Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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As we see a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, one lingering question is whether the disruptions of the past year—the isolation, unemployment, fear, and uncertainty—have fueled a rise in suicides. Today, we typically think of the problem of suicide as a psychological and sometimes public health issue. But as religion scholar Carole M. Cusack writes, for medieval Europeans it was largely a matter of sin and criminality.
Some ancient Roman philosophers and statesmen had preached (and sometimes practiced) suicide as a noble course of action under certain impossible circumstances. There are also biblical examples of apparently honorable suicide, including the Israeli king Saul, who falls on his sword rather than be killed by enemy forces but still receives an honorable burial.
daily.jstor.org
The actual article Self-Murder, Sin, and Crime: Religion and Suicide in the Middle Ages by Carole M. Cusack is more in-depth and you can access it with the intext link. Cusack has some interesting information. For example, it is Augustine that connects suicide to the 6th commandment. It is self-murder. It's not until the 12th century that it becomes a crime: Felony of self or felo de se. People would commit suicide and their bodies were treated as murderers and hanged or burned. The juries had to do a balancing act between the wealth to be taken for the lord (later king) and the economic situation of the remaining family members.
There is a paragraph that discusses some philosophical issues with killing yourself when death was not really what someone intended. For example, ending pain. The yabut of suicide, I guess. Women were treated differently and one out was demonic possession and/or insanity or a combination of both.
Some ancient Roman philosophers and statesmen had preached (and sometimes practiced) suicide as a noble course of action under certain impossible circumstances. There are also biblical examples of apparently honorable suicide, including the Israeli king Saul, who falls on his sword rather than be killed by enemy forces but still receives an honorable burial.
Why Suicide Was a Sin in Medieval Europe - JSTOR Daily
Although there were historical and scriptural precedents for honorable suicide, Christian theology saw it much differently.
daily.jstor.org
There is a paragraph that discusses some philosophical issues with killing yourself when death was not really what someone intended. For example, ending pain. The yabut of suicide, I guess. Women were treated differently and one out was demonic possession and/or insanity or a combination of both.
