"The reformation brought a further hardening of
attitudes. The most fervent Protestants campaigned vigorously to reinstate the
biblical death penalty for adultery and other sexual crimes. Wherever Puritan
fundamentalists gained power, they pursued this goal – in Geneva and Bohemia, in
Scotland, in the colonies of New England and in England itself. After the
Puritans had led the parliamentary side to victory in the English civil war,
executed the King and abolished the monarchy, they passed the Adultery Act of 1650. Henceforth, adulterers and incorrigible fornicators and
brothel-keepers were simply to be executed, as sodomites and bigamists already
were..."
From The Guardian's book pages by Faramerz Dabhoiwela.
Not sure I agree with this - the English Civil War ushered in much freedom.
Can it really be a coincidence that gay life began to flourish a mere two generations later?
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