Remarriage and Ass-F**king: Shifty Byzantine Views of Sex
By Stephen Morris
The Wicked Heart: Studies in the Phenomena of Evil, edited by Sorcha Ni Fhlainn and William Andrew Myers (2006)
Abstract: Patristic canon law condemned remarriage, under any circumstances, in no uncertain terms. Penance for remarriage demanded repudiating the wicked sexual relationship and decades of excommunication. Penances for remarriage were gradually reduced and two Byzantine political/theological crisis in the 8th and 10th centuries allowed these condemned sexual relationships to be eventually tolerated and even accepted.
Same-sex behaviour was condemned as satanic and diabolic by many of these same patristic authorities, often in the same breath and with the same words as they condemned remarriage. Penances assigned were virtually identical. During the 6th century, however, these penances for sex between men (especially “anal sex”) were reduced to little more than a slap on the wrist. These reduced penances suggest that just as remarriage was eventually able to be accepted into polite Byzantine Christian society, same-sex relationships might also come to be accepted in Byzantine/Eastern Christian society.
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