CASTRATION AS PUNISHMENT ?
1 Late medieval (in use at least till ca1690) punishment for High
Treason in England was, to be Hung, Drawn & Quartered. Drawn was defined as
<<..his parts cut off, and his heart cut out>>: they were then
burnt. Usually this was done immediately after the hanging ie while
you were still there to notice, but if people felt kind (sympathetic
Sherriff or crowd) you could be left to hang until dead. Idea was
evidently to show publicly that the source of life, and more
important, the source of new life, was to be cut off absolutely.
Possibly the hanging first (rather than afterwards) was a
medieval idea of <<Mercy>>, or it may just have proved in
experience an easier sequence. The accounts of many 16 & 17 century
executions of Catholic priests, monks, laypeople make the facts
plentifully clear.
BUT (a) It seems to have been assumed that women wouldn't be
traitors - maybe they were classed as witches first?
(b) This isn't partial punishment, such as (I presume) the question
supposes.
2 Castration itself was used as a puunishment in 11c China (says
New Catholic Encyclopedia, but gives no ref), but more detail is
given in DACL (Dictionnaire d'Archeologie Chretienne et Liturgie)
vol 2.2 col 2370
(a) Notorious case of Origen (which is why he isn't Saint Origen)
who castrated himself out of ascetic enthusiasm as a young man
(Eusebius Hist Eccles 6.3 & 6.8 (in PG20.529,537))
(b) Gospel (Mt19.12) says there are three kinds of eunuch, those
made so by men, those so by nature and those who have made
themselves so (? metaphorical, justification of virginity). Hence
Origen's action
Hence also gradual conviction in Church that <<mutilation>>
should exclude orders: then distinction (Nicea, I think) between
those who self-mutilated, excluded, and those mut. by barbarians
or enemies (allowed). Latter generally dropped in medieval
times, so Chaucer's PARDONER may have been a Pardoner because he
could not be a priest.
(c) Ancient world reckoned that castration added to the value of a
slave (more reliable in the domestic scene) long before the
Italians (and others) found a musical value in it. If something
has high market value, or used to have, it takes a while before
you will use it as a punishment.
Finally, the general medieval concept of order (kept people like
Augustine and Aquinas happy, and still valid in Shakepeare) suggests
that <<mutilation>> was of itself horrible, and therefore fitting
for someone (like a traitor) who also was ipso facto horrible.
But I am not sure I have answered the originall question!
Anselm Cramer OSB
Ampleforth Abbey
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