Preliminary Notes for a Psycho-History of Pestilence and Perversion

Experts are proposing an extraordinary link between sexual deviancy and the most famous plague of the middle ages – the “Black Death”. In fact, they claim that it is possible to see an interesting correlation between rape and the “new plagues” of the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. By understanding the epidemiology of distresses during the middle ages as millions of people experienced a sudden loss of sexual orientation, we can observe how the 13th century was marked by a radical shift away from Christianity that also may have caused a radical shift towards eroticism.

Lover’s Holes

The cramped subterranean burrowings known as “Lovers’ Holes” (also known under names like Souterrain, Weem, Fogou, Erdställe, Schratzellöcher etc.) are preserved in archaeological sites all over Europe. At various times, they were assumed to be places of fertility rites, hiding places and underground store rooms. Today, we can assert that they are a direct result of sexual predation, which is why they are often found in or close to burial sites. As Konrad Lorenz writes, “in the process of hunting, the hunter leaves his food, and over time this food becomes his lover.” So it is with the holes. The “Embracing Skeletons” found in a Lover’s Hole in Neinstedt (Austria), an adolescent male and a sheep, both of whom died ca. 1350, were found to have suffered from sexually transmitted diseases. Theologian and philosopher Reinhard Marsten, in one of his most famous sermons, described the “Lovers’ Holes” as “a place devoid of morals, far removed from love, because love includes life. But it was here that beasts and men were safe from mortal hazard, and sheep themselves can become wolves.”

Early Sex and Early Science

The first, tentative sexually transmitted disease was recorded in a 12th-century manuscript. It mentioned the introduction of a “little hard muscle,” which held a substance known as hydrotion. That was probably syliform sores, and madolents. The “hard muscle” would have been rough and black (bile), and conjures up something that was crude and unpleasant, so the sexual encounters were doubly penalized.

While we may laugh at those naive and misguided attempts at making sense of a disease, it is clear that as mankind slowly made its way to sex as we know it today, that way was littered with complications and misconceptions.

Growing up in the Middle Ages

Boys’ names were often derived from sexual organs, or bodies. The name “brother” was frequently associated with masturbation, while children’s “kitchen”, “game” and “molar” brought to mind less appealing body parts—such as the “guy” appendix, the “sticky jelly” and the “bull” of the cartilage. Early monkish literature mentions boys kissing, wrestling and performing sexual acts with each another. Even children’s games were, at the time, highly sexualized. The “Hairy Sack” in medieval times was a withered chunk of lamb, pink and terrified, who writhed and begged in protest against being ritually killed – a likely relict of pagan initiation rites.

Animal mutilation (spleens chopping) was so common as to be almost accepted, and Bernwart of Trier asserted that “he who has known a lamb will scorn a girl”. Later sources show children performing brutal acts on other animals. In 1598, Henry Ferdinand of Provence published a collection of, frankly disquieting, boy’s games. He wrote: “Did you see the boys on the moor? They were trying to get the pigs to bite the boys’ sausages. The pigs saw what was happening and all ran to the houses. They pounced on the piglet and made it squeal. Can you beat your friends?”

“The causes of sexuality are often confused with (the sexual transmission of) the plague point to issues of social identity, primary and secondary consciousness and secondary trauma of incurable diseases, the second a powerful force for social change,” Duncan Sim writes. “Men’s subconscious, thus stimulated, gradually reshapes pre-existing sexual behavior. To men of the middle ages, the anus was shrouded in mystery, yet it also incited radical behavior. In practice, very little sexual contact took place in the female anatomy. This is likely due to unfeasibly tight vaginal walls.”

(to be continued)