In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

XIV "THOSE WHO WERE ONCE POLLUTED WITH ANIMALS OR MALES, OR WHO STILL LANGUISH IN THIS VICE" "The holy synod commands that those who have lived irrationally and who have polluted others with the leprosy of this unjust crime are to pray among those who are struck with an unclean spirit."64 Clearly, while it does not say, "who corrupt others with the leprosy of this unjust crime," but "pollute" which, however, corresponds to the title where it begins with those polluted but not corrupted, it isclear that in whatever way a male is polluted with a male through lustful ardour, he is commanded to pray among the demoniacs and not among Christian Catholics. And so if carnal men do not know how to realize what they are from one another, at least they can be instructed by those with whom they are relegated in the common penitentiary of prayer. It is just enough that those who commit their flesh to the demons through such filthy intercourse against the law of nature and the order of human reason be allotted the common nook of prayer along with demoniacs. For inasmuch as human nature itself completely rejects these evils and stands opposed to there being any incompatibility between the sexes, it is clearer than day that these men would never presume to do such strange things to which they were disinclined 64 Council of Ancyra, canon 17 (PL 67, 154D); see Ryan, Damiani (31, text 22). The original Ancyra canons 16 and 17 are translated in K. J. Hefele, A History of the Christian Councilsfrom the OriginalDocuments to the Close of the Council of .Nicaea, A. D. 325, trans, by W. R. Clark (Edinburgh, 1894), 215-17. 59 60 Book of Gomorrah unless evil spirits possessed them fully as if they were "vessels fit for wrath, ready to be destroyed."65 But when they begin to take possession of them, the evil spirits pour the infernal poison of their evil throughout the whole possessed heart which they fill so that the possessed eagerly desire not what the natural motion of the flesh urgently demands, but what diabolical precipitation offers. When a male rushes to a male to commit impurity, this is not the natural impulse of the flesh, but only the goad of diabolical impulse. This is why the holy fathers carefully established that sodomists pray together with the deranged since they did not doubt that the sodomists were possessed by the same diabolical spirit. So how can one who is separated from the congregation of the whole people and commanded to pray only among the demoniacs assist as mediator between God and the people through the dignity of the priestly office? However, since we have taken care to use two testimonies from one sacred council, let us also insert what Basil the Great thinks of the vice under discussion so that "on the testimony of two or three witnesses every word shall be established."66 He says: 65 See Rom. 9:22. 66 See Deut. 19:15; 2 Cor. 13:1; Burchard, 7.17 (PL 140, 782C). ...

Share