Zwingli and Luther on Homosexuality

In his brilliant study, Sodomy in Reformation Germany and Switzerland: 1400-1600,

Helmut Puff informs us that homosexuality was described in contemporary documents
by a variety of terms comprising a whole semantic field, all of which were used of male
anal intercourse; “ketzerei” (heresy) was the most common term and is derived from the
Latin “cathari”; “pederasty” denoted the same thing then as it does now; the phrase
“Italian wedding” was used in a number of instances to describe male with male sexual
activity; and the most widely used word, “florencer” or “to florence” derived from the
city in Italy of that name famed in the 16th century and earlier for male to male sexual
activity.

Hence, when one reads Zwingli (or Luther for that matter) the context in which the word
“ketzer” is found may indicate something more than just “heresy” in terms of religious
deviation from the orthodox norm. Indeed, the reference may be to the “heresy” of
sodomy.

In fact, there are two places where Zwingli speaks of “heresy” in just this sense though he
carefully chooses his words. In our first instance, in his “The Shepherd” of 1524, in a
discussion of the wickedness of the Priesthood, he writes

What do the powerless shepherds do now who daily encounter

enormous adultery and yet do nothing to restrain it, but often help
it, etc.? What do we first want to say about the impure purity of
the papists who daily behave worse than dogs before us, constantly
bragging about their hypocritical purity. It would be bearable if
some of them would remain within natural limits. (Emphasis
mine).

Zwingli’s denunciation of those priests who go beyond natural limits is a reference to the
practice of sodomy among priests so rampant in various parts of Switzerland and beyond,
especially to the south. The true, authentic Shepherd does not participate in those
activities which exceed natural limits.

The next example of Zwingli’s denunciation of sodomistic behavior is found in his

Exposition of the 49th Article. Written in 1523, the Exposition of this article also has to
do with the behavior of the Priest. The Article itself says “I know of no greater offense
than to forbid priests to have wives, yet allow them to engage prostitutes”. But it wasn’t
only prostitutes the priests were engaging.

But when he [the priest] does not have his own concubine then no
one is safe from him, not even his mother or his sister. I shall not
speak of how they fared at times, as God well knows. In short, I
know of no greater offense than the shameless adultery of priests.
It has aided and abetted all other vices.
Though of course Zwingli doesn’t come out and say “sodomites” he doesn’t need to. His
verbal clues as well as the situation in which he lives and which he addresses do not
require him to use the word. No one is safe….how they fared at times…. All other
vices. These are phrases which would have been clearly enough understood by his
readers in Zurich and beyond.

Zwingli is hesitant to use the term “sodomy” quite frankly because he takes Ephesians
5:3 with utmost seriousness when it declares πορνεια δε και ακαθαρσια
πασα η πλεονεξια μηδε ονομαζεσθω εν υμιν καθως πρεπει
αγιοις. But we know, and so did they, what he meant.

As I said a moment ago, Luther too has something to say about homosexuality. In his
exposition of Romans 15:33 he notes

He also calls this [homosexuality] a dishonor, or shame; for

as the nobility of the body (at least in this respect) consists
in chastity and continence, or at least in the proper use of
the body, so its shame is in its unnatural misuse. As it adds
to the splendor of a golden vessel when it is used for
exquisite wine, but it contributes to its inelegance when it is
used as a container for dirt and refuse, so also our body (in
this respect) is ordained either for an honorable marriage or
for an even more honorable chastity. But it is dishonored in
the most shameful way when it not only violates marriage
and chastity but also soils itself with that disgrace which is
even worse.

Luther was, as everyone knows, quite vociferous at times. In connection with the
ongoing war with the “Turks”, he remarks

God visits them with the same plague, too, and smites them
with blindness so that it happens to them as St. Paul says in
Romans 1 [:28] about the shameful vice of the dumb sins,
that God gives them up to a perverse mind because they
pervert the word of God. Both the pope and the Turk are so
blind and senseless that they commit the dumb sins
shamelessly, as an honorable and praiseworthy thing. Since
they think lightly of marriage, it serves them right that there
are dog-marriages (and would to God they were dog-
marriages), indeed, also “Italian marriages” and
“Florentine brides” among them; and they think these
things good. I hear one horrible thing after another about
what an open and glorious Sodom Turkey is, and
everybody who has looked around a little in Rome and Italy
knows very well how God revenges and punishes the
forbidden marriage [homosexuality] so that Sodom and
 Gommorah, which God overwhelmed in days of old with
fire and brimstone [Gen. 19:24], must seem a mere jest and
prelude compared with these abominations. On this one
account, therefore, I would very much regret the rule of the
Turk; indeed, his rule would be intolerable in Germany.

Luther the theologian and exegete (in that order mind you) thought little of the
“Florentine brides”.

We may, or may not, agree with Zwingli and Luther- but we cannot deny that they had a
viewpoint concerning homosexuality that is clear and unequivocal.