Bibliography of the Ordinary Magisterium

1. Council of Elvira, canon 71: 305-306 AD: "Those who sexually abuse boys may not commune even when death approaches."
• This synod was attended by nineteen Spanish bishops and twenty-six presbyters. Deacons and laymen were also present.
• Its cannons exhibit a vigorously rigorous and intransigent outlook - not far (if at all) removed from Novationism.
• This was first council to address sexuality in a major way.
• It is possible that only the first twenty-one canons are genuine.
• The canon is not about homosexuality, however, but only about clergy who "corrupt" or "abuse" boys.
• It is salutary to compare canon 67: "A woman who is baptized or is a catechumen must not associate with hairdressers or men with long hair.  If she does this, she is to be denied communion."
2. Council of Ancyra, canon  17: 314 AD "Defilers of themselves with beasts, being also leprous, who have infected others, the holy Synod commands to pray among the cheimazomenoi. "
• This provided the basic canon law of middle ages on sodomy.
• According to [Bailey (1955)] the canon refers only to bestiality.
3. Basil of Nyssa, First Canonical Epistle to Amphilochus of Iconium, (Epist. 117, canon 62), 375 AD.
• This is the canon most often cited by the Orthodox.
• It was a private letter, but was later approved by councils.
4. Gregory of Nyssa, Canonical Letter to Letoius of Mytilene (Epist. canonica 4), 390 AD.
5. The Emperor Justinian, Novella 77, 538 AD.
• This and the following "Novella", criminalized homosexual sex in secular law.
• At this stage the imperial secular law of the Christian Roman Empire was also operative within the Church.
• The revival of Roman law studies in the 12th century meant that these laws had important effects on developing canon law as well as secular law.
6. Justinian, Novella 141, 544 AD.
7. 2nd Council of  Tours, canon 14, 567 AD.
• Monks must not sleep two to a bed.
8. 16th Council of Toledo, canon 3, 693 AD.
• The Toledan councils were partly Church councils and partly councils of the Visigothic state.
• There is now a gap in Church actions lasting FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.
• The canons of Ancyra were republished by several Carolingian kings, and there was much discussion in the new penitentials that were developed. These were not official documents. At this stage confession by lay people was rare, and there were no secular prosecution for sodomy. Things did begin to heat up in the 12th century though, along with attacks on heretics, Jews and other social outsiders.
9. Council of London, canons 28 & 29, 1102 AD.
• This council seems to have been directed at the memory of William Rufus, well known for his homosexuality.
• It decreed that the general public be informed that homosexual intercourse should in the future be confessed as a sin.
• St. Anslem, Archbishop of Canterbury went along with the decrees.
• However he refused to have them read out in church saying:
"this sin has hitherto been so public that hardly anyone is embarrassed by it,
and many have therefore fallen into it because they were unaware of its seriousness.".
10. Council of Naplouse [Nablus/Shechem], canons 8-11, 1120 AD.
• An important council that took place in the crusader kingdom of Jerusalem.
• Applied penalties for sodomy to laymen.
11. Ivo of Chartres, Decretum
• [J.P. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina, 161 cols. 47-1022]
• See cols. 681-82 for denunciations of sodomy and lesbianism.
12. Gratian, Decretum c.1140 AD
• Five refs. drawn from the fathers, C.32, q.7, c,11-14.
• The Decretals were the major law book of the middle ages.
• It is interesting that Gratian drew from patristic opinion rather than any canon law tradition.
13. Lateran III, canon 11, 1179 AD:
• "Clergy in holy orders, who maintain their wives incontinently in their homes should either expel them, and live continently, or be deprived of ecclesiastical office and benefice.

Whoever is caught involved in that incontinence which is against nature, and because of which "the wrath of God came upon the sons of  disobedience" [Eph. 5:6], and five cities were consumed by fire [Gen 14:24-35], if they are clerics, they should be deposed from clerical office and placed in a monastery to do penance; if they are laymen, they are to be excommunicated and completely isolated from contact with believers.
If any cleric, without clear and necessary cause, should especially frequent nunneries, he should be restrained by the bishop, and if he does not cease, he should be deposed from his ecclesiastical benefice"
• This is the only canon of an Oecumenical council which could be construed as condemning homosexuality.
•  It is clearly a disciplinary decree, not dogmatic. Moreover, the "incontinence which is against nature" could be bestiality.
• The standard gloss by Bernard of Palma, 1263 AD links it with novellas of Justinian.
14. Innocent III, Letter 1203 AD
• in [J.P. Migne ed., Patrologia Latina, 215:189].
• On sodomy in Macon.
15. Lateran IV, canon 14,  1215 AD.
• This strengthens the Lateran III decree by calling on secular help.
• It only mentions clerical celibacy, however.
• Again disciplinary, not dogmatic.
• This was the council that imposed special signs on Jews.
16. Various local synods in this period issued canons which referred to sodomy [Goodich (1979]:
• Paris 1212 AD,
• Rouen 1214 AD,
• Angers 1216/19 AD,
• Beziers 1246 AD;
17. also constitutions of
• Fulk Bassest for London 1245/59 AD,
• Alexander Stavensby for Coventry, 1224/37 AD,
• Peter Quinel for Exeter 1287 AD;
18. also monastic statutes
• Dominican statutes, 1238 AD,
• Carthusian statutes, 1261 AD and
• Cistercian statutes, 1279 AD.
19. Gregory IX, Bull "Vox in Rama", 1233 AD.
• Condemned the activities of the heretic Conrad of Marburg, which included bisexual orgies.
20. Gregory IX, Bull "Liber Extra"  1234 AD.
• This repeats the Lateran III canon.
• At this time was a gap in Church actions lasting SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS.
• It was not mentioned at any of the later medieval Oecumenical Councils, nor at Trent, nor at Vatican I.
• Popes began writing "encyclicals" in the early 18th century.
• The first to mention sodomy was John Paul II in 1993!
21. CDF "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics" (Humana Persona ) 1975 AD.
• The first Vatican document to comprehend the notion of "sexual orientation".
• Taught that homosexual acts are wrong.
• Suggested that the homosexual condition is morally neutral.
22. CDF "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" 1986 AD.
• Described the homosexual condition an "objective disorder".
• Ordered Catholic bishops to eject lesbian and gay Catholic groups from churches.
• Accepted that homosexuality is a constitutive part of the personality.
• Recognized gay people as a social group.
23. CDF "Some Considerations Concerning the Catholic Response  to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons" 1991 AD.
• Called on Catholic bishops to oppose civil rights initiatives for lesbians and gays.
• Said that gays cannot be compared with racial minorities and women.
• Approved of discrimination in teaching, coaching and military employment.
24. Pope John Paul II, Encyclical Veritatis Splendor 1993 AD.
• The first mention by a modern pope of homosexuality in an official document.
• Homosexuality was included in a list of "intrinsically evil acts".

Michael Goodich, "The Unmentionable Vice"
(Santa Barbara, Ca.: ABC-Clio, 1979)

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