Ithier of Rochefort under torture admitted to “obscene” kisses and “the incitement to homosexuality”.After that, he was told to spit on the crucifix. John of Cugy, a 53 year-old Templar who had been keeper of the mills in Paris told an inquisitor that the Visitor of France (a very senior Templar knight) had taken him behind the altar and “kissed him on the base of the spine and the navel”.
Medieval gay men naked full#
The Templar trials expert Professor Malcolm Barber details quite a few confessions made after 1307 that give you the full picture. So what were the accusations levelled against the Templars that gave rise to the idea many were gay? It also posed a far greater threat to the power of the Pope, the King and the whole spiritual and temporal superstructure. To deny Christ, his sacraments and the authority of the church was to overturn the natural order of things – way more than two men being in love. King Philip of France was keen to crush the brotherhood of knights and basically levelled two main accusations against them designed to disgust medieval public opinion: heresy and sodomy.īut…should be said that heresy was probably the worst of the two accusations. It really all hinges on confessions made during the Templar trials between 13. So – why this association between the Knights Templar and homosexuality? Sadly, there were no Pride parades in the 14th century (unless you count some papal processions!). Homosexual love is as old as humanity but LGBT identity as we understand it today is quite modern.
One user got quite irate when I insisted you couldn’t classify the Templars as a medieval LGBT organisation – though that’s not to say some of the knights weren’t gay.
After all, they were accused of kissing each other on the “base of the spine” and other parts of the body in their initiation rites. I have been asked on several occasions whether the Knights Templar were gay.