Due to a lack of historical sources and censorship by the Catholic Church over the centuries, it is difficult to reconstruct Slavic religions, customs and traditions when it comes to LGBT people. Many, if not all, Slavic countries that accepted Christianity, adopted a custom of making church-recognized vows between two people of the same sex (normally men) called
bratotvorenie/
pobratymienie/
pobratimstvo—translation of the Greek
adelphopoiesis—the "brother making" ceremony. The precise nature of this relationship is still highly controversial; some historians interpret them as essentially a homosexual marriage of men. Such ceremonies can be found in the history of the
Catholic Church until the 14th century, and in the
Eastern Orthodox Church until the early 20th century. Indeed, in Polish sources the vows for
bratotvorenije appear in Orthodox prayer books as late as the 18th century in the
Chełm and
Przemyśl regions.
Bolesław V the Chaste never consummated his marriage, which some historians see as a sign of his homosexuality. Throughout history, homosexuality, be it true or alleged, was often weaponised for use by individuals against their ideological or political enemies, and to defame dead historical figures.
Bolesław the Bold was accused of "sodomy" by the medieval historian
Jan Długosz. Soon the general public's opinion of extramarital sex became more lenient. The only known death sentence carried out for "
sins against nature" was the case of Wojciech Skwarski from
Poznań in 1561. Wojciech was considered male, until doubts in his youth arose and his gender was inspected by officials and mayor of Poznań. They decided Wojciech was female and should be dressed as a woman and known as such by the local community from now on. After running away from Poznań, Wojciech travelled around the country and married, as a woman, three men—Sebastian Słodownik from Poznań, Wawrzyniec Włoszek from
Kraków and Jan the blacksmith (married during Wojciech's marriage with Wawrzyniec). The sentence (burning at the stake) took into account Wojciech's other misdeeds such as frequent thefts, hitting (and probably killing) their first husband with a brick during an argument, sleeping with many women (including married women) and having a
public house in Poznań. The case of Wojciech and their ambiguous sex and gender was described (with case file from 1561 republished) by physician
Leon Wachholz in his work on "history of hermaphroditism", which suggest they might have been
intersex. The only other sentence for the act of sodomy (public beating and exile) was the case of Agnieszka Kuśnierczanka, in 1642, who dressed as a man and committed "imaginary male courtship". Other judicial documents mention same-sex relationships without using derogatory terminology. They are mentioned in a neutral manner as facts in cases of unrelated crimes, showing that same-sex relationships were silently tolerated and not actively prosecuted. During the Baroque period the general public ignored homosexuality. It was considered it an exception that came from the "degenerate" West and happened among the nobility who had contacts there and the mentally ill. Turkey was considered one of the places where lesbian relationships originated. 18th century travelers shared those beliefs and praised Poland, contrasting it with its neighbours. Accusations of sodomy were still used as a method to diminish political opponents, as was the case of
Władysław IV,
Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki and
Jakub Sobieski. According to the chronicler Marcin Matuszewicz, Prince
Janusz Aleksander Sanguszko of
Dubno, "kept men for amorous purposes". (His wife, Konstancja Denhoff, returned to her parents "without receiving any marital proof from her husband except for one good morning at dawn and one good night in the evening"). He donated the town of
Koźmin and seventeen villages to his lover, Karol Szydłowski. After this incident Sanguszko kept only secret lovers until his father's death, but then returned to past practices. It is worth noting that Sanguszko was unafraid of publicly keeping male lovers while maintaining the public position of a Lithuanian
Miecznik (sword-bearer). The prince, who had four short marriages and numerous female and male lovers, was the subject of a newspaper-reported scandal, when he appeared in women's clothing at a Warsaw masked ball in 1782. During the Enlightenment period, despite the fascination with antiquity and the intellectual liberalisation, homophobic beliefs did not completely disappear: the medical profession considered "sexual deviations" (homosexuality, incest,
zoophilia, etc.) a sign of "mental degeneration". ==Partitions==