Preface

The following is a paper written in 1988.I would change some, perhaps many of the
conclusions, and certainly the theoretical approach. In particular I would emphasis
the position of large aggregates of human beings [ie cities and monasteries] as a
necessary but not sufficient pre-condition for homosexual sub-cultures.

It should also be noted that this paper stands firmly

against the social constructionist model of homosexual

cultures. It sees, in Western culture at least, the

persistent existence of recognisably homosexual sub-cultures

which recur whenever opportunity presents itself. I am

now much more open to constructionist arguments, but

would insist that the free variation some aspects of

constructionism seems to posit, does not exist:- in fact

a small number of formulations recur repeatedly.

Anyone seriously interested in this topic needs to get

hold of Michael J. Rocke's 1989 SUNY/Binghampton

doctoral dissertation

"Male Homosexuality and its regulation in late medieval Florence" (Ann Arbor: UMI
9007572) and James Brundage, _Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval
Europe_.

Let me stress this was a term paper by a graduate

student. It may still have some interest, but it

does not represent my current ideas, or what I would

regard as publishable material.

Paul Halsall

Halsall@murray.fordham.edu

*****************************************************************

Paul Halsall

Fordham University 1988

The Experience of Homosexuality in the Middle Ages

Homosexual1 sex was widespread in the Middle Ages and

there is abundant information on what church writers

and secular legislators thought about it. Shoddy or par

tisan scholarship and a distinctly modern disdain of

homosexuals by scholars until recently marked much of

the discussion of the history of this medieval

homosexuality. Since 1955, and especially since 1975,

much work has been done that is of reasonable quality2.

The concentration has tended to be on the Church's, or

society's, attitude to homosexuality. This paper takes

a different tack and looks at the personal experience

in the Middle Ages of those we would now call homo

sexuals and the structures in which they were able to

experience their sexuality. Their experience fits in

with the wider experience of sexuality in Middle Ages

and this also will be considered. Naturally, we can say

little about what sexuality felt like for individuals,

but a possible framework for their experience can be

reconstructed from existing sources. This will be,

necessarily, a framework for the experience of

homosexual males for significant information exists

only about men and boys3.

The main focus of the present paper will be on the

experience of homosexuality for individuals and on what

can be gleaned about the subcultures or other kinds of

social networks homsexuals belonged to in diverse

medieval periods. There are theoretical issues to face

in this inquiry, about the concept of homosexual and

homosexuality, and the overall place of homosexuality

in the study of medieval sexuality. Only after looking

at these will we move to a consideration of sources and

the uses that can be made of them. A examination of the

often ignored issue of why people engaged in homosexual

activities will help us to focus better on the core of

this paper which will be to consider those medieval

societies in which we have knowledge of homosexuality

and to see if they fit into any typology. The

typologies looked at are of the types of homosexuality

we can see present and at the social contexts in which

this sexuality was expressed.

Use of Terms

Michel Foucault opened up the serious

investigation of the history of sexuality4. His view

was that sexuality is socially constructed in a way

similar to grammar, and so to talk about homosexuality

in the past would be a solecism; for Foucault the

experience of a modern western gay man is

incommensurable with same-gender sex in other periods

or cultures5. This distinctive perspective has become

orthodox for many writers6. John Boswell led the attack

on Foucault's thesis7, although his own theory that

there have always been homosexual subcultures8 does not

seem to be verifiable. Other authors not attached to

structuralist theory, such as Guido Ruggiero9, are now

joining Boswell. The core issue is did homosexual

behaviour exist before the modern period as the

affective preference we call homosexuality? The word

homosexual is a nineteenth-century invention, and it is

often suggested that one alternative, sodomy, had too

varied a meaning in the Middle Ages to substitute for

it. Self-conception is surely important in defining a

person's sexuality, but we need not be too realist

about it: a thing does not need a name to exist.

Homosexual acts existed and even though the meaning of

the word sodomy has been much discussed for the Middle

Ages, and it could be applied to acts such as anal

intercourse between married people, in the majority of

cases it refers to various sexual acts between men10. A

working definition is that homosexuality, the desire

for at least sexual contact with someone of the same

gender, is a perquisite of a person practising

homosexual acts on a regular basis, even though as this

paper makes clear, the social framework may vary

greatly.

Medieval Sexuality

A study of homosexuality fits into the wider

history of sexuality in the Middle Ages. Discussions of

sex dating from the period are almost all

ecclesiastical, while current scholarly interest is

with the sexual lives of lay people. This requires an

oblique use of sources similar to that needed with the

history of homosexuality.

Late antique thought in general had turned against

sexuality11. The revival of transcendence in philosophy

downgraded the body and exalted rationality as a path

to divinity. Christian theologians took up the theme

with gusto. In the West, St. Jerome and St. Ambrose con
ceived of sex as a way of tying the spirit to

carnality12. St. Augustine took up another platonic theme, that

passion derogated from reason, and argued that, while

procreation was a virtuous end for sex, attempts to

gain pleasure were unnatural since rationality was

inevitably compromised13. His views set the tone for

western Christianity. Sex was permissible only within

marriage and when it aimed at procreation, and only

then if you did not enjoy it too much14. This general

theme was particularised in discussions of what was

allowable between married people15. Masturbation was

out, as were anal and oral sex; all were pleasurable

and did not lead to procreation. Vaginal intercourse

also was permitted only in what has become called the

"missionary position" and there was an extended

discussion of the sinfulness of having the woman on

top, of entry from behind and anal sex16. Eventually

many commentators came to the conclusion that any

unusual coital positions were unnatural, although it

was never agreed exactly what was permitted and the

concept of "natural" proved to be flexible17.

Clearly the theories of ostensibly celibate

authors did not accord with the practice and types of

sexual activity practised by heterosexuals. The

discussions of possible sins by theologians indicate

that some people were committing those sins; there is

some evidence that users of early medieval penitentials

inquired into what sins a penitent had committed18 and

so the penitentials do reflect practice as well as

churchmen's concerns. After the institution of

compulsory confession at the Fourth Lateran Council

(1215), the practices of the laity resulted in a new

consideration of ethics by theologians; Bishop

Grosseteste of Lincoln, for instance, worked on

Aristotle's Ethics, and new handbooks for confessors

were produced. This evidence shows that heterosexuals

in the Middle Ages practised a wide range of sexual

activity. As well as procreative sex in the missionary

position, heterosexuals seem to have enjoyed sex with

the woman on top, in the "doggy position"19, and oral

sex20. Heterosexuals also had anal sex21, and this seems

to have been used as a form of contraception along with

coitus interruptus. In periods when marriage was

delayed we can also be fairly sure that masturbation

was an outlet22. Other evidence, apart from conventional

love literature, makes it clear that people also loved

each other on occasion23. People do seem to have had

psychological defenses against the ecclesiastical

onslaughts on their sexuality; there was a popular

belief that sex between married people was always

without sin24, and there was a phrase si non caste,

tamen cauts25.

