In the surviving court records, there is a documented linguistic distinction between the sodomy offences, where sodomia was used for homosexual acts and intercourse with animals was referred to as bestialitas.
#BURNING GAY FLAG COPY PASTE SERIES#
When Heidegger moved on to the Upper Vogt of Höngg, this series ended. Thus, during the term of office of Hans Conrad Heidegger (1649–1721) as the provincial governor of Kyburg County between 16, 22 young people were executed for sodomy. The number of people who were sentenced to death for sodomy was very dependent on the will of the holder of the judiciary to uncover and prosecute such offenses. In 1416 in Basel, the Dominican Heinrich von Rheinfelden was protected from prosecution by the Grand Council by his order, despite evidence of homosexual acts. Children and young people could escape a punishment.
In court, it was more important what age the participants were rather than who had penetrated, in contrast to cities in southern Europe. (Note: in modern Germa, "Sodomie" refers to bestiality, whereas in contrast, in the Middle Ages the term was used to refer to very different practises which were seen as "unnatural" at that time, mainly anal intercourse, so care must be taken in translation.) At the time of the Reformation, Catholics were often referred to as homosexuals, while those in favour of the Reformation were insulted in turn as " Kuhgeiger" ("cowfuckers").Īs in other parts of Europe, most homosexual acts performed in the Confederation were pederastic (inter-generational). Conversely, abroad the Swiss were often reviled and, insulted as a people who had sex with cows, as a play on their rural origins. Men who were convicted of sodomy often admitted to have taken to French-or Italian-speaking countries to practise their homosexual behaviour.
In the German-speaking cantons of the Confederation, homosexuality was considered a "Gallic" sin. Even so, the number of people condemned to death for homosexual acts in the Swiss Confederation was relatively low compared to that in Italian cities in the fifteenth century. Between 14 in the Canton of Zürich alone, out of a total of 1,424 death sentences, 179 were given after sodomy allegations, making it the third most common offence punished by the death sentence after theft and homicide. Even before that, in the 13th century, criminal prosecution and execution of men accused of practising the "sodomite vice" and penalties for sodomy increased significantly in Europe.
The first ever unequivocal legal basis for the punishment of homosexuality in Switzerland is the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, variations of which were introduced in many cantons of the Confederation by 1532. With the Christianization of Switzerland from the 3rd century AD, sodomy ( anal intercourse), and especially homosexuality, were seen as two of many sins.