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Greetings, listmates. Yesterday, while I was looking around for something to read while consuming my lunch, my eyes fell on my copy of the Golden Legend, and I thought I would read what James of Voragine had to say about the Nativity. As he discusses the ways in which all creatures bore witness to the birth of Christ, he throws in the following: "And even the sodomites gave witness by being exterminated wherever they were in the world on that night, as Jerome says: 'A light rose over them so bright that all who practiced this vice were wiped out; and Christ did this in order that no such uncleanness might be found in the nature he had assumed.' For, as Augustine says, God, seeing that a vice contrary to nature was rife in human nature, hesitated to become incarnate." (Ryan translation, pg. 41) Now, reading this did not exactly lift my holiday spirits--in fact I was left quite depressed by the savagery of the sentiment. But the passage also left me puzzled. Based on what I've read about the evolution of attitudes towards homosexuality, it seems unlikely that Jerome actually thought all "sodomites" died at the first Christmas. Does anyone have a clue, then, about when and where this nasty legend originated? Megan -- Megan McLaughlin Associate Professor of History and Women's Studies University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 309 Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright St. Urbana, IL 61801 U.S.A. Phone: 217-244-2084 Fax: 217-333-2297 E-mail: [log in to unmask]