This wider world of medieval sexuality includes

homosexuality, and we have been looking at it to

establish that homosexuals were not alone in having

their sexuality negated by ecclesiastical ideology.

Turning now to how historians have approached this

aspect of medieval sexuality, we find that three themes

predominate; biography, church and society's views of

homosexuality, and the persecution suffered by

homosexuals.

The least informative in terms of gaining a

historical perspective on the subject has been the

biographical approach. There are numerous biographies

of St. Anselm, St. Aelred, William Rufus, Richard I and

various renaissance homosexuals. Little context has

been given to their sexual lives, and the goal is often

prurient or to "prove" that homosexuals are as good or

better than heterosexuals26.

Another approach has been to look at society's

view of homosexuality. This takes into account church

views and secular laws. Bailey's work27 is well known in

this area, and the results of this sort of study have

been informative. The goal has often been to change

contemporary opinion.

The persecution of homosexuals has been the

greatest concern of many writers on the subject. Gay

writers in particular have seen the origins of modern

oppression in Christian Europe28. The two major themes

have been the growth of intolerance and actual

persecution. John Boswell29 argues strongly that

Christianity only became hostile as it absorbed the

effects of social changes which had nothing to do with

religion. Furthermore, it was only in the thirteenth

century that condemnation of homosexual activity became

a major theme. Boswell sometimes overstates his case30,

but he is on to something; churchmen become much more

consistent after the mid-thirteenth century in their

condemnation at the same time that in the secular

sphere capital punishments begin to be handed out31.

Various writers have drawn links between the treatment

of Jews, lepers, heretics and homosexuals32. Each group

tended to be scarred with the stigma of the others.

Physical persecution followed the increase in

intolerance. The burnings began when the secular

lawmakers took up the ecclesiastical themes33. Their

motives were explicitly religious; fear of the divine

vengeance meted out to Sodom was often given as a

reason for the new laws. Why these laws and punishments
were made only in the thirteenth century is disputed.

Gay activist writers tend to see Christian morality

entering the laws, but equally important was that it

was only in the thirteenth century that secular laws

were made in great numbers and law makers looked to

Roman Law which since Justinian had explicitly

condemned homosexuality.

If physical persecution was a factor in the lives

of homosexuals only in the late Middle Ages, it was not

the only way they might have felt attacked. They were

constantly aware, if they had contact with the church,

that their sexual desires were sinful. There has been a

tendency to see homosexuals as unique in this respect,

but as the discussion of sexuality in general made

clear, almost all sexually active people were in a

similar position. Heterosexuals were allowed at least

some sexual expression and the whole orientation of

society towards marriage gave them a way of coping.

Homosexuals' social networks will be examined to see if

they provided a similar mechanism34.

Sources

There were earlier studies of the history of homo

sexuality, but the work of Derrick S. Bailey35 marked a

new departure in the use of sources. Bailey's sources

were canon law, secular law such as Justinian's Code

and the barbarian codes, and some writings of the

church fathers and their medieval successors. Bailey's

work was constantly referred to by many of the other

writers in following two decades36. John Boswell37 also

uses these sources, although with a broader knowledge,

but due to his determination not to look only at

negative attitudes to homosexuals, he introduced

evidence from sources such as troubadour and other

poetry and writings of monastic authors such as Aelred

of Rievaulx. Boswell also took care to look at the

context in which, for instance, canons were issued, and

was able to question Bailey's interpretations38. In this

way and by taking medieval discussions of friendship as

relevant to homosexuality, Boswell has widened

considerably the evidence available for discussion.

It is important to look at these sources because

both Bailey and Boswell are interested in a global

understanding of medieval homosexuality; Bailey is

mainly interested in the Church's view while Boswell

also attempts to comprehend the lifestyle of

homosexuals. The problem with both is that their

sources are discontinuous39. There is much information,

but we are talking about a thousand years of history on

a diverse continent. Canon law and commentaries, along

with theological and spiritual writing do allow a

fairly continuous analysis of the views of the clerical

elite. The need to jump from Spain to France to

Scandinavia40 does not allow a similar analysis of the

actual situation of homosexual people. Law codes,

canons and scholarly commentaries are difficult to tie

to what was happening in particular places to

particular individuals. They necessitate that the

authors who use them talk about "medieval culture" and

"Christian attitudes" over large areas and long time

periods. The hermeneutical difficulties of using such

contrasting sources as seventh-century Visigothic codes

and twelfth-century monastic writing to say anything

consistent about medieval homosexuality are immense.

There has been an increase since 1978 in the

number of studies looking at local areas. Ruggiero,

Goodich, Gade, Krekic, Roth41 and others have used local

inquisition records, court records and poetry to

present the history of homosexuality from such diverse

local areas as Norway and Dubrovnik to Venice and

Florence. The opportunity is now available to use these

local records to come to refine more general conc

lusions. Many of the sources already used on a global

basis can also be used as local evidence, for instance

St. Peter Damien's Liber Gomorrhanius42 might be looked

at for the information it gives on central Italy in the

eleventh century. The goal in this paper is to direct

attention away from the generality and to the variety

of homosexual people's lives.

Motivations for Homosexuality

Given the difficulties of homosexual sex in the

Middle Ages, it is legitimate to ask why people chose

to act in this way. No etiology has ever been

established for homosexuality and its expression has

varied from culture to culture; in most it has been

tolerated or approved, but in others it has been

absent43. In contrast with some non-European cultures

homosexual activity is referred to in such diverse

places and times that it always was an option, a

conceivable possibility, in the Middle Ages. John

Boswell thinks it is basically an urban phenomena, and

this is true of anything we can call a subculture, but

the evidence of the Irish penitentials, produced in a

land without cities, suggests that the urban aspect

should not be pushed44.

It might be thought that homosexual activity, seen

as personal motivations and desires, does not fit into

any economic pattern. Differing patterns of hetero

sexual institutions such as marriage can be linked to

economic trends. Marriage as a means of property

transfer among the twelfth-century French aristocracy

was a different institution to that of marriages

between peasants, or between town dwellers. Homosexual

subcultures, however, emerged fully only in urban

areas. We can see the impact of the commercial

revolution here. The growth of towns was connected to

the rise in trade. Several factors resulted from this.

First of all, especially in Italy, the cities were

large enough to provide anonymity; social control was

shifted to the family and the magistracy and away from

the community at large. This "gap" in social control is

what allows a subculture to develop. Delayed marriage

in late medieval Italian towns also meant that there

were sexually mature young people who might experiment

given the lack of heterosexual opportunity45. Men who

were by inclination homosexual were also given longer

to discover this before being married. Some reasons for

being homosexual, or developing homosexual traits, do

seem to have an economic base.

Another explanation for being homosexual has been

suggested, again in the Italian context, by Herlihy46.

