The Sexual Question Part 32

1. _Quaerat an sit semper mortale, si vir immitat pudenda in os uxoris...?_

_Verius affirmo, quia in hoc actu, ob calorem oris, adest proximum periculum pollutionis, et videtur nova species luxuriae contra naturam, dicta irruminatio._

2. _Eodem modo, Sanchez d.a.m.nat virum de mortali qui, in actu copulae, immite ret digitum in vas praeposterum uxoris; quia, ut ait, in hoc actu, adest affectus ad-Sodomiam_ (Liguori, t. VI, p. 935).

Let us now leave the celebrated Liguori and pa.s.s on to Burchard, the bishop of Worms. He has written a book on the questions which the priest should put at the confessional. Although this book no longer exists it has been for ages the guide of the Roman Catholic priests at the confessional. Dens, Liguori, Debreyne, etc., have taken from it their most savory pa.s.sages, to recommend them as a study for our present confessors. We will give a few examples:

(_a_) To young men:

1. _Fecisti solus tec.u.m fornicationem ut quidam facere solent; ita dico ut ipse tuum membrum virile in manum tuam acciperes, et sic duceres praeputium tuum, et manu propria commoveres, ut sic per illam delectationem s.e.m.e.n projiceres?_

2. _Fornicationem fecisti c.u.m masculo intra c.o.xas; ita dico ut tuum virile membrum intra c.o.xas alterius mitteres, et sic agitando s.e.m.e.n funderes?_

3. _Fecisti fornicationem, ut quidam facere solent, ut tuum virile membrum in lignum perforatum aut in aliquod hujus modi mitteres et sic per illam commotionem et delectationem s.e.m.e.n projiceres?_

4. _Fecisti fornicationem contra naturam, id est, c.u.m masculis vel animalibus coire, id est, c.u.m equo, c.u.m vacca vel asina, vel aliquo animali?_ (vol. I, p. 136).

(_b_) To young girls or women (same collection, p. 115):

1. _Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres solent, quoddam molimen, aut machinamentum in modum virilis membri ad mensuram tuae voluptatis, et illud loco verendorum tuorum aut alterius c.u.m aliquibus ligaturis ut fornicationem faceres c.u.m aliis mulieribus, vel alio eodem instrumento, sive alio tec.u.m?_

2. _Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut jam supra dicto molimine vel alio aliquo machinamento, tu ipsa in te solam faceres fornicationem?_

3. _Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, quando libidinem se vexantem extinguere volunt, quae se conjugunt quasi coire debeant et possint, et conjungunt invicem puerperio sua, et si fricando pruritum illarum extinguere desiderant?_

4. _Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut c.u.m filio tuo parvulo fornicationem faceres, ita dico ut filium tuum supra turpidinem tuam poneres ut sic imitaberis fornicationem?_

5. _Fecisti quod quaedam mulieres facere solent, ut succ.u.mberes aliquo jumento et illud jumentum ad coitum qualic.u.mque posses ingenio ut sic coiret tec.u.m?_

The celebrated Debreyne has written a whole book on the same subject for the instruction of young confessors, and in it he has enumerated all kinds of debauchery and s.e.xual perversion which he could imagine, "Maechiology," or _Treatise on all the Sins against the Sixth_ (seventh in the Decalogue) _and the Ninth_ (tenth) _Commandments_, as well as on all questions of married life connected with them.

This book is very celebrated and is widely studied in the Roman Church. We only quote from it the two following questions:

To men:

_Ad cognoscendum an usque ad pollutionem se tetigerint, quando tempore et quo fine se tetigerint; an tunc quoddam motus in corpore experti fuerint, et per quantum temporis spatium; an cessantibus tactibus nihil insolitum et turpe acciderit; ad non longe majorem in corpore voluptatem perciperint in fine inactum quam in eorum principio; an tum in fine quando magnam delectationem carnalem senserunt, omnes motus corporis cessaverint; an non malefacti fuerint?_ etc., etc.

To girls:

_Quae sese tetigisse fatentur, an non aliquem pruritum extinguere tentaverit, et utrum pruritus ille cessaverit c.u.m magnam senserint voluptatem; an tunc ipsimet tactus cessaverint?_

Among a thousand other a.n.a.logous precepts the reverend Kenrick, bishop of Boston, in the United States, gives the following to his confessors:

_Uxor quae, in usu matrimonii, se vert.i.t, ut non recipiat s.e.m.e.n, vel statim post illud acceptum surgit, ut expellatur, lethaliter peccat; sed opus non est ut diu resuspina jaceat, quum matrix, brevi s.e.m.e.n attrahat, et mox, arctissime claudatur._

_Puellae patienti licet se vertere et conari ut non recipiat s.e.m.e.n, quod injuria et emitt.i.tur; sed, acceptum non licet expellere, quia jam possessionem pacificam habet et haud absque injuria naturae ejiceretur._

_Conjuges senes plerumque coeunt absque culpa, licet contingat s.e.m.e.n extra vas effundi; id enim per accidens fit ex infirmitati naturae._

_Quod si vires adeo sint fractae ut nulla sit seminandi intra vas spes, jam nequeunt jure conjugi uti_ (vol. III, p. 317).

