Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. I.djvu/108

 field—in effigy.

"The popes had their catamites, the kings had their mignons, and if all the host of priests, monks, friars and caluyers were forgiven, they—it must be admitted—did not always commit buggery, or cast away their seed on rocky soil, although religion did not intend their implements to be baby-making tools.

"As for the Templars, if they were burnt, it surely could not have been on account of their pæderasty, for it had been winked at long enough.

"What amused me, however, was to see that every writer impeached all his neighbours of indulging in this abomination; his own people alone were free from this shocking vice.

"The Jews accused the Gentiles, and the Gentiles the Jews, and—like syphilis—all the black sheep who had this perverted taste had always imported it from abroad. I also read in a modern medical book, how the penis of a sodomite becomes thin and pointed like a dog's, and how the human mouth gets distorted when used for vile purposes, and I shuddered with horror and