Lettuce pray...

[sister_raphael]

Extinguishing the flames of lust was not just a business for the medieval woman. There were some really great one helpfully suggested in health handbooks like this one from Hildegard von Bingen.

Hildegard von Bingen. was born 1098 in Bermersheim, Germany, and died 1181 and became a nun at 16. She was the Benedictine Abbess in 1136 at Disibodenberg and if you don't mind me saying so, I feel that as such, she was sexually inexperienced and shouldn't know how to quell lust in anyone other than herself.

Of course, her writings were based on the four humours, so in theory, she knew these would work. Men and women had different properties, biologically speaking, and so did plants, therefore it followed that certain things would behave a certain way.

So, lettuce. Actually, wild lettuce is different from our lettuce today and did actually contain a mild sedative, according to my friend at the Cabinet of Medieval Curiosity who tends to know about these things.

That's where it's at. Or not at, if you get my drift.