08/10/2003 my name is Daniel Chazin, from New
York.
At first I was planning to write to you in Italian, but decided against it as I didn't want to make a complete ass of myself. Also, I gathered from your site that you speak English, and I'm sure that your English is a hundred times better than my Italian, though feel free to respond to me in Italian, if it's more confortable for you, as I can read and understand it much better than I speak it (hence how I was able to surf your site ;-) ). In any case, I wanted to tell you that I think you're doing a wonderful job on your site on gay history and culture, and I appreciate all the work you've put into making this wealth of knowledge available to the general public so that members of the gay and lesbian community, like myself (and especially the closeted portions of the population, which would never dare to seek out this sort of information in a bookstore or public library) may broaden our knowledge and understanding of LGBT history. I find the selection of texts spanning across different eras and countries wonderfully ecclectic and fascinating (this is especially laudable since many popular and scholarly writings on gay history place a disproportionate focus on the last century and a half). Your comments are scholarly and insightful and are always a pleasure to read. To top it all off, you've complemented the texts with stunning graphics. I feel it is important for you to hear all this now and then so that you know you are making a difference and you will not have the impression that it's all worthless and meaningless as you did when the vile president of my country invaded Iraq (believe me, there were many of us here in New York who opposed the war just as strongly, and who did and still do worry about where this country is headed).
But I wish not only to thank you, but also to actively contribute to making this project even more perfect and comprehensive than it already is. As a student of history at Yale University, with a concentration on the Middle Ages (understood in the broadest possible sense as the period from around 300 to 1546) and in the year and a half since I graduated, during which I've been researching and writing about the formation of Western Christian attitudes toward homosexuality in hopes of eventually publishing a full-length study, I have acquired a wide array of information which I would be happy to share with you in the hopes of achieving that goal. I am most familiar with the theological and other ecclesiastical sources from this era (pastoral writings, canon law sources, etc.) as they relate to homosexuality and would be more than happy to help you locate any sources or information you might be looking for, to assist in any way possible when it comes to this area, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss these or any other issues that interest you.
1) A few quick notes about: Johansson, Dynes, and Lauritsen, Homosexuality, Intolerance, and Christianity. Let me start with a few quick notes.
I bet you've already read it, probably
a long time ago, maybe even in the original print edition.
Personally I had a chance to look through the essays only just recently, now that they're conveniently digitilized, although I had read about and heard of the authors a number of times, and have read a few other essays they've written, particularly Johansson. I think Johansson's criticisms of Boswell's work are right on the mark (apart from a few scattered comments about the necessity for psychoanalytic analyses in historical studies, that is): at http://www.galha.org/ptt/lib/hic/johansson.html, and especially the ten-point criticisms at http://www.galha.org/ptt/lib/hic/bibliography.html. On the other hand, I think that he is perhaps somewhat too harsh on Derrick Shervin Bailey [1955] who, despite his strongly apologetical bias, has this merit, that he never went out of his way to skew or distort the evidence; having examined and re-examined Boswell's.magnum opus and many of the specific claims countless times, I can say for a fact that he went out of his way to bury certain facts, to minimize others, to give a false impression of lasting tolerance in Christian society up til the late 1100's when he wants us to imagine that, all of a sudden and in contrast to the longstanding tradition of Christian tolerance, lay society, in its own right, and without any prodding from the church or its teachings / propaganda-activities, became virulently homophobic. I can forgive a lot of the other faults, like the extremely faulty analyses of theological and literary sources, probably unintentional, but the willful misrespresentations and distortions I consider to be irresponsible (even unethical) scholarship. In any case, moving right along... What do you think of Lauritsen's.mea culpa in the 2003 Preface? It was interesting to read his account of his personal experiences in meeting with Boswell, as it fit with everything which I heard about him from one of my professors who replaced him (after he passed away) as the the senior medievalist at Yale and from graduate students who were around while he was still there: according to all accounts, he was extremely likable, engaging and charming as a person, though I was often told not to lose sight of the flaws of his historical work, and have found the advice to be sage and beneficial in the end. [Dall'Orto's answer to this point]
2)
Marie
de France, "Lay of Guigemar".
