In Portugal, the legal authorities began to pay attention to female
homosexuality only at the end of the 15th century.
lawyers, decreed that convicted female homosexuals were to suffer the same
sentence as male homosexuals, namely the death penalty.
confessors to assign appropriate penances to “the woman who climaxes
with another woman using an instrument [of the kind] that women tend to
use.”
woman (who handled the dildo) rather than the “passive” one (whose vagina
was penetrated by the dildo.
that lawyers and jurists, while initially perplexed by female homosexuality,
decided to classify it as a crime in the same legal category as male
homosexuality.
(Ordenações) of King Manuel, and the sentence imposed on female
homosexuals was officially to be death by burning at the stake...
for all tribunals, including the Inquisition, was set at a minimum of
two witnesses offering testimony regarding two separate homosexual acts
(Ordenações Filipinas, libro V, título 13).
prosecution of female homosexuals was far from clear until the middle of the
17th century.
kissed, hugged, and Clara “placed herself on top on the other woman like
a man places himself on top of a woman” (em cyma da outra como hum
homen em cyma de huma mulher).
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prosecuting female homosexuals, the issue of whether or not it should even
do so was debated toward the end of 1644 and the beginning of 1645...
of the Portuguese Inquisition whether the prosecution of women who had
vaginal or anal intercourse with other women, including instances when
a dildo was used, fell within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition.
group of three inquisitors and four theologians to consider the question.
no fewer than 15 respected authorities, the group recommended that the
Portuguese Inquisition should not conduct any further investigations into
cases of purported female homosexuality...