CLEMENT of ALEXANDRIA (CA. 150-C~. 215)

4 CLASS encourage "trade" behavior by working- shifts in the way that, say, religious con- class males are a more accepting attitude viction did. Premarital sex became more toward any activity done for income (such accepted amongheterosexuals, whilesome as prostitution), a greater familiarity with homosexuals seemed willing to experi- jailhouse sexual mores, and a lesser inter- ment in a broader range of sexual prac- est in sophisticated categorical schemes tices, even including "way out" activities ("sex is sex; if it feels good, who cares what such as fisting. you call it"). It has been suggested that there In the 1940s Alfred C. Kinsey and are some variations in preferred sexual his associates found significant distinc- practice among classes, with lower-class tions of this kind among men based on men being more likely to prefer anal over educational level, which he found the best oral sex, and middle-class men the oppo- objective test for class status. His data site, but there are few hard data to support indicated the highest incidence of homo- or contradict this hypothesis, which is sexual activity among males who had at- based on anecdotal evidence. tended high school but not college; at the Some homosexuals tend to eroti- same time he found the highest levels of cize a class other than their own. In Eng- homophobia in the same group. This may land and France, for example, many edu- be explained by the difference in concep- cated upper-class men have sought their tual models referred to above, underwhich partners exclusively among the working- males could experience what Kinsey called class men, whose perceived overt mascu- a "homosexual outlet" without thinking linity is much prized. Conversely, some of themselves as homosexual, and while menof working-classbackground findgreat looking down on their sexual partners. But satisfaction in being accepted in jet-set sincea substantial proportionof thelower- circles. In white men attracted to blacks or class male interviewees were prisoners, the converse, the element of crossing class the data cannot be considered wholly reli- lines may be central. able. Class boundaries in modem in- The Kinsey Institute data for dustrial societies are more fluid than in females, which are more reliable (though times past, and this fluidity in turn has not per se applicable to men as well),show impacted on sexual behavior, though the that the percentage with homosexual consequences are not always easy to as- experience to orgasm rises with educa- sess. Further shifts may be expected. tional levels; at age 30 the females without Wayne R. Dynes and college had a cumulative experience level Stephen Donaldson of 9 or 10 percent, while those who had attended college had 17 percent and females with some graduate school educa- CLEMENTOF ALEXANDRIA tion had 24 percent. However, when data (CA. 150-c~.215) are limited to the period between adoles- Greek church father. Born in cence and age U), the girls with the lowest Athens, probably of pagan and peasant education show the most homosexual ancestry, he is not to be confused with activity and the future college students Clement, bishop of Rome, author of the the least. New Testament epistle. After his conver- Beginning with the sexual revo- sion, Clement of Alexandria traveled lution of the 1960s (together with rising widely to study under Christians, finally incomes] substantial changes occurred in under the learned Pantaenus in Alexan- sexual behavior in many sectors of the dria. Of the early Fathers, he had the most population, and class allegiances would thorough knowledge of Greek literature. have been unlikely to have deterred these He quotedHomer, Hesiod, the dramatists, *-99w x- < CLERGY, GAY 9 and (most of all) Platonic and Stoic phi- sex. The question of gay clergy extends losophers. Sometime before 200 he suc- beyond the bounds of Christianity (the ceeded Pantaenus, whom he praised for his focus of the present article) to many relig- orthodoxy, as head of the catechetical ions, including those of primitive peoples, school at Alexandria, but in 202 he had to as seen in the benlache and shamanism. flee the persecution unleashed by the This broad diffusion tends to confirm what emperor Septimius Severus and perhaps Edward Carpenter claimed early in the died in Asia Minor. Although most of his twentieth century, that there is a psycho- works arelost, the chief ones form a trilogy: logical affinity between religious ministry Hortatory Address to the Greeks, written and homophilia. ca. 190 to prove the superiority of Christi- The Early Centuries. Almost from anity to paganism and philosophy; Tutor, the beginning, Christian clerics have been written ca. 190 or 195about Christ'smoral suspected and denounced by pagans, athe- teaching as it should be applied to conduct ists, and anticlerical propagandists for in eating, drinking, dress, expenditure, and homosexuality even more than the facts sex; and 1Miscellam'es, written ca. 200-2 m themselves merit. Among Greek and eight books proving the inferiority of Greek Roman orators, accusations of having to Christian philosophy. Minor works prostituted oneself to other males or of include What Rich Man Shall be Saved) havingtaken the passive role in adulthood which urges scorn of worldly wealth. became standard fare-deserved or not. Although Clement's Christianity ~lthou~hthere is no confirmation of the has been criticized as being too Hellen- assertion that St. John, identified as the ized, his serene hope and classical learning beloved disciple [John 13:23), was Jesus' helped convert the upper classes. His sexual partner (asan anonymous Venetian pseudo-Platonic doctrine that homosexu- and Christopher Marlowe claimed in the ality was particularly noxious because it sixteenth century), pagan polemicists of was "against nature" served to combine the second and third centuries routinely that strand of classical philosophy with accused Christians of ritual murder and Hellenistic Jewish homophobia, most tren- cannibalism, incest and orgies both hetero- chantly exemplified by the Alexandrian sexual and homosexual, notably in con- philosopher Philo Judaeus (20 B.c.- A.D. nection with the mass. As celibacy in- 451, to justify persecution of sodomites. He creased, especially among the monks who thus preceded and stimulated the homo- seemed particularly uncouth and threat- phobia of the Christian emperors, from ening, such charges became more com- Constantine's sons to Justinian, and of the mon, and the writers of the monastic rules twomost influentialFathers, John Chrysos- took care to legislate in such a way as to tom and Augustine of Hippo. prevent homosexualactivity (see,e.g., The See also Patristic Writers. Rule of St. Benedict, chapter 22). Indeed William A. Percy hermit monks, who had been accustomed to an individualisticway of life, were herded into the monasteries where they could be watched and regulated to reduce opportu- CLERGY,GAY nities for vice and occasions for slander. One of the central paradoxes of Fasting and vigils were imposed to reduce the history of homosexuality, as well as of libido. The space allotted to homosexual the history of Christianity, has been the acts in the penitentials confirms that role of gay clergy in the government and monks often sinned with their fellows and the functioning of an institution that engaged in masturbation. The penitentials outwardly condemned any form of sexual aimed at clerics ministering to Celtic and expression between members of the same Germaniclaymen indicate frequent homo- .

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