What God Kept for Himself: Atheism, Sodomy, and Radical Dissent in Renaissance Italy

The profession of a provocative belief—that the “original sin” committed by Adam and Eve was anal sex—was a means for Renaissance-era atheists to rebel against the church, according to this ingenious study from historian Grassi (Bathhouses and Riverbanks). From the 15th to 18th centuries, a significant number of Inquisition trials in Italy centered on prosecuting defendants who espoused that mankind had been cast out of paradise because Adam and Eve committed sodomy, an act of pleasure which “God kept for himself.” Delving into trial transcripts, Grassi argues that the defendants seemed to be under suspicion of atheism, not heresy. The belief was somewhere between a joke and a protest movement, Grassi suggests. He points to the silliness of the belief’s symbology—the apple, they all argued, clearly represented the buttocks; one adherent gave a metaphorical reading of the Tree of Knowledge as Adam’s erect penis—as well as the defendants’ general atheistic beliefs (i.e., denying the existence of the afterlife) and anti-church rhetoric (alleging corruption). He also notes the belief’s consistency over time, which suggests an oral, grassroots tradition. Part of the provocation, Grassi cannily explains, was that the era’s satire frequently represented sodomy as reserved for aristocrats; thus, to call it reserved for God was to question God as an authority figure. Though a bit steeped in academese, it adds up to an enchanting reimagining of the history of atheism. (Feb.)