Editing Sodomy (section)

=== Medieval Inquisition, hereticism, and witchcraft ===
For delaying reasons described in the article [[Pseudo-Isidore]] but also because his crucial demands for capital punishment had been so unheard of in ecclesiastical history priorily based upon the humane Christian concept of forgivefulness and mercy, it took several centuries before Benedict's demands for legal reform began to take tangible shape within larger ecclesiastical initiatives.
 
This came about with the [[Medieval Inquisition]] in 1184. It was then that a convenient target was found in the sects of [[Cathars]] and [[Waldensians]], and these heretics were not only persecuted for alleged satanism but hence increasingly accused of fornication and sodomy. When these two sects had been stamped out and new victims were needed, the Inquisition turned to the [[witch hunts]] that were also largely connoted with sodomy. 

Persecution of Cathars and the [[Bogomiles]] sect in [[Bulgaria]] led to  the use of a term closely related to ''sodomy'': ''buggery'' derives from French ''bouggerie'', meaning "of Bulgaria".<ref>Oxford English Dictionary</ref> 

The association of ''sodomy'' with hereticism, satanism, and witchcraft was supported by the Inquisition trials.  The resulting infamity of sodomy motivated a continuing discrimination and persecution of homosexuals and sexual deviants in general long after the Medieval period had ended. 

The arguably [[gay]] [[Richard I of England]] was ordered by a priest to keep in mind "the sin of Sodom".{{Fact|date=August 2007}}