Such is the teaching of Chiniqui, the man whose courage and powerful individuality succeeded in introducing abstinence from alcohol in Canada. His long life was that of a pioneer and an inflexible champion of social and moral reform in that country, based on Christianity. He died at the age of ninety.

I have quoted the erotic precepts of the confessional from him, as I was anxious to quote from an absolutely reliable source. It was not with a light heart that Chiniqui abandoned the Catholic Church, but only after violent and bitter struggles with conscience, struggles of which he relates the tragic episodes, and which lasted for many years.

He commences the chapter from which we have quoted with the following words: "Let legislators, fathers and husbands read this chapter and ask themselves the question whether the respect which they owe to their mothers, their wives and their daughters does not impose upon them the duty of forbidding auricular confession. How is it possible for a young girl to remain pure in mind after such conversations with an unmarried man? Is she not more prepared for the depths of vice than for conjugal life?" The author of these lines is a man who was obliged for many years to be a confessor himself, and who understood to what extent confession corrupted the s.e.xual life of women and priests. It is true that persons, priests or women, of strong character, and especially those with a cold nature from the s.e.xual point of view, may resist such s.e.xual excitation. But has confession been specially inst.i.tuted for this type of character? Every one who is not a hypocrite will own that it is exactly the contrary.

=Religious Prudery.=--The results of such a combination of s.e.xual life with religious prescriptions are a mixture of ridiculous prudery and continual eroticism. In certain convents (those of the nuns of Galicia, for example) the nuns forbid their pupils to wash the s.e.xual organs, because it is improper! In Austria the nuns often cover the crucifix in their bedroom with a handkerchief, "so that Christ cannot see their nakedness"! But the convents of nuns, in the Middle Ages, were often transformed into brothels; and it is not uncommon to see hypocrites or the subjects of erotic hysteria (both men and women) perform s.e.xual orgies of the worst kind under the cloak of religious ecstasy.

=Hottentots. Eunuchs.=--Among the Hottentots, the lips of the v.u.l.v.a (_l.a.b.i.a minora_) in women are artificially elongated, and among the Orientals eunuchs are made. In themselves these two operations have certainly nothing to do with religion and only originated in profane customs. In the course of time they were made religious precepts, which has deeply rooted them in the customs of the people.

=Religious Eroticism.=--The examples which we have cited show to what extent man is disposed to clothe his eroticism with the cloak of religion. He then attributes a divine origin to his desires and lays the precepts which he attaches to them on the commandments of his G.o.d or G.o.ds, so as to sanctify them. Hence, the unnatural influence of a mysticism, which is nothing else than the crystallized product of the fantastic imagination of men, raised to a dogma, imposes itself indirectly on natural s.e.xual life, by entering at the back door under the cloak of religion. It is obvious that grave abuses or even vices often acquire the seal and power of religious precepts; while in the same domain a number of other customs or precepts are based on good hygienic or moral principles, for example, circ.u.mcision and conjugal fidelity.

It is perhaps in the domain of pathology that the relations of religion to s.e.xual life are the most striking (see Chapter VIII). We must not forget that the facts of reproduction seem to ignorant people and especially to barbarians, to be of a very mysterious nature. These people have no idea of germinal cells or their conjugation. They see in conception, embryogeny, pregnancy and birth, the miraculous effects of a divine and occult higher power--of the divinity, often even of the devil.

The violent excitement which is a.s.sociated with the s.e.xual appet.i.te and with love urges man to ecstasy; hence it is not to be wondered at that eroticism is so often complicated by ecstatic religious sentiments.

In his book on Psychopathia s.e.xualis, Krafft-Ebing remarks how easily religion, poetry and eroticism are combined and mingled in the obscure feelings and presentiments of maturing youth. In the life of saints there is always the question of s.e.xual temptations, in which the most elevated and ideal sentiments are mixed with the most repugnant erotic images. On the same basis are developed the s.e.xual orgies of different religious fetes in the ancient world, as well as in certain modern sects.

Mysticism, religious ecstasy and s.e.xual voluptuousness are often combined in a real trinity, and one often sees unsatisfied sensuality seek compensation in religious exaltation. Krafft-Ebing cites the following cases from Friedreich's "Legal Psychology" (p. 389):

In this way the nun Blaubekin was perpetually tormented by the thought of what happened to the part of Jesus' body removed by circ.u.mcision.