He takes up the issue of the age differential, which

could be up to fifteen years, between married couples

in Florence. This meant that mothers were often as near

their children's' age as their husbands. Herlihy thinks

this affected infantile development, retarded the age

of marriage and produced a "feminised" society47. This

is a Freudian explanation of homosexuality, and apart

from being unprovable does not explain why a

"feminised" man should become a distant paterfamilias

when he finally married after the age of thirty.

One of the reasons people have sex is usually

overlooked. They find it pleasurable48. There is no

sexual activity that is unique to homosexuals, although

some acts may be more frequent. The sources available

enable us to say something about the type of sexual

activities homosexuals practised. Early medieval

Irishmen seem to have confessed to anal intercourse,

interfemoral intercourse49, and mutual masturbation50.

Oral sex including the swallowing of semen51 was also

noted. We have no information as to whether kissing was

practised. Flagellation seems to have been a penance

rather than a pleasure. St. Peter Damian thought this

constellation of activities was prevalent amongst his

clerical contemporaries in central Italy52. When we hear

the voice of homosexual poets from Spain, Arab writers

discuss anal sex but, along with their more chaste

Jewish counterparts, the emphasis is on kissing53 and

its pleasures. Kissing was about as far as monastic

writers in Christian Europe would go54, although the

Templars were accused of analingus55. Renaissance

Florence saw prosecutions for anal sex56, and Ruggiero

recounts the trials of a transvestite prostitute and

another case in which the relationship of the two

charged parties was sado-masochistic57. There was then a

variety of sexual activity practised by homosexuals and

the repertoire seems more or less complete. It can be

noted that discussion of oral sex apart from kissing is

relatively rare, and that interfemoral intercourse is

discussed as frequently as anal penetration. Medieval

writers and trial reports all seem to assume that anal

sex was always done from behind. All these activities

were condemned by the Church and society throughout the

period. For people to break such persistent taboos we

must acknowledge just how strong the drive for sexual

pleasure is in many individuals - as strong and

sometimes stronger than any moral precept.

Types of Homosexual Activity in Medieval Europe

Discussion of medieval homosexual sex has brought

us to one of the major themes of the paper - the types

of homosexuality we can see in medieval Europe.

Randolph Trumbach58 has suggested one way of

understanding the variety. His thesis is that there are

homosexually-oriented men in most societies, but

equally that there is usually horror at the idea of an

adult male playing a passive role in sex, the so-called

"women's role". He suggests that two strategies have

normally59 been adopted to cope with the conflict; the

first allows men to have sex with adolescent boys, who

are allowed to be passive for this period of their

lives, or there are fully accepted adult male trans

vestites. These were strategies to retain the

masculinity of one partner. For Trumbach, Christian

society is unique in rejecting both active and passive

homosexual activity, and because of this there is the

phenomenon of homosexual subcultures in West. He

thought that because of this there must always have

been homosexual subcultures in the West. Trumbach is

wrong - there have been long periods in western history

without any discernible homosexual subculture60.

Trumbach was also at fault in not distinguishing

between types of sexual activity and types of social

networks or subcultures; the two are not necessarily

connected. His discussion of types of sexual activity

raises the legitmate question of why in some societies

we observe homosexual relations between equals, and in

others the adult/adolescent pattern61. This is not

reducible, as Trumbach supposes, to whether or not

there was a homosexual subculture. There were societies

such as Spanish Jewry which show signs of a conscious

subculture but where all the evidence points to

adult/adolescent activity, and places where the

opposite seems to hold. Trumbach's theory is far too

rigid, but has value in raising questions about the

variety of forms homosexuality takes. This variety is

the subject now under consideration.

This section will look at those societies62 in

which we can see the first type of pattern of sexual

activity, that between men and boys, or where one

partner played a definitely passive role in sex. There

were real variations within this pattern.

Scandinavia has left a little evidence in law and

literature about homosexual practice63. A single

regulation of 1164 survives against all homosexual

activity, but does not seem to have been enforced64. The

literature makes it clear that homosexual acts were

acceptable as long as a man played a "male" role. There

was a word "argr" or "ragr" used to insult men who had

played a receptive role; the indication is that anal

sex was the activity imagined65. Gade asserts that

homosexual relationships existed in Norse society66, but

offers no proof of this from either law or literature.

Old Norse society seems to have been one where it was

acceptable for most men67 to express homoerotic desire,

especially with slaves, but where no evidence of

homosexual social networks survives. The sex in

question is usually described as between men; a strong

distinction between active and passive roles does not

here reflect any emphasis on pederasty.

Medieval Hebrew/Spanish culture has left a more

varied record of homosexual activity than Scandinavia68.

Maimonides took a strict view of homosexual activity

and admonished both partners, but seems to have been

more lenient when one of the partners was under nine

years old69. Although this would be a young age to have

sex, this rabbinic view has some links with the

Hebrew/Spanish literary culture whose poets wrote many

beautiful verses dedicated to the love of boys. The

most notable poets of the period wrote on the theme,

and there seems to have been no question of them

copying ancient Greek forms, although Arabic ghazal

poetry was known to them. The allusions in the poetry

were distinctly Jewish:-

Like Joseph in his form,

like Adoniah his hair.

Lovely of eyes like David,

he has slain me like Uriah70.

The sexual activity referred to by Jewish poets, unlike

Muslims, did not go beyond kissing71 and fondling. There

were themes and images that recurred in this genre of

poetry from the eleventh to thirteenth century. The

poets knew of each other's work, were widely read, and

were integrated in society72. There was here then, the

same active/passive pattern of homosexuality as in

Scandinavia, but there the similarity ends. Amongst

Spanish Jews homosexuality was a question of sex with

boys, but it was also surrounded with a halo of

romance. The boys suffered no disgrace, although sex

with bearded youths was despised, and there was a

literary and social network of those who were attracted

to other males.

There are numerous references to homosexual

activity in literature in twelfth-century Christian

France. Here the evidence of the type of sexual

activity is mixed. The poetry of the homosexual bishops

Baudri of Bourgueil (1046-1130) and his friend Marbod

of Rennes (1035-1123)73 reflects the situation of Jewish

Spain with an emphasis on pederasty and some awareness

by the poets of each other's work. The bishops were

even less forthright about the sexual activity they

envisioned than the Jewish poets. However, pederasty

probably was not all that was going on; Ivo of

Chartres, at the same period and in the same region,

discusses sodomy and fellatio distinctly from

pederasty74, and Peter Damian, who wrote at the same period

although in a different place, mentions mutual

masturbation, interfemoral sex and "the complete act

against nature"75 without making a special complaint of

pederasty or one partner being passive. For the poets

however, pederasty, and by implication an

active/passive distinction, was the norm but this might

have been a literary topos reflecting an awareness of

Roman literary themes76.

