under the same conditions, the occurrence of the complete
orgasm during sleep with, in men, seminal emissions,
is altogether normal. Even Zeus himself, as Pausanias
has recorded, was liable to such accidents: a
statement which, at all events, shows that to the
Greek mind there was nothing derogatory in such an
occurrence.[231] The Jews, however, regarded it as
an impurity,[232] and the same idea was transmitted
to the Christian church and embodied in the word pollutio,
by which the phenomenon was designated in ecclesiastical
phraseology.[233] According to Billuart and other theologians,
pollution in sleep is not sin, unless voluntarily
caused; if, however, it begins in sleep, and is completed
in the half-waking state, with a sense of pleasure,
it is a venial sin. But it seems allowable to
permit a nocturnal pollution to complete itself on
awaking, if it occurs without intention; and St. Thomas
even says “Si pollutio placeat ut naturae
exoneratio vel alleviatio peccatum non creditur.”
Notwithstanding the fair and logical position of the more distinguished Latin theologians, there has certainly been a widely prevalent belief in Catholic countries that pollution during sleep is a sin. In the “Parson’s Tale,” Chaucer makes the parson say: “Another sin appertaineth to lechery that cometh in sleeping; and the sin cometh oft to them that be maidens, and eke to them that be corrupt; and this sin men clepe pollution, that cometh in four manners;” these four manners being (1) languishing of body from rank and abundant humors, (2) infirmity, (3) surfeit of meat and drink, and (4) villainous thoughts. Four hundred years later, Madame Roland, in her Memoires Particulieres, presented a vivid picture of the anguish produced in an innocent girl’s mind by the notion of the sinfulness of erotic dreams. She menstruated first at the age of 14. “Before this,” she writes, “I had sometimes been awakened from the deepest sleep in a surprising manner. Imagination played no part; I exercised it on too many serious subjects, and my timorous conscience preserved it from amusement with other subjects, so that it could not represent what I would not allow it to seek to understand. But an extraordinary effervescence aroused my senses in the heat of repose, and, by virtue of my excellent constitution, operated by itself a purification which was as strange to me as its cause. The first feeling which resulted was, I know not why, a sort of fear. I had observed in my Philotee, that we are not allowed to obtain any pleasure from our bodies except in lawful marriage. What I had experienced could be called a pleasure. I was then guilty, and in a class of offences which caused me the most shame and sorrow, since it was that which was most displeasing to the Spotless Lamb. There was great agitation in my poor heart, prayers and mortifications. How could I avoid it? For, indeed, I had not foreseen it, but at the instant when I experienced it, I had not