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Arnaud de Verniolle
(circa 1320) France

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Franciscan monk

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Franciscan subdeacon of the parish of Mercadel in Pamiers, near Toulouse, tried by Jacques Fournier, the bishop of Pamiers in 1323 for his homosexual activities and beliefs, and for impersonating a priest.

He was accused of celebrating Mass and telling young men that he was authorized to hear their confessions, and of committing sodomy with several of them. In his confession Arnald also disclosed various same-sex encounters with youths he met in the streets of Toulouse and Pamiers; he was sentenced to jail for life

Arnaud was tried for heresy, not homosexuality. In the end it was his illegal exercise of the priesthood which brought about Arnaud's downfall, for it was on those grounds that he was first denounced to the Bishop. One thing led to another, and Jacques Fournier finally detected, behind the crime of performing Mass illegally, the crime of homosexuality.

The inquisitor was more concerned with the defendants' supposed theological (i.e. heretical) transgressions than with their private behaviour. Arnaud was punished because he was a Franciscan apostate and because he pretended to be a priest when he was a mere sub-deacon. Arnold's heresies included "his belief that homosexual acts were no more serious than fornication."

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