Trumbach's first type of homosexuality, where a

great distinction is made between active and passive

roles is made, does then appear to have occurred in

medieval Europe77. In the instance where the strategy

was most clearly to preserve the masculinity of one

participant, Scandinavia, pederasty does not seem to

have been an issue. Where we find pederasty as the

pattern of active/passive activity our evidence comes

from individuals who do not stress their own

masculinity. So while passivity/activity is a fair way

to typify sexual activity, more than just the desire to

preserve masculinity was at issue; in the Jewish case,

Mosaic law was slightly less harsh on pederasty and

Christian intellectual poets had classical models to

consider. Trumbach's theory may be correct for

"primary" cultures, ones that do not have to come to

terms with previous cultural norms, but in Jewish and

Latin Christian societies constant referral to earlier

classical formulations requires that anthropological

data and theories be used with care.

Homosexual activity where there was not an active-

passive pattern would, in Trumbach's theory, be unique

to the West and related to the subculture he thought

always existed. Here we are talking about the

possibility of reversing sexual roles in a given

culture, or where no strategy was deliberately adopted

or expected by society to preserve masculinity. In

every culture there would be some who preferred an

active or passive role, but the strategy, if it could

be called that, would be the agreed pleasure of the

participants. Was this sort of sexual pattern evident

in any time or place in the Middle Ages?

Early medieval Irish confessors, as reflected in

their penitentials, were not worried by pederasty and

made no great distinction between active and passive

activity. They do distinguish between men and boys and

talk about sexual acts that are mutual78 and do not fit

into the active/passive paradigm. The penitential of

Cummean (c. 650) in particular talked about boys having

sex together79 and Columban (c. 600) instructed that a

sodomite should never be housed with another person80

without mentioning the age of either person. Sex

between monks was condemned frequently, and here also

there was some equality in that sexual activity was

between men of similar status. So in early Ireland81,

where there is no evidence of any homosexual

subculture, there may well have been the option of sex

on an equal basis. In this case Christian condemnation

of both parties may ,as Trumbach predicted, have led

each partner to act for pleasure rather than to

preserve social status. The only problem concerns the

degree to which we can trust the penitentials to

reflect social reality.

Monastic writing on love and friendship in the

twelfth century represents some of the earliest

evidence we have of the views of homoerotically

inclined men. Unlike Baudri of Bourgueil's musings over

pretty boys, writers such as Anselm and Aelred of

Rievaulx wrote to other monks. The objects of their

affection were younger men but they envisioned lifelong

and exclusive relationships, such as the affair Anselm

had with the young monk Osbern82. It is not clear what

part sex played in these relationships; although it is

not mentioned overtly by the writers they were

attracted to males and all their emotional life centred

on men83. In this milieu also we can perhaps allow some

sort of equality in the activities of homosexuals84.

Contemporary with these loving monks, there was a

very different society of young fighting men, the

aristocratic elite of northern France. Duby described

the life of aristocratic youth and thought it possible

that they had sex together85. Possibly the education of

knights in all-male groups, for many years with little

prospect of early marriage, would have encouraged

homosexual activity86. Certainly Richard I, who embodied

twelfth-century knightly mores, had homosexual

relationships87. From what we can construe of this

aristocratic activity it was mutual and between men of

the same age group. We hear nothing of the condemnation

of passive activity seen in Norse lands.

There is some evidence from non-elite and non-

monastic groups in Southwest France in the late

thirteenth century from the inquisition records of

Jacques Fournier88. One Arnold of Verniole was tried c.

1323 and his homosexuality came up in the records. It

is clear that he had no trouble persuading many younger

men to sleep with him. In spite of the age difference,

both partners played active and passive roles in

penetrative sex89. Arnold's motive in changing roles

around was pleasure. He does not seem to have had a

masculinity axe to grind.

The most extensive evidence of sexual activity

comes from renaissance Italy. It will be argued later

that this is the best example we have of a homosexual

subculture in the period before 1500, but for the

moment the thing to note is that there is evidence of a

wide variety of sexual patterns. Florence in

establishing its magistracy to extirpate sodomy in 143290

specifically condemned active and passive partners as

if they were both committed by adults, although the

prosecutions published by Brucker91 refer to homosexual

rape of boys. The Florentines also established

heterosexual brothels in 1415 with the intent of luring

young men from sodomy92: they seem to have thought the

problem was one of unsatisfied sexual urges93 rather

than the possibility that some men might have preferred

to be passive. In Venice, Ruggiero, drawing upon trial

records, suggests that active/passive role playing was

the norm94, and there were many cases of an older man

and an adolescent engaging in classic pederasty. But in

this homosexual subculture this was not the only

pattern; Ruggiero's own figures95 show that the number

of sodomy cases involving boys remained steady at about

25 per cent for 175 years. There were also cases of

whole groups of young noblemen of the same age group

being prosecuted96 and depositions from partners who did

take turns in active and passive penetration97. In Italy

as well then, we find that equality in sexual roles was

a conceivable option for homosexuals.

In this long section Trumbach's theory of

homosexual activity has been tested in reference to

medieval Europe. He erred it seems in thinking that the

active-passive model of homosexual sex would not occur

in Christian societies, and in tying types of sexual

activity to particular types of culture. On the other

hand, the Christian condemnation of both partners in

penetrative sex may be related to the existence, in a

variety of western contexts, of a homosexuality that

does not conform to the norm in other cultures of

distinct active and passive partners. The wide spectrum

of social contexts looked at here has also demonstrated

that social context and the types sexual activity are

not closely related. The rest of this paper leaves the

study of sexual practice and takes up the theme of

social contexts.

Homosexual Networks & Homosexual Experience

So far homosexual networks or subcultures have been

distinguished from sexual activity. It is worthwhile

asking just what we mean by a subculture. Only then can

the social experience of homosexuals be analysed.

By "subculture", sociologists mean a number of

differenmt things. A culture is the name given to the

whole web of assumptions, history, language,

traditions, art, and crafts that a individuals in a

society hold in common. Society is composed of many

groups, and each group will have its own particular

subset of traditions that make it a subculture;

consciousness of being a group is usually a factor. The

number of groups is enormous, since one individual may

belong to more than one group, so there is academic

interest only in certain sorts of subcultures;

religious, ethnic, womens' and deviant subcultures have

all been of interest to scholars, often reflecting

their own concerns. In any large subculture there will

be sub-sub-cultures. To take the example of the modern

gay subculture, within the whole there are the

distinct, if sometimes overlapping, subcultures of men

interested in leather clothing, and of men interested

in opera98; they share the general subcultural knowledge

of code words, gay meeting places, and gay history, and

will probably be aware of and understand "camp"99, but

each subgroup also has its own meeting places,

interests and language. Such subcultures did exist in

the Middle Ages, amongst, for instance, the Jews, but

as a category of thought "subculture" describes a

society more complex than that discernible in our

sources about homosexuality, with the possible

exceptions discussed later. This is not to say that

homosexuals lived life in total isolation. A more

useful concept is that of a social "network"100: a

homosexual would not have experienced his sexuality in

isolation if he had had a social network of homosexual

friends, fellow monks or former sexual partners. It is

also easier to discern such networks than the apparatus

of a subculture through the sources we have. A

generalised homosexual subculture after all would mean

only that a series of such smaller networks were

interlinked. A final point here, pace Trumbach, is that

no continuous homosexual subculture did exist in the

Middle Ages. Although we have looked at evidence from a

number of periods and regions there is no evidence that

any one group of homosexuals knew of any other's

existence101. In this section we shall look at the this

social experience of gay men and at why there were

social networks or subculture in some places but not

others.

