Sad And Foul Traces
I read the newsgroup alt.religion.christian.episcopal, and the resident jokester posted the following request:
In his biography of Thomas Cranmer, Diarmaid MacCulloch talks about the angry reception given to the new English prayer book Cranmer published in 1549. The Welshmen and Cornishmen didn't speak English and didn't want to learn it and didn't want a new denomination either for that matter. They wrote a tract against the articles of faith, and Cranmer wrote a blistering response to them, but never published that response himself.Evidently in it he tells a scatological joke about St Martin and the devil. Does anyone know what the joke was?
After a few Google searches I think I hit pay dirt (WARNING: slow-loading PDF):
The vulnerability of the mouth to demonic violation was mirrored by the vulnerability of the nether mouth. Tales of possession and exorcism through the anus were extremely common, as that of Saint Martin of Tours, who exorcised a demoniac by thrusting his fingers into the man's throat, forcing the demon to exit from the anus, leaving 'sad and foul traces behind'. ... Similarly, Protestants were fond of relating the story of how 'a famous [Catholic] expeller of devils, having cast out an evil spirit from a man in a monastery at Cologne, and being politely asked by the Devil for some place of retiral, jokingly told him to go to the Privy.
Poop jokes and exorcism, two of my great fascinations! But I digress.
I just love that phrase, "sad and foul traces." Would you believe that it exists nowhere else on the internet? Your job is to disseminate this great phrase.