[116] Leviticus, xv. 18.
[117] The danger attributed to sexual intercourse has been much emphasised by Mr. Crawley in The Mystic Rose. See also Westermarck, Marriage Ceremonies in Morocco.
[118] Crawley, op. cit. p. 214.
[119] See supra, [i. 663 sqq.]
[120] Gregory III., Judicia congrua pœnitentibus, ch. 24 (Labbe-Mansi, op. cit. xii. 293):—“In somno peccans, si ex cogitatione pollutus, viginti duos psalmos cantet: si in somno peccans sine cogitatione, duodecim psalmos cantet.” Pœnitentiale Pseudo-Theodori, xxviii. 25 (Wasserschleben, Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche, p. 600):—“Qui in somno, non voluntate, pollutus sit, surgat, cantetque vii. psalmos pœnitentiales.” Cf. ibid. xxviii. 6, 33 (Wasserschleben, p. 559 sq.).
The idea of sexual defilement is particularly conspicuous in connection with religious observances. It is a common rule that he who performs a sacred act or enters a holy place must be ceremonially clean,[121] and no kind of uncleanness is to be avoided more carefully than sexual pollution. Among the Chippewyans, “if a chief is anxious to know the disposition of his people towards him, or if he wishes to settle any difference between them, he announces his intention of opening his medicine-bag and smoking in his sacred stem…. No one can avoid attending on these occasions; but a person may attend and be excused from assisting at the ceremonies, by acknowledging that he has not undergone the necessary purification. The having cohabited with his wife, or any other woman, within twenty-four hours preceding the ceremony, renders him unclean, and, consequently, disqualifies him from performing any part of it.”[122] Herodotus tells us that the Egyptians, like the Greeks, “made it a point of religion to have no converse with women in the sacred places, and not to enter them without washing, after such converse.”[123] This statement is corroborated by a passage in the ‘Book of the Dead.’[124] In Greece[125] and India[126] those who took part in certain religious festivals were obliged to be continent for some time previously. Before entering the sanctuary of Mên Tyrannos, whose worship was extended over the whole of Asia Minor, the worshipper had to abstain from garlic, pork, and women, and had to wash his head.[127] Among the Hebrews it was a duty incumbent upon all to be ritually clean before entering the temple—to be free from sexual defilement,[128] leprosy,[129] and the pollution produced by the association with corpses of human beings, of all animals not permitted for food, and of those permitted animals which had died a natural death or been killed by wild beasts;[130] and eating of the consecrated bread was interdicted to persons who had not been continent for some time previously.[131] A Muhammedan would remove any defiled garment before he commences his prayer, or otherwise abstain from praying altogether; he would not dare to approach the sanctuary of a saint in a state of sexual uncleanness; and sexual intercourse is forbidden for those who make the pilgrimage to Mecca.[132] The Christians prescribed strict continence as a preparation for baptism[133] and the partaking of the Eucharist.[134] They further enjoined that no married persons should participate in any of the great festivals of the Church if the night before they had lain together;[135] and in the ‘Vision’ of Alberic, dating from the twelfth century, a special place of torture, consisting of a lake of mingled lead, pitch, and resin, is represented as existing in hell for the punishment of married people who have had intercourse on Sundays, church festivals, or fast-days.[136] They abstained from the marriage-bed at other times also, when they were disposed more freely to give themselves to prayer.[137] Newly married couples were admonished to practise continence during the wedding day and the night following, out of reverence for the sacrament; and in some instances their abstinence lasted even for two or three days.[138]
[121] See supra, [ii. 294], [295], [352 sq.]
[122] Mackenzie, Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. cii. sq.
[123] Herodotus, ii. 64.
[124] Wiedemann, Herodots zweites Buch, p. 269 sq.