Jacques de Molay
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Difference between revisions)
| Revision as of 18:19, 13 May 2013 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| {{Template}} | {{Template}} | ||
| - | ==History== | ||
| - | ===Hebrew Bible=== | + | '''Jacques de Molay''' (c. 1244 – 18 March 1314) was the 23rd and last [[Grand Masters of the Knights Templar|Grand Master]] of the [[Knights Templar]], leading the Order from 20 April 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope [[Clement V]] in 1307. Though little is known of his actual life and deeds except for his last years as Grand Master, he is the best known Templar, along with the Order's founder and first Grand Master, [[Hugues de Payens]] (1070–1136). Jacques de Molay's goal as Grand Master was to reform the Order, and adjust it to the situation in the [[Holy Land]] during the waning days of the [[Crusades]]. As European support for the Crusades had dwindled, other forces were at work which sought to disband the Order and claim the wealth of the Templars as their own. King [[Philip IV of France]], deeply in debt to the Templars, had de Molay and many other French Templars arrested in 1307 and tortured into making false confessions. When de Molay later retracted his confession, Philip had him [[Execution by burning|slowly burned upon a scaffold]] on an [[Ile des Juifs|island]] in the River [[Seine]] in [[Paris]], in March 1314. The sudden end of both the centuries-old order of Templars, and the dramatic execution of its last leader, turned de Molay into a legendary figure. |
| - | In the Hebrew Bible, [[Sodom and Gomorrah|Sodom]] was a city destroyed by God because of the evil of its inhabitants. No specific sin is given as the reason for God's great wrath. The story of the Sodom's destruction — and of [[Abraham]]'s failed attempt to intercede with God and prevent that destruction — appears in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 18–19. | + | |
| - | The connection between Sodom and homosexuality is derived from the depicted attempt of a mob of city people to [[rape]] [[Lot (biblical person)|Lot]]'s male guests. Some say the sinfulness of that, for the original writers of the Biblical account, might have consisted mainly in the violation of the obligations of [[hospitality]]. This view does not take into account that before the "guests" arrived in the city [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] 18:v17 and any "hospitality" could have been rendered, its destruction was already planned. (In The [[Book of Judges]], 19-21, there is an account, similar in many ways, where Gibeah, a city of the Benjamin tribe, is destroyed by the other tribes of Israel in revenge for a mob of its inhabitants raping and killing a woman.) | ||
| - | Many times in the [[Torah|Pentateuch]] and [[Nevi'im|Prophets]], writers use God's destruction of Sodom to demonstrate His awesome power. This happens in [[Deuteronomy]] 29, [[Isaiah]] 1, 3, and 13, [[Jeremiah]] 49 and 50, [[Book of Lamentations|Lamentations]] 4, [[Book of Amos|Amos]] 4.11, and [[Zephaniah]] 2.9. Deuteronomy 32, Jeremiah 23.14 and Lamentations 4 reference the sinfulness of Sodom but do not specify any particular sin. Specific sins which Sodom is linked to include [[adultery]] and [[lie|lying]] ({{bibleverse||Jeremiah|23:14|KJV|}}), [[impenitence]] ({{bibleverse||Matthew|11:23|KJV|}}, careless living ({{bibleverse||Luke|17:28|KJV|}}), [[fornication]] ({{bibleverse||Jude|1:7|KJV|}} [[KJV]]), and an overall "filthy" lifestyle ({{bibleverse|2|Peter|2:7|KJV|}}), which word ("[[aselgeiais]]") elsewhere is rendered in the KJV as [[lasciviousness]] ({{bibleverse||Mark|7:22|KJV|}}; {{bibleverse|2|Corinthians|12:21|KJV|}}; {{bibleverse||Ephesians|4:19|KJV|}}; {{bibleverse|1|Peter|4:3|KJV|}}; {{bibleverse||Jude|1:4|KJV|}}, or [[incontinence (philosophy)|wantonness]]: ({{bibleverse||Romans|13:13|KJV|}}; {{bibleverse|2|Peter|2:18|KJV|}}). | ||
| - | |||
| - | In Ezekiel 16, a long comparison is made between Sodom and the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]]. "Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your conduct than they." (Ezekiel 16.47 New American Standard Bible) | ||
| - | |||
| - | {{bquote|Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. (Ezekiel 16.49–50 NASB)}} - but note that the Hebrew for the word 'thus' is the conjunction 'ו' which is usually translated 'and' - thus KJV. NIV and CEV omit the word entirely. | ||
| - | |||
| - | There is no explicit mention of any sexual sin in Ezekiel's summation, and "abomination" is used to describe many sins. | ||
| - | |||
| - | The [[Authorized King James Version]] translates {{bibleverse||Deuteronomy|23:17|KJV}} as "There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel," but the word corresponding to "sodomite" in the Hebrew original, Qadesh ([[Hebrew]]:קדש) does not refer to Sodom, and has been translated in the [[New International Version]] as "[[Sacred prostitution|shrine prostitute]]"; male shrine prostitutes may have served barren women in fertility rites rather than engaging in homosexual acts; this also applies to other instances of the word sodomite in the King James Version.<ref>{{Citation | ||
