and harsh political rivalries developed. An accusation of sodomy was one sure and effective way of eliminating one’s political enemy.
The single greatest religious force during this period was Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose thirteenth-century Summa Theologica (1267–73) reigned for centuries as the standard authority on Catholic moral theology. This text reinforced Saint Paul’s strictures against homosexual behaviour as it had been noted in Romans 1:27. His strict moral sanctions were based not only on the Bible, but on a distortion of Aristotle’s ideas regarding pederasty in antiquity and on his own understanding and acceptance of biblical tradition (Johansson & Percy, p.175). In the Summa, Aquinas put forth arguments directed specifically against sodomy, ranking it as a crime second only to murder (Saslow, pp.67–8). Aquinas was a member of the Dominican order which orchestrated the Inquisition and took an aggressive stance against heresy and sin. The Dominicans had expressed vehement opposition against same-sex marriages and, in fact, destroyed many pages that described such ceremonies.
46. Jesus and Saint John the Beloved, c. 1300.
Painted and gilded wood sculpture.
Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin.
47. Group of Christ and of Saint John of Sigmaringen, 1330.
Polychrome and gilded walnut. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin.
Despite disdain for same-sex unions by Aquinas and the Dominicans, the story of David and Jonathan appeared regularly during this period in a popular spiritual manual called the Somme le roi and was illustrated numerous times throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In it, vices were listed and paired with their virtuous opposites. The Somme le roi was originally assembled for the French king Philip III and served as a layman’s guide to moral issues (Saslow, p.73). The story of David and Jonathan served as an example of chaste same-sex friendship.
The special relationship between David and Jonathan was narrated in the biblical First Book of Samuel and tells the story of Jonathan, the son of King Saul, who formed an intimate friendship with David, a handsome shepherd who played the harp and who later became a soldier and slew Goliath. In 1 Samuel 18:1, the narrator proclaims that “the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David,” and that “Jonathan loved him (David) as his own soul”. Jonathan’s father, Saul, disapproved of the special bond between his son and David and forced the latter to flee the court. The two friends embraced and then parted sorrowfully. The biblical narration describes how “they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded” (1 Samuel 20:41). Jonathan then went into battle alongside his father and was killed by the Philistines. David was then crowned king. Upon hearing the news of Jonathan’s demise, David lamented: “The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places; how are the mighty fallen!… I am very distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love was wonderful, passing the love of women.” (2 Samuel 1: 19–26). David’s elegy for Jonathan has been put to use as a religiously sanctioned means of expressing male same-sex desire. The sad moment of their parting has been iconographically related to Saint John the Evangelist’s (also known as “the beloved disciple”) tenderly laying his head on Jesus’ bosom – a scene that has allowed for the representation of physical and emotional intimacy between men in religious art. The pairing of Jesus and Saint John had been frequently represented in manuscript illuminations one century before that of David and Jonathan. As a couple, they became very popular in German sculpture after 1300.
Despite the proliferation of images of spiritual love between same-sex couples, there also arose at this time in France, Italy, and England, stories of homosexual love in vernacular writing that began to supplement biblical writings. At the time, works of both ancient mythology and biblical scripture were translated and adapted with commentaries and illustrations intended to reinforce orthodox interpretations (Saslow, p.69). Titles like the Ovide moralisé (moralised Ovid) and the Bible moralisée (moralised Bible) attempted to “purify” or “moralise” ancient sources by condemning their previous sexual ethic and employing allegory (Saslow, p.69). The Bible moralisée, a compendium of texts and images compiled by thirteenth-century French royal theologians, and revised and copied throughout the fourteenth century, was amply illustrated. Twin illustrations were typically paired in circular frames to highlight a particular moral. In one edition, now located in Oxford, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is linked with two homosexual couples: a monk kissing a layman, and two women embracing. Both scenes locate the protagonists in the mouth of Hell by the presence of devils. The inclusion of lesbianism here is unique, perhaps reflecting concerns over sexual aberrations to the increasingly problematic “special friendships” among nuns in convents.
The Ovide moralisé is a secular version of the Bible moralisée. Its primary function was to re-evaluate the pagan elements contained in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In one fourteenth-century manuscript located in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, a page devoted to the story of Jupiter and Ganymede accurately illustrates Ovid’s conception of Jupiter as an enthroned king of heaven awaiting the eagle’s delivery of Ganymede. The text below the image chastises Jupiter for giving in to a desire that was “against law and against nature”. Such a rebuke against a powerful deity suggests that artists and authors were no longer interested in ancient literature for its philosophical content, but as a source for didactic rhetoric against its pagan and carnal elements (Saslow, pp.70–1).
48. Adam and Eve and Sodomites, 13th-14th century.
Illuminated manuscript from La Bible Moralisée.
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna.
49. Guido da Pisa, Dante and Virgil Meet the Sodomites, inspired by Inferno, Canto 15, c. 1345.
Illuminated manuscript. Musée Condé, Chantilly.
One of the most popular and recognisable moralising texts of the Middle Ages was Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Dante (1265–1321) is considered one of the greatest of the medieval poets and one of the founders of Italian literature. His Divine Comedy, the premier epic poem of Christianity, envisions Dante’s pilgrimage through hell, purgatory, and heaven. In the poem, the damned are subdivided into five groups according to the severity of their transgressions. Along his journey, Dante twice encounters sodomites. In Cantos 14 through 16 of the Inferno (Hell), the sodomites are confined to the seventh circle or the circle of the violent. Sodomy is understood here as violence against God’s creation. Those guilty of it are lumped together with blasphemers who do violence to God in speech, and with usurers who commit violence against the nature of money. Sodomites are sentenced to run naked over burning sand and under a steady rain of fire – a punishment reminiscent of the biblical destruction of Sodom itself.
Due to suggestions of a non-committal stance against sodomy on Dante’s part, it is believed that he did not outright condemn it as vice. In Cantos 14 through 16 of the Divine Comedy, Dante seems to soften his stance on sodomy – seeing it as a sin positioned only one step below salvation. In his journey through purgatory, Dante encounters penitent sodomites (Purgatorio, p.26). The sodomites and those guilty of other “unnatural” heterosexual activities move in two interlocking groups, each calling out the name of his sin. More than sodomy, heterosexual lust and its penance are prevalent throughout the Divine Comedy. This suggests that Dante wanted to minimise sodomy as an evil and felt no need to join in the exaggerated denunciations of it by many of his contemporary theologians (Mark D. Jordan, “Dante
