Lust

Lust or lechery is usually thought of as excessive thoughts or desires of a sexual nature. In Dante's Purgatorio, the penitent walks within flames to purge himself of lustful/sexual thoughts and feelings. In Dante's Inferno, unforgiven souls of the sin of lust are blown about in restless hurricane-like winds symbolic of their own lack of self control to their lustful passions in earthly life. Lust is an emotional force that is directly associated with the thinking or fantasizing about one's desire, usually in a sexual way. The word lust is phonetically similar to the ancient Roman lustrum, which literally meant "purification". This was the five-year cycle time for the ritual expiation of "sins" called the lustration as practiced in ancient Greek and Roman cultures, occasionally involving human sacrifice. Sexual intercourse was one of a list of sins requiring lustration. Another similar word existed in ancient Latin, lustratio. The Seven Deadly Sins, written during the 5th century is a similar list of sins requiring expiation or forgiveness. These doctrines forbade even thoughts and desires for fornicatio, later generalized as luxuria. The concept also was progressively embodied in debates about mandatory Clerical celibacy beginning in the 1st through 5th centuries and following. For example, Henry Charles Lea states that "Sixtus III barely admits that married persons can obtain eternal life" in his "Sacerdotal History of Christian Celibacy". He also states, "Siricius and Innocent I ransacked the Gospels for texts of more than doubtful application with which to support the innovation of required celibacy".