“Nudus nudum Christum sequi”: The Franciscans and Differing Interpretations of Male Nakedness in Fifteenth-Century Italy

Summary

In the year 1420, a small band of Franciscan friars was arrested in Venice by the Signori di Notte [Lords of the Night], one of the special magistracies responsible for policing and prosecuting serious crime. The four friars were charged with violation of the Most Serene Republic's law against sodomy; what had they done to provoke such a charge? At the time of their arrest, the friars were parading naked through the streets, bearing crosses in their hands and leading a large procession of the faithful in a public exercise of pious devotion. Since the grave charge of sodomy was involved, the case was transferred to a higher — in fact, the highest — judicial body, “the most powerful and feared” Council of Ten. This group was traditionally responsible for judging conspiracy and treason, but earlier in that century, had been given jurisdiction concerning sodomy prosecution as well.

The Venetian government did not view the clerical status of the defendants as grounds for immediate suspension of doubt and examined the case with due attention: indeed, given the well-documented and vast amount of sodomitic activity among the local clergy, often hidden and protected by church authorities themselves, the judges knew better than automatically to assume innocence among such a population of males. In the end, however, the Franciscans won their reprieve from the Ten, who arrived at the conclusion that “the said friars are monks of good reputation and their deeds were not carried out with any evil intention” (ibid., 5).