ABSTRACT
In medieval and early modern Europe, ‘sodomy’ could refer to any sexual contact that intentionally resulted in non-procreative ejaculation, including but not limited to contact between men. Although sodomy had been progressively criminalized as a capital offense since the twelfth century, the prosecution of homosexuals as sodomites was rare. Homosexuality was sometimes quite public, in bath houses, for example, and there is little evidence that gay people formed a hidden social group. Gay sex could be routinely indulged, and when sexual persecution did occur, its context was broadly political, as illustrated by the execution of Richard Puller of Hohenburg, an Alsatian nobleman. Richard lost his most important fiefs in 1457. In 1463, he was first accused of homosexuality in a dispute that resulted in exile and the loss of many more of his fiefs, including some from the Prince Bishop of Strasbourg.
