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20 | Out in the Mountains |September 2000
'=. fea ture —_

STONEHENGE TO STONEWALL

by charlie emond

GLBT Historical All Stars

BY CHARLIE EMOND

Looking for signs of gay life
in the universe of the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth cen-
turies, one is dazzled by any
number of stars. This month, I
have picked out three — one
from each century — each as
gay as any buffed thirtysome-
thing marching down Church
Street under a rainbow flag;
each brilliant, talented, and
ahead of their times; each
respected to this day for their
contributions to humankind.

Unlucky in love

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-
1536), the illegitimate son of
an educated priest, was the
greatest spirit of the Northern
Renaissance: the most famous
scholar of his age and a prolif-
ic writer. He entered the
monastery at age 22, and
promptly fell in love with a fel-
low monk named Servatious
Roger, to whom he wrote inti-
mate letters pouring out his
very soul. “I have become
yours so completely that noth-
ing of myself is left.” To which
Roger replied, “What is wrong
with you?” and told him to
knock it off.

Not surprisingly, Erasmus
came to hate the monastery,
and finally got out on leave to
work with a bishop. In Paris,
the 32-year old took on two
students, one of them a tall,
handsome, golden-haired — and
very straight — young man
named Thomas Grey, with
whom he also fell in love.
(Didn’t this guy ever learn?)

He wanted to reform the
Church from within, but he is
accused of (or credited with,
depending on your viewpoint)
“laying the egg that Martin
Luther hatched.” He held the
radical view that Christianity is

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an attitude of the inner spirit,
not a matter of laws and cere-
monies. Of Christ, he said, “He
commanded us nothing save
love for one another.”

Oh, those unmeet practices!
Then there was Francis
Bacon (1561-1626), one of two

the story related by Boccacio
of the Jew who visited Rome
and converted to Christianity,
declaring that any church that
could survive the vileness of its
representatives MUST be the
true church.

One day, following his inter-
est in things scientific, Francis

Quentin Crisp would have called
Francis Bacon one of the ’’stately

homos of England.”

gay sons. Their mother, Lady
Bacon, wrote them endless let-
ters of advice on how to live, to
avoid “practices unmeet,” and
“pemicious and obscene plays
and theatres able to poison the
very godly.” Both ignored her
advice completely. An acquain-
tance wrote of Bacon that he
was “keeping still one
Goderick, a very effeminate
youth to be his catamite and
bedfellow. Nor did he ever for-
bear his old custom of making
his servants his bedfellows.”
Bacon was a brilliant
thinker. He brought science to
its senses. For example, instead
of speculating on the sex lives
of rabbits, he suggested that

one might actually catch a few,’

observe them in action, and
THEN write about them. (Hey,
this is radical stuff to the guys
who wrote about a male rabbit
growing a new anus each
year!) V

He also spoke up for reli-
gious tolerance, even on behalf

of those dreadful Puritans. I-

mean, this guy didn’t even hate
Catholics in a time when
everybody — even Catholics —
hated Catholics! English
Protestants called Rome “a cis-
tern of sodomy.” Then there is

 

, 

tried to preserve a chicken by
packing it in snow. In the
process, he caught pneumonia
and died. Quentin Crisp would
have called Francis Bacon one
of the “stately homos of
England.”

The High Flying Nun

Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
(1651-1695) was born in
Mexico, then called New
Spain. She asked to enroll in
the University of Mexico at the
age of seven and learned to
read the classics in Latin before
she was eight. No Barbie dolls
for this kid!

At 15, she joined the court
of the Spanish Viceroy and

proceeded to astound them.

with poetry in Latin, Spanish,
and Aztec. Sheiwas called the
“Tenth Muse” by the many
courtiers who adored her and
vied for her favor.

After a few years as the cen-
ter of attention at the Vice-

 

regal Court, she joined the con-
vent specifically to avoid mar-
riage. Judging from her pas-
sionate poems and letters to
women of the court, concludes
Andrew Harvey, “it is impossi-
ble to doubt that Sor Juana was
lesbian.” ‘

She is famous for her‘mysti-
cal poetry, yet she was a true
Renaissance woman who could
do just about‘ anything from
cooking (she baked a mean
puff pastry) to moral theology.
She learned to play several
musical instruments and was a
painter of some note.

Yet in the male-dominated
world of the church, she was
subject to incredible oppres-
sion. The church fathers regu-
lated her reading and writing.
She was even ordered to cease
her studies at one point. To
these guys, dealing with a
woman of such intellect was
rather like finding a singing pig
— they just didn’t know quite
what to make of her.

Like Bacon, she had a deep
interest in scientific experi-
ments. She called herself, “the
worst woman in the world” yet
she got along remarkably well‘
with the other nuns, rich and
poor. She is described as “affa-
ble and gracious.”

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Erasmus, Francis Bacon and
Sor Juana were brilliant, wide-
ly acclaimed bytheir contem-
poraries and celebrated by
those who came after. They
were also all ahead of their
times and all uniquely gay. If
you want bright stars, they
form a triangular constellation
of the first magnitude.

Next time: A Royal Flush

For More Information:

This gay history column is
the 21st in a series that began
in prehistory. My research for
this column comes mainly
from two excellent biographi-
cal collections: Gay Men and
Women Who Enriched the
World by Thomas Cowan, a
very readable collection, and
Homosexuals in History by
A.L.Rowse, a rather more eru-
dite approach. I also used
Andrew Harvey’s Gay Mystics
for the information on Sor
Juana.

Charlie Emond has a bache-
lor’s degree from Queens

College and masters degrees ~

from both Dartmouth and
Keene State. He teaches col-
lege history courses in
Springfield and White River
Juhcti0rz.V

 

 

DEMOCRAT

Jerry

—-—— for

011

Primary

WCCDTFE

costa

State Senate

September 12, 2000

  

For more info log onto

http://jerryacosta. com