The following is how one group of Christians in Spain over 1000 years ago dealt with pedophiles.
A cleric or monk who seduces youths or young boys or is found kissing or in any other impure situations is to be publicly flogged and lose his tonsure. When his hair has been shorn, his face is to be foully besmeared with spit and he is to be bound in iron chains. For six months he will languish in prison-like confinement and on three days of each week shall fast on barley bread in the evening. After this he will spend another six months under the custodial care of a spiritual elder, remaining in a segregated cell, giving himself to manual work and prayer, subject to vigils and prayers. He may go for walks but always under the custodial care of two spiritual brethren, and he shall never again associate with youths in private conversation nor in counseling them.
from C.W. Barlow, Rule for the Monastery of Compludo, in FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, 169 (1969).
Pretty intense stuff… How do you think that compares with how people deal with this issue today?
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