Book of Gomorrah: An Eleventh-Century Treatise against Clerical Homosexual Practices

III. Those Given over to Unclean Acts Should Not Be Promoted to Orders, and Those Already Promoted Should Not Remain in Orders

III THOSE GIVEN OVER TO UNCLEAN ACTS SHOULD NOT BE PROMOTED TO ORDERS, AND THOSE ALREADY PROMOTED SHOULD NOT REMAIN IN ORDERS It seems utterly preposterous to us that those who are habitually defiled with this festering contagion would dare either to be promoted to orders or to remain in their rank if already promoted since it is proved to be contrary to reason and against the canonicaldecrees of the fathers. However, I do not make this claim as though I were offering a definitively decisive judgment in the presence of your majesty, but simply in order to make my own opinion known. In fact, this shameful act is not improperly believed to be worsethan all other crimes since, indeed, we read that almighty God always dealt with this detested evil in one way. Even before he had placed the bridle of legal precept on the other vices, he was already censuring it with the punishment of a severe penalty. There is no need to mention that he destroyed the two famous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their surrounding regions by sulphur and fire from heaven.6 Scripture attests that he struck down Onan, the son ofJudah, with premature death for this nefarious crime, "Onan knew that the descendants would not be counted as his, so whenever he had relations with his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order that children not be born in the 6 See Gen. 19. 32 Promotion to Orders, Expulsion from Orders 33 name of his brother. And for this the Lord killed him, because he had done a detestable thing."7 It is also written in the Law, "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have done evil and shall be put to death; their blood will be upon them."8 Moreover, blessed Pope Gregory testifies to the fact that a man who has fallen into that crime which the Old Law commands to be condemned by death must not be promoted to ecclesiastical orders. In his letters he writes to Bishop Passivus, saying: Your fraternity has known well for how long a time Aprutium has been without pastoral care while we searched unsuccessfully for someone worthy of ordination. But because Importunus is reported to me as having conducted his life consistent with his moral principles and is praised for his zeal in psalm-singing and his love of prayer, we wish that your fraternity have this man present himself to you, and that you discover from [an examination of] his soul how far he has advanced in good deeds. And if no faults are found in him which stand in the way as items punishable by death under the rule of sacred Law, let him be ordained9 by you as either a monk or subdeacon. After a further period of time, if it please God, let him be promoted to the pastoral care.10 So from this we clearlygather that any male who falls into sin with a male—into that crime, as we showed above, which is surely to be punished by death in the judgment of the Old Law—even if he burns with the zeal of psalm-singing, and is distinguished in his love of prayer, and leads a full religious life under a witness of approved reputation, can indeed receive full pardon for his offence, but he is never permitted to aspire to ecclesiasticalorders. For even though that venerable man Importunus—marked with the badge of such a reli7 Gen. 38:9-10. The point here seems to be that Onan's contraceptive act was as "unnatural" as homosexual acts since both were punished with death. 8 Lev. 20:13. 9 Damian's text here reads "ordinandus est" = "to be ordained" (PL 145, 163A) and is repeated a little further on. The text of John the Deacon's Life of Gregory reads "hortandus" = "to be exhorted" (PL 75, 137B). The critical text of the letters of Pope Gregory I reads "tonsorandus" and gives the variants, "orandus" and "hortandus" (ed. by L. Hartmann, Gregorii I registrum epistolarum, MGH, Epistolae 2, 305). "Ordinandus" seems the least suitable reading, but its repetition later suggests that it was in the text Damian had at hand. 10 John the Deacon, Life of Gregory (PL 75, 137B); see Ryan, Damtani (28, text 16). 34 Book of Gomorrah gious and...