Plainly, some homosexuals had an entirely

individualised experience of sexuality with no

awareness of others, or at least many others with same

feelings and certainly no conception of a different

sexuality. There were a number of homosexual monarchs,

who, with the exception of Edward II, seem to have

escaped any severe punishment; one example would be

Richard I of England. Many of these monarchs do not

seem to have been tied into any social network. Of the

societies already covered Scandinavian homosexuals seem

to have been integrated with the general population:

there is no evidence that all men had sex with others,

but those who did were not regarded badly102. The Norse

concept of "argr" or being passive in sex does not seem

to have been applied to any particular group. Ireland

and other regions reflected in the penitentials have

left no other evidence that would allow us to see

social networks. Possibly there were small groups in

some monasteries, and men who played with other as

youths might have remained in contact, but this remains

speculation. We can be fairly sure that in the many

areas and periods for which there is no surviving

evidence there were isolated individuals who possibly

made local contacts; the sexual habits we can observe

in the variety of places we do know about indicates as

much. Such individual experience might have been the

fate of the majority of homosexuals in the Middle Ages.

 There are sundry cases where the sources point to

small groups or networks. In some royal courts there

was a network of homosexually interested men. At the

court of Charlemagne, Alcuin and his circle wrote

erotic poems and letters to each other, complete with

nicknames with classical references103. This is too small

to be considered a subculture, but the homosexuals who

belonged to it did have social support. The Norman

courts, particularly that of William Rufus, also bear

witness to homosexual networks: St. Anselm preached a

sermon asking the court to stop wearing long hair, and

William of Malmesbury, admittedly at a distance of

thirty years, reports young men walking naked around

the court104. A similar phenomenon of social networks can

be seen in monastic circles. In the eleventh century

St. Peter Damian imagined that whole groups of clerics

in his region105 got together with "eight or even ten

equally sordid men"106 and that homosexual priests

absolved each other of their sins107. Such social

networks, although not necessarily sordid, can be seen

in the letters of Aelred of Rievaulx108. For many men of

a homosexual inclination, once the Cistercians

introduced adult recruitment, a monastery must have

seemed a good way to escape the pressures of marriage.

Our evidence comes from abbots' writing; the experience

of lower level monks is not known109. Of the non-elite

and non-monastic groups examined earlier, the records

of Montaillou, and the trial records of Arnold of

Verniole110, indicate no extensive subculture, but Arnold

did have a whole circle of homosexually active

acquaintances. Although there is no way of quantifying,

it is possible that small social networks of friends

were the commonest way homosexuals who had any social

support experienced their sexuality. The sources just

do not support the theory of a continuous or even a

commonly recurring subculture, but do show more than

isolated individuals.

If social networks are the most we can see in most

periods, are we ever justified in seeing more developed

homosexual subcultures in the Middle Ages? The

Hebrew/Spanish poets bear witness to a tradition

lasting many centuries: the first poet to write in the

tradition of homoerotic poetry was Yishaq ben Mar-Saul

in the eleventh century111 and his successors continued

composition until the thirteenth century112. This seems

to lend support to the idea that amongst Spanish Jews

there was a subculture. The problem is that our

evidence is literary, and, while this does show a

continuing tradition of code words, images, and

sensibility, we do not know if there were meeting

places, lasting relationships or any consciousness

among non-literary homosexuals that they formed a

group113. Even with these reservations, we can see some sort of

subculture in Spain, based, as noted earlier, on the

sexual attraction of adults for adolescents. Boswell is

keen to see twelfth-century French culture and

literature as evidence of a widespread subculture114. He

brings into play the writings of Baudri of Bourgueil,

Marbod, and variety of other litery works, including

one poem which seems to refer to male brothels

operating in Paris, Chartres, Sens and Orleans115. There

was also a verse debate between Helen and Ganymede on

the merits of the love of boys and the love of women.

Boswell sees such literature as "the product of a

society in which gay people were an important segment

of the population," and "where defenses of gay love

were sufficiently common to have taken on a defiant

rather than apologetic tone"116. Added to the sources

discussed by Boswell, there were reports of

homosexuality at Paris University in 1219117, and in

Paris in general in 1230118. The limited evidence does

point to a homosexual subculture amongst clerics, both

priestly and scholarly, in northern France from perhaps

the late eleventh until sometime in the thirteenth

century. The sexuality expressed in the surviving poems

is centred on sex with young males but with some

indications of more equal relationships between adults.

It is not clear if the homosexual networks we can see

in English monasteries at the period, or the possible

homosexuality amongst aristocratic youth, were linked

with the homoerotic traditions of the secular and urban

clergy of northern France. Late medieval and

renaissance Italy presents a special case. Italian

homosexuality in late Middle Ages has been well

documented by Ruggiero119. The sources are entirely

different from the literary evidence used by Boswell,

and although we do not hear the voices of homosexuals,

Venice's court records describe a varied homosexual

subculture in the fifteenth century with distinct

meeting places near the Rialto amongst other places120.

Ruggiero thinks that this subculture only came into

being in the fifteenth century121. More rudimentary

social organisation is discernible in Italy before

that: Dante is quite aware of sodomites a century

earlier122. Although only Venice has been investigated in

full there were muncipal statutes in many other Italian

cities of the period123, and it is possible much more

evidence of homosexual subcultures is available in

their court records124. Homosexual subcultures did exist

in the Middle Ages, although there are full records for

none of them. The total number was small, and they were

limited to certain areas. For most of the period there

was only the most limited social organisation for

homosexuals.

There are no set reasons why a homosexual network

or more developed subculture should develop in one area

and not in another. Much work has been done on the

persecution of homosexuals, and Boswell's thesis is

that persecution destroyed the homosexual subculture of

the twelfth entury. That may have been the case in

France, but the most developed subculture we are aware

of, that of Venice, grew up in an atmosphere far more

dangerous for homosexuals than anything in the

thirteenth century.

Persecution was not the only relevant fact in the

existence of a subculture. Urbanisation as such has

little to do with the existence of homosexual activity,

Scandinavia and early medieval Ireland show that, but a

developed social organisation seems to be necessary

before sub-groups can form their own networks. Not

every town had a homosexual network, as far as we can

see, but almost all the networking that did occur was

related to urban life125. Small networks must have grown

up accidentally as a group of acquaintances came to

recognise their sexuality in each other. Only when and

where there was a continuous subculture would there be

real opportunities for homosexuals outside these chance

networks to find a social context for their sexuality.

