Sodomy

Use in the book

The extended Latin catalogue first gives alleged human–animal unions and fabulous births, then turns to intercourse with human beings under “peccatum Sodomiæ”. The preceding quotation expressly speaks of men with men, and the following examples allege male attachments; the general word human in the Latin transition should not obscure that local context. Centaurs and woodland spirits are fabulous products of the story, not biological findings. The surrounding sequence moves from biblical condemnation to accusations about Greeks, Italians, Africans, Asians and classical figures. These are heterogeneous mythic, literary and polemical materials. The supplied note particularly cautions that Alcibiades’ failed attempt to seduce Socrates in Plato illustrates Socrates’ self-command, rather than proving Burton’s hostile reading.

Calling sodomy the Romans’ Diana turns the accusation into a charge of idolatrous devotion. The ensuing reproductive metaphors and allegations about husbands, Italians, clergy and Poliziano maintain the polemical escalation. Burton then expressly says he uses Bale’s words for the sexual catalogue applied to religious houses: its “Sodomitæ” occurs among overlapping insults, rather than providing a precise classification. The following paragraphs extend the attack and add more labels. In the preliminaries, the singular accusation against Socrates likewise belongs to a hostile compilation, not established biography.

The English pair “sodomy, buggery” appears after the account, attributed to Giovio, of selecting and conscripting girls for rulers and nobles. The argument is that this provision still fails to restrain the alleged conduct. Elsewhere plural sodomies and buggeries are charged against monks and friars, and the reversed pairing belongs to an assertion that rash celibate vows generate diseases and crimes. Those causal claims remain Burton’s historical anti-celibacy argument, not medical findings or independently verified institutional histories.

A different use occurs in consolation to someone acknowledging an offence. Sodomy is one named offence whose public memory will supposedly be displaced by new scandal. Burton challenges faultless accusers and unequal punishment, but ends by urging repentance, forgiveness, amendment and reform. Consolation is not acquittal. Finally, the “incestious Sodomites” of the gods catalogue are mythic beings declared unworthy of worship in a Christian argument associated with Mornay. Their crimes, occupations and human weaknesses form that polemic, continued through Lucian, Pliny and Diagoras.

Related entries

Quean and slut: Other disparaging sexual labels require local scope and attribution.

Venery: The broader historical vocabulary of sexual acts.

Continence: Enforced continence and the arguments against celibate vows.

Religion and superstition: Polemical claims about pagan gods and religious institutions.

