North of the Sotadic Zone we find local but notable instances.  Master Christopher Burrough[FN#419] describes on the western side of the Volga “a very fine stone castle, called by the name Oueak, and adioyning to the same a Towne called by the Russes, Sodom, * * * which was swallowed into the earth by the justice of God, for the wickednesse of the people.”  Again:  although as a rule Christianity has steadily opposed pathologic love both in writing and preaching, there have been remarkable exceptions.  Perhaps the most curious idea was that of certain medical writers in the middle ages:  “Usus et amplexus pueri, bene temperatus, salutaris medicine” (Tardieu).  Bayle notices (under “Vayer”) the infamous book of Giovanni della Casa, Archbishop of Benevento, “De laudibus Sodomiae,"[FN#420] vulgarly known as “Capitolo del Forno.”  The same writer refers (under “Sixte iv.”) to the report that the Dominican Order, which systematically decried Le Vice, had presented a request to the Cardinal di Santa Lucia that sodomy might be lawful during three months per annum, June to August; and that the Cardinal had underwritten the petition “Be it done as they demand.”  Hence the Faeda Venus of Battista Mantovano.  Bayle rejects the history for a curious reason, venery being colder in summer than in winter, and quotes the proverb “Aux mods qui n’ont pas d’ R, peu embrasser et bien boire.”  But in the case of a celibate priesthood such scandals are inevitable:  witness the famous Jesuit epitaph Ci-git un Jesuite, etc.

In our modern capitals, London, Berlin and Paris for instance, the Vice seems subject to periodical outbreaks.  For many years, also, England sent her pederasts to Italy, and especially to Naples, whence originated the term “Il vizio Inglese.”  It would be invicious to detail the scandals which of late years have startled the public in London and Dublin:  for these the curious will consult the police reports.  Berlin, despite her strong devour of Phariseeism, Puritanism and Chauvinism in religion, manners and morals, is not a whit better than her neighbours.  Dr. Gaspar,[FN#421] a well-known authority on the subject, adduces many interesting cases, especially an old Count Cajus and his six accomplices.  Amongst his many correspondents one suggested to him that not only Plato and Julius Caesar but also Winckelmann and Platen(?) belonged to the Society; and he had found it flourishing in Palermo, the Louvre, the Scottish Highlands and St. Petersburg to name only a few places.  Frederick the Great is said to have addressed these words to his nephew, “Je puis vous assurer, par mon experience personelle, que ce plaisir est peu agreable a cultiver.”  This suggests the popular anecdote of Voltaire and the Englishman who agreed upon an “experience” and found it far from satisfactory.  A few days afterwards the latter informed the Sage of Ferney that he had tried it again and provoked the exclamation, “Once a philosopher:  twice a sodomite!” The last revival of the kind in Germany is a society at Frankfort and its neighbourhood, self-styled Les Cravates Noires, in opposition, I suppose, to Les Cravates Blanches of A. Belot.