Conclusions

This paper has looked at the experience of

medieval homosexuals from a distinct perspective. In

particular the development of persecution and hatred,

the elaboration of a theological and juridical

onslaught, has been sidelined. The goal has been to

discuss the way in which homosexuals experienced their

sexuality. The theoretical problems were discussed

along with previous approaches to the issue. Source

material instead of being used to make large

generalisations has been taken as evidence for

localised information. The central part of the paper

looked at why people might act homosexually, and at the

type of sex they had. The last two sections took up the

suggestions of Randolph Trumbach on the type of

sexualities and subcultures that might be found. Very

clearly there were distinct types of sexual activity in

different periods and areas, but these activities do

not seem to accord with any particular social

organisation of homosexuals: there was a pederastic

emphasis in the Spain, with a developed subculture, and

there were relationships conducted on a more equal

basis in areas where there is little evidence of

homosexual social organisation. What has become clear

is that homosexuality existed in immensely varied forms

in the Middle Ages. A global approach to the whole

period is of some use and interest, but to try to

understand the lives of homosexual individuals it is

necessary to consider their local circumstances and the

structures in which they lived.

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_______________________________

1 The word "gay" seems to have entered scholarly

orthodoxy with its adoption by James Brundage in Law,

Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe (Chicago

& London: University of Chicago Press, 1987) who yields

to John Boswell's plea for its use in Christianity,

Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Chicago & London:

University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 41-46. In this

paper, "gay" will only be used in reference to modern

self-identified gay people, and "homosexual" for other

periods. Boswell is right to see that the word

"homosexual" has its origins in pathology, but he is

overly dogmatic: it is the most neutral word available.

2 Derrick S. Bailey: Homosexuality and the Western

Christian Tradition (London: Longmans, Green, 1955)

(repr. Hamden, Ct: Archon/Shoestring Press, 1975),

Boswell Christianity and the work of Vern Bullough,

James Brundage and Guido Ruggiero are all valuable.

33 Judith C. Brown: Immodest Acts - The Life of a

Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (New York: Oxford UP,

1986), p. 9, can find perhaps twelve references in

fifteen hundred years to women's homosexuality. She

also argues p. 171,n. 54, that "before the nineteenth

century, women who engaged in sexual relations with

other women were incapable of perceiving themselves as

a distinct social and sexual group, and were not seen

as such by others." This may have been true of men at

some periods, but not always as this paper makes clear.

4 Michel Foucault: History of Sexuality, Vol I: An

Introduction (New York: Pantheon, 1978).

5 In similar vein the word heterosexual would be

inappropriate to describe the both the experience of

sexuality of men and women in, for instance, a society

such as ancient Athens, where a women's world was cut

off from a man's, and the more integrated world of the

United States. Foucault's wider point is that there is

no such thing as "humanity" and that each society

constructs its own reality.

6 For instance Barry D. Adam: The Rise of a Gay and

Lesbian Movement (Boston: Twayne, 1987), and Alan Bray:

Homosexuality in Renaissance England (London: Gay Men's

Press, 1982).
7 Implicitly in Boswell Christianity, and explicitly in

his "Towards the Long View: Revolutions, Universals and

Sexual Categories" in Salmagundi 58-59 (Fall 1982-

Winter 1981), pp. 89-113.

8 Personal communication.

9 Guido Ruggiero: The Boundaries of Eros: Sex, Crime

and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (New York:

Oxford UP, 1985), p. 114.

10 This statement is based on my own reading, but see

also Brundage Law, Sex p. 213.

11 Boswell Christianity, p 128.

12 Joyce E. Salisbury: "The Latin Doctors of the Church

on Sexuality" in Journal of Medical History 12:4

(1986), p. 279.

13 Salisbury, pp. 285-288.

14 Gratian thought that a couple who married because

they were attracted to each other were guilty of

fornication. See James Brundage: "Let me count the

ways: Canonists and Theologians Contemplate Coital

Positions" in Journal of Medieval History 10:2 (1984),

p. 84

15 Brundage "Coital Positions", p. 82.

16 Brundage "Coital Positions", pp. 82-84.

17 Brundage "Coital Positions", p. 87.

18 John T. Noonan: Contraception: A History of its

Treatment by Catholic Theologians and Canonists

(Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press, 1966), p 166.

19 "a canio" or "a tergo". See Brundage "Coital

Positions", p. 88.

20 Gratian discusses this, Brundage "Coital Positions",

p. 84.

21 This was often called "sodomy" in a heterosexual

context. See Noonan Contraception, p 226.

22 J.L. Flandrin: "Marriage tardif et vie sexuelle:

Discussions et hypotheses de recherche" in Annales ESC

(1972), pp. 131-178, argues on grounds of realism that

it is unreasonable to expect that young people

sublimated sexual urges for up to fifteen years.

23 Gene Brucker: Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage

in Renaissance Florence (Berkeley & Los Angeles: Univ.

of California Press, 1986). This uses a fifteenth-

century law suit to discuss the passions of a

Florentine couple. This kind of evidence, which

involves marriage law, is just the sort of law case

that we do not have for homosexuals, for whom we have

only criminal cases.

24 Brundage "Coital Positions", p. 87.

25 P.A. Biller: "Birth Control in the Medieval West" in

Past and Present 94 (1982), p. 17. "If not chaste, then

with care", which has the same thought as the modern

"if you can't be good, be careful".

26 An example of this approach is A.L. Rowse:

Homosexuals in History: Ambivalence in Society,

Literature and the Arts (New York: Macmillan, 1977).

27 Bailey Homosexuality

28 For example, Louis Crompton: "The Myth of Lesbian

Impunity: Capital Laws from 1270 to 1791) in Journal of

Homosexuality 6:1/2 (1980), pp. 11-26, and Warren

Johansson: "Ex parte Themis: The Historic Guilt of the

Christian Church" in Homosexuality, Intolerance and

Christianity: A Critical Examination (New York:

Scholarship Committee, Gay Academic Union, 1981).

29 Boswell Homosexuality, passim.

30 Brundage Law, Sex p. 174, for instance, challenges

Boswell's view that early penitential literature

treated sodomy as a "commonplace". Brundage did a

statistical analysis of the assigned penances for

various activities and shows (Table 4.3, p. 600) that

sex between men was given by far the harshest penances.

31 Crompton "Lesbian Impunity", p. 17, finds the

earliest burning of a male sodomite in Ghent in 1292.