Places to read

1. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 20Context: hostility to the supposed wisdom of philosophers.
2. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 21Sodomite is an accusation against Socrates in Burton’s hostile compilation.
3. Democritus Junior to the Reader · paragraph 22Continuation of the attack on philosophical reputation.
4. Subsection 4 Symptoms of Melancholy in Unmarried Women, Nuns and Widows · paragraph 14Context: enforced continence and the anti-celibacy argument.
5. Subsection 4 Symptoms of Melancholy in Unmarried Women, Nuns and Widows · paragraph 15Plural sodomies and buggeries amid anti-monastic allegations; marginal medical and polemical authorities.
6. Subsection 4 Symptoms of Melancholy in Unmarried Women, Nuns and Widows · paragraph 16Continuation of the historical argument about enforced restraint.
7. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 28The speaker acknowledges wrongdoing and its shame.
8. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 29Public remembrance and the passage of time.
9. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 30New events displace older scandal.
10. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 31Sodomy among named offences in consolation against lasting public shame.
11. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 32Continuation of the consolation.
12. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 33The accusers’ own faults are invoked.
13. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 34Unequal punishment of poor and powerful.
14. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 35Latin bird-catching analogy for selective punishment.
15. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 36Burton’s separate English restatement of the bird analogy.
16. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 37Universal fallibility does not remove moral judgement.
17. Member 7 Against Rejection, Abuse, Injuries, Contempt, Disgrace, Insults, Slander, Mockery and the Like · paragraph 38Explicit repentance, forgiveness, amendment and reform.
18. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 22Destruction of cities, including Sodom, in the rhetoric of lust’s effects.
19. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 23Disease and disaster catalogue supplies the condemnatory frame.
20. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 24Scriptural accusation precedes the extended Latin catalogue.
21. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 25Peccatum Sodomiæ after alleged unions and fabulous births; broad accusations against peoples.
22. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 26Accusations concerning classical figures; the note distinguishes Plato’s actual Alcibiades episode.
23. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 27Literary, biographical and polemical claims are mixed.
24. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 28Sodomia as the Romans’ Diana: a hostile idol metaphor.
25. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 29Sowing on rocks and ploughing sand continue the hostile fertility imagery.
26. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 30Allegations about husbands, Italians and clergy remain attributed.
27. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 31The Poliziano anecdote is another unverified allegation.
28. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 32Latin Sodomitæ in Burton’s expressly acknowledged quotation of Bale.
29. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 33The attack extends from religious houses to social elites.
30. Subsection 2 How Love Tyrannizes Over Human Beings. Love, or Heroical Melancholy: Its Definition and the Part Affected · paragraph 34Further sexual labels continue the heterogeneous catalogue.
31. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, and So Forth · paragraph 32Rulers and magnates introduce the claim about numerous partners.
32. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, and So Forth · paragraph 33Sodomy and buggery paired after the reported conscription of girls.
33. Member 2. Subsection 1. Causes of Heroic Love: Bodily Temperament, Plentiful Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, and So Forth · paragraph 34Rich, idle, well-fed youth and the difficulty of chastity.
34. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 10Context: the disputed merits of celibate vows.
35. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 11Reversed buggery/sodomy pairing among allegedly consequent diseases and crimes.
36. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 12Bale’s Catalogue of Sodomites and an unverified allegation; body and margin disagree numerically.
37. Subsection 5 The Last and Best Cure for Love Melancholy Is to Let Lovers Have Their Desire · paragraph 13Continuation of the anti-vow polemic and its attributed theological claim.
38. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraph 11Context: the Christian attack on pagan representations of divinity.
39. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraph 12Incestious Sodomites is an accusation against mythic gods, with Mornay cited.
40. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraph 13Human weakness supplies further arguments against their divinity.
41. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraph 14Lucian, Pliny and Diagoras continue the attack on idolatry.

In this edition

“Peccatum Sodomiæ” becomes “the sin of sodomy”: peccatum supplies sin and Sodomiæ the genitive of sodomy. “Diana Romanorum Sodomia” becomes “Sodomy is the Romans’ Diana”, preserving the idol metaphor. Latin “Sodomitæ” becomes “sodomites” within Bale’s explicitly attributed catalogue.

“Sodomy, buggery” remains “sodomy, buggery”; the plural forms and reversed order likewise remain visible. “Incestious Sodomites” becomes “incestuous sodomites”: incestious contributes an additional accusation, not a definition of Sodomites. The translation keeps historically charged terms with contextual explanation rather than silently replacing their overlap by a modern taxonomy.

buggery

Printed “buggery” (English; lemma).

A historical label for condemned sexual acts, overlapping with sodomy.

Here: The second word adds to the condemnatory catalogue without fixing a distinct modern act.

Context: Burton’s generalized account of rulers and nobles, not an independently verified report.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: sodomy, buggery

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Buggery supplies the second term; sodomy supplies the first.

Further local use

Printed “buggeries” (English; lemma).

Here: The plural is applied to alleged conduct of monks and friars.

Context: Anti-monastic polemic in the argument about enforced continence.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Sodomies, buggeries of Monkes and Friers

Modern rendering: sodomies and buggeries of monks and friars

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Buggeries supplies buggeries; the other term and the institutional attribution remain separate.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

Further local use

Printed “buggery” (English; lemma).

Here: The term occurs first in the reversed pairing.

Context: Burton’s attack on vows combines disease terminology and accusations of wrongdoing.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: buggery, sodomy

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Buggery supplies the first item; sodomy is the second.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

sodomia · Sodomiæ

Printed “Sodomiæ” (Latin; lemma).

A historical condemnatory category of sexual conduct, here applied to sexual relations between males.

Here: The phrase labels human sexual conduct after alleged human–animal unions and fabulous offspring. The preceding Pauline quotation and following catalogue of male attachments specify the male–male context; this is not a modern identity category.

Context: Burton’s extended Latin catalogue mingles myth, allegations and hostile ethnic generalizations; these do not establish biological facts or modern sexual identities.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: peccatum Sodomiæ

Modern rendering: the sin of sodomy

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomiæ supplies of sodomy; peccatum supplies sin. The complete phrase makes condemnation explicit.

sodomia · Sodomia

Printed “Sodomia” (Latin; lemma).