I think you might also appreciate one of Marie's other lays, the Lay of Guigemar (there is a copy at the French-language site you're working off of here), the tale of a chivalrous, valourous and winsome knight who has every asset that a twelfth-century aristrocratic woman would find desirable but who, alas (you can almost hear Marie sighing in despair), has no interest whatsover in "love", that is, in women; however, determined not to let this one get away, Marie has her protagonist wounded while hunting in the forest (a freak accident of sorts) by a white hind who places him under a curse such that he absolutely must find a woman's love in order to cure him of his wound. While Guigmar doubts this is even possible, as he's never cared for women that way, Marie fixes him up with a lusty dame who just happens to be married (thus making the affair adulterous, the way Marie likes it), and the two fall in love, and live happily ever after, and so on and so forth... the rest is rather predictable. But note the somewhat ambiguous comments at the very end of the narrative: when I first read it (which was months ago) I sensed a hint of uncertainty in assertions as to the blissfulness of the heterosexual couple, though it could just be the translation I was using. (Could it be that Marie herself has lingering doubts that the young man has been fully "converted"? Or about the longterm prospects of the couple?). With the benefit of two separate tales from the same author, the reader will have an unusual opportunity to examine one particular author's views on homosexuality in depth (and those of a [militantly heterosexual] woman, no less), although, as a literary text, this source introduces an element of the imagination and questions of representation which complicate the interpretation of the work. Just a few points of interest to guide the reading of the text (they are phrased sort of like "study questions" but feel free to rephrase them):
Note that venery and the hunt were a frequent trope for sexual (and homosexual) liasons in the Middle Ages (recall, for instance, the French Roman Eneas, where the trope is used about two or three times in references to the activities of the men with strong suggestions of ludus). Ovid was one of the most popular classic writers in the Middle Ages, and his Ars amatoria, with its salient sexual content, was the medieval equivalent to soft-porn for many men, and so the contraversies surrounding the reception of his work were inextricably intertwined with medieval views toward sex. [Dall'Orto's answer to this point]
3) Walter of Chatillon's "Multiformis hominum fraus" and sodomite clergymen With the Walter of Chatillon texts in this same section, a valuble window into the homonegativist perceptions of twelfth-century society from one of the century's most caustic social commentators, I wanted to draw your attention to one of the other gay-related satires, also available at the site you link to (http://www.bu.edu/english/levine/walt821.htm), under the heading "Poem 5", Multiformis hominum fraus, which focuses (surprise-surprise!) on sodomite clergymen, with all the usual charges of sexual filth/depravity, hypocracy, profligacy, etc. I thought I should bring it to your attention just in case the text excaped notice, since you might want to include it, if for no other reason than that Walter accuses the pontiff of being a notorious cinaedus and man-whore; the actual wording of the charge (taken from Juvenal), which reads: "Dic papa, dic pontifex, spes sponso, sponse dos,is quite biting, making the accusation all the more scandalous. This would be guaranteed to raise an eyebrow among the typical American reader, at the very least (and for many, given the current scandals in the catholic church, it would probably confirm their assumptions regarding the clergy), though maybe, living over there in Italy, in such close proximity to the Vatican and the world of curial intrigues, this sort of thing doesn't faze you at all. In fact, there is something notable about this from a historical perspective: accusations of papal homosexuality abound in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but not so much in the twelfth-century, when, if not altogether unheard of, they were at least a lot less blatant as a general rule. Also, unlike Boniface VIII, John XXIII and others, this time the charge is that there is a passive sodomite in the chair of St. Peter. If you were already aware of the text and made a conscious decision not to include, please disregard my suggestion and excuse the presumption. [Dall'Orto's answer to this point]
4) Cesare Beccaria, chapter 39, "Di un genere particolare di delitti"
Though abiding by the traditional societal
conventions concerning the great caution with which one must approach the
"unmentionable vice", as he describes such practices with only the most
vague and indirect description, he nevertheless manages to challenge the
application of cruel and unusual punishments to "sinners against nature"
and to negate the rationale with which this brutality had long been justified,
as he casts aspersions on the notion that such behavior is a crime "against
nature" and a threat to society.
