Anonymous
10/28/2025, 8:43:03 PM
No.18113723
>>18113706
From 1400 to 1952, the Vatican castrated thousands of 8 year old boys for their choirs. Hundreds of years before anesthesia the pope was running a troon factory.
>Eight was the average age for choirboys to be castrated in the 17th century, though officially it was against canon and civil law. Pope Clement VIII admitted castrati into the papal choir in 1599, quoting as justification St Paul's directive: "Let women be silent in the churches." Presumably St Paul would have been satisfied with boys, but Clement VIII had been captivated by the castrati's "angel voices". The Vatican was complicit in recruiting singers not just for the church but, after Pope Innocent XI banned women from appearing on stage in 1686, for opera houses.
>The orchidectomies (as they are technically known) were shrouded in secrecy. Only the dodgiest surgeons would attempt them, and they were often a lucrative sideline for village barbers. In the absence of anaesthetic, boys were doped with opium and bathed in milk before having their testicles removed.
From 1400 to 1952, the Vatican castrated thousands of 8 year old boys for their choirs. Hundreds of years before anesthesia the pope was running a troon factory.
>Eight was the average age for choirboys to be castrated in the 17th century, though officially it was against canon and civil law. Pope Clement VIII admitted castrati into the papal choir in 1599, quoting as justification St Paul's directive: "Let women be silent in the churches." Presumably St Paul would have been satisfied with boys, but Clement VIII had been captivated by the castrati's "angel voices". The Vatican was complicit in recruiting singers not just for the church but, after Pope Innocent XI banned women from appearing on stage in 1686, for opera houses.
>The orchidectomies (as they are technically known) were shrouded in secrecy. Only the dodgiest surgeons would attempt them, and they were often a lucrative sideline for village barbers. In the absence of anaesthetic, boys were doped with opium and bathed in milk before having their testicles removed.