You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos (27 page)
Read You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos Online
Authors: Robert Arthur
80.
Names arguably sexual were Haldebytheheved (hold by the head) and Overandover. Ruth Karras,
Sexuality in Medieval Europe
(2005), p. 124.
81.
Vern Bullough and James Brundage,
Handbook of Medieval Sexuality
(1996), p. 41.
82.
Ibid., p. 13.
83.
Murstein,
Love, Sex, and Marriage
, p. 92.
84.
Tannahill,
Sex in History
, p. 144.
85.
Henry Lea,
History of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church
, 4
th
ed. (1932), pp. 264, 279.
86.
Henry Lea,
History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages: Vol. 1
(2005), p. 31.
87.
Murstein,
Love, Sex, and Marriage
, p. 116.
88.
Bullough,
Handbook of Medieval Sexuality
, pp. 245–246.
89.
Tannahill,
Sex in History
, p. 279.
90.
Ibid., pp. 279–280.
91.
Barbara Walker,
Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets
(1983), p. 824.
92.
William Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
(1992), p. 21.
93.
Ibid., p. 53.
94.
Ruth Karras,
Sexuality in Medieval Europe
(2005), p. 154.
95.
Lea,
History of the Inquisition
, pp. 437, 444.
96.
Ibid., p. 401.
97.
Ibid., p. 477.
98.
G.G. Coulton,
Inquisition and Liberty
(1969), p. 81.
99.
Authority for burning was taken from Jesus’ words, “If you don’t stay joined to me, you will be thrown away. You will be like dry branches that are gathered up and burned in a fire.” John 15:6 (CEV).
100.
The term
auto-da-fé
is Portuguese for “act of the faith.” Victims were gagged or had their tongues cut out so that they could not speak to the crowd to elicit sympathy.
Autos-da-fé
were often performed during holidays to attract larger crowds.
101.
Lea,
History of the Inquisition
, pp. 467–469.
102.
Lea,
History of the Inquisition
, p. 459.
103.
Edward Peters,
Torture
(1996), p. 68.
104.
John Swain,
Pleasures of the Torture Chamber
(1995, orig. pub. 1931), p. 177; and Michael Kerrigan,
Instruments of Torture
(2001), pp. 84–86.
105.
Jean Kellaway,
History of Torture and Execution
(2003), p. 59.
106.
Swain,
Pleasures of the Torture Chamber
, p. 178.
107.
Homer Smith,
Man and His Gods
(1952), p. 286.
108.
Lea,
History of the Inquisition
, p. 466.
109.
Henry Kamen,
Spanish Inquisition
(1997), p. 176.
110.
Ibid.
111.
Ibid.
112.
Ibid., p. 178.
113.
Vern Bullough and James Brundage,
Handbook of Medieval Sexuality
(1996), p. 15.
114.
For example, the Inquisition did not handle executions because they were unseemly. It had the secular authorities handle them, and if they refused, they were excommunicated.
115.
Peter De Rosa,
Vicars of Christ
(1988), p. 38.
116.
Stephen VII shouted at the corpse, “Why did you usurp this See of the Apostle?” A teenage deacon crouched nearby replied, “Because I was evil.” The accused pope was convicted, had his atrophied blessing fingers (first three of the right hand) cut off and was then thrown in the Tiber River. Richard Zacks,
Underground Education
(1997), p. 217.
117.
Ibid., pp. 217–218.
118.
Barbara Tuchman,
Distant Mirror
(1978), p. 26.
119.
Section largely from William Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
(1992).
120.
Pope Pius II was no fuddy-duddy himself. As a bishop, he had fathered multiple children by multiple mistresses.
121.
Ibid., p. 78.
122.
A marble sculpture of Farnese still sits in St. Peter’s Cathedral. The nude sculpture was covered with a metal garment by the Victorian-era pope Pius IX.
123.
Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
, pp. 81–82.
124.
Before the Holy Roman Emperor at the Diet of Worms in 1521, Martin Luther asserted, “I am as much a piece of useless, stinking shit as anyone else, if not more” Heiko Oberman,
Luther
(1992), p. 108.
125.
Europe was largely illiterate so written communication was still limited to select segments of the population.
126.
The nailing of the theses is probably a myth. It is more likely he simply sent them in a humble letter to his superiors.
127.
Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
, p. 37.
128.
Numerous German priests converted as well. Authorities at the time, such as Emperor Ferdinand, believed the Church’s unbending approach to clerical celibacy was their sole motive. Uta Ranke-Heinemann,
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven
(1990), pp. 113–114.
129.
In 1522 the Church owned an estimated fifty percent of the wealth in Germany. Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
, p. 132.
130.
