On simony, sodomy and sacrifice in the sculptures on the abbey church of Sainte-Marie at Souillac

The early-twelfth century sculptures now located within the nave of the Benedictine abbey church of Sainte-Marie at Souillac, France, formerly considered to be the fragmentary remains of a Romanesque portal program, are here read iconographically to form a cohesive, fully integrated and meaningful whole. A careful observation of the sculptures, in conjunction with near-contemporaneous artistic and textual comparators, permits a decoding of their symbolism and reveals the existence of highly sophisticated commentary, from the perspective of coenobitic monasticism, on a number of the more contentious political, ecclesiological and theological issues of the day. The program is read to be informed by and to reflect the clash of ideals within the Western Church surrounding aspects of papal reform from the latter half of the eleventh century.