In the fifteenth century, Florentine homosexual men were subject to growing, but not unanimous, disapproval during the Renaissance. According to historian Michael Rocke, male homosexuality was organised differently during the Renaissance, with desire especially ardent if the young man was from sixteen to eighteen, and the older man was in his early twenties. As is the case today, sanctimonious clerics couldn't shut up about what they imagined to be the sex lives of 'sodomites.' In the case of Florence, Bernardino of Siena was the initial culprit, raving on and on about suggestively well dressed young men strutting around, trying to attract susceptible older men back in 1424-5. It took another eight years for Florence's Office of the Night to be established, in 1432. However, it usually fined same-sex male offenders that it encountered, while higher courts tried cases of obvious same-sex paedophilia. For the most part, it was viewed as 'only a phase,' as many young men didn't view themselves as 'career sodomites' and later married, while many of their older, dominant partners were themselves married. Adult males were expected to be dominant and were harshly fined if they weren't, as were younger male 'passives,' and fines fell most heavily on those in their early twenties and who were older than fifty, given suspicions of habitual mansex in each case. Some defendants also complained that patricians were treated more leniently in court, compared to artisans or labourers. In some cases, secluded streets and gardens were used for matters of the flesh, while in others, private homes, deserted workshops and taverns were preferred cruising and consummation venues. Many younger men received money or gifts after sex. In some cases, ardent suitors pursued durable relationships with younger man, and the families of both approved, as this resembled marital alliances between powerful patrician families, and was an alternative way to preserve wealth in established hands. In working-class areas, neighbourhood same-sex relationships also led to enduring alliances amongst artisans. Unfortunately, at the end of the fifteenth century, Florence went through a phase of instability, as fundamentalist demagogue Girolamo Savonarola surfaced, and instituted a harsh new regime of punishments that included pillories, disenfranchisement, branding and incineration. Florentine aristocracy and artisans were horrified at the severity of these new punishments, as well as the gangs of young men who were sent out to enforce the new laws- although Rock also tells us that there was response in kind from rival groups of young men who resisted the imposition of such draconian penalties. Finally, Savonarola overreached, was excommunicated after attacking the Papacy, and was himself burnt in 1498. To placate Savonarola's constituency, though, harsher laws remained in place until the Medicis mitigated them in 1514, reinstituting fines and replaced the death penalty for 'repeat offenders' with exile. After a further burst of religious fanaticism in the 1540s, disenfranchisement penalties were abandoned altogether. After 1550, Florentine 'sodomy' prosecutions tapered off altogether. In 1600, the darker times seem to have been almost forgotten in Florence, especially if one views Domenico Cristo's "Bathers at San Niccolo," which depicted lovingly rendered well-muscled young men bathing naked in the River Arno, some displaying close physical intimacy. Bernardino and Savonarola would have spun in their grave, or on their stake if they'd been able to see it. Recommended: Michael Rock: Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence: New York: Oxford University Press: 1996. Craig Young - 17th May 2006