| - | | last = Anderson | ||
| - | | first = Ray Sherman | ||
| - | | title = The shape of practical theology: empowering ministry with theological praxis | ||
| - | | publisher = InterVarsity Press | ||
| - | | year = 2001 | ||
| - | | page = 267 | ||
| - | | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=CagagOo11-QC&pg=PA267 | ||
| - | | isbn = 978-0-8308-1559-3}} | ||
| - | </ref><ref>{{Citation | ||
| - | | last = Jewett | ||
| - | | first = Paul | ||
| - | | last2 = Shuster | ||
| - | | first2 = Marguerite | ||
| - | | title = Who we are: our dignity as human : a neo-evangelical theology | ||
| - | | publisher = Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing | ||
| - | | year = 1996 | ||
| - | | page = 296 | ||
| - | | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=b05BBoBEQBIC&pg=PA296 | ||
| - | | isbn = 978-0-8028-4075-2}} | ||
| - | </ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===Roman Empire period=== | ||
| - | |||
| - | ==== New Testament ==== | ||
| - | The [[New Testament]], like the [[Old Testament]], references Sodom as a place of God's anger against sin, but the [[Epistle of Jude]] provides a certain class of sin as causative of its destruction, the meaning of which is disputed. | ||
| - | |||
| - | {{quotation|1=Jude 1:5 I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. | ||
| - | <br>6 And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. | ||
| - | <br>7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.|2=[[Authorized King James Version]]<br>[http://studybible.info/compare/Jude%201:7 Compare Jude 1:7 in multiple versions]}} | ||
| - | |||
| - | The Greek word in the New Testament from which the phrase is translated "giving themselves over to fornication", is "ekporneuō" ("ek" and "porneuō"). As one word it is not used elsewhere in the New Testament, but occurs in the [[Septuagint]] to denote whoredom (Genesis 38:24 and Exodus 34:15). Some modern translations as the [[NIV]] render it as "sexual immorality." | ||
| - | |||
| - | The Greek words for "strange flesh" are "heteros", which almost always basically denotes "another/other," and "sarx," a common word for "flesh," and usually refers to the physical body or the nature of man or of an ordinance. | ||
| - | |||
| - | ====Epistle of Jude==== | ||
| - | |||
| - | The [[Epistle of Jude]] in the [[New Testament]] echoes the Genesis narrative and potentially adds the sexually immoral aspects of Sodom's sins: '…just as [[Sodom and Gomorrah]] and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire'. (v. 7, English Standard Version). The phrase rendered "sexual immorality and unnatural desire" is translated "strange flesh" or "false flesh", but it is not entirely clear what it refers to. | ||
| - | |||
| - | One theory is that it is just a reference to the “strange flesh” of the intended rape victims, who were angels, not men.<ref>Boswell, p. 97</ref> Countering this is traditional interpretation, which notes that the angels were sent to investigate an ongoing regional problem(Gn. 18) of fornication, and extraordinarily so, that of a homosexual nature,<ref>Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible</ref><ref>Vincent's Word Studies</ref> "out of the order of nature."<ref>Commentary on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown</ref> "Strange" is understood to mean "outside the moral law",<ref>Word pictures in the New Testament, Archibald Thomas Robertson</ref> ({{bibleverse||Romans|7:3|KJV}}; {{bibleverse||Galatians|1:6|KJV}}) while it is doubted that either Lot or the men of Sodom understood that the strangers were angels at the time.<ref>Gill, Gn. 19</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | ==== Philo ==== | ||
| - | The [[Hellenistic]] [[Jewish]] [[philosopher]] [[Philo]] (20 BC - 50 AD) described the inhabitants of Sodom in an extra biblical account: | ||
| - | |||
| - | "As men, being unable to bear discreetly a satiety of these things, get restive like cattle, and become stiff-necked, and discard the laws of nature, pursuing a great and intemperate indulgence of gluttony, and drinking, and unlawful connections; for not only did they go mad after other women, and defile the marriage bed of others, but also those who were men lusted after one another, doing unseemly things, and not regarding or respecting their common nature, and though eager for children, they were convicted by having only an abortive offspring; but the conviction produced no advantage, since they were overcome by violent desire; and so by degrees, the men became accustomed to be treated like women, and in this way engendered among themselves the disease of females, and intolerable evil; for they not only, as to effeminacy and delicacy, became like women in their persons, but they also made their souls most ignoble, corrupting in this way the whole race of men, as far as depended on them" (133-35; ET Jonge 422-23).<ref>[http://www.scribd.com/doc/8326130/The-Works-of-Philo The works of Philo a contemporary of Josephius] Page 528</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | ==== Josephus ==== | ||
