Background
Saint Peter Damian was born at Ravenna in January 1007. He was the youngest of a large family.
( Some of the roots of the characteristic negative attit...)
Some of the roots of the characteristic negative attitude to homosexuality can be found in Peter Damians appeal to Pope Leo IX. Though written 900 years ago by an Italian monk in a remote corner of Italy, The Book of Gomorrah is relevant to contemporary discussion of homosexuality. The Book of Gomorrah asks the Pope to take steps to halt the spread of homosexual practices among the clergy. The first part outlines the various forms of homosexual practice, the specific abuses, and the inadequacy of traditional penitential penances, and demands that offenders be removed form their ecclesiastical positions. The second part is an impassioned plea to the offenders to repent of their ways, accept due penance, and cease from homosexual activity. Payers is the first translation of the full tract into any language from the original Latin. In his introduction to the tract Payer places The Book of Gomorrah in its context as the first major systematic treatise in the medieval West against various homosexual acts, provides a critique of Peter Damians arguments, and outlines his life. The annotated translation is followed by a translation of the letter of Pope Leo IX in reply to Damians Treatise, an extensive bibliography, and indexes. The book will be of interest to students of medieval history and religion, to ethicists and students of social mores, and to persons generally concerned with the historical roots of present-day attitudes to homosexuality.
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(This second volume of the Mediaeval Continuation contains...)
This second volume of the Mediaeval Continuation contains Letters 31-60 of Peter Damian, the 11th-century monk and man of letters. While his epistolary style is varied - exhortatory, occasional, pastoral, reforming - his message is singular and simple in urging strict adherence to the canons of the Church. In Letter 31, also known as the "Book of Gomorrah", Damian deplores the degradation of the priesthood through the vice of sodomy and appeals to Pope Leo IX to educate and purge the clergy. In Letter 40, called the "Liber gratissimus" he opposes the reordination of those ordained by simonists. Among the more personal letters are 55 and 57. In the former Damian writes of a long, debilitating illness, so serious that funeral preparations had been made, and of his immediate recovery when his brethren gave food to 100 poor people. In the latter, he writes again of his ill health and begs to be relieved of the administration of the diocese of Gubbio and permitted to return to Fonte Avellana and his "beloved solitude". Letter 58, addressed to Henry the archbishop of Ravenna in 1058, is the best example in the collection of Damian's political and ecclesiastical influence. In it he gives his opinion of Benedict X and Nicholas II, the two candidates for the Apostolic See. He makes no effort to conceal his strong opinions but rather requests that this letter be made public so that all may learn what he thinks about the subject. This is perhaps, after all, what he would have hoped for the entire collection.
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Saint Peter Damian was born at Ravenna in January 1007. He was the youngest of a large family.
Saint Peter Damian was educated at the schools of Parma, Faenza, and his native city, where he taught for a short time.
Saint Peter Damian became prominent as a member of the reforming party under Pope Leo IX, and in 1057 was raised to the cardinalate by Pope Stephen IX.
For the remainder of his life he was closely concerned with the work of the reforming papacy.
In 1823 Pope Leo XII extended his cult to the whole church and gave him the title of doctor of the church. St.
Peter Damian left behind him a large body of writings which bears witness to the main preoccupations of his life.
The first of these was the work of moral reform.
This ideal was put into practice in the Avellanese Congregation of monks and hermits, which he founded. Peter Damian was one of the outstanding churchmen of his time, and some of his work anticipates that of St. Bernard.
He was one of the first to maintain that all persons should strive for the life of spiritual perfection which had been regarded as the prerogative of the monk.
His religious devotion foreshadows the religious flowering of the 12th century.
Because of his intense interest in and care for the souls of individual human beings, he is the most tangible personality among the reformers of the era of Pope Gregory VII.
His feast is February 21.
Saint Peter Damian was one of the first to maintain that all persons should strive for the life of spiritual perfection which had been regarded as the prerogative of the monk.
His religious devotion foreshadows the religious flowering of the 12th century.
Because of his intense interest in and care for the souls of individual human beings, he is the most tangible personality among the reformers of the era of Pope Gregory VII.
(This second volume of the Mediaeval Continuation contains...)
( Some of the roots of the characteristic negative attit...)