Luther stated that Jesus probably had sex with Mary Magdalene and several other women so as to fully appreciate man’s nature. Martin Luther,
Table-Talk
, as described in Morton Hunt,
Natural History of Love
(1959), p. 222.
131.
Merry Wiesner-Hanks,
Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World
(2000), p. 64.
132.
Ibid., p. 84.
133.
Codpieces were a fashionable version of modern jockstraps and were used to accent the bulge of the male genitalia.
134.
Wiesner-Hanks,
Christianity and Sexuality
, p. 86.
135.
Ibid., p. 65.
136.
Ibid., p. 86.
137.
Ibid., p. 93.
138.
Ibid., p. 259.
139.
Bernard Cottret,
Calvin: A Biography
(2000), p. 19.
140.
Jean Delumeau,
Sin and Fear
(1990), p. 27.
141.
Hunt,
Natural History of Love
, p. 227.
142.
When a poster accusing Calvin of gross hypocrisy appeared on his pulpit, a suspect was arrested on no evidence. After the suspect was tortured for a month he “confessed.” As punishment he was lashed and nailed to a stake and then decapitated. William Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
(1992), p. 190.
143.
Calvin insisted he wanted people to be happy and advised they play quoits (ring toss). Hunt,
Natural History of Love
, p. 227.
144.
One woman was jailed for four days for having her hair at an “immoral” height. Manchester,
World Lit Only By Fire
, p. 191.
145.
The Puritans were not the only European settlers to come to America, but they are the focus because of the “potent American morality” that they spread. By the Revolutionary War, three quarters of America’s white population was Puritan. James Morone,
Hellfire Nation
(2003), pp. 10, 31–33.
146.
John Winthrop, “A Modell of Christian Charity,” 1630.
147.
John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman,
Intimate Matters
(1988), p. 29.
148.
Only after 1660 did the letters A.D. become a common punishment for adultery. They would either be branded into the forehead or they would have to be worn for life.
149.
Puritans thought human/animal sex could create “monstrous offspring,” therefore animals were also given the death penalty. In 1642, sixteen-year-old Thomas Grazer of Plymouth admitted to having intercourse with “a mare, a cow, two goats, five sheep, two calves, and a turkey.” Before his execution he was forced to pick his
partners out of a sheep lineup and they were “killed before his face.” D’Emilio,
Intimate Matters
, p. 17.
150.
Merry Wiesner-Hanks,
Christianity and Sexuality in the Early Modern World
(2000), p. 228.
151.
Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” 8 July 1741.
152.
D’Emilio,
Intimate Matters
, pp. 25–26.
153.
Hunt,
Natural History of Love
, p. 231.
154.
D’Emilio,
Intimate Matters
, p. 17.
155.
Morton Hunt,
Natural History of Love
(1959), p. 233.
156.
Peter Laslett, et al., eds.,
Bastardy and Its Comparative History
(1980), p. 361.
157.
Wiesner-Hanks,
Christianity and Sexuality
, p. 238.
158.
D’Emilio,
Intimate Matters
, p. 18.
H
UMANISM
H
APPINESS
(S
EX
)
ON
E
ARTH
By the 1800s, the fruition of a long process would have consequences for the Puritans’ strict sexual ideals. After the turn of the first millennium, the Crusaders (1096–1204) and then merchant traders were exposed to Muslim civilizations in Spain and the Eastern Mediterranean. The Muslims had translated and saved the academic texts of the ancient Greek and Roman scholars that were destroyed by the Roman Catholic Church. In this way, non-Biblical works of literature, philosophy, and science made an unauthorized return to Europe.
These classical texts sparked a renewed interest in learning called the Renaissance (1400–1700). The invention of the printing press (1440), the immigration of Greek scholars from Constantinople prior to the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453, and the Protestant Reformation (sixteenth century) further damaged the Church’s intellectual lockdown. After one thousand years of static, independent thinking was reborn. This led to innovations in philosophy and science, both of which would remake society, including its handling of sexuality.
The broad philosophical outlook that grew through the Renaissance is now called Humanism. Humanism stressed reason and focused attention on the here and now—life on Earth. Christianity as developed through the Roman Catholic Church had stressed faith and focused attention on the afterlife—heaven and hell. Instead of the salvation of the soul, humanism stressed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
1
The United States of America was born out of the humanist ideal in 1776, and the first amendment of its constitution pointedly separated church and state. Although the first amendment was not yet binding on the states, the Puritans’ enforcement of morality by the community was replaced with an emphasis on individual choice that was reflected even in religious circles.
2
State regulation of morality diminished, and the United States’ first currency was not inscribed with “in God we trust,” but “mind your business.”
3
The Puritan belief that an individual’s private sins could doom the community lost power. Accordingly, in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century criminal justice no longer focused on moral crimes.
4