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I'm not defending the system. However, the priest also took holy confessions from all of his sheep, which is as good as medieval surveillance gets. He could n
by sddfd 9y ago
I'm not defending the system.
However, the priest also took holy confessions from all of his sheep, which is as good as medieval surveillance gets.
He could not, however, come out and say that somebody already confessed the crime because holy confession was supposed to br private.
So the church as a political institution used a device which allowed to act upon knowledge obtained in holy confessions without admitting that they did so, thereby ensuring that the sheep did not loose faith in the confidentiality of holy confessions.
- agarden 9y agoEven if the suspect had not confessed to this particular crime in the confessional booth, the priest would presumably have a good idea of the character of each of the people in his care, allowing him to make a pretty good guess as to the guilt of the party in question.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoAh yes, an unmarried woman, poor character,must be an adulteress, probably a witch. That's exactly the sort of prejudice that we are still fighting to this today.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoThat's "parallel construction" from mass surveillance. Nothing new under the sun. I doubt a criminal would confess in confessional, though.