| - | The Jewish historian [[Josephus]] used the term “Sodomites” in summarizing the [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]] narrative: “About this time the Sodomites grew proud, on account of their riches and great wealth; they became unjust towards men, and impious towards [[God]], in so much that they did not call to mind the advantages they received from him: they hated strangers, and abused themselves with Sodomitical practices” "Now when the Sodomites saw the young men to be of beautiful countenances, and this to an extraordinary degree, and that they took up their lodgings with Lot, they resolved themselves to enjoy these beautiful boys by force and violence; and when Lot exhorted them to sobriety, and not to offer any thing immodest to the strangers, but to have regard to their lodging in his house; and promised that if their inclinations could not be governed, he would expose his daughters to their lust, instead of these strangers; neither thus were they made ashamed." (''Antiquities'' 1.11.1,3<ref>http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-1.htm</ref> — circa AD 96). His assessment goes beyond the Biblical data, though it is seen by conservatives as defining what manner of fornication (Jude 1:7) Sodom was given to. | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===Medieval Christendom=== | ||
| - | [[File:Dante sodom.jpg|thumb|[[Dante]] and [[Virgil]] interview the sodomites, from {{Ill|it|Guido da Pisa}}'s commentary on the ''Commedia'', c. 1345]] | ||
| - | |||
| - | The primarily sexual meaning of the word ''sodomia'' for Christians did not evolve before the 6th century AD. [[Byzantine Emperor|Roman Emperor]] [[Justinian I]], in his novels no. 77 (dating 538) and no. 141 (dating 559) amended to his [[Corpus iuris civilis]], and declared that Sodom's sin had been specifically same-sex activities and desire for them. He also linked "famines, earthquakes, and pestilences" upon cities as being due to "such crimes",<ref>trans. in Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, (London: Longmans, Green, 1955), 73-74</ref> during a time of recent earthquakes and other disasters (see [[Extreme weather events of 535–536]]). It is understood by some{{Who|date=May 2010}} that he was able to use the anti-homosexual laws he enacted upon personal as well as political opponents in case he could not prove them guilty of anything else.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}} | ||
| - | |||
| - | While adhering to the death penalty by beheading as punishment for homosexuality or adultery, Justinian's legal novels heralded a change in Roman legal paradigm<ref>For the legal and cultural background in [[Roman Republic|Republican]] and [[Roman Empire|Imperial Rome]] prior to Christian rule, see [[Sexuality in ancient Rome]] and ''[[Lex Scantinia]]''.</ref> in that he introduced a concept of not only secular but also divine punishment for homosexual behavior. Individuals might ignore and escape secular laws, but they could not do the same with divine laws, if Justinian declared his novels to be such.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}} | ||
| - | |||
| - | Christians earlier than Justinian are also seen to denounce same-sex relations. St. [[John Chrysostom]] in the 4th century regarded such as worse than murder in his fourth homily on {{bibleverse||Romans|1:26-27|KJV}} [http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/210204.htm], while [[Paul the Apostle]] in the ''[[Epistle to the Romans]]'' referred to same sex relations as ''"shameful lust"'' and which acts were contrary to nature, with men suffering a ''"due penalty"'' in their bodies. Just like the Jews, early Christians prior to Justinian I are not known to have used the word ''sodomia'' for the carnal sin they abhorred, though [[Philo of Alexandria]] (20 BC - 50 AD)<ref>Jewish philosopher, Writing on the life of Abraham</ref> and [[Methodius of Olympus]] (AD 260-312)<ref>Commentary on the sin of Sodom</ref> attributed homosexual relations to Sodom, as may have Josephus, (AD 37 – c. 100)<ref>Antiquities 1.11.1</ref><ref>33-34; ET Jonge 422-23; The Sodom tradition in Romans Biblical Theology Bulletin, Spring, 2004 by Philip F. Esler</ref> [[Augustine of Hippo]], (AD 354-430)<ref>Confessions. Commenting on the story of Sodom from Genesis 19</ref> and certain [[pseudepigrapha]]cal texts.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.iii.xiv.html Testament of Benjamin; Concerning a Pure Mind, 9:1]</ref><ref>[http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf08.iii.x.html Testament of Naphtali, 3.5]</ref><ref>[http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/fbe/fbe117.htm Book of the Secrets of Enoch (Slavonic Apocalypse of) 10:4; in J recension Ch. I.118] (late 1st century AD)</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | Justinian's interpretation of the story of Sodom may have been forgotten today (as some hold it had been, along with his law novellizations regarding homosexual behavior immediately after his death) had it not been made use of in fake [[Charlemagne|Charlemagnian]] [[capitularies]], fabricated by a [[Franks|Frankish]] monk using the pseudonym Benedictus Levita ("Benedict the Levite") around 850 AD, as part of the [[Pseudo-Isidore]]. Benedict's three capitularies particularly dealing with Justinian's interpretation of the story of Sodom were: | ||
