If it is probable that in moral movements persons of homosexual
temperament have sometimes become prominent, it is undoubtedly true,
beyond possibility of doubt, that they have been prominent in religion.
Many years ago (in 1885) the ethnologist, Elie Reclus, in his charming
book, _Les Primitifs_,[51] setting forth the phenomena of homosexuality
among the Eskimo Innuit tribe, clearly insisted that from time immemorial
there has been a connection between the invert and the priest, and showed
how well this connection is illustrated by the Eskimo _schupans_. Much
more recently, in his elaborate study of the priest, Horneffer discusses
the feminine traits of priests and shows that, among the most various
peoples, persons of sexually abnormal and especially homosexual
temperament have assumed the functions of priesthood. To the popular eye
the unnatural is the supernatural, and the abnormal has appeared to be
specially close to the secret Power of the World. Abnormal persons are
themselves of the same opinion and regard themselves as divine. As
Horneffer points out, they often really possess special aptitude.
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