Middle English Literature

Lechers and Sodomites
After the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the classification of sins into
groups and degrees of severity had even more pragmatic consequences.
Drawing on earlier canon law, a principal focus of the pastoral function
became the redemption of sinners through sermon and confession, and new
compendia of writings on the priest’s role in confession as well as practical
instructional manuals for administering confession appeared. Discussions of
sexuality in The Book of Vices and Virtues draw on this categorizing impulse
(see “Chastity, Marriage, Widowhood, and Virginity,” p. 93). Invariably,
sins “against nature,” sodomitical acts, are named as the most severe form
of luxuria, and they encompass bestiality, same-sex practices, and any other
act that does not lead to procreation, such as oral sex and masturbation.
Primary documents and further reading
Boswell, J. (1980) Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in
Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
11
united.

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Bullough, V. L., and J. A. Brundage (eds.) (2000) Handbook of Medieval Sexuality.
New York: Garland.
Burger, G. (2002) Chaucer’s Queer Nation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Press.
Dinshaw, C. (1999) “Eunuch Hermeneutics.” In D. Pearsall (ed.) Chaucer to Spenser:
A Critical Reader. Oxford: Blackwell, 65–106.
Jordan, M. D. (1997) The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Mannyng, R. (1997) [1901, 1903] Robert of Brunne’s “Handlyng Synne,” ed. F. J.
Furnivall. 2 parts. EETS, o.s. 119, 123. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer.
Michel, D. (1866) Ayenbite of Inwyt, or Remorse of Conscience, ed. R. Morris. EETS,
o.s. 23. London: Trübner.
Huntington Library MS HM 147, fols. 16v–17v. In W. N. Francis (ed.) (1942) The Book of
Vices and Virtues: A Fourteenth Century English Translation of the Somme le Roi of Lorens
d’Orléans. EETS, o.s. 217. London: Oxford University Press, 43–6.
Manuscript date: ca. 1400
Language: English (Southeast Midland)
The sixte heved of this best [of deadly sin] is lecherie, that is outrajeous
love and yvel ordeyned in lykyng of reyns
1
or in delyt of fleschely lustes.
And in this synne tempteth the devel a man in fyve maneres, as Seynt
Gregory seith: First in folily lokes. And after in foule wordes. And after in
foule touchynges. And after in foule kissynges. And after cometh a man
to do the dede.
2
For thurgh the folily lokes cometh a man to speke, and
fro speche to touchynge, and fro touchynge to kissynge, and fro the kissynge
to the foule dede of synne. And thus slyghly bryngeth the devel fro on in-to
a-nother. This synne is departed first in two maneres, for ther is lecherie in
herte and lecherie in body.
Lecherie of herte hath foure degres, for ther is a spirit that is cleped a
spirit of fornicacioun that serveth for the synne of lecherie. First he maketh
thoughtes come and the figures and liknesses of that synne in a mannes or
a wommannes herte, and maketh hym thenke ther-on. And after the hirte
abideth and dwelleth stille and deliteth, and natheles thei ne wolde not do
the dede for no thing. That ilke dwellyng and the delyt that is the secunde
degre may be dedly synne, ye, so gret may be the delit. The thridde degre
is the acord of the herte and of the resoun and of the wille, and suche acord
is evere-more dedly synne. After assyntynge cometh desire and the grete
1
loins, sexual gratification.
2
Gregory the Great (ca. 540–604), Moralia in Job.
Lechers and Sodomites
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Gender, Sexuality, and Difference
brennynge wille that thei haveth to synne, and doth mo than twelve synnes
on the thridde day; that is to beholde thes ladies and thes maidenes and
dameseles araied and apparailed that ofte sithe apparailen hem more queyntely
and gaily for to make nyse lokers to loken on hem, and weneth not to do
gret synne, for thei have no wille to do the synne the more in dede. But
certeynly thei synneth wel grevously, for thei maken and beth cause of losse
of many soules, and wher-thurgh many man is ded and falleth in-to gret
synne, for men seyn in olde proverbes, “Ladies of riche and gay apparail is
arwblast of tour.” For sche hath no membre on hire body that nys a grynne
of the devel, as Salamon seith,
3
wherfore thei mote yelde acountes at the
day of dom of alle the soules that by enchesoun of
4
hem are dampned, that
is to seye, whan a womman gyveth enchesoun
5
and cause to synnen, here
wytynge.
Lecherie of body is departed in lecherous biholdyng, and heryng, spekynge,
and handlynge, and in alle the fyve wittes, and namely in the foule dede. To
that synne longen alle thinges that a mannes flesch is meved to, and desireth
fleschly lustes, as ben outrageous etynges and drynkynges and esy beddynges,
and delicious and softe schertes and smokkes and swote
6
robes of scarlet,
and alle othere eses of the body that is more than nede is.
The synne of lecherie is departed in many braunches as after the staates of
persones that doth it, and evere it clymbeth upper and upper, and alwey
wors and wors. The first is of man and womman that beth not bounde bi a
vow, ne bi mariage, ne bi ordre, ne bi religioun, ne bi othere weies. Yit is
this the first dedly synne of lecherie, who-so doth it. The secounde is with
a comune womman. That synne is wel more, for it is fouler. And for suche
ben ofte of religioun and forsaketh no man, that is to seye brother, ne
cosyn, ne fadre. The thridde is a man unbounde with a womman bounde bi
a vow. The ferthe is with a mayde. The fifthe is with a womman maried,
that is cleped in holy writ avoutrie; that is a wel grevous synne, for ther is
brekyng of oure bileve and trewthe that that on schal bere to that other,
also ther is the synne of sacrilege, whan a man breketh the sacrament of holi
chirche, that is of mariage. And ther-of cometh ofte disheritynges, and false
heires, and wrongful mariages. And this synne doubleth otherwhile, as a man
maried with a-nother mannes wif, and also a womman maried with a-nother
man y-maried that is nought hire owne husbonde. The sixte is whan a man
3
Ecclesiastes 7.27.
4
I.e., because of.
5
occasion.
6
beautiful.

