Religious Eroticism.—The examples which we have cited show to what extent man is disposed to clothe his eroticism with the cloak of religion. He then attributes a divine origin to his desires and lays the precepts which he attaches to them on the commandments of his God or gods, so as to sanctify them. Hence, the unnatural influence of a mysticism, which is nothing else than the crystallized product of the fantastic imagination of men, raised to a dogma, imposes itself indirectly on natural sexual life, by entering at the back door under the cloak of religion. It is obvious that grave abuses or even vices often acquire the seal and power of religious precepts; while in the same domain a number of other customs or precepts are based on good hygienic or moral principles, for example, circumcision and conjugal fidelity.
It is perhaps in the domain of pathology that the relations of religion to sexual life are the most striking (see Chapter VIII). We must not forget that the facts of reproduction seem to ignorant people and especially to barbarians, to be of a very mysterious nature. These people have no idea of germinal cells or their conjugation. They see in conception, embryogeny, pregnancy and birth, the miraculous effects of a divine and occult higher power—of the divinity, often even of the devil.
The violent excitement which is associated with the sexual appetite and with love urges man to ecstasy; hence it is not to be wondered at that eroticism is so often complicated by ecstatic religious sentiments.
In his book on Psychopathia sexualis, Krafft-Ebing remarks how easily religion, poetry and eroticism are combined and mingled in the obscure feelings and presentiments of maturing youth. In the life of saints there is always the question of sexual temptations, in which the most elevated and ideal sentiments are mixed with the most repugnant erotic images. On the same basis are developed the sexual orgies of different religious fêtes in the ancient world, as well as in certain modern sects.
Mysticism, religious ecstasy and sexual voluptuousness are often combined in a real trinity, and one often sees unsatisfied sensuality seek compensation in religious exaltation. Krafft-Ebing cites the following cases from Friedreich's "Legal Psychology" (p. 389):
In this way the nun Blaubekin was perpetually tormented by the thought of what happened to the part of Jesus' body removed by circumcision.
In order to make his devotions to the lamb of God, Véronique Juliani, who was canonized by Pope Pius II, took into his chamber a terrestrial lamb, embraced it and sucked its breasts.
Saint Catherine of Gênes often suffered from such internal heat, that, to cool herself, she laid on the ground, crying: "Love, love, I can do no more!" In doing this she felt a peculiar inclination for her confessor. One day, putting his hand to her nose, she perceived an odor which penetrated her heart, "a celestial odor the voluptuousness of which could wake the dead."
The Role of Mental Pathology in Religious Eroticism.—Among the insane, and especially in women, but also in men afflicted with paranoia (a mental disease) we often find a strange and repugnant mixture of eroticism and religious images. Such are the everlasting betrothals with Christ, the Virgin Mary, with God or with the Holy Spirit, betrothals in which the venereal orgasm is combined with imaginary coitus and masturbation, followed by imaginary pregnancy and childbirth. These symptoms give us a clear indication of the relation which exists between eroticism and religious exaltation. The French alienists have even designated them by the characteristic term of "erotico-religious delirium." A single visit to the female division of a lunatic asylum is often sufficient to satisfy the visitor.
A point which has received less attention is the immense historical influence which certain psychopathological personalities, chiefly hysterical subjects, but also some crazy persons or hereditary visionaries, have exercised at all times on human destiny, usually by the aid of the suggestive effects of sexual and religious ideas (erotico-religious), the connections of which have not always been clear.