Worship of the Generative Powers: Priapus Worship

Priapus Worship

Antiquity had made Priapus a god, the middle ages raised him into a saint, and that under several names.

41 This name is said to be a mere corruption of Fotinus or Photinus, the first bishop of Lyons, to whom, perhaps through giving a vulgar interpretation to the name, people had transferred the distinguishing attribute of Priapus. This was a large phallus of wood, which was an object of reverence to the women, especially to those who were barren, who scraped the wooden member, and, having steeped the scrapings in water, they drank the latter as a remedy against their barrenness, or administered it to their husbands in the belief that it would make them vigorous. The worship of this saint, as it was practiced in various places in France at the commencement of the seventeenth century, is described in that singular book, the Confession de Sancy. 42 We there learn that at Varailles in Provence, waxen images of the members of both sexes were offered to St. Foutin, and suspended to the ceiling of his chapel, and the writer remarks that, as the ceiling was covered with them, when the wind blew them about, it

practiced openly; but it appears to have been more innocently represented by lying

43 Traditions, at least, of similar practices were connected with St. Foutin, for it appears to have been the custom for girls on the point of marriage to offer their last maiden robe to that saint. This superstition prevailed to such an extent that it became proverbial. A story is told of a young bride who, on the wedding night, sought to deceive her husband on the question of her previous chastity, although, as the writer expresses it, "she had long ago deposited the robe of her virginity on the altar of St. Foutin." From this form of superstition is said to have arisen a vice which is understood to prevail especially in

44 where it is evidently considered as a part of pagan worship. It is found at an early period of the middle ages, described in the Ecclesiastical Penitentials, with its appropriate amount of penitence. One of these penitential canons of the eighth century speaks of "a woman who, by herself or with the help of another woman, commits uncleanness," for which she was to do penance for three years, one on bread and water; and if this uncleanness was committed with a nun, the penance was increased to seven years, two only on bread and water. Another Penitential of an early date provides for the case in which both the women who participated in this act should be nuns; and Burchardus, bishop of Worms, one of the most celebrated authorities on such subjects, describes the instrument and use of it in greater detail. The practice had evidently lost its religious character and degenerated into a mere indulgence of the passions.

45 He states that "if they let fall by accident a vessel of earthenware, or stumbled, or if any unexpected accident caused them vexation, even the most respectable women called aloud for the protection of Priapus under this obscene name." Goropius Becanus adds that there was in his time, over the door of a house adjoining the prison, a statue which had been furnished with a large phallus, then worn away or broken off. Among other writers who mention this statue is Abraham Golnitz, who published an account of his travels in France and Belgium, in 1631 46 and he informs us that it was a carving in stone, about a foot

Footnotes

50:41 Our material for the account of these phallic saints is taken mostly from the work of M. Dulaure.

50:42 La Confession de Sancy forms the fifth volume of the Journal d'Henri III, by Pierre de L'Estoile, ed. Duchat. See pp. 383, 391, of that volume.

54:43 Dulaure relates that one day a villager's wife entering this church, and finding only a burly canon in it, asked him earnestly, "Where is the pillar which makes women fruitful?" "I," said the canon, "I am the pillar."

57:44 Ezekiel, XVI, 17. Within a few years there has been a considerable manufacture of these objects in Paris, and it was understood that they were chiefly exported to Italy, where they were sold in the nunneries.

58:45 Johannis Goropii Becani Origines Antwerpianae, 1569, lib. i, pp. 26, 101.

58:46 Golnitzii Itinerarium Belgico-Gallicum, p. 52.