Did the term "peeping tom" actually come from a peeping Tom?

Question

how do you know?

Answer 1

What is the origin of the expression "Peeping Tom"?

A tailor called Tom was supposed to be the only person to see Lady Godiva ride naked through Coventry in the 11th century. He was immediately blinded by the wrath of heaven.

Godiva's real name was Godgifu, and she was married to Earl Leofric of Mercia, one of the four all-powerful lords that ruled England under Canute, the Danish king. She was also a rich landowner in her own right, and the most valuable of her properties was Coventry.

Godgifu was wise, religious and charitable. But her husband Leofric did not share her religious beliefs or her fondness for the Midlands. He tyrannised the church, and mercilessly squeezed an oppressive tax from the people of Coventry to pay for King Canute's bodyguard.

According to the legend, when Godgifu begged her husband to change his ways, the earl replied that first she would have to ride naked through the streets of Coventry on market day. He assumed she was too modest to actually do something like that.

It certainly seems possible that the historical Godiva performed some sort of public penance in Coventry for the misdeeds of her husband. It may be she appeared in the streets stripped of her usual badges of rank. The memory of this event in the peoples' minds might well have been mixed up with a Christian vision of Eve, naked and beautiful and bravely preserving her modesty by means of her long hair.

Historical fact merged with legend some 600 years later, when the story was altered slightly setting the scene for Peeping Tom's appearance.

According to the new story, Godiva sent messengers around the town instructing everyone to remain indoors and shutter their windows on the allotted day. Because she was so popular in the city, and every taxpayer would benefit from her heroic act, they all gladly did as they were asked.

William Camden, after a visit to Coventry in 1659, said he had been shown a statue that represented a man who had been struck blind for peeping into the street as Godiva rode past. The Peeping Tom story was probably a joke explanation of the statue's anguished expression and blank eyes. They were blank because the statue was very old and the original paint on its surface had long since worn off. No one really knew the background of the statue, it could well have just been an ancient pagan statue whose purpose was simply to guard the city. But from then on it became forever linked with the Godiva story, and the legend of Peeping Tom was born.

Answer 2

Fundies do not follow the fundamentals of Christianity, they follow their own self-interpretation of the Bible, which the Bible itself forbids. If fundies really did follow the Bible as closely as they can, they would accept:..... that Jesus founded a Church, that St Peter was its first head, that St Peter (as head of that Church) was given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven that whatever St Peter and the his Church bound on Earth would be bound in Heaven. that whatever that Church loosed on Earth would be loosed in Heaven that the gates of Hell would not prevail against that Church that whose sins that Church forgave would be forgiven that whose sins that Church retained would be retained that the Holy Spirit was poured out on that Church at Pentecost that that Church existed and taught doctrine for many years before all of the New Testament section of the Bible was written, that, that Church had the authority and divine inspiration to compile the Bible we have today from all the writings available in the 4th century. that only one Church has all this provenance and history that Jesus' promise that gates of hell would not prevail against that Church has been fulfilled, because it is still with us as the oldest, continuously, surviving Church in the world. In other words, if fundies really did follow the fundamentals of the Bible they would have no option but to join the Catholic Church. They only survive as separate entities by disagreeing with the original Church of Jesus and the Apostles, and by lying about its history and doctrine.

Answer 3

Lol, probably! That's actually quite funny ;) I like your question!