Gay sex crimes in Europe 1500-1790.

Received 9 August 2012 Accepted 9 August 2012 Terminology The sexual behaviour of people has always been of interest to others throughout history and many forms of sexual activity have been the subject of control by the established church or state. What is interesting though is the response at different times to the same sex act, which can range from a public round of applause to the death sentence. The term sodomy originally had a different meaning from today. Over many centuries the word described criminal behaviour when individuals were involved in sexual activity simply for pleasure and not for what was considered the only decent and proper form: that of procreation. Whilst same-sex activity between men was, according to records, the largest and commonest use of the term sodomy, cases of sex with animals, oral and anal sex between men and women, and even masturbation were regarded as crimes of sodomy. In fact, any sexual activity that could be viewed as unnatural and therefore undesirable to state and church could be classified thus. Ecclesiastical courts, as well as criminal courts, were involved in trials and prosecutions. It is hardly surprising that the links to witchcraft and sexual deviance were closely aligned in the centuries and places when witch hunting was of national or regional interest across Europe, and there are clear rises and falls in court statistics. It was not until the Georgians came to the throne of England that the term sodomy came to mean sex acts between men exclusively and that did not necessarily include penetration or indeed ejaculation.