Homosexuality Was Common Among Templars

Out of all crimes that French inquisitors charged Templars with; the latter were guilty of only one: homosexual practices (only 12 out of thousands of Templars were guilty of heresy).

However, this charge as hypocritical (to put it mildly) as homosexual practices (first and foremost, anal sex) were common in every Christian monastic order – and among Catholic clergy as well.

So, not surprisingly, official penalties for homosexual behavior within the clergy, both by the church and temporal authorities, were rarely codified or enforced. Several bishops in the Middle Ages were thought by their contemporaries to have had gay relationships, and there was a potentially romantic or sexual tone to the correspondence of others with “passionate” male friends.

Even some Supreme Pontiffs are documented to have been homosexual or to have had male sexual partners, including (I suspect not limited to) Benedict IX, Paul II, Sixtus IV, Leo X, Julius II and Julius III.

In 9th century A.D. Charlemagne recognized the problems of monks’ indulging in homosexuality; a capitulary condemned homosexuality among monks claiming it had become common in monastic orders. Medieval Bishop’s visitation records mention many instances of homosexual acts confessed by monks.

Many Templars claimed that permission had been given to them to engage in homosexual acts (most likely, under torture or the thread of torture as explicit authorization of this sin was unheard of), but few confessed to practicing it (this is not rues either – homosexual behavior was rampant in monastic orders).

Templar brother Bernard Villars of the Order claimed he was told he should allow himself to be used sexually by the Brothers, and was given permission to engage in sex with other Brothers, but said he had not done so and did not know any other Brothers who did. Again, torture most likely was involved – or a threat of one.

Even Geoffrey of Charney (ultimately burned at the stake with Grand Master Jacque de Molay), claimed that he was told, it was ‘…better to have sex between brothers of the Order than to usage their lust with women, but he claimed never to have done this or even to have been asked. IMHO, highly unlikely as well.

Not surprisingly at all, all Guilty confessions of homosexuality (actually, all confessions) were obtained in France and Italy where torture was used, but not in the Iberian Peninsula, Cyprus and England, where torture was not used.