"That matter which ought not to be heard of": homophobic slurs in Renaissance cultural politics.
Starting with a poem for which the Reformed theologian Théodore de Bèze was attacked as a sodomite, this essay studies the nature of homophobic slurs leveled by Catholics against Protestants and by Protestants against Catholics in the period following the Reformation. More than just incidental attacks, slurs by such writers as Henri Estienne, John Bale, and John Jewel are found to be an integral part of a mythology that validated Protestantism in general and the English church in particular. But occasionally they are also used by Catholics as, for instance, by Jérôme Bolsec against Bèze and Gaspar Schoppe against King James I. Largely ignored by church historians, such slurs are shown to be part of an archaeology of homophobia.
Schleiner
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Department of English, University of California, Davis 95616.
D002410:Catholicism / Q000266:history; D002835:Christianity / Q000266:history; D005060:Europe; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000266:history* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008092:Literature, Medieval; D008297:Male; D011037:Poetry as Topic; D011057:Politics; D011287:Prejudice; D012071:Religion and Sex