Lecherye [1531]
If . . .
nature. Cf. CWM 8/2.705/2–8n and 172/16. Ulrich von
Hutten rejects Cisalpine sexual mores with righteous indignation : "Am I to cringe to these epicene priestlings? Must I keep my
hands off these mincing sodomites and worship these lecherous popes . .
.?" From Ep. 1161, To Erasmus, Ebernburg, 13 November 1520 (Allen
4.382/56–58; CWE 8.89/61–63).
Tyndale's charge that Roman prostitutes numbered some 30,000 agrees with
the report given by Francesco Delicado of Cordova, a resident of Rome
after 1523. But a more careful analysis, based on the census of 1526–27,
arrived at the number of 1,550 prostitutes, which was 3% of the
population of Rome. Cf. Pio Pecchiai, Roma nel
cinquecento (Bologna: Cappelli, 1984) 304. The bath-houses
listed by Pecchiai (312ff) do not mention any that offered
the service of "younge boyes agenst nature" [D6v], although the same
author has evidence that the "vice of the Greeks" had made
inroads in Renaissance Rome (317). Here Tyndale may be under the
influence of the stereotypical charge of pederasty in the
anti-Italian polemics of northern humanists. See Ingrid G. Rowland, "Revenge of the Regensburg
Humanists, 1493," Sixteenth Century Journal 24
(1994) 307–22.
The abhomination of the Romish Church.[[1573]
stues . . .
lawe. Cf. Lev. 20.13. The type of death penalty for sodomy is
not specified; burning is the death penalty for marriage
first to a mother and then to her daughter (verse 14).
Leviticus 20.13–14
.xl. or .l. hundred
thousand. Tyndale claims that in his day there were four or
five million clergy bound to celibacy in the Roman Church. This number,
equaling 9% or 11% of the population ofWestern Europe, is
much too high. In England about 2% of the population were ordained
priests, cf. [F6v, “.xx. thousand prestes curates” and commentary note].
In 1500, one estimate would total 45.3 million Latin-rite Christians:
British Isles (4), Iberia (8.3), France and the Low Countries (16),
Italy (5.5) Germany (7), Scandinavia (.5), Poland (2), and Hungary (2);
8.25 million Orthodox Christians: Greece (.75), the Balkans (1.5), and
Russia (6); 16.25 million Muslims in the Ottoman Empire :
Greece (.75), the Balkans (1.5), Asia Minor (6), Syria (2), Egypt (2.5),
and North Africa (3.5). Cf. Glenn T.
Trewartha, A Geography of
Population: World Patterns (New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1969) 21, Table 1.3. This table does not include
Jews in Italy, Germany, Poland, and Russia. For a discussion of the proportion of
Christians to Muslims, cf. [D7v, “.v. tymes mo then we” and commentary note].
Mariage forbidden & whoredom allowed.[[1573]