Eusebius tells the story that Origen castrated himself in a fit of
youthful zeal to overcome lust. However, my understanding was that
voluntary castration was forbidden by the church, and castrated men were
restricted from clerical positions (as was a concern with Abelard).
(Reasons? One should control lust through an act of the will, resisting
temptation? Or notions of the "whole man"?).
Perhaps we need to make a distinction between: 1) stories,
particularly literary motifs, of castration as punishment ("poetic
justice") 2) actual accounts of castration (eg Origen, Abelard, slaves,
etc) and 3) legal precedents of castration as a possible punishment for
sexual sins (I have my doubts, given the church's attitude, but I will
defer to Brundage's excellent work on the legal side of things). I
suspect that 1) and 3) have less to do with each other than 1) and 2).
That is, I don't think stories reflect legal conditions, but may reflect
particular incidents, such as Abelard's notorious case.
By the way, did Heloise's uncle castrate Abelard BECAUSE of common
stories of such justice (ie, such stories circulated in France, and he
was influenced by them to think it was an appropriate action to take).
Or, did Abelard's case spur the outpouring of stories. Or both. Somewhat
of a chicken-egg question, but it might be interesting to check the
dates on your popular stories.
Karen Jolly
--
Dr. Karen Jolly
Associate Professor, History
University of Hawai`i at Manoa
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http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly
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