| - | |||
| - | *''XXI. De diversis malorum flagitiis.'' ("No. 21: On manifold disgraceful wrongs") | ||
| - | *''CXLIII. De sceleribus nefandis ob quae regna percussa sunt, ut penitus caveantur.'' ("No. 143: On sinful vices due to which empires have crumbled, so that we shall do our best to beware of them") | ||
| - | *''CLX. De patratoribus diversorum malorum.'' ("No. 160: On the perpetrators of manifold evil deeds") | ||
| - | |||
| - | It was in these fake capitularies where Benedictus utilized Justinian's interpretation as a justification for ecclesiastical supremacy over mundane institutions, thereby demanding burning at the stake for carnal sins in the name of Charlemagne himself. Burning had been part of the standard penalty for homosexual behavior particularly common in Germanic [[protohistory]] (as according to Germanic folklore, sexual deviance and especially same-sex desire were caused by a form of malevolence or spiritual evil called ''[[Nīþ|nith]]'', rendering those people characterized by it as non-human fiends, as ''nithings''), and Benedictus most probably was of the Germanic tribe of the Franks. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Benedict broadened the meaning for ''sodomy'' to all sexual acts not related to procreation that were therefore deemed ''counter nature'' (so for instance, even solitary masturbation and anal intercourse between a male and a female were covered), while among these he still emphasized all interpersonal acts not taking place between human men and women, especially homosexuality. | ||
| - | |||
| - | Benedict's rationale was that the punishment of such acts was in order to protect all Christianity from divine punishments such as natural disasters for carnal sins committed by individuals, but also for heresy, superstition and heathenry. According to Benedictus, this was why all mundane institutions had to be subjected to ecclesiastical power in order to prevent moral as well as religious laxity causing divine wrath.{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} | ||
| - | |||
| - | For delaying reasons described in the article [[Pseudo-Isidore]], but also because his crucial demands for capital punishment had been so unheard of in ecclesiastical history priorly based upon the humane Christian concept of forgiveness and mercy, it took several centuries before Benedict's demands for legal reform began to take tangible shape within larger ecclesiastical initiatives. | ||
| - | |||
| - | This came about with the [[Medieval Inquisition]] in 1184. The sects of [[Cathars]] and [[Waldensians]] were a common target, and these heretics were not only persecuted for alleged satanism but were increasingly accused of fornication and sodomy. In 1307, accusations of sodomy and homosexuality were major charges levelled during the [[Trial of the Knights Templar]]. Some of these charges were specifically directed at the Grand Master of the order, [[Jacques de Molay]].<ref>G. Legman "The Guilt of the Templars" (New York: Basic Books, 1966): 11.</ref> It is this event, which led into the medieval and early-modern [[witch hunts]] that were also largely connoted with sodomy.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica 11th ed. "Knights Templar"</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | Persecution of Cathars and the [[Bogomiles]] sect in [[Bulgaria]] led to the use of a term closely related to ''sodomy'': ''buggery'' derives from French ''bouggerie'', meaning "of Bulgaria".<ref>Oxford English Dictionary</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | The association of ''sodomy'' with hereticism, satanism, and witchcraft was supported by the Inquisition trials. The resulting infamy of sodomy motivated a continuing discrimination and persecution of homosexuals and sexual deviants in general long after the Medieval period had ended. {{Citation needed|date=April 2010}} | ||
| - | |||
| - | The [[Book of Wisdom]], which is included in the Biblical canon by Orthodox and Roman Catholics, but excluded by modern Jews, Protestants, and other Christian denominations, makes reference to the story of Sodom, further emphasizing that their sin had been failing to practice hospitality: | ||
| - | |||
| - | :"And punishments came upon the sinners not without former signs by the force of thunders: for they suffered justly according to their own wickedness, insomuch as they used a more hard and hateful behavior toward strangers." | ||
| - | :"For the Sodomites did not receive those, whom they knew not when they came: but these brought friends into bondage, that had well deserved of them." ([[King James Version of the Bible|KJV]], [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/bible/kjv.Wis.19.html#Wis.19.13 Wisdom 19:13-14]) | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===Sodomy laws in 18th-century Europe=== | ||
