Erasmus spent the years from 1506 to 1509 in
Italy; there he took his doctorate in theology, worked at the printing house of
Aldus Manutius preparing a number of manuscripts, most notably his vastly
enlarged edition of the Adages, and hobnobbed with the high and mighty in Rome.
Now, Italy in those times was the only place in Christendom where a homosexual
had any chance of getting along. It was an open secret that a number of the
rich and famous were discreetly gay, and no great social opprobrium was
attached to their lifestyles. Florence was the gayest of the cities in Italy;
its reputation as a hotbed of sodomy was so great that the German word for
sodomite in those days was "Florenzer". If Erasmus were indeed gay,
he would have been safest in Florence, or at least somewhere in Italy. Yet it
appears that he spent only six weeks in Florence, and even then it was only
because his true destination, Bologna, was under siege by the Papal army. When
Bologna surrendered, Erasmus bolted Florence and got to Bologna in time to
witness the Pope's triumphal formal entry into Bologna, a week after the
surrender. Erasmus spent the next two years in Bologna and Venice; much of that
time spent working on his greatly expanded edition of the Adagia. When his work
with Aldus was completed, he travelled south. Significantly, he skipped over
Florence and stopped in Siena. From there he made several extended visits to
Rome over a period of four months.
While in Rome, Erasmus was toasted by the
princes of the church. Cardinals and archbishops showered him with honors and
wealth, begging him to remain with them in Rome. Domenico Gramani, Cardinal of
St Mark, invited Erasmus to his palace and there engaged the Dutch scholar in
delightfully erudite conversation. He showed Erasmus his vast library
containing treasures the like of which were hardly equalled in all of northern
Europe. He offered Erasmus a place in his palace, promising him that everything
he desired would be made available to him. But Erasmus had already decided to
leave, and when he gave the Cardinal the bad news, Gramani made Erasmus promise
that he would drop by for one last visit before his departure from Rome. But
Erasmus, fearing that he would be unable to resist the Cardinal's blandishments,
skulked out of Rome without honoring his promise, and hurried out of Italy.
My point is that in Italy Erasmus had a
golden opportunity to live a gay lifestyle with the lowest risk in all of
Europe, and he spurned that opportunity, choosing to live instead in the
intolerant north. He had plenty of other reasons to stay in Italy: proximity to
the holy places of the Catholic Church, the unequalled libraries, and the
society of learned men. Scholars still debate why Erasmus decided to leave;
with hindsight, it seems like a bad decision. The best explanation is that he
was determined to maintain his independence. But whatever his reasons, his
decision certainly provides us with a significant indirect arguement against
the 'Erasmus was gay' hypothesis. While it remains only indirect, we must
remember that all of the arguements in favor of the hypothesis are also
indirect; this arguement has the advantage of requiring little in the way of
subjective interpretation.
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