The opening quotation is from Festial written in the early fifteenth century by John Mirk, who also wrote the handbook Instructions for Parish Priests. In this excerpt a medieval interpretation of a miracle from the hagiographical literary tradition, most famously from Legenda aurea, has been rewritten. This quotation explicates a form of cultural fantasy-sharing condemnation against same-sex sexual acts and desires; all of those who had sinned against nature died from all over the world the night Christ was born. This articulation of the abhorrence concerning this particular sin provides ultimate evidence of the complete unfitting among God's scheme of things; it is a fantasy of “the good old days” without unnatural disorders. Lessons, dreams and fantasies like this revealed not only the wide horizons of imagination in explicit condemnations of sin against nature, but also the very cause behind it: the utter uneasiness in dealing with same-sex sexuality despite the presence of noise considered in the previous chapter. In this chapter, I will enlarge the theme of noise as a means of underlining the repulsion concerning same-sex sexual acts and desires. The focus is on the many arguments dealing precisely with these matters, and the way in which they were dealt was disgust and fear.

The focus is on arguments and descriptions where emotions and experiences were formed, revealed, and shared. Whenever same-sex sexual matters were discussed, disgust seems to have been the most common shared response. Arguments were often combined with expressions of disgust, and descriptions often reveal fear and horror. The condemning side was strongly present; arguments were made wholly against the unnaturalness of such sins and the sinners who committed them. Comments vary from a mere wrinkling of one's nose to symbolic and allegoric uses of interpretations of biblical narratives, to detailed reasoning based in disgust and fear, and to lengthy nightmare visions situated both in this world and the other. The sources I draw on include handbooks and manuals for priests and such, and poetry.