Friday, March 30, 2018
Drinking Bathwater
Norman Cohn (1915-2007), The Pursuit of the Millennium, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 49-50:
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Again, the Chapter of Utrecht and the biographer of St Norbert both state that Tanchelm distributed his bath-water among his followers, some of whom drank it as a substitute for the Eucharist, while others treasured it as a holy relic. One is reminded of Aldebert, who distributed his nail-parings and hair-clippings amongst his followers.Id., p. 91 (on Pseudo-Baldwin, i.e. Bertrand of Ray):
And the leader of the crusade was no ordinary commander but a holy prince, a being so revered that people kissed the scars which bore witness to his long martyrdom, fought for a hair of his head or a scrap of his clothing and drank his bathwater as an earlier generation had drunk Tanchelm's.