32 Vern L. Bullough: "Heresy, Witchcraft and Sexuality"

in Journal of Homosexuality 1 (1974), pp. 183-201,

repr. in Vern L. Bullough: Sex, Society and History

(New York: Science History Publications, 1976), and

R.I. Moore: The Formation of a Persecuting Society

(Oxford: Blackwell, 1987)

33 Brundage Law, Sex, p. 472.

34 M.E. McAlpine: "Pardoner's Homosexuality and How it

Matters" in PMLA 95 (1980), pp. 15-17, suggests one

example of the internalisation of Church teaching. He

proposes that Chaucer meant his Pardoner, who is called

a "mare", slang for homosexual, to be homosexual, and

that the Pardoner's need to wear relics around his body

was Chaucer's way of expressing the feelings of an

outcast that his body was dirty.

35 Bailey Homosexuality, (1955)

36 It was so influential that it contributed directly to

the support given by the Church of England for the

decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales

in 1967.

37 Boswell Homosexuality.

38 For example, Boswell Homosexuality, pp. 174-176.

39 E. William Monter: "Sodomy and Heresy in Early Modern

Switzerland" in Journal of Homosexuality 6:1/2 (1980),

p. 42, points this out, and thinks that it makes

suspect any talk of subcultures north of the Alps

before 1700.

40 Boswell Homosexuality, Chap. 8, Bailey Homosexuality,

Chap. V.

41 K.E. Gade: "Homosexuality and the Rape of Males in

Old Norse Law and Literature" in Scandinavian Studies

58 (1986), pp. 124-141, Michael Goodich: The

Unmentionable Vice: Homosexuality in the Late Medieval

Period (Santa Barbara, Ca: ABC-Clio, 1979), B. Krekic:

"Abominandum-Crimen: Punishment of Homosexuals in

Renaissance Dubrovnik" in Viator 18 (1987), pp. 337-

345, N. Roth,: "Deal Gently with the Young Man: Love of

Boys in Medieval Hebrew Poetry of Spain" in Speculum 57

(1982), pp. 21-50, Guido Ruggiero: "Sexual Criminality

in the Early Renaissance: Venice 1338-1358" in Journal

of Social History 8:4 (1975), pp. 18-37, and

Boundaries.

42 St. Peter Damian: Liber Gomorrhanius in PL CXLV, cols

159-90 and as Book of Gomorrah: An Eleventh-century

Treatise Against Clerical Homosexual Practice trans.

Pierre J. Payer (Waterloo, Ont: Wilfred Laurier

University Press, 1982)

43 D.E. Greenberg & M.H. Bystryn: "Christian Intolerance

of Homosexuality" in American Journal of Sociology 88

(1982), p. 515.

44 Ludwig Bieler: The Irish Penitentials (Dublin: Dublin

Institute for Advanced Studies, 1963). For some reason

Bieler does not translate all the earthier passages.

Boswell's emphasis on the urban nature of homosexuality

is partly due to his belief that tolerance declined

because the late antique and early medieval

ruralisation of society meant a more rigid and

moralistic society.

45 R.C Trexler: "La Prostitution Florentine au XVe

Siecle: Patronage et Clienteles" in Annales ESC 36:6

(1981), p. 984 points out that Florence built municipal

brothels specifically to lure young men away from

sodomy.

46 David Herlihy: "Veillir a Florence au Quattrocento"

in Annales ESC 24 (1969), pp. 1344-1345.

47 Herlihy "Veiller", p 1345. He suggests this was the

reason Florence had no strong military tradition.

48 This is of course a judgement in which the strictest

patristic moralists, who did not stop to consider

economic or psychological reasons, would concur.

49 John McNeill & Helena Gamer: Medieval Handbooks of

Penance: A Translation of the Principal "libri

poenitentatles" and Selections from Related Documents

(New York: Columbia UP, 1938), p. 103.

50 McNeill Handbooks, p. 113.

51 McNeill Handbooks, p. 186. To take semen in os is

described as the worst of evils.

52 Damian Liber Gom. I, (p. 29, Payer translation).

53 Roth p. 24.

54 Boswell Homosexuality, p 225. Boswell suggests St.

Aelred had gone further as a youth.

55 Malcolm Barber: The Trial of the Templars (Cambridge:

Cambridge UP, 1978), p. 163. Many of the Templars

denied the charge and it is not clear whether they were

being accused of a ritual or sexual crime. This is also

the only reference I found to kissing of the nipples.

56 Gene Brucker (ed.): The Society of Renaissance

Florence: A Documentary Study (New York: Harper and

Row, 1971), p. 205.

57 Guido Ruggiero: "Sexual Criminality in the Early

Renaissance: Venice 1338-1358" in Journal of Social

History 8:4 (1975), p. 23.

58 Randolph Trumbach: "London's Sodomites: Homosexual

Behaviour and Western Culture in the Eighteenth

Century" in Journal of Social History 11:1 (1977), pp.

1-33. This article discusses homosexuality in a cross-

cultural perspective before it gets down to London's

subculture.

59 The "norm" envisioned by Trumbach refers to the

majority of cultures studied by anthropologists.

60 Boswell Homosexuality, p. 169.

61 For Europe the transvestite pattern has not been an

option and will not be discussed here. There have been

transvestites but nowhere does this seem to have been a

way of socialising homosexual desire.

62 A definitive study of this question would require an

accurate picture of what sort of people were

homosexuals in the periods looked at and the relative

proportions of each subgroup within that group. Such a

sampling frame has not been developed for the present

decade, and so all statements based on the limited

material available for the Middle Ages are tentative.

63 Gade "Homosexuality", and Thorkil Vanggaard: Phallos:

A Symbol and Its History in the Male World (New York:

International Universities Press, 1973), pp. 76-80.

64 Gade, p. 131.

65 Gade, p. 134.

66 Gade, p. 135.

67 Vanggaard, p. 80, makes this point, saying homosexual

practices were acceptable amongst "normal" men.

68 Roth "Love of Boys" and Fred Rosner: Medicine in the

Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (New York: Ktav, 1984), pp.

193-213, discuss respectively the literary and

rabbinic/legal evidence.

69 Roth, p. 23, and Rosner, p. 204, and p. 211.

Maimonides wrote in Egypt, but was important for all

Sephardic Jews. If the boy was under nine both partners

were exempt from punishment, if the boy was under

thirteen the boy was exempt and the adult was punished.

Males over thirteen are adults in Jewish law.

70 Yishaq ben Mar-Saul (eleventh century) translated in

Roth, p. 31.

71 Roth, p. 24, although Roth's view that kissing alone

is the subject of the verse he translates on p. 45 as

"I undressed him, and he undressed me;/ I sucked his

lips and he sucked mine." (where the verb used is

"suck" with no mention of lips), is debatable.

72 Roth, p. 51.

73 Boswell Homosexuality, pp. 244-248 and E.R. Curtius:

European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages trans.

Willard R. Trask, Bollingen Series 36 (New York,

Pantheon, 1953), pp. 115-116.

74 Brundage Love, Sex, p. 212.

75 Peter Damian Liber Gom. I. (p. 29, Payer

translation).

