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I THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF THOSE WHO SIN AGAINST NATURE Four types of this form of criminal wickednesscan be distinguished in an effort to show you the totality of the whole matter in an orderly way: some sin with themselves alone; some commit mutual masturbation ; some commit femoral fornication; and finally, others commit the complete act against nature.3 The ascending gradation among these is such that the last mentioned are judged to be more serious than the preceding. Indeed, a greater penanceis imposed on those who fall with others than on those who defile only themselves; and those who complete the act are to be judged more severely than those who are defiled through femoral fornication. The devil's artful fraud devises these degrees of falling into ruin such that the higher the level the unfortunate soul reaches in them, the deeper it sinks in the depths of hell's pit. 3 Ryan, Damiani (28, text 15)suggests that this division is a summary of the detailed descriptions in Burchard's "Interrogatory for Confessors," Decretum 19.5 (PL 140, 967D-68B). The expressions "mutual masturbation" and "femoral fornication " are used to render what are literally "some by the hands of others" and "others between the thighs" respectively. Seethe very old (ca. A.D. 550) division in the Synod of the Grove of Victory, canon 8 in Bieler, Irish Penitentials, 69. For some reason Bieler does not translate the details of this canon, which reads, "Whoever commits the male crime as the Sodomites [shall do penance] for four years; whoever in the thighs, three years; whoever by the hand of another or his own, two years." 29 ...

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