Boylove in the Middle Ages

The Middle Ages, or Medieval period, also called the post-classical era, lasted from the 5th to the 15th century.

The dark ages of boylove

This entry is intended to be an overview of boylove in the Medieval period and the articles in Category:Boylove in the middle ages. During the middle ages, homosexuality and boylove were not often differentiated in literature. These were very secretive times due to the strong influence of the Catholic church in Europe.

Europe

Notes

Papst Sixtus IV. (1414 - 1484) - according to Stefano Infessura he was homosexual and made his boys to cardinals.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) was he boylover it seems. 1490 he took the 10- year-old Giacomo into his home and they lived together until Leonardos death.

Michelangelo (1475 - 1564) was a boylover too it seems, but it is not as sure as Leonardo.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080228025200/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_pederastic_couples Historical pederastic couples

Aelred of Rievaulx http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioa1/aelred01.html

Hilarius the Englishman http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioh3/hilari02.html

Marbod of Rennes http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/biom2/marbod01.html

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The boy, St. Placid, and his rescuers, St. Maurus and St. Benedict. Some time in the 520s, the 7-year-old boy monk fell in a river when fetching water and St. Benedict fetched St. Maurus to go rescue him. In this act of great compassion, a miracle was said to have occurred that allowed St. Maurus to walk out to the boy to rescue him, despite the boy being a good distance out in the current by then, and only upon returning did St. Maurus realize this. Neither St. Benedict or St. Maurus wanted to assume the miracle, and so asked the boy what he thought, and the boy said that he had seen the abbot's cloak when he was in the water and assumed it was St. Benedict, so on his word, the miracle became ascribed to St. Benedict.

Regarding the boy monk, Pius Parsch in his book "The Church's Year of Grace" (1953) writes: "Alongside the awe-inspiring figure of the holy patriarch [St. Benedict] stands little Placid, and with the innocent simplicity of a child he does much to soften the austerity emanating from the patriarch of monks."

America (Pre-Columbian era)

North America

Certain Native American groups throughout North America prized boys as lovers. Of the Koniagas of Kodiak Island and the Thinkleets, we read from missionary accounts that: 'The most repugnant of all their practices is that of male concubinage. A Kodiak mother will select her handsomest and most promising boy, and dress and rear him as a girl, teaching him only domestic duties, keeping him at women's work, associating him with women and girls, in order to render his effeminacy complete. Arriving at the age of ten or fifteen years, he is married to some wealthy man who regards such a companion as a great acquisition. These male concubines are called Achnutschik or Schopans' (the authorities quoted being Holmberg, Langsdorff, Billing, Choris, Lisiansky and Marchand). The same is the case in Nutka Sound and the Aleutian Islands, where 'male concubinage obtains throughout, but not to the same extent as amongst the Koniagas.' The male concubines have their beards carefully plucked out as soon as the face-hair begins to grow, and their chins are tattooed like those of the women. In California the first missionaries found the same practice, the youths being called Joya."

Central America

Though early Mayans are thought to have been strongly antagonistic to same-sex relationships, later Mayan states employed pederastic practices. Their introduction was ascribed to the god Chin. One aspect was that of the father procuring a younger lover for his son. Fray Juan de Torquemada mentions that if the (younger) boy was seduced by a stranger, the penalty was equivalent to that for adultery. Bernal Diaz reported statues of male pairs making love in the temples at Cape Catoche, Yucatan.