Brothers

In the comments section of another weblog, namely Bettnet.com, I've been challenged to comment on the claim in John Boswell's "Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe."

Some of us guys might remember having "blood brothers" when we were boys. This practice has a very ancient heritage.

Friendships between men in modern American culture tend to be somewhat reserved, when compared to those of most other cultures, not to mention most of recorded history. The simple ritual of a "blood oath" would seal a friendship for life. Such an exchange of bodily fluids might have no less significance from an anthropological standpoint, than the very different exchange that occurs in the marital act.

A man would go into battle alongside one known as his "paraclete." Now, devout Catholics have heard the Holy Spirit referred to by this title. But the word literally means "protector" or "comforter." In the context of male bonding, a paraclete was the guy who watched your back in the thick of a fight, while you watched his. Even into the present day, a police officer has a special bond with his partner, one virtually as important as that of his wife. And in the Boy Scouts, the "buddy system" is designed not only to facilitate brotherhood, but for safety as well, whether swimming, hiking, or traveling in the dark.

As the Church spread the Gospel throughout the world, she did not merely supress the good things of a culture, but rather embraced them, elevated them. Thus our many holydays have taken on the form that they have, in terms of local and cultural celebration. So too with our rites of passage. In the ancient context, the friendship between two men -- in the case of Boswell's book, Saint Sergius and Bacchus were comrades-in-arms who were martyred each for their faith, and for the sake of each other -- would have warranted a blessing.

If one reads the ancient texts appendixed in Boswell's otherwise seriously flawed account, one might still be left with the impression that they possessed a significance akin to marriage -- that is, until one is reminded, not only of the above, but that the penalty for sodomy in ninth-century Byzantium was... castration.

In which case, a blessing would be a rather poor consolation, to say the least.