The Possible Defects of Confession and the Types of Vices against Nature

Two Manuscript Notes from the Codex Guillermus

Abstract

The paper examines two manuscript notes from the Codex Guillermus that are related to the practice of confession, and publishes their modernized transcription, too. Owing to the collected parallel texts it represents the two written records as parts of extensive textual traditions. The outline written about the possible defects of confession elaborates the topic of the conditions of good confession, one of its closest textual relative is found in a sermon of Pelbartus of Themeswar, who similarly to the examined outline writes about defects and not virtues.

The list containing the types of the vices against nature enumerates the five sinful cities and the crimes committed in them. Parallel texts are presented to unravel the often obscure expressions describing the sins, which are: homosexuality; bestiality; the woman is in upper position during the sexual act; intercourse from behind using the proper orifice; masturbation. The paper closes with a collection of texts dealing with unnatural acts found in the Hungarian corpus, and presents an identification of an unknown source.