So long as it remained persecuted and otherworldly, the Church held to the feminate-type characteristics saints and martyrs, male and female, were alike, with but an occasional compensating exception, in their virginal purity. But as the Church itself came to "live by the sword" and to "take thought for the morrow," "storing up treasures on this earth," it grew more like the older, somewhat more masculine religions it had replaced, even ceasing now and then to represent any moral bounds whatsoever. Yet the ascetic saint remained a major element in the world-view, if not in day-to-day practice, and the celibacy of the clergy remained to contribute to the repression of overt masculinity in the ritual. The Church continued to think of itself as Paul had characterized it as the Bride of the Lamb, passively awaiting the arrival of the Bridegroom. As virgin, as mother, as bride, the Church continues to this day. to think of itself in the feminine cast.

The medieval Church, while officially proscribing homosexuality as a pagan vice, unofficially left a broad field in the monasteries for the homoerotically inclined, providing they could keep their inclinations somewhat below the active, or at least below the public level. However, homosexuality seems to have been about as common in medieval society in general as in most other societies. It had a notable degree of acceptance in many circles. One Pope granted a special temporary dispensation for sodomy in one monastery. A resultant Benedictine publication, IN PRAISE OF SODOMY, is still a source of friction between that order and the Jesuits.

Bu

ut not until the Protestant revolt did the aggressive masculinism become so central to the Church spirit. At a time when the New Individualism had been married to the acquisitive spirit, Protestanism became much more aggressively "a man's religion," or a religion for the family, (the solid, respectable, go-get-

ting family,) and most of the "sissy" asceticism went out the window, save for traces in some of the small, mystically inclined cults. The masculine image of the Old Testament patriarchs was given new emphasis, most of the medieval saints were forgotten and the clergy was generally encouraged to marry and have families. Those who did not might well be suspect of Romanism, or worse vices.

Yet to this day, Church service makes a strong appeal to the homosexually inclined, and many Churches are covertly embarrassed by the effeminateness of large segments of the clergy. In "gay" intellectual circles it seems almost rare to find a serious young man who wasn't once a ministerial student, except among those who abandoned religion quite early. The sensual appeal, and the humanitarian appeal as well, that clerical service makes to the homoerotically inclined is, however, usually thwarted for the overt homosexual, unless he is skillful either at rationalization or at simply ignoring the dichotomy. But in some denominations, the incidence of practicing homosexuals among clergy and active laity is surprisingly high, although seldom officially recognized.

Aside from this, are we presumptuous in insisting that in males or in females, much of the strong personalized devotion to Christ (or to his mother, or to some particular saint) has a sexual cast, even though perhaps rarified? A young man rapturously affected by sensuous paintings of Jesus, or by the vividly hedonist imagery of such a song as I COME TO THE GARDEN ALONE, (And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own; and the joys we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known) is obviously enjoying an erotic experience, no implication of vulgarity intended. Sensuality is sensuality. When the object of the eroticism is of the same sex as the subject, then homosexual qualities are obviously involved, without any necessary implication that the enrapt young man referred to above

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