John Boswell on Gay Marriage
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"Prof. John Boswell, the late Chairman of Yale University’s history department, wrote a prize-winning book, "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century." In it he cites liturgical church documents which discuss, Christian ceremonies dating from the 10th-12th centuries called the “Office of Same-Sex Union” and the “Order for Uniting Two Men”. These church rites had all the symbols of a heterosexual marriage: the whole community gathered in a church, the couple was blessed at the alter with their right hands joined, they exchanged vows, a priest administered the Eucharist and a wedding feast for the guests was held afterwards. These elements all appear in contemporary illustrations of the holy union of the Byzantine Warrior-Emperor, Basil the First (867-886 CE) and his companion John."
Voted the most popular professor at Yale bu students, Boswell went on to publish details of his discoveries of early church documents containing the text of these various marriage rites. They were in ancient European monasteries off the beaten path, and in places where there were no copying machines. A master of languages who spoke ancient and Modern Greek, Latin, Slavonic, Aramaic– as I recall-- and others, he taught himself whatever it was, medieval Serbian or something, to read the things.
He wanted to make sure to preserve the record before church authorities found out what he was up to because he did not want the ancient manuscripts to disappear inconveniently. At least one of these marriage rituals was in a collection of some of the earliest church materials. A subsequent book of his reported his findings. Photos of Serge and Bacchus are available online. I have not been able to find any references or photos of Basil and John, though the Emperor himself is discussed politically and otherwise, at Wikipedia and elsewhere.
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Fascinating, thanks for the info
