describes the fire and brimstone against Sodom and Gomorrah as punishment for homosexuality. 18th and 19th centuries Engaging in sodomy was a public offence in the Dutch Republic from 1730 until 1811, when the Napoleonic Code which decriminalised homosexuality was first put into place, following French annexation. Most of the cases prosecuted involved men engaging in anal intercourse with other men (usually boys under the age of consent or cases of male rape). Heterosexuals who engaged in sodomy, or zoophiles engaging in bestiality, were generally not prosecuted under this legislation. However, a woman attempting a marriage with another woman could be arrested for fraud. In 1725, a young Dutch sailor, Leendert Hasenbosch, was deliberately marooned alone on Ascension Island as a punishment for sodomy; he is presumed to have died of thirst. His story is known because his diary was found on the island in the following year by visiting British sailors, and published in England. After 1730 (during the Age of Enlightenment), a steep increase regarding arrests and pogroms for sodomy occurred in the Utrecht sodomy trials. Hundreds of men were accused of sodomy with other males, and 200 to 300 men were executed during this period. Sodomy laws were also being debated in this period; in 1777, an anonymous tract titled Considerations on Punishing a Certain Infamous Crime appeared, which called for the abolition of Dutch sodomy laws. Although this tract did not view homosexuality as a crime, it did view it as asocial behaviour. It stated that homosexuality was preventable by the co-education of males and females in school, as well as promoting heterosexual marriage to young children. In the eighteenth century, sexual vices such as masturbation came under attack, but at the same time many authors celebrated Socrates and Plato's perceived paederastic friendship. They engaged in what has been called "The Socratic Battle", which discussed whether Socrates was an ancient Greek paederast or a close friend of Plato. Both sides of the debate were clear to emphasise that they were not supportive of sodomy or paederasty per se, but that they were supportive of the same-sex friendship, being purposefully vague as to the dynamics of the latter so as not to offend the sensitivities of the age. Same-sex attractions were still perceived as a sin and often kept quiet, and it has been argued that this silence both prevented and ironically encouraged homosexuality in males. While