standpoint body soul maintained bond after death, relics must have seemed frightening those blessed. The thus close relationship through exceptional characteristics attributed their bodies.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies