1200 - 1299 (13th-Century)

Illustration of one male couple and one female couple kissing. Image from the Moralized Bible of Vienna (Codex Vindobonensis 2554); Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.

c.1200​        Caesarius of Heisterbach believed that devils collected the semen from nocturnal 

                emissions & masturbation, which led to greater fear of witchcraft.

            Alan of Lille in Liber praedicandi identifies the sins against nature as bestiality, 

                masturbation, oral & anal intercourse & sodomy etc.

c1220​    Paul of Hungary in Summa de poenitentia states sodomy was a sin which could not

                     be spoken of without polluting both the mouth of the speaker and the ears of the 

                     listener.

1230​    Jacques de Vitry described Paris as being filled with sodomites.

1234​    Raymond of Penyafort defined ‘unnatural’ as any form of sexual activity other than 

                     between male & female using the appropriate organs. All other forms of sex were 

                     to be rejected, severely castigated as a sin, and in the extreme, to be punished.

1250​    Fulk Bassett, Bishop of London, called for sodomites to be punished.

c.1250   ​Albertus Magnus’ cure for sodomy was to apply ash of hyena fur mixed with pitch to

                      a man’s anus.

1253​    Death of Ahmad ibn Yusuf al Tayfashi.  His Delight of the Hearts has a chapter 

                      describing the characteristics of same-sex individuals and male prostitutes.  

1258​    Death of poet Beha Ed-Din Zoheir.  In one of his poems when his mistress disdains 

                     him he retorts: “went to find a young & obliging boy.  Beautiful as the moon &

                     the stars.

1256-65  Alfonso X of Castile’s laws [Siete Partidas] decreed that sodomites were to be 

                    castrated and then stoned to death.

1260​    Golden Legend stated that when Christ was born, suddenly all sodomites expired.

1261​    Valencia decrees death for convicted sodomites. 

1262​    In Siena sodomites had all their property confiscated. 

c.1263​    Philip III of France is rumoured to have had a liking for young men.  

1266-73   Thomas Aquinas writes & publishes Summa theologia – consolidating persecution

        of same-sex activity in Western thought.  He stated that the “vice against nature”

        was doubly repugnant.

1270​    Sodomy laws were refined in Siena to a large fine, and if this was not met, they were 

                    hung by their genitals.  

        The French made the first known anti-lesbian law. 

c.1275​    William of Saliceto believed lesbianism was caused by either uterine prolapse or 

                    abnormal enlargement of the clitoris.

1276​    In Augsburg the statutes of the city used the work Ketzer [heretic] to refer to 

                    sodomites.

1277​    The Bishop of Paris argues against the theory that “the sin of nature…is not…

                     against the nature of the individual.”

1284​    Birth of the future Edward II.  Piers Gaveston was also born around this date.

​        In Florence convicted sodomites were exiled. 

c.1285​    Abbot William de Sutton of Oseney Abbey ensures that the land register he is 

                  compiling begins with the gift of land from 2 sworn brothers: Robert D’Oilly &

                  Roger D’Ivry.  

1288​    In Bologna convicted sodomites were burnt.  Passive partners should also be burnt 

                    unless excused by age, or they were proved to have been forced.  

1290​    Fleta, a treatise written by someone living on Fleet Street, argued that convicted 

                    sodomites should be buried alive.

        Death of Brunetto Latini, Dante’s mentor, whom he later placed as the key figure in 

            the circle of sodomites in Hell.  

1295​    In Orvieto convicted sodomites had to pay half the fine paid for raping a woman.

1299​    In England a new legal text stated being buried alive was the punishment for anyone

                 having sex with Jews, animals, and persons of their own gender.

1300​    Around this time Prince Edward meets Gaveston, and falls in love with him.  A 

                    chronicler said: “when the king’s son saw him, he fell so much in love that he 

                    entered upon an enduring compact with him.”  Another said: “I do not remember 

                    to have heard that one man so loved another.”

c.1300​    For Pietro d’Abano the “wicked act of sodomy” included masturbation, intercrural 

                    sex, making friction round the anus, and by placing it in an anus.

                Riccoldo da Monte Crocce alleges that the Koran permits Muslims to sodomise men 

                    & women.  This lie becomes a widely accepted viewpoint in Western Europe.

A man bares his backside to a spear-wielding monkey, from the Rutland Psalter

Bibliography

Bray, Alan, The Friend, University of Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Griffin, Gabriele, (ed.), Who’s Who in Lesbian & Gay Writing, Routledge: London, 2002. 

Norton, Rictor, My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters through the Centuries, San Francisco: Leyland Publications: 1998.

Woods, Gregory, Homosexuality in Literature, London: Yale University Press, 1998.

Aldrich, Robert & Garry Wotherspoon (eds.), Who’s Who in Gay & Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II: London, Routledge, 2001.

Aldrich, Robert, Gay Life Stories, London: Thames & Hudson, 2023.

Rowse, A.L., Homosexuals in History, London: Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 1977.

Spencer, Colin, Homosexuality, a History, London: Fourth Estate, 1995. 

Malcolm, Noel, Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1759, Oxford: OUP, 2024.

Warner, Kathryn, Sex and Sexuality in Medieval England, Yorkshire: Pen & Sword History, 2022.