The comments in the middle of the passage (the part I omitted from this block quotation) are not entirely clear to me, but he seems to be arguing that this "genere di delitti", while perhaps sinful, is a religious matter which the State should not and does not have the right to punish in this manner, while at the same time countering the notion that the taboos on homosexuality found in Western society are universal with his suggestion that human conventions (NOT the dictates of "right reason" nor some laws ingrained in nature itself, as the church had long claimed) are what are responsible for preventing someone like from speaking about or other ways aproaching this subject matter. Of course, strictly speaking, one cannot technically say for certain that Beccaria is speaking about the sodomitical vice, as this is not explicitly stated, but the fact that the matter at hand is defined as a sin as well a crime and is regarded as unmentionable, that he avoids naming it directly, and yet at the same time expects the knowing reader to know exactly what he is referring to (note the comments addressed to "gli uomini ragionevoli..."), and the stipulation that people have been burned alive for this very reason for ages, all strongly suggest he is referring to "the vice against nature" here; as does the fact that the views expressed are consistent with those presented in the other passage which you have thoughtfully published on the site. (Granted, witches and Jews were also burned at the stake in Europe, but these examples do not seem to fit the general picture, and while I'm certainly no expert on eighteenth-century society, I'm pretty sure the burning of heretics, the other group subject to this treatment, had already kind of faded out by Beccaria's day and can therefore be discounted as well). [Dall'Orto's answer to this point]
5) Homophobia from the trial of the Templars in Poitiers (1308) Also, I want to send you an extract from one of the depositions in the trial of the Templars in Poitiers (1308). It is one of the first examples of homophobic violence that I am aware of (apart from the legendary story of St. Pelagius) and makes an excellent compliment to the phobic reaction of the narrator in the literary text by Zuane Manenti that you have e-published here). When questioned
about homosexual practices in the Order, a serving brother named Stephan,
one of the 72 witnesses heard from in this particular trial (i.e., the
trial in Poitiers), testified that brother Paul had wished to "corrupt
and pollute him with that abhorrent sin, sodomy, but he abhorred that sin
to such a degree that he hit Paul in the chin breaking three of his teeth
and fracturing his jaw".
Two qualifications: 1) this testimony was atypical [qui manca qualcosa] [Dall'Orto's answer to this point]
6)"Nefandos coitus contra naturam" in Lactantius, Institutiones divinae. Next, I wanted to pass on some interesting
selections from the Christian author Lactantius, who wrote from
the late third through the early fourth centuries.
The three selections below are extracts from Book 1 (an attack on pagan religious practices or "the false worship of the gods"), Book 5 (a discourse on justice and various forms of crime), and Book 6 ("Of True Worship"), respectively, all of them taken from Patrologia Latina, first edition, edited by Jacques-Paul Migne (1844-1855 and 1862-1865), vol. 6 (column numbers given below). Though unfortunately I do not possess sufficient command of Italian to provide the translation, I have included a brief synopsis of each passage that might (or might not) be useful. Also, there is an English translation of the Institutiones divinae at New Advent [note, however, that this is not necessarily the same edition as the Patrologia Latina version I've typed up] so perhaps there is already an Italian version out there, as well. While I will leave the commentary for you, my only point would be that the selections demonstrate the role which macho attitudes toward "passive" sexual behavior in males played in the formation of Christian thinking with regard to homosexuality. [Note by Dall'Orto: I placed the text and the notes in a separate page, here] [Dall'Orto's
answer to this point]
7) Jacopo da Varagine, la Leggenda aurea e la morte dei sodomiti. Adesso vediamo un brano dalla Leggenda aurea del domenicano Jacopo da Varazze, che ha aiutato a divulgare la leggenda secondo cui tutti i sodomiti del mondo sono periti la vigilia di Natale! Secondo teologi come Ugo di Santa Chiara, Guglielmo Peraldo e Bonaventura, che hanno inventato il mito, attribuito (a torto, forse) al venerabile dottore della Chiesa Girolamo (non si sa se l'attribuzione è vera o no dato che gli studiosi non hanno ancora trovato la leggenda nelle sue opere), l'eradicazione di questo "vizio" e di quelli che lo esercitano [e si sopponeva che l'eradicazione fosse l'opera di Dio] è stato uno dei miracoli che accompagnarono la Natività di Gesù Cristo. Ovviamente la leggenda, collegata a una santa festa annuale, ha fornito al braccio temporale un'altra giustificazione per lo sterminio dei sodomiti, e gli ecclesiastici, per parte loro, non hanno esitato ad aggiungere che questa strage divina era ben giusta. ( Uso
qui la traduzione inglese di William Caxton (1483), edita da F.S. Ellis,
ma penso di aver visto anche una traduzione italiana in Rete, non ricordo
dove):
[Dall'Orto's answer to this point]
So, that's all folks! I hope these leads have been helpful and look forward to hearing from you. Daniel Chazin |
A
neat secondary source, 
Similarly,
with the work of Cesare Beccaria (for whom I have much admiration), I wanted
to call your attention to chapter 39, "Di un genere particolare
di delitti", a brief but moving commentary on the cruelty and brutality
with which Western society has treated the sexual "Other" (and the perverse
pleasure which people seemed to derive from it) which, in my opinion, is
the most powerful passage in Beccaria relating to homosexuality.
I
was aware of the chapter, but I decided not to include it since it deals
with heresy (in a broader sense) rather clearly, neither with witchcraft
nor with sodomy.