Annotations to James Joyce's Ulysses/Wandering Rocks/214

Annotations

That book by the Belgian jesuit, Le Nombre des Élus     (French) The Number of the Elect. The Belgian Jesuit that Father Conmee is thinking of is Auguste Castelein SJ, author of Le Rigorisme, le nombre des élus et la doctrine du salut (Rigorism, the Number of the Elect and the Doctrine of Salvation), which was published in Brussels in 1899. Castelein argued that the number of the Elect would be much greater than the number of the damned.

eiaculatio seminis inter vas naturale mulieris     (Latin) Ejaculation of semen within the natural female vessel. This is a technical definition of sexual intercourse. In his notes to his stageplay Exiles, Joyce writes, concerning the adultery of Bertha:

It is certain that [Bertha's] instinct can distinguish between concessions and for her the supreme concession is what the fathers of the church call emissio seminis inter vas naturale.

Although Joyce ascribes the Latin phrase to the Fathers of the Church, the question of adultery and what precisely constituted adultery exercised the minds of many 19th-century Catholic theologians. Joyce's immediate source for the phrase may have been Casus de Matrimonio by the Jesuit priest and professor of moral theology Maurice M Matharan. A heavily underlined copy of this Latin treatise was in Joyce's library.

Another possible source is Onanisme by Dr Paul Garnier. Garnier quotes the theologian Nardi when defining the act of onanism:

Garnier: Onanisme

Effusio seminis extra vas per voluntarium et violentam copulae interruptionem ad generationem impediendam.

The ejaculation of the semen outside the vagina by the voluntary and violent interruption of copulation in order to prevent conception.

See also 687.28-29 and 687.33-34, where the phrase recurs in English translation.

Moutonner     (French) To be flecked with fleecy clouds. The word is derived from mouton (sheep).