In order to make his devotions to the lamb of G.o.d, Veronique Juliani, who was canonized by Pope Pius II, took into his chamber a terrestrial lamb, embraced it and sucked its b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Saint Catherine of Genes often suffered from such internal heat, that, to cool herself, she laid on the ground, crying: "Love, love, I can do no more!" In doing this she felt a peculiar inclination for her confessor. One day, putting his hand to her nose, she perceived an odor which penetrated her heart, "a celestial odor the voluptuousness of which could wake the dead."

=The Role of Mental Pathology in Religious Eroticism.=--Among the insane, and especially in women, but also in men afflicted with _paranoia_ (a mental disease) we often find a strange and repugnant mixture of eroticism and religious images. Such are the everlasting betrothals with Christ, the Virgin Mary, with G.o.d or with the Holy Spirit, betrothals in which the venereal o.r.g.a.s.m is combined with imaginary coitus and masturbation, followed by imaginary pregnancy and childbirth. These symptoms give us a clear indication of the relation which exists between eroticism and religious exaltation. The French alienists have even designated them by the characteristic term of "erotico-religious delirium." A single visit to the female division of a lunatic asylum is often sufficient to satisfy the visitor.

A point which has received less attention is the immense historical influence which certain psychopathological personalities, chiefly hysterical subjects, but also some crazy persons or hereditary visionaries, have exercised at all times on human destiny, usually by the aid of the suggestive effects of s.e.xual and religious ideas (erotico-religious), the connections of which have not always been clear.

Every psychiatrist knows the insane whose delirium is combined with religious or mystic exaltation, and who by the mysticism of their delirium have exercised and continue to exercise a profound influence on the ma.s.s of humanity which surround them--"Panurge's Sheep," if I may use the expression. These people are themselves so dominated by the pathological influence of their auto-suggestions or their delirium that they behave with the fanaticism of fakirs, and exhibit an extraordinary energy and perseverance in the pursuit of the object of their morbid ideas. By their a.s.surance, the sentiment of infallibility, and the fire of faith which is manifested in their prophetical manner, they fascinate the feeble brains of the people who surround them and attract them by their suggestive action.

A very human and often powerful eroticism is usually a.s.sociated with their delirium; but it is covered by a cloak of religious ecstasy, which imposes on natures disposed to exaltation, and renders them blind to the ignominy which often lies under this ecstasy.

What makes these patients so persuasive is the fact that they are themselves persuaded. Even the normal man, we must admit, is guided less by reason than by sentiment, and the persons we have just described exert a powerful action on sentiment, and this more by their piercing glance, their prophetic and dominating tone, their manner and appearance, than by the extremely confused text of their discourses and doctrines.

In this way there are always arising small epidemics of attraction in which a group of individuals allows itself to be infatuated by so-called prophets, messiahs, holy virgins and other visionaries, who are only lunatics or crazy persons. Under their influence are produced certain forms of insanity by contagion, which have been called double, triple or quadruple madness, and which may sometimes take the form of an epidemic.

When the "prophet" is more consistent in his words and actions, or when his environment is still very ignorant and superst.i.tious, the crowd of believers increases still more rapidly, and thus one sees even at the present day in less-civilized countries new sects or religious guilds, more or less ephemeral, in which the spirit of the prophet sometimes stirs up grave s.e.xual orgies.

Among more cultured people the prophet is generally exposed or sent to a lunatic asylum, much to the indignation of his disciples, who often consist of his wife and children and a few feeble-minded acquaintances.

Thanks to the cheapness of printing, these prophets often publish their new religious system and sell it among their dupes. I possess a small library of works of this kind which have been sent me by their authors; probably with the idea that they might one day be taken for fools, and to prove to me in advance that they were not.

According to them, G.o.d has personally revealed to them the new truth in which they believe, and has appointed them as prophets. Erotic images are generally a.s.sociated with their system. One of them, whose system is astronomical, divides the planets into males and females.

Another, a lunatic, describes the pathological s.e.xual sensations by the term of "psycho-s.e.xual contact by action at a distance." These are phenomena which we meet with at each step in psychiatry, and which give the clue to what follows.

=The Historical Role of Mental Anomalies which are Not Very Apparent and Border on Genius. Their Influence on Religious Eroticism.=--These persons are not always afflicted with paranoia or other grave psychoses, but often hereditary and const.i.tutional psychopaths who are only half-crazy or simply hysterical, and who may, in spite of this defect, possess a certain degree of intellectual power, an energetic will and the fire of enthusiasm. Things then take an essentially different course, even when they rest on an a.n.a.logous basis.