Laughing all the way to the library.
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 5:13PM | Neill Archer Roan | Permalink tagged Anti-tobacco sentiment, Snuff, tobacco history 
Pope Urban VIIIThis shall surely be the shortest blog entry that I have ever written. Sometimes, my dear readers, brevity is next to levity.
I have been working like a fiend doing research for my book. While learning is always fun for me - except when I am depressed at the vastness of the territory of my ignorance - the tedium of research has been particularly jovial today. I have been laughing intermittently at a juicy historical tidbit I came across:
It would seem that in 1624 that Pope Urban VIII threatened excommunication for tobacco snuff users because he concluded that sneezing was too close to sexual ecstasy.
All these years I thought that “Gesundheit” was a German idiom for wishing health to the sneezer. (Gesundheit literally translates to “healthy.”) It would seem that it is really an idiom for “congratulations” or, failing that, “at last.”
How we got from excommunication to “Bless You!” upon sneezing I have yet to uncover.
Reader Comments (5)
Great stuff...I have been doing some research as well. All I can say is I know very little about the subject. It amazing to me the information that is out there. I am looking forward to the education.
Bless you comes from the Plague in England, when sneezing was often the first symptom.
Actually "God bless you!" was decreed the correct response to a sneeze by Pope Gregory the Great long before Pope Urban VIII was ever thought of. So as Luther said, "Popes and councils only contradict each other. Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason, I cannot, I will not recant anything. For to betray my conscience is neither right nor safe."
I'm going along with Jerry Seinfeld: The proper response when someone sneezes is, "You are sooo good looking."
Great post Neill. This is the sort of historical bit that I always enjoy happening across.