The Pope's Death and Maxwell's Silver Hammer

[Dimitrios Paskoudniakis]

Since I'm not Catholic, I'm not familiar with quite a few Catholic rituals.

However, I was fascinated to hear on the news tonight, in anticipation of
the death of Pope John Paul II, that there had been a papal death ritual in
which a pope's chief of staff (or camerlengo) would strike the dead pope
with a silver hammer upon his head to make sure that he is dead.

"Bang bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer came down upon his head.
Bang bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer made sure that he was dead."

I always thought that all the lyrics to Maxwell's Silver Hammer were pure
nonsense, but no more. Discovering the meaning or inspiration for a lyric
even 36 years later is fascinating.

[Not Herbert]

It was part of the ritual from medieval times into the early 20th
century, but it hasn't been done since then.

Maybe someone should stand by with the Holy Anvil just in case.

[Miguel B. Good]

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 19:48:38 -0500, "Dimitrios Paskoudniakis"

Post by Dimitrios Paskoudniakis
Since I'm not Catholic, I'm not familiar with quite a few Catholic rituals.
However, I was fascinated to hear on the news tonight, in anticipation of
the death of Pope John Paul II, that there had been a papal death ritual in
which a pope's chief of staff (or camerlengo) would strike the dead pope
with a silver hammer upon his head to make sure that he is dead.
"Bang bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer came down upon his head.
Bang bang Maxwell's Silver Hammer made sure that he was dead."
I always thought that all the lyrics to Maxwell's Silver Hammer were pure
nonsense, but no more. Discovering the meaning or inspiration for a lyric
even 36 years later is fascinating.

Is this for REAL??? I"m gonna do a google on this one!

[t***@aerovons.com]

It is for real....really bizarre.

TH

[Pope George Ringo]

verrrrry interesting