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Archiver > QUEBEC-RESEARCH > 2004-01 > 1074628522
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Subject: [Q-R] Excerpt of History
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 14:55:22 EST
........."The plague of the fourteenth century led to a confounding attempt
at disease prevention in Germany and France, Flagellants marched from town to
town, lashing one another with metal tipped whips.
Their theory was that public atonement for sins would spare them
from the Black Death. This method of plague control worked particularly well for
the flagellants who died from excessive blood loss due to over enthusiastic
whipping".................
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........"Superstitions about the sacrificial power of death by hanging
remained into the nineteenth century, when executioners would sell remnants from
hangings as good luck charms.
English burglars believed that the severed hand of a hung man would
enable them to open locks, while a bit of skin from a hanging victim would
prevent a house from catching fire.".......................
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.........." When the minuet was introduced into the French society in the
1600s, it was intended to demonstrate the grace of the upper class.
French dancing masters refined the minuet, which had begun as a
folk dance, to the degree that books were written about proper performance. One
book contained a lengthy chapter devoted to the correct manner in which the
wrist was to be turned and sixty pages explored the details of the gentleman's
bow"......................................
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........"King Otto, a nineteenth century ruler of Bavaria, set the benchmark
for the royal class by making it his kingly routine to start each day by
shooting a peasant.
Otto and other power mad rulers may have a tough time convincing any
one of their qualifications for heavenly admittance. But does that mean the
persecuted poor can waltz right through the gates as a belated reward for their
noble poverty?
The history of power says that given the chance, the amateur despot
class turns as cruel and heartless as the usual sadistic suspects.
More dogs have been kicked by poor than by rich. Give a poor man a
taste of power, and he begins to act as cruelly stupid as the rich
man"................................
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..........."In the thirteenth century thousands of French children believed a
shepherd boy who claimed to have seen a vision of Christ. The children
followed their young leader on a crusade to liberate the Holy Land.
The children were put aboard ships owned by French merchants,
promised free journey to Jerusalem, then sold into slavery
instead".....................
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