Today’s Concealed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In the Middle Ages in France, the bodies of some unfortunate suicides were shamed by being dragged head down through the streets, while in Metz the bodies were bundled into barrels and floated down the Moselle to be carried out to sea. Given the taboo against suicide, it is hardly surprising that suicide was formerly considered to have been rare in the Middle Ages. More recent authors have suggested that the true incidence was a great deal higher than formerly acknowledged, and that medieval suicide was often concealed by relatives in order that the deceased might receive a Christian burial. Certainly many cases are recorded of people who committed suicide in order to avoid the protracted agonies of dying of plague.
Culled from: Death: A History Of Man’s Obsessions and Fears
“Certainly many cases are recorded of people who committed suicide in order to avoid the protracted agonies of dying of plague.”
Conversely: Many cases are recorded of people who committed matrimony in order to avoid the protracted agonies of dying of loneliness…
Does not the notion of lives – potential compatibility, potential happiness – subverted by desperation and forced into union by fear engender a deeper … something?