Editing Sodomy (section)

== Medieval Christianity on sodomy ==
[[File:Dante sodom.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Dante]] and [[Virgil]] interview the sodomites, from [[Guido da Pisa]]'s commentary on the ''Commedia'', c. 1345]]

=== Justinian I and Byzantine power politics of late antiquity ===
The primarily sexual meaning of the word ''sodomia'' for Christians did not evolve before the 500s AD. Byzantine Emperor [[Justinian I]], in his novels no. 77 (dating 538) and no. 141 (dating 559) amended to his [[Corpus iuris civilis]], was the first to declare that Sodom's sin had been specifically same-sex activities and desire for them in order to create homosexual scapegoats for recent earthquakes and other disasters of his time (see [[Extreme weather events of 535-536]]), but most of all to enact anti-homosexual laws that he used upon personal as well as political opponents in case he could not prove them guilty of anything else.

Justinian's were not the first Roman laws prohibiting homosexual behavior. Earlier such measures had been included in the ''[[Lex Scantinia]]'' dating from 149 BC and the ''[[Lex Julia]]'' dating from 17 BC, both constituting the death penalty for homosexual behavior. Allegations exist that even before ''Lex Scantinia'' such laws existed, but direct evidence of these laws has been lost<ref>''[[wikipedia:Valerius Maximus|VALERI MAXIMI]] FACTORVM ET DICTORVM MEMORABILIVM LIBRI NOVEM'', volume VI, section V ff</ref><ref>Article on ''struprum cum mastulo'' by W. Kroll in Pauly-Wissowa (ed.), ''Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft'', 1921</ref><ref>On ''supplicium fustuarium'', public beating to death for same-sex behavior in Rome long before ''Lex scantinia'', see [[Polybios]], ''The Histories'', volume VI, chapter 37</ref><ref>See article ''Päderastie'' by M. H. E. Meier in Ersch & Gruber (eds.), ''Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste''</ref><ref>[[wikipedia:Theodor Mommsen|Theodor Mommsen]], ''Römisches Strafrecht'', 1899, p. 703f (in English as ''Roman Criminal Law'')</ref><ref>Wilhelm Rein, ''Das Criminalrecht der Römer von Romulus bis auf Justinianus'' ("Roman Criminal Law from Romulus up to Justinian I"), 1844, p. 864</ref><ref>Gisela Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, ''Tabu Homosexualität - Die Geschichte eines Vorurteils'' ("The taboo of homosexuality: The [[history]] of a prejudice"), 1978, p. 187</ref>. While sticking to the death penalty by beheading as punishment for homosexuality, Justinian's legal novels heralded a change in Roman legal paradigm as in that he introduced a concept of not only mundane but also divine punishment for homosexual behavior. Individuals might ignore and escape mundane laws, but they could not do the same with divine laws if Justinian declared his novels to be such.

=== Benedictus Levita and the ''Pseudo-Isidore ===
Justinian's interpretation of the story of Sodom would be forgotten today (as it had been along with his law novellizations regarding homosexual behavior immediately after his death) had it not been made use of in fake [[Charlemagne|Charlemagnian]] [[capitularies]], fabricated by a [[Frankish]] monk using the pseudonym Benedictus Levita ("Benedict the Levite") around 850 AD, as part of the [[Pseudo-Isidore]]. Benedict's three capitularies particularly dealing with Justinian's interpretation of the story of Sodom were:

* ''XXI. De diversis malorum flagitiis.'' ("No. 21: On manifold disgraceful wrongs")
* ''CXLIII. De sceleribus nefandis ob quae regna percussa sunt, ut penitus caveantur.'' ("No. 143: On sinful vices due to which empires have crumbled, so that we shall do our best to beware of them")
* ''CLX. De patratoribus diversorum malorum.'' ("No. 160: On the perpetrators of manifold evil deeds")

It was in these fake capitularies where Benedictus utilized Justinian's interpretation as a justification for ecclesiastical supremacy over mundane institutions, thereby demanding burning at the stake for carnal sins in the name of Charlemagne himself. Burning had been part of the standard penalty for homosexual behavior particularly common in Germanic [[protohistory]] (as according to Germanic folklore, sexual deviance and especially same-sex desire were caused by a form of malevolence or spiritual evil called ''[[nith]]'', rendering those people characterized by it as non-human fiends, as ''nithings''), and Benedictus most probably was of the Germanic tribe of the Franks.

Benedict broadened the meaning for ''sodomy'' to all sexual acts not related to procreation that were therefore deemed ''counter nature'' (so for instance, even solitary masturbation and anal intercourse between a male and a female were covered), while among these he still emphasized all interpersonal acts not taking place between human men and women, especially homosexuality.

Benedict's rationale was that the punishment of such acts was in order to protect all Christianity from divine punishments such as natural disasters for carnal sins committed by individuals, but also for heresy, superstition and heathenry. According to Benedictus, this was why all mundane institutions had to be subjected to ecclesiastical power in order to prevent moral as well as religious laxity causing divine wrath.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}

=== 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}}