ABSTRACT
In Gregory's writings as well as in the Gallic conciliar texts, not only coitus itself but also the desire for it are “polluting”. Gregory's lively rendition of what must be a hundred-year-old item of oral tradition not only breathes an intense disgust and nausea felt for the genital region, but also a fear of the turbulence involved in sexuality. The symbols and rituals used by the Church in Gregory's time rehearsed and thereby stabilized the attitudes necessary for the consolidation of the individual and the community. For Gregory, the individual human body too is something like a skiff: it must be whole, firm and not leak; but as such it also appears to symbolize man's personal identity.
