Suicide in the Middle Ages: Volume 2: The Curse on Self-Murder

Suicide in the Middle Ages #2

by Alexander Murray

The second volume in a three-part series, The Curse of Self-Murder explores the origins of the condemnation of suicide and provides a unique perspective on medieval culture and religion.

Genres: History

662 pages, Hardcover

First published June 8, 2000

Reviews

[Wynne Belk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes the origins of the church’s prohibition on suicide. It touches on key medieval interpretations of suicides in the Bible and suicides in classical antiquity, and how these interpretations helped in establishing ecclesiastical norms. It includes an important analysis on rites of desecration and the confiscation of the suicide’s property, as well as the “polluting” nature of the act, and draws possible links between desecration/burial practices and the concept of pollution. Murray’s book is helpful in validating my previous supposition that the fear of sin’s pollution and the desire to protect the Christian community was in part responsible for the brutal treatment of the suicide’s corpse.