Deryk Barker points out changing notions of obscenity and adds:

>I'm sure Steve S will correct whatever I have misremembered in the
>above.

Not me, God knows.  Reading some of the Catholic saints or even Martin
Luther should convince you that scatology and sexual rants weren't
considered obscene.  Coarse, maybe.  But these were people who wanted
to shake things up (do I have your attention NOW, you piece of ...?).

Right now I'm reading a little book called St. Thomas Aquinas, "The Dumb
Ox" by G. K. Chesterton.  Chesterton points out that  Aquinas was noted
especially for his courtesy in argument, which implies to me that courtesy
wasn't the standard.

Steve Schwartz