The sixth head of the evil beast is lechery; that is, excessive and
inordinate love, in lust of loins or in fleshly lust. As regards this
sin the devil tempts in five ways, as says St. Gregory. First in foolish
sight, afterwards in foolish words, afterwards in foolish handling,
afterwards in foolish kissing, afterwards one comes to the deed. For
from foolish sight one comes to the speech, and from the speech to the
handling, from the handling to the kissing, from the kissing to the
deed. And thus subtlely the devil makes (one) go from one to another.
This sin divides first into two kinds, for there is lechery of heart and
lechery of body. The lechery of heart has four steps. For the spirit of
fornication, which attends on the fire of lechery, embraces the hearts;
first makes the thoughts come, and the delights, and the imaginations of
sin to the heart, and makes (it) think. Afterwards the heart dwells on
the thoughts, and so is delighted; yet it does not the deed for
anything. And in this dwelling and in the same lust is the second step,
which may be deadly sin. The great sin may be the lust. The third step
is the consenting of heart, and of the reason, and of the will. And such
consentings are always deadly sin. After the consenting comes the desire
and the great heat that they have to sin, and do more than twenty sins
in the day, in sight of ladies and of maidens, who show themselves
fairly adorned, who often show and adorn themselves the more quaintly
and the more beautifully in order to make fools wonder at them, and
think not to sin greatly because they have no will to do the deed. But
forsooth they sin very grievously. For by reason of them are many souls
lost. And there is much folk brought to death and to sin. For, as says
the proverb, ‘Lady of fair adorning is arbalest to the tower.’ For she
has not a limb in her body that is not a trap of the devil, as Solomon
says. Then it behoves at the day of judgment to give account of the
souls that by reason of them are lost: that is to say, when they give
occasion to sin wittingly.
Lechery of body is divided into lechery of eyes, of ears, of mouth, of
hands, and of all the senses of the body, and especially of the foul
deed. And how is it a foul deed since it is natural? Because God forbids
it in His Gospel, and His Apostle Paul, who thus says: ‘Let each man
have his own, because of fornication;’ that is to say, his own wife. To
that sin belong all the things whereby the flesh rises and desires such
a deed, such as the great drinkers and eaters, the soft bed, pleasant
clothes, and all manner of ease of body unnecessarily, and especially
idleness.
The sin of the deed of lechery is divided into many boughs according to
the state of the persons that do it, and goes upwards from bad to worse.
The first is of man or of woman that have no bond, either of widowhood,
or of wedlock, or of orders, or of religion, or of another kind. That is
the first deadly sin in the deed of lechery. The second is with a common
woman. This sin is harder because it (she) is older, and because such
women are sometimes wives, or (women) of religion, and forsake no one,
neither father, nor brother, nor son, nor kin. The third is of a single
man with a widow, or the converse. The fourth is with a single woman.
The fifth is with a married woman; that is the sin of adultery, which is
very wrong, because there is breaking of troth, which the one shall bear
to the other; afterwards there is a sacrilege, when one breaks the
sacrament of marriage; sometimes desertion of heir befalls, and false
marriages. This sin is sometimes doubled, when it is of a married man
with a woman that has a husband. The sixth is when the man, (that) has
his own wife, does a thing that is forbidden and inordinate, against the
nature of man and orders and marriage. And with his own sword a man may
slay himself. Also he may with his own wife sin deadly. Therefore God
smote to an evil death Onan, Jacob’s nephew. And the devil that was
called Asmodeus strangled the seven husbands of the holy maid, Sara, who
was afterwards the wife of young Tobias. For all the sacraments of holy
Church one shall use cleanlily and with great honour. The seventh is of
a man with his godmother or with his goddaughter, or of a godson with
the children of his sponsors, for those children cannot come together
without deadly sin, not even in marriage. The eighth is of a man with
his kin, and the same sin is increased and lessened according as the
kinship is near or far. The ninth is of the man with the kin of his
wife, or, on the contrary, of the wife with the kin of her husband. The
same sin is very dreadful. For when the man hath fellowship with any
woman, he can no longer in marriage have any of her kin, and if he takes
any the marriage is naught. And if he takes a wife and afterwards
[another woman] on the side of her kin, he loses the right that he had
to his wife, inasmuch as she may not afterwards dwell with him, except
she beg for it before. The tenth is of women with hooded clerks. This
sin is increased and lessened according to the hoods and the esteem. The
eleventh is of a man of the world with a woman of religion, or, on the
contrary, of a woman of the world with a man of religion. The twelfth is
of a man of religion and a woman of religion, and this sin is increased
and lessened according to the state of the persons that do it. The
thirteenth is of prelates, who should be a pattern and example of
holiness and of cleanness to all the world. The last is most foul and
most loathsome, which is not to be named. The same sin is against
nature, which the devil teaches to man or to woman in many ways, which
are not to be named because of the matter, which is too abominable. But
in shrift the same shall name it, to whom it is befallen. For as much
more foul and more horrible the sin is, the more shrift avails. For the
shame that one has in the telling is a great part of the penance. This
sin is so hateful to God that He did rain burning fire and stinking
brimstone upon the city of Sodom, and of Gomorrah, and caused five
cities to sink into hell. The devil himself, who brings it about, has
shame when man does it, and the air is envenomed with the deed.