Opponents of marriage equality are often quick to dismiss same-sex marriage as a recent phenomenon. They claim same-sex marriage is the “latest assault” on Biblically prescribed morality. They’re content to treat it as a trend at best, or a harbinger of the so-called “end times” at worst. However, one American historian insists that they are wrong in their assertions. Long before Obergefell v. Hodges landed on the Supreme Court’s docket, a Yale University professor discovered evidence suggesting that same-sex marriage in medieval Europe occurred regularly. If he is correct, his findings could serve as crucial support for marriage equality. This could be especially important with marriage equality’s somewhat uncertain future under the current American political climate.

Two Lesser-Known Christian Saints May Provide a Clue

Former Yale University scholar John Boswell made a case for same-sex marriage in medieval Europe in his 1994 book, Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe. Its cover features a piece of Eastern Orthodox religious artwork depicting Saints Sergius and Bacchus. Their veneration by devotees began during the fifth century, and they are always pictured and revered together. Boswell also included in the text of a 13^th century Greek “Order for Solemnization of Same Sex Union” rite. It invokes this saintly pair, asks God to give the couple grace to love each other, and then directs the couple to “kiss the Holy Gospel and each other.”

Moreover, Boswell also supported his arguments with documentation of church-solemnized same-gender unions prior to the 17^th century. These documents existed in various church archives in locations such as Paris, Istanbul and Saint Petersburg. Even the Vatican’s archives hold a manuscript dating from the year 1147, which records a ceremony uniting two men using similar language as in the 13^th-century Greek rite mentioned earlier.

Was “Spiritual Brotherhood” a Form of Same-Sex Marriage?

The history behind these rituals may be more complex than they appear on the surface. Some Catholic and Eastern Orthodox writings use the Greek word “adelphopoiesis” to refer to these pairings. One literal translation of the term is “brother making”. Additionally, American journalist and educator Peter Steinfels’s 1994 New York Times review of Boswell’s book documented that the term can be also translated as “spiritual brotherhood” or “adoptive brotherhood.”

Steinfels’s review also details that it’s unknown whether these unions were intended to be chaste or sexual in nature. However, journalist Eric Berkowitz may have found some answers to that question. The author of Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire revealed in a 2012 The Awl article that knights, aristocrats and clerics entered these unions during the Middle Ages. Additionally, several of them left behind writings that possibly indicate a passionate love for their male partners. Both Berkowitz and Boswell point to English monk and scholar Alcuin of York as an example. In a letter to Arno, Bishop of Salzburg, Alcuin said that he longed to “sink into your embraces…to cover, with tightly pressed lips, not only your eyes, ears, and mouth but also your every finger and your toes, not once but many a time.”

The Dialog Continues

Although Boswell passed away in 1994, people continue to read, analyze, appreciate and critique his work. Some medievalists and queer theorists assert that his application of modern gay identity to pre-modern cultures may be problematic. They reference arguments by thinkers who hypothesize the concept of identity based upon sexual orientation is a more recent development. Nevertheless, what’s not in dispute is that same-sex desire and love have existed throughout history. The writings of Boswell, Berkowitz and others proposing evidence from the past of same-gender unions may be crucial in the fight to keep marriage equality from disappearing.