The Order of Brothelyngham was a gang of men who, in mid-14th-century
England, formed themselves into a fake religious order in Exeter, Devon.
Styling themselves as theatrical players, they terrorised, kidnapped and
extorted the locals. They may well have been satirising the church,
which was commonly perceived as corrupt. The group appears to have named
itself after a non-existent place, "Brothelyngham". The name was
probably meant as an allusion to the Order of Sempringham, which was
known to enclose both monks and nuns on the same premises. Members of
the Order of Brothelyngham dressed as monks. They supposedly elected a
madman to rule them as their abbot, possibly from a theatrical stage,
and bore their ruler aloft before them in a mockery of a bishop's
throne. As one of the few such gangs known to modern historians, the
order is considered significant for what it suggests of anticlerical
activities and attitudes in England during the period.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Brothelyngham>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1952:
Israel enacted a citizenship law, prior to which the country
technically had no citizens.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_citizenship_law>
1969:
The Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the first operational fighter
aircraft with V/STOL capabilities, entered service with the Royal Air
Force.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Siddeley_Harrier>
2001:
Same-sex marriage in the Netherlands was legalised, with the
country becoming the first to do so.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_Netherlands>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
oo oo aa aa:
(onomatopoeia) Used to represent the sound of a monkey's cry.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oo_oo_aa_aa>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
It is at night that faith in light is admirable.
--Edmond Rostand
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmond_Rostand>
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