That maceration is not confined to the monks of mediaeval
times is one of the interesting points in Dom Louis Gougaud's Devotional and Ascetic Practices of the Middle Ages (Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 5s.), for he cites the instance of Fr. William Doyle, S.J., who recently immersed himself in cold water at two in the morning on a night in early spring. Floggings, immersions, fastings, death-bed clothing are all interesting chapters, but the most remarkable pages in this learned and fully annotated work are those dealing with the attitudes of prayer employed throughout the centuries of Christendom. Our present gesture of joined hands dates from about the twelfth century only : before the ninth it was never employed. It appears to originate from a juridical act of homage on the granting of a fief, when the vassal put his hands in those of his lord and swore fealty.
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