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with his owne wif doth thing forboden and defended, agens kynde and agens
the ordre of wedloke, for a man may slen hymself with his owne swerd, and
also a man may do dedly synne with his owne wif, and therfore smot God
Ozam, Jacobes cosyn.
7
And the devel that height Asmodeus strangelede
sevene husbondes of the holy womman Sare that afterward was yong Tobies
wif.
8
For alle the sacramentes of holy chirche scholde men fare clenly with
and holde hem in gret reverence and worschipe. The sevene is a man with
his modre or with his doughter, or with the children of his godfadre or of
his godmodre, for suche folke mowe not come to-gidre with-out dedly
synne, not in mariage. The eighthe, a man with his kynnes womman, and
this synne is grettere and smallere after that the kyn is nygh or feer. The
nynthe is a man with his wyves kyn or the womman with hire housbondes
kyn. This synne is wel perilous, for whan a man taketh a womman, he may
not after that wedde noon of hire coseynes and, yif he take any of hem, the
mariage is as noon; and yif he take a womman and after taketh a-nother of
hire kyn, he leseth the right that he had to his wif, in as moche that he may
not dele with hire but if sche bidde hym bifore-hond. The tenthe, a womman
with a clerke with-ynne holi ordre. That synne is grettere or smallere as the
ordres beth gretter or smaller. The eleventhe is with a womman of religioun
or a womman of the world with a man of religioun. The twelfthe is a man
of religioun with a womman of religion, and this synne is more or lasse after
that the staat is of hem that doth it. The threttenthe is of prelates of holi
chirche that scholde be techers bi ensaumple of hemself and to al the world
of alle clennesses and of alle holynesses. The last is so foule and so hidous
that [it] scholde not be nempned,
9
that is synne agens kynde that the devel
techeth to a man or to a womman in many wises that mowe not be spoken,
for the matere is so foul that it is abhomynacioun to speke it; but natheles,
be it man or womman that be gilty ther-of, he mote telle it openly in his
schrifte to the prest as it was y-don. For in that that the synne is fouler and
schamfuller, in so moche is the schrift more worth, for the schame that he
hath that schryveth hym ther-of, for that is gret part of his penaunce. This
synne is so myslykyng to God that he made reyne fier and stynkynge brymston
upon the citees of Sodom and Gomorre, and sunke in-to helle fyve citees.
10
The devel hymself, that purchaseth that synne, is squeymous ther-of whan
any doth it.
7
2 Samuel 6–7.
8
Tobias 6.14.
9
named.
10
Genesis 18–19.
Lechers and Sodomites
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Gender, Sexuality, and Difference