Today:
Welcome to this week's instalment of /r/AskHistorians' Sunday Digest (formerly the Day of Reflection). Nobody can read all the questions and answers that are posted here, so in this thread we invite you to share anything you'd like to highlight from the last week - an interesting discussion, an informative answer, an insightful question that was overlooked, or anything else.
This Week's Rundown:
/u/sunagainstgold answered "A medieval nun is raped. Would church or secular authorities handle it? Theologically, did it disrupt vows of chastity/virginity?" and "How did Catharism start, develop and become so popular in southern Fance?"
/u/dbht14 on "How influential was the Yamato Class before the rise of carriers?"
/u/the_alaskan on "How did the police spend their time before the War on Drugs?"
u/Halinn 's question : A lot of rulers are said to be loved by their peoples. How would a historian go about substantiating such a claim? is very good but sadly it did not get answers.
This question raises many interrogations about how we can calculate someone's popularity, both in history and today as well ( but that's for another subreddit of course ). What does " being loved by X " really mean : no revolts, acclamations ? How do we define the " people" especially when we go back a long time ago.
It's a very difficult question to answer and there is a very good debate here.
/u/kookingpot wrote an interesting post about the preservation of ruins in the Middle East.