76 Baudri de Bourgueil: Les Oeuvres poetiques de Baudri

de Bourgueil ed. Phyllis Abrahams (Paris: Librarie

Ancienne Honore Champion, 1926) (repr; Geneva: Slatkine

Reprints, 1974), p. xviii.

77 Instances other than those discussed could be cited

from records from Charlemagne's court, some monastic

writers, and later medieval Italian sources.

78 chiefly mutual masturbation.

79 McNeill Penitentials, p. 113.

80 McNeill Penitentials, p. 252.

81 And any other area considered by compilers of

penitentials.

82 B. McGuire: "Love, Friendship and Sex in the 11th

Century: The Experience of Anselm" in Studia Theologia

28 (1974), pp. 111-155.

83 McGuire "Anselm", p. 146.

84 Vern L. Bullough: Sexual Variance in Society and

History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976),

p. 338, suggests homosexuality was a feature of

Byzantine monasticism as well as Western.

85 Georges Duby: "Youth in Aristocratic Society:

Northwestern France in the Twelfth Century" in The

Chivalrous Society (1977), p. 119, cites Orderic

Vitalis' reference to young men returning from training

"Quasi de flammis Sodomiae". In his own William

Marshall: The Flower of Chivalry trans. R. Howard (New

York: Pantheon Books, 1985), p. 14 and p. 53, Duby

looks at homosexuality and notes that only men are said

to love each other.

86 Greenberg & Bystryn, p. 532. If true this type of

activity would not be due to homosexual preference or

attraction but faut de mieux.

87 Roger of Hoveden: Gesta II.7 - describes the future

Richard I and Philip II Augustus going to bed. Ref. in

John Gillingham: "Richard I and Berengaria of Navarre"

in Bulletin of the Institute of HIstorical Research

53:128 (1980), p. 169. Gillingham thinks Richard was

not homosexual, but his evidence is against him, and he

demonstrates his anti-homosexual prejudice when he

proposes (p.170) that the name of the modern writer

N.I. Garde means "in drag".

88 Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: Montaillou: village occitan

de 1294 a 1324 (Paris: Gallimard, 1975), trans. by B.

Bray (New York: 1978), used these records. The trial of

one Arnold of Verniole is translated in full in Michael

Goodich: The Unmentionable Vice: Homosexuality in the

Late Medieval Period (Santa Barbara, Ca.: ABC-Clio,

1979), pp. 93. ff.

89 Goodich, p. 96.

90 Gene Brucker (ed.): The Society of Renaissance

Florence: A Documentary Study (New York: Harper and

Row, 1971), p. 203.

91 Brucker Society, pp. 204-206.

92 Trexler, p. 984.

93 David Herlihy: "The Tuscan Town in the Quattrocento"

in Medievalia et Humanistica 1 (1970), pp. 90-91, has a

table showing that in 1427 most men were unmarried by

the age of thirty.

94 Ruggiero Eros, pp. 123-124.

95 Ruggiero Eros, p. 128, Table 6.

96 Ruggiero Eros, p. 127.

97 Ruggiero Eros, p. 116.

98 These are only two out of many possible modern

subgroups within the gay subculture.

99 "Camp" is the distinctive way of looking at the world

adopted by gay men in the West. "Effiminacy" does not

quite describe what it involves. It has been

characterised as the triumph of style over substance in

aesthetic appreciation.

100 I spent the summer of 1988 working for a modern

social research project, interviewing 120 gay men on

the effects of the AIDS epidemic on a study directed by

John Martin and Laura Dean at the Columbia University

School of Public Health. One of the ways of organising

data from interviewees was in terms of their social

network. Among heterosexuals this would often reduce to

their close family members. Gay men, and, I think it is

fair to say, some active homosexuals in earlier periods

form support networks through friends and occupation as

much as through their family. I am not suggesting

modern social structures may be read back into the

Middle Ages, but the conceptual framework is useful.

101 Some educated circles in the West knew of classical

antiquity, but not other contempories.

102 Vanggaard, p. 80.

103 Boswell Homosexuality, p. 189.

104 McGuire "Anselm", p. 148.

105 The area around Gubbio in central Italy.

106 Peter Damian Liber Gom. II (p. 30 in the Payer

translation.) This may be one of the few references we

have to group sex in the Middle Ages. Payer dismisses

it on the grounds that there are no other references to

be found in the period.

107 Peter Damian Liber Gom. VII (p. 43 in the Payer

translation.)

108 Boswell Homosexuality, pp. 221-226.

109 The experience of the Templars might be included as

an extreme case of monastic homosexual networks, but

apart from the uncertainty of whether the charges

against them were true, many of the activities charged

were meant to have taken place on only one occasion.

See Anne Gilmour-Bryson,: The Trial of the Templars in

the Papal States and the Abruzzi (Vatican: Biblioteco

Apostolica Vaticana, 1982), p. 47.

110 Goodich, p. 93 ff.

111 Roth, p. 30.

112 Boswell Homosexuality, p. 266.

113 It would also be useful to have some knowledge of the

attitude of non-homosexual Jews of the period towards

homosexuals.

114 Boswell Homosexuality, Chapter 9 "The Triumph of

Ganymede". On p. 243 he uses the term "gay subculture".

115 Boswell Homosexuality, p. 262-264. The poem is an

attack on sodomitical practices, which it describes in

detail.

116 Boswell Homosexuality, p. 260.

117 D. Stanley-Jones: "Sexual Inversion and the English

Law" in Medical Press and Circular 215 (1946), pp. 391-

398, referred to by Bailey Homosexuality, suggests the

introduction of Aristotle into the curriculum somehow

veiled a battle over homosexuality. I was not able to

find a copy of this article.

118 By Jacques de Vitry, see Arno Karlen: Sexuality and

Homosexuality: A New View (New York, W.W. Norton,

1971), p. 85.

119 Ruggiero Eros, Chapter VI "Sodom and Venice". He is

explicit on the nature of the subculture pp. 135-141

120 Ruggiero Eros, p. 139. Apothecaries, gymnastic

schools, dark areas near churches an pastry shops were

used as rendezvous points.

121 Ruggiero Eros, p. 135.

122 Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy, Inferno XV and

Purgatorio XXVI. There has been a lot of debate as to

whether Inferno XV refers to homosexuality; whatever

the case it is clear that Purgatorio does.

123 Brundage Law, Sex, p. 534, lists sixteen cities, but

the list is not complete.

124 This would not always be the case. B. Krekic:

"Abominandum-Crimen: Punishment of Homosexuals in

Renaissance Dubrovnik" in Viator 18 (1987), pp. 337-

345, has looked at the records of Dubrovnik, a slavic

town largely influenced by Venice. Although he found

strict laws against male sodomy, the records leave no

indication of homosexual activity (p. 340).

125 Monasteries are a special case. They have a developed

social organisation apart from the urban life.