tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695629527809122785.post1419514217661753284..comments2019-11-08T02:46:44.236-08:00Comments on Pseudo-Isidore: A Blog: Towards a Theory of Pseudo-Isidore: Part IVEric Knibbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13954387898954118551noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695629527809122785.post-14482851322418960162015-06-15T23:03:35.827-07:002015-06-15T23:03:35.827-07:00And where the plot really starts to thicken is whe...And where the plot really starts to thicken is when you remember that Benedict and Pseudo-Isidore were cooked up in the Germanic kingdom of Francia, and that Benedict is the first known source in the West since at least the Old Testament to introduce burning at the stake as the standard punishment for sodomy or sexual deviance (which he, too, equated with witchcraft) outside of Germanic tribal law. Hence, "everyone whom [...] secular law calls 'infamis' " could mean more than just Roman law. It even makes me wonder if "indigna loca" could actually mean something like "wrong holes", but it could just as well refer to defilement of graves or, within the context of witchcraft (veneficium = poisoning), the places where witches sabbaths would be held.<br /><br />"Changing one's dress", while you give a perfectly sound explanation, suspiciously reminds me of Germanic 'yki' swearwords or accuses closely related to being 'earg', which frequently (many, many Germanic tribal and guild laws of Francia, the Mark of the Danes, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Langobardian Northern Italy, and Terra Anglo-Saxia attest to this) refer to the crime of male transvestism, i. e. wearing female clothes as a male. On the other hand, the medieval Christian form of "ashes and rags" (Büßerhemd) consisted of a fur rag, which is said to have been derived from the pre-Christian vernacular custom of stigmatizing certain criminals by making them wear fur rags, as sexual predators were traditionally likened to raging wolves in Germanic mythology.<br /><br />Benedict also equated sodomia with satanism, that is he maintained a link between sexual deviance with pure evil and thus adopted another traditional Germanic association, and particularly this link was later capitalized upon by Sprenger & Institoris in their "Malleus maleficarum" in a line directly descendent from Benedict. In fact, it seems like satanism as later conceived and persecuted by the Inquisition was indeed originally the Germanic charge of witchcraft (aka a demonic kind of both poisonous and lecherous black magic known as 'seid' in the Germanic language) as translated into Christianity by Benedict.<br /><br />And to tie this all up in a neat, coherent package by referring to the old church-vs.-state debate above: What better propaganda tool to scare and bluntly bludgeoning people into submission during a power struggle than a good ol' moral panic related to a seemingly innate, congenital, ubiquitious, all-conquering, and all-devouring menace of Original Sin, particularly carnal sin?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695629527809122785.post-43913871931960642722015-06-15T23:02:20.528-07:002015-06-15T23:02:20.528-07:00However, considering the fact I first learned of P...However, considering the fact I first learned of Pseudo-Isidore in the context of Benedict Levita's role in the history of sodomy in the West at the very time when older harsh secular laws upon sexual deviance threatened to be superseded by hitherto "soft" ecclesiastical penitentials ("Pray and/or feast for so many weeks" or, at outmost, "You're excluded from last rites forever"), it's interesting to note that in Agde 61, the proto-forgers of the interpolated Hispana specifically targeted a canon on sexual relations, and in Toledo VI 8 a canon on adultery.<br /><br />Another fun fact: The definitions of 'infames' given in the False Decretal letter Ps. Stephens (that you cite at http://pseudoisidore.blogspot.de/search/label/infames ) in that particular set or grouping of charges associated with 'infames' people pretty much echo those from Tacitus's "ignavi, imbelles, et corpore infames" in his "Germania" which were according to Tacitus a category of criminals ritually killed by proto-historic Germanics. The exact nature of their crimes as persecuted by proto-historic Germanics have in modern times been interpolated (by incorporating other sources on proto-historic Germanic or Norse mythology and comparative religion) to include mainly treason, desertion, violation of graves, cowardice, perjury, murder by poisoning/witchcraft (pretty much the only known legal Germanic definition of murder, with poisoning in turn as the pivotal definition of witchcraft), and especially sexual deviance (particularly same-sex relations among males and bestiality), all included in the one Germanic adjective 'earg' (as the one defining quality of this category of criminals) which covered all three aspects as related by Tacitus's "ignavi, imbelles, et corpore infames".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8695629527809122785.post-21872180524614722252015-06-15T23:00:15.977-07:002015-06-15T23:00:15.977-07:00I'd say that most of the interpolations you ca...I'd say that most of the interpolations you call "all over the map" can be traced fairly easily to one single overarching issue, and that's the ol' argument of church vs. state, questions of hierarchy, and who has the right to denounce and dethrone whom, as it would later crop up again with the Investiture Controversy (which is also when, unsurprisingly under this working hypothesis, the False Decretals began to *REALLY* take off in reception and success and Pseudo-Isidorian ideas truly became widely spread).<br /><br />Remember, these themes of power (also, money = power), authority, and hierarchy already appear with Charlemagne's Admonitio Generalis and the Council of Paris, and in a way, the False Decretals seem to continue in this veign. Incidentally, I now see on Wikipedia that the chorbishops were called ''missi'' as the Pope's messengers at the time, so much about my earlier theory that these "messengers" would be the forgers. Sounds more like the "missi" blurbs next to sections to-be-excerpted for Pseudo-Isidore were sort-of a warning: "Remember this, ye oldfashioned messengers that we seek to replace...!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com