Medieval Sexuality: A Casebook - Julian Emperor

Sexuality in Late Lombard Italy 2311112342225672228910111232224567892022212345678930111123435678940111123222long been aware of it. The issue underlies Gregory the Great’s “responses” toAugustine of Canterbury (as reproduced by Bede in his Historia Ecclesiastica1.27 finished in the 730s), but also his Dialogues and other pastoral works, aswell as the penitential literature. Could the powerful ever be certain that thepeople, the rustici, would behave properly? And how did bad behavior reflectupon the powerful themselves? Did it expose their own weakness? Would theygo to Hell for failing to stop the sins of those supposedly under their care? Thisis something that Carolingian rulers appear to have taken very seriously, as inthe famous condemnation of sodomitical monks in Charlemagne’s Aachencapitulary of 802, but it is not something that anyone has really suggested withregard to Lombard kings. But as far as I can see it is very much present in theirlegislation and hardly unexpected if one reads the prologue to the laws of 724,which is full of Christian salvation imagery. 82One way to approach the issue is to consider Liutprand’s own sexual morality.Might it be the case that his laws contain so much material about sexual crimebecause Liutprand himself was really concerned about it? We can note first of allthat Paul the Deacon goes out of his way, in his so-called “obituary” of Liutprandin HL 6 to comment upon the king’s chastity and that King Ratchis in his secondprologue to his own laws (of 746) noted that Liutprand was “omni pudicitia etsobrietate ornatus” (“adorned with all modesty and sobriety” in Fischer Drew’sversion, but pudicitia could equally well refer to sexual continence/virginity, asit often did in classical and late antique Latin). Ratchis referred also to his “divineworks and daily vigils.” The inscriptions put up in his Corteolona palacedemonstrated especial piety and a sense of personal responsibility for the salvationof Lombards. 83 The king’s retrieval of the body of St Augustine from Sardiniawhen the Arabs were threatening, reported by Bede in the last sentence of his socalled“Greater Chronicle” (De temporum ratione) is an example of Liutprand’spiety as is his interest in St Anastasius (the Persian martyr). 84 Indeed, the veryfact that Bede is interested in Liutprand strongly suggests that the king had a highmoral reputation among his contemporaries. Liutprand’s apparently “monastic”habits and clear interests in the religious life therefore might well encompass awariness about sex.ConclusionIn this article I have prioritized the two most substantial eighth-century Lombardtexts—Paul’s HL and Liutprand’s laws—above other relevant material such asthe small surviving corpus of contemporary monastic material that shows thatlong-established ascetic fears of the “pleasures of the flesh” were still beingvoiced at this time. For example, Walfred, according to his biographer, wasoriginally married with five legitimate sons and plagued by thoughts of sex until,in a dream, he was castrated, which cured him. 85 If the monastic life was onepossible route to salvation that Lombard aristocrats could take, how far monastic