Sodomy in Reformation Germany and Switzerland, 1400-1600 (review)

Helmut Puff's book, part of "The Chicago Series on Sexuality, History and Society," is an extraordinary example of how a social history of language can lead to a contextual understanding of sexuality and communal identity. Tackling an oft ignored and marginalized topic, Puff demonstrates how a careful analysis of "multifarious relationships between acts and words" (p. 11) leads to a nuanced understanding of the changing usage of the various terms, including, sodomy (sodomia), sinning "against nature" (contra naturam or wider die nature), heresy (Ketzerei), and florencing (florenzen), to describe male same-sex sexual acts in late medieval southern Germany and Switzerland. Combining extensive archival research with a well-grounded understanding of contemporary literary theory and historical method, Puff proposes that the discursive rhetoric surrounding sodomy played a significant role in creating a unique state, religious and social identity in German-speaking lands during the Reformation.

Part One, "Acts and Words," shows how sodomy accusations and trials had more to do with local conflicts than sustained effort by secular or ecclesiastic authorities to control same-sex sexual behavior. Puff, however, asserts that the medieval "Church's relative lack of interest in homosexual behavior" should not be equated with "tolerance" (p. 21) and that seeming inaction itself can constitute action when scrutinized closely. In Chapters One and Two, Puff argues that while those convicted of sodomy were severely punished, trials themselves were "episodic" rather than "systematic" (p. 30). He finds that class issues rather than concern about sexual behavior dominated sodomy prosecution, since most cases pursued by civic authorities dealt with upper-class men or clergy until the Reformation. Particularly fascinating is Puff's discussion in Chapter Three of "tropes of unspeakability" (p. 57) in theological tracts, confessional manuals, and printed sermons and catechisms, and of how the presentation subtly shifted according to audience. This convincing section illustrates how an absence of direct descriptive discussion of sodomy and the use of silence was intentional in confronting the "silent sin." Chapter Four traces how this rhetoric of unspeakability found its way into legal trials and public denouncement of sodomy during the early sixteenth century.

Part Two, "Acting Words," demonstrates that polemical use of sodomy, often presented as an extreme of Reformation discourse, was not a new phenomenon, but rather had historical and rhetorical precedent in fifteenth-century slander and defamation. Chapter Five traces how verbal allegations became "a popular vehicle to circulate concepts associated with sodomy" (p. 107) in fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Switzerland. Defamation and slander were largely directed at foreigners and elites, thus "venting social and political dissatisfaction"(p. 116). Chapter Six outlines how German humanists used a slanderous and violent rhetoric of sodomy to differentiate themselves from their Italian counterparts and how this "rhetoric of inversion" created a "geography of perversion." Chapter Seven describes how civic authorities and Reform-minded theologians, including Martin Luther, utilized the term "sodomy" during the Reformation to contrast their reforms with "sodomite activities" of the Catholic, and Italian, Church. This brought the "unspeakable sin" fully into the rhetorical repertoire and created a powerful polemical tool. Chapter Eight suggests how this rhetorical contrast pushed Protestant reformers to advocate marriage as the only acceptable sexual norm for all, including clergy, since "celebration of marriage as well as sodomiphobia were particularly successful as Protestant rallying points because both accorded with and could be mapped onto values held by communities before the Reformation" (p. 176). Thus, Puff proposes how the concept of sodomy, originally defined as sexual "heresy," ultimately transformed into a rhetoric of inclusion and difference creating communal identity in the German-speaking regions of Switzerland and Germany during the Reformation.