15th century manuscript in Valencia, painted by a Parisian illuminator
The illustration depicts a pilgrim approaching a sanctuary; the text describes the event with parallel, sexual diction: to enter the sheath safely, wished to put my staff into the aperture, with the sack hanging behind. (It progresses to even more scandalous descriptions; scandalous by contemporary standards, that is.)
This example supports the theory that the secular, sexual, and sacred were not as separated in the Middle Ages as they are today.
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