απο το Μονταγιού, σελίδα 145For the shepherds, life was celibate apart from temporary unions; only occasionally they might have a woman, sometimes regarded as a whore, either in the pastures or the town. But in the village of Montaillou itself, relations between couples were naturally complex, including every possible variety of marriage and concubinage. There were grand passions, ordinary marriages with or without love, and liaisons both temporary and habitual, venal and affectionate.
It was only in the town that boys of good family, who had left the country to attend 'the schools', might get mixed up in the few homosexual networks that then existed. These were urban rather than rural, clerical rather than lay. In this connection, Jacques Fournier's Register expands into a real psychological biography. The example comes not from Montaillou itself but from the diocesan town of Pamiers.
Arnaud de Verniolles of Pamiers, a sub-deacon and outlawed Franciscan, was initiated in childhood into 'homophilia' by a fellow-student and future priest (iii.39, 49). I was then between ten and twelve years old. It was about twenty years ago. My father had sent me to learn grammar with Master Pons de Massabucu, a schoolteacher who later became a Dominican friar. I shared a bedroom with Master Pons and his other pupils, Pierre de I' Isle (of Montaigu), Bernard Balessa (of Pamiers), and Arnaud Auriol, the son of Pierre Auriol, the knight. Arnaud was from La Bastide-Serou ; he had already started to shave, and now he is a priest. My brother Bernard de Vermiolles was also there, and other pupils whose names I have forgotten. In the bedroom shared by master and pupils, I slept for a good six weeks in the same bed as Arnaud Auriol . . • . On the fourth or fifth night we spent together, when Arnaud thought that I was fast asleep, he began to embrace me and put himself between my thighs . . . and to move about there as if I was a woman. And he went on sinning thus every night. I was still no more than a child, and I did not like it. But I was so ashamed I did not dare tell anyone of this sin.
Later, Master Pons de Massabucu's school moved and Arnaud de Vemiolles had other sleeping companions, including his teacher. To save bedding, Master Pons slept with two of his pupils. No one now made any attempt on young Vemiolles's virtue. But the harm was done. A latent tendency was awakened, and Arnaud de Vemiolles was doomed to become a homosexual.
This tendency was finally confirmed in the city of Toulouse, where Arnaud de Vemiolles continued his studies for a while. The confirmation was due to a series of accidents which Arnaud probably tended to exaggerate and misinterpret (iii.3x ) : At the time when they were burning the lepers, I was living in Toulouse ; one day I 'did it' with a prostitute. And after I had perpetrated this sin my face began to swell. I was terrified and thought I had caught leprosy ; I thereupon swore that in future I would never sleep with a woman again ,· in order to keep this oath, I began to abuse little boys.
# Yochanan
#foscilis
