Among the common people, indeed, accusations of this kind are, so far as possible, avoided; but among persons of quality it is publicly spoken of; it is considered a fine saying that since Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord has punished no one for such offences." [73] Serieux and Libert, "La Bastille et ses Prisonniers," _L'Encephale_, September, 1911.
[74] Witry, "Notes Historiques sur l'Homosexualite en France," _Revue de l'Hypnotisme_, January, 1909.
[75] In early Teutonic days there was little or no trace of any punishment for homosexual practices in Germany.

This, according to Hermann Michaelis, only appeared after the Church had gained power among the West Goths; in the Breviarium of Alaric II (506), the sodomist was condemned to the stake, and later, in the seventh century, by an edict of King Chindasvinds, to castration.

The Frankish capitularies of Charlemange's time adopted ecclesiastical penances.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries death by fire was ordained, and the punishments enacted by the German codes tended to become much more ferocious than that edicted by the Justinian code on which they were modelled.
[76] Raffalovich discusses German friendship, _Uranisme et Unisexualite_, pp.

157-9.