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Naked on the cross

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I pretty much agree, but as I've pointed out a few times, the problem for people in those times (and in many cultures to this day) is not the shame that nudity might cause to the naked person, but the moral pollution caused by seeing one. That's the reason for the rules in Islam, Orthodox Judaism, etc. etc. concerning female dress - it's the fear of the sinful thoughts and feelings the sight of (especially) female bodies arouses in males, and the danger that presents to their souls. The sight of a wholly naked person, especially though not only female, would of course be much more dangerous. Such 'gymnophobia' was and is very deep-rooted in middle eastern and south Asian cultures, and spread to the Western Empire as the Eastern became increasingly dominant in wealth, trade and population. Christianity was a vector, but there were many other factors.
Sure, we know that today when not the pornstars are blamed, but there is some interest to forbid to see it.
 
It's an interesting idea, but I can't think of any examples that might support it. Societies with stringent laws against 'indecency' even if they held public executions, seem to have kept the condemned covered up. I think that was true across pretty well the whole of Asia, from the Levant to Japan. Again, it's not moral pollution in quite the sense that we'd understand it in the modern west - it's rather a fear that seeing a naked person would do serious harm to you - to your spirit - like catching some dangerous 'spiritual illness' as a result.
Joan of Arc's executioners were not concerned about pollution of the public morality when they stripped her naked to show to the crowd she was a woman.(1453)
The public executions of Ravaillac (assassin of Henry IV - 1604) and Balthasar Gerards (assassin of Willem van Oranje - 1584), and William Tyndale (heresy - 1536) are depicted with the condemned only wearing a loincloth. Just a graphic modesty?
Margaret Clitherow is reported to have been stripped naked before she was publically crushed to death.
Guy Fawkes and conspirators, and many others condemned for treason, were publically executed by hanging drawing and quartering. This procedure included emasculation. difficult to do when the condemned has trousers on.
In 'Gerusalemme Liberata' (1581), Tasso describes that Sophronia and Olindo, prior to their public execution on the pyre, were stripped naked. Most likely, Tasso conveyed here a common practice in his time.
 
Joan of Arc's executioners were not concerned about pollution of the public morality when they stripped her naked to show to the crowd she was a woman.(1453)
The public executions of Ravaillac (assassin of Henry IV - 1604) and Balthasar Gerards (assassin of Willem van Oranje - 1584), and William Tyndale (heresy - 1536) are depicted with the condemned only wearing a loincloth. Just a graphic modesty?
Margaret Clitherow is reported to have been stripped naked before she was publically crushed to death.
Guy Fawkes and conspirators, and many others condemned for treason, were publically executed by hanging drawing and quartering. This procedure included emasculation. difficult to do when the condemned has trousers on.
In 'Gerusalemme Liberata' (1581), Tasso describes that Sophronia and Olindo, prior to their public execution on the pyre, were stripped naked. Most likely, Tasso conveyed here a common practice in his time.
Indeed, but we were discussing what was going on a millennium earlier, in the Mediterranean heartlands of the Roman Empire, when influences from what we'd call the Middle East were becoming strong. And I was saying that it wasn't a matter of 'pollution of public morality', rather a fear of personal pollution, of the sight causing harm to the viewer's spirit.
 
Indeed, but we were discussing what was going on a millennium earlier, in the Mediterranean heartlands of the Roman Empire, when influences from what we'd call the Middle East were becoming strong. And I was saying that it wasn't a matter of 'pollution of public morality', rather a fear of personal pollution, of the sight causing harm to the viewer's spirit.
Got it! Sadly, there will be much less historical accounts left from that era.:icon_writing:

(perhaps they refrained from stripping the condemned, because, after all, the fall of the Roman Empire is linked to a political and economical crisis triggered by a global climate cooling):qmiedo: ;)
 
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Nudity became inconvenient during the Victorian age, which unfortunately is also the period in which the modern historical discipline was formed, a period in which even the legs of the tables were covered, more than Christianity which had prohibited nudity only and only in sacred art since the 16th century (in fact if you come to Rome, the center of Catholicism, it is full of sculpted or painted naked people).
Throughout the Middle Ages, then, nudity was not such a big taboo, but always linked to circumstances.
 
Indeed, but we were discussing what was going on a millennium earlier, in the Mediterranean heartlands of the Roman Empire, when influences from what we'd call the Middle East were becoming strong. And I was saying that it wasn't a matter of 'pollution of public morality', rather a fear of personal pollution, of the sight causing harm to the viewer's spirit.
The very Christian - though denominationally inconsistent - King Henry VIII, signed the Vagabonds Act of 1531 which proscribed that unregistered beggars should be taken to the nearest market town and "tied to the end of a cart naked, and beaten with whips throughout such market town, or other place, till the body shall be bloody by reason of such whipping." . Only the elderly and infirm were exempt; there were no exceptions for gender (presumably children were also exempt). His equally Christian and more consistent daughter Elizabeth, issued a modified Vagabonds Act in 1572, that specified the offender be "stripped to the waist, whipped until bleeding". Again, there were no exceptions for women, who were still more exposed than men.
In fact, any woman in any country was stripped to the waist for flogging and thus at least partially naked.
 
The very Christian - though denominationally inconsistent - King Henry VIII, signed the Vagabonds Act of 1531 which proscribed that unregistered beggars should be taken to the nearest market town and "tied to the end of a cart naked, and beaten with whips throughout such market town, or other place, till the body shall be bloody by reason of such whipping." . Only the elderly and infirm were exempt; there were no exceptions for gender (presumably children were also exempt). His equally Christian and more consistent daughter Elizabeth, issued a modified Vagabonds Act in 1572, that specified the offender be "stripped to the waist, whipped until bleeding". Again, there were no exceptions for women, who were still more exposed than men.
In fact, any woman in any country was stripped to the waist for flogging and thus at least partially naked.
Jolly good!
 
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