| - | {{Refimprove section|date=April 2010}} | ||
| - | [[File:Amsterdam sodomites 1730.png|thumb|upright|A [[wanted poster]], published in the city of [[Amsterdam]] in 1730, accusing ten men of "the abominable crime of sodomy" (''{{lang|nl|de verfoeyelyke Crimen van Sodomie}}'')]] | ||
| - | |||
| - | An examination of trials for rape and sodomy during the 18th century at the [[Old Bailey]] in London shows that the treatment of rape was often lenient, while the treatment of sodomy was often severe. However, the difficulty of proving that penetration and ejaculation had occurred meant that men were often convicted of the lesser charge of 'assault with sodomitical intent', which was not a capital offence.<ref>[http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Crimes.jsp#assaultwithsodomiticalintent Crimes tried at the Old Bailey], ''Proceedings of the Old Bailey'' online</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | In France in the 18th century, sodomy was still theoretically a capital crime, and there are a handful of cases where sodomites were executed. However, in several of these, other crimes were involved as well. Records from the Bastille and the police lieutenant d'Argenson, as well as other sources, show that many who were arrested were exiled, sent to a regiment, or imprisoned in places (generally the Hospital) associated with moral crimes such as prostitution. Of these, a number were involved in prostitution or had approached children, or otherwise gone beyond merely having homosexual relations. Ravaisson (a 19th-century writer who edited the Bastille records) suggested that the authorities preferred to handle these cases discreetly, lest public punishments in effect publicize "this vice".{{Citation needed|date=February 2012|comment=since April 2010 section template}} | ||
| - | [[File:Hangin outside Newgate Prison.jpg|left|thumb|An execution taking place outside Newgate Prison]] | ||
| - | Periodicals of the time sometimes casually named known sodomites, and at one point even suggested that sodomy was increasingly popular. This does not imply that sodomites necessarily lived in security - specific police agents, for instance, watched the [[Tuileries]], even then a known cruising area. But, as with much sexual behaviour under the Old Regime, discretion was a key concern on all sides (especially since members of prominent families were sometimes implicated) - the law seemed most concerned with those who were the least discreet.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012|comment=since April 2010 section template}} | ||
| - | |||
| - | In 1730, there was a wave of sodomy trials in [[the Netherlands]]; some 250 men were summoned before the authorities; 91 faced decrees of exile for not appearing. At least 60 men were sentenced to death.<ref>Rictor Norton, [http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1730news.htm The Dutch Purge of Homosexuals 1730]</ref> | ||
| - | |||
| - | The last two Englishmen that were hanged for sodomy were executed in 1835. [[James Pratt and John Smith]] died in front of the [[Newgate Prison]] in [[London]] on the 27th of November of that year.<ref>[http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/newgate.html See]</ref><ref>[http://www.madelinehunter.com/history10.html Alternative date April 8, 1835 seen 2012]</ref> They had been prosecuted under the [[Offences against the Person Act 1828]], which had replaced the 1533 [[Buggery Act]]. | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Current revision
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Jacques de Molay (c. 1244 – 18 March 1314) was the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, leading the Order from 20 April 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1307. Though little is known of his actual life and deeds except for his last years as Grand Master, he is the best known Templar, along with the Order's founder and first Grand Master, Hugues de Payens (1070–1136). Jacques de Molay's goal as Grand Master was to reform the Order, and adjust it to the situation in the Holy Land during the waning days of the Crusades. As European support for the Crusades had dwindled, other forces were at work which sought to disband the Order and claim the wealth of the Templars as their own. King Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the Templars, had de Molay and many other French Templars arrested in 1307 and tortured into making false confessions. When de Molay later retracted his confession, Philip had him slowly burned upon a scaffold on an island in the River Seine in Paris, in March 1314. The sudden end of both the centuries-old order of Templars, and the dramatic execution of its last leader, turned de Molay into a legendary figure.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Jacques de Molay" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
