Peter the Chanter’s Vito Sodomitico

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Since there was such a tradition of openness and laxness about homosexuality before Peter the Chanter, Baldwin credits Peter the Chanter for reintroducing homophobia into France society. Baldwin draws the conclusion from the long portion of the Verbum Abbreviation Peter the Chanter believes “that since god created male and female for the perpetration of human, homoerotic practices were judged equivalent to racial murder for with Leviticus law assigns death as the appropriate punishment.” The title of the poem of a medieval poem or work is often incredibly significant in understanding what the poem is going to be about. Vitio can means to make faulty, injure, spoil, mar, taint, corrupt, infect, vitiate, defile and while scholars tend to just translate the title as on sodomy: the actual title empathizes the badness or destruction that sodomy causes. The literal translation of the title is The Corruption of Sodomy. It interesting to note the interchangeability of the word life (vita) and the Vitio, which is, translate above. Peter the Chanter uses the similarity of these two words throughout his poem to emphasize the fact that life of a sodomite life is corrupt. This deliberate play on word is reminiscent, and in some sentences it is impossible to tell whether Peter the Chanter talking about life or corruption. The idea of a sodomite being utterly corrupt and tied into the idea of life agrees with a story that is often told attributed to Peter the Chanter. The story is that from the moment of Christ birth all those that committed the sin of sodomy died at once unable as “enemies of nature” to “endure the advent of the author of nature himself.” The story, although never perfectly linked to Peter the Chanter, is told in the Do... ... middle of paper ... ...er use of the word calescit can have two meanings, it can be the fiery passion that inflames the homosexuals or the bowels of hell that the homosexuals will suffer in. In the first use of the calescit, it used in a sexual connotation as fiery passion that the androgynous feels in its correct organ. The second use is much the same way but the fact that it is placed with next to the man rather then a woman to me seems to imply that Peter is warning men that their loins can also lead them to hell. Magis, which is place next to the calescit, is one of the most used words in De Vitio Sodomitico. This word is used six times throughout the entire poem. His repeated use of the word magis to emphasize that this MORE then just a simple crime against god. It Peter the Chanter with this use makes his case more pertinent in convincing people of the egregious crime of sodomy.

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