The Incorruptible Flesh: Bodily Mutation and Mortification in Religion and FolkloreWhat significance did the body have for the obsessively religious, superstitious, yet materially bound minds of the pre industrial age? The human body was a constant prey to disease, plague, unhealthy living conditions, the evil effects of druggery and nutritional deficiency, yet the saints seemed to testify to the existence of life beyond this, to a tangible Garden of Eden where all suffering was reversed. The right to entry to this haven was also