[GN] Catholic scholar uncovers church's gay past
le...@juno.com
Catholic scholar uncovers church's gay past
By Peter Moore, 365Gay.com
SUMMARY: A world-renowned Roman Catholic scholar says he has found
evidence that the Catholic church sanctioned and blessed same-sex
relationships from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
LONDON -- A world-renowned Roman Catholic scholar says he has found
evidence that the Catholic church sanctioned and blessed same-sex
relationships from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
Alan Bray, an ecclesiastical historian and research fellow at Birkbeck
College, London, says the proof was staring church leaders in their faces
all along.
"It's in the churches themselves," Bray said. "All you have to do is look
at memorials dating from the 14th to the 19th centuries." Bray said the
evidence is on tomb markers commemorating passionate friendships. Often
the partners were buried together.
Although there is no indication that all those commemorated in memorials
were involved in sexual relationships, it is clear that some were and
that the churches turned a blind eye, according to Bray. Some of the
memorials are striking in their intimacy.
In Merton College chapel in Oxford, a brass dating from the 14th century
records the burial together of John Bloxham and John Whytton, showing the
two figures standing side by side holding hands in prayer.
Another, dating from 1684 in Christ's College chapel, Cambridge,
celebrates the "connubium" or marriage of John Finch and Thomas Baines,
illustrated by a knotted cloth.
In Gonville and Caius college chapel a memorial of 1619 shows Thomas
Legge and John Gostlin with a heart in flames uplifted by two hands with
a Latin inscription which translates as: "Love joined them living. So may
the earth join them in their burial. O Legge, Gostlin's heart you have
still with you."
Sir William Neville and Sir John Clanvowe, both knights, were buried in
the same tomb after dying at Constantinople in 1391.They have a monument
depicting their heraldic shields impaled as if they were married, and
their helmets in a stylized kiss.
Then there was the 17th century bishop of Hereford, Herbert Croft, and
the cathedral dean, George Benson. They were buried together within the
communion rails of the cathedral with the inscription: "In life united.
In death not divided."
The chapel of St John the Baptist in Westminster Abbey has the tomb of
Mary Kendall dating from 1710 with an inscription recording: "That close
Union and Friendship, In which she lived, with the Lady Catharine Jones;
And in testimony of which she desir'd That even their Ashes, after Death,
Might not be divided."
The recently discovered diary of Anne Lister, mistress of Shibden Hall,
Yorkshire -- who had a lesbian relationship with Ann Walker -- describes
how they had their "marriage" solemnized at Holy Trinity church in
Goodramgate, York, in 1834.
Even Cardinal John Henry Newman, one of English Catholicism's most
revered figures from the 19th century, insisted that he be buried with
his closest friend.
Newman wrote after the death of Ambrose St John in 1875: "I have ever
thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband's or a wife's, but
I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or any one's
sorrow greater, than mine."
The Vatican (news - web sites) has not commented on Bray's findings.
For more gay news from Canada, the United States and the world, visit
365Gay.com.
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Chief Thracian
>Catholic scholar uncovers church's gay past
This is excellent that other scholars are verifying earlier authors
such as Boswell. But this is only the beginning. I had predicted, a
year and more ago on these gay newsgroups, that a new resurgence in
gay pride would be the result of mounting evidence of the historical
import of gays in every culture. That we'd uncover more and more gay
evidence, especially in archaeology and ancient (and medieval)
history. This will include the surfacing of a plethora of SUPPRESSED
material gathering dust in old archives in just about every culture.
And soon so much will come to light about out Community's proud
history, that the world will be impressed. What we are presently
seeing is a growing trickle of evidence that will finally amount to a
global flood.
I just don't have the time or inspiration to track down which articles
I posted to Usenet, with these predictions. But they are there, for
whomever cares to do the searching.
---
Zeke Krahlin, Chief Thracian
Lavender-Velvet Revolution
http://surf.to/gaybible