A historical condemnatory category of sexual conduct, continuing the male–male context of the preceding catalogue.

Here: Diana makes the condemned practice an alleged object of worship or cherished idol.

Context: Burton’s hostile generalizations about peoples and regions, with Busbecq named in the margin; not verified population descriptions.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Diana Romanorum Sodomia

Modern rendering: Sodomy is the Romans’ Diana

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomia is sodomy; Diana supplies the idol metaphor and Romanorum identifies its alleged adherents. English is makes explicit the copula implicit in the Latin nominal sentence.

Translator-supplied words: is: English copula made explicit for the Latin nominal sentence

sodomita

Printed “Sodomitæ” (Latin; lemma).

People accused of conduct condemned as sodomy.

Here: The word is one item in Bale’s overlapping list of sexual accusations about religious houses.

Context: Burton expressly says he is using Bale’s words; the Protestant polemic is not independent substantiation of misconduct.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Sodomitæ

Modern rendering: sodomites

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The plural Sodomitæ corresponds to sodomites, not to all the preceding differentiated insults.

sodomite

Printed “Sodomites” (English; lemma).

People accused of conduct condemned as sodomy.

Here: The accusation is applied to pagan gods to argue their unworthiness of worship.

Context: Burton’s Christian polemic, with Mornay cited: moral judgements about myth, not neutral descriptions of identities.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: incestious Sodomites

Modern rendering: incestuous sodomites

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomites supplies sodomites; incestious supplies the separate accusation incestuous.

Further local use

Printed “Sodomite” (English; lemma).

Here: The sexual label participates in a hostile catalogue intended to discredit Socrates.

Context: Burton reports Theodoret and others; the precise sources remain uncollated, and the supplied apparatus warns against treating the catalogue as biography.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: a Sodomite, an Athiest

Modern rendering: a sodomite and an atheist

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomite is sodomite; Athiest supplies the separate religious accusation.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

Further local use

Printed “Sodomites” (English; lemma).

Here: The title-like invocation treats Bale as a polemical authority against religious celibacy.

Context: Burton’s citation occurs beside an unverified infanticide allegation whose body and margin give different numbers; invoking it does not establish the events.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Bales Catalogue of Sodomites

Modern rendering: Bale’s Catalogue of Sodomites

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: The indexed form contributes people accused of conduct condemned as sodomy.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

sodomy

Printed “sodomy” (English; lemma).

A historical label for condemned sexual acts, overlapping with buggery.

Here: The paired words intensify a catalogue of conduct that the alleged provision of numerous partners fails to prevent.

Context: Burton’s account of rulers and nobles, following a selection narrative attributed to Giovio; the allegations and their general reach remain unverified.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: sodomy, buggery

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomy corresponds to sodomy; buggery is the separate adjacent term. Their coordination does not establish distinct modern categories.

Further local use

Printed “Sodomies” (English; lemma).

Here: Pluralized acts are included in the attack on enforced continence.

Context: Burton invokes Chemnitz, Bale and physicians in anti-monastic polemic; neither the allegations nor the proposed causal connection are established by the list.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: Sodomies, buggeries of Monkes and Friers

Modern rendering: sodomies and buggeries of monks and friars

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomies supplies sodomies; buggeries supplies the adjoining overlapping term, with the institutional targets separately specified.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

Further local use

Printed “sodomy” (English; lemma).

Here: The order of the paired terms is reversed in a catalogue of alleged results of rash vows.

Context: Burton asserts that celibate vows generate diseases and crimes; the asserted causality is part of his historical polemic.

Source: original body

Source and modern wording: buggery, sodomy

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomy supplies the second term; the pair does not establish a modern taxonomy.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.

Further local use

Printed “sodomy” (English; lemma).

Here: Burton addresses an offender’s shame by arguing that new public stories displace old ones.

Context: Consolation to an acknowledged offender, followed by criticism of unequal punishment and an explicit call to repentance and amendment, not an acquittal.

Source: original body

Source wording and original alignment: be it theft, rape, sodomy, murder, incest, treason

Modern rendering: whether theft, rape, sodomy, murder, incest, treason

Alignment scope: Equal-scope phrase or construction in the supplied parallel text.

Word and construction: Sodomy supplies one catalogue item; the other offences retain their distinct names.

Sense relation: A further local application of the same sense, with its own agency and phrase alignment.