Medieval punishments were often a form of entertainment, the theoretical
purpose to be a horrific example to the populace to deter criminal acts.
One form of punishment was to be drawn and quartered. This meant drawing
or dragging a person on a hurdle (sled) or by ropes attached to the
wrists or ankles by a horse, to the place of public execution. Once at
the location for execution, further punishment is to be as slow and as
painful as possible. The living person might be castrated, then
disembowled, then using horses attached by ropes to arms & shoulders, and
legs, the possibly still living person is dismembered into four parts.
The person might still be alive, he (or she) might be beheaded, the
head pointed to see what has happened to its body (as further example).
The body often burned after public execution. At times sodomy included
punishment using a hurdle.
Sodomists, be they men or women, were often simply hanged. Sodomy was
understood as a variant of non-reproductive sex, even sex for pleasure:
both criminal acts. Thus anal intercourse not being reproductive, was
against the law, be it men with men, women with women, or men with women,
or men or women with beasts, or masturbation.
As sexual activity with non-Christians, such as Jews, Turks, or pagans
was viewed as sexual activity with beasts, such sexual activity was also
viewed as sodomy (non-reproductive sexually).
Other forms of non-reproductive sexuality were also opposed socially.
Sexual activity between males and sterile women. Sexual activity between
humans and half humans. As a Jew was considered a beast, any progeny
between a Jew and a Christian would be a half-human/half-beast. The
question arises: if a half-human/half-beast engaged in sodomy with a
Christian, would progeny be classified as (¾)H+(¼)B,
or if a half-human/half-beast crossed with a [(¾)H+(¼)B],
to get (½)[(½)H+(½)B]+(½)[(¾)H+(¼)B] =
(⅜)H+(⅝)B = (⅜)human+(⅝)beast)? One must
also recall that in the Genoese Black Sea Empire, a "griffin" was the
progeny between a Genoese (Caucasian European) and a Ukrainian
(Roxlanan) Caucasian slave. What if the progeny was the result of a
half-human/half-beast with a griffin!
Griffin x half-human/half-beast =
(½)[(½)Genoese+(½)Roxlanan]+(½)[(½)H+(½B]
=
(½)human+(¼)Roxlanan+(¼)beast? A griffidian-beast?
One could imagine the difficulties if such a griffidian-beast were to be sold to
the Spanish New World and produced progeny with a Cambuja! Griffidian-beast x Cambula
would have what name?
Similarly, sexual activity between a man (or a woman) with a deity
was also opposed (too much trouble with cadastral records)?
Sexual activity between a man and a menstrating woman
was viewed as "unnatural" as well. 1, 2.
1
Merrick and Ragan, "Homosexuality in Early Modern France", pp. 23-27
2
Brooten, Bernadette J.; "Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism", p. 247
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