A controversial document where the famous playwright Christopher Marlow said Jesus Christ was gay will go online for the first time, according to the Guardian.
The scandalous so-called 'Baines note' reveals extraordinary details about the writer's private life. It claims to be a record of a conversation between police-insider and part-time spy Richard Baines and describes Marlowe's controversial and offensive views.
A few days after it was handed of officials, Marlowe was stabbed to death in Deptford, south London.
Baines describes Marlowe's 'monstrous opinions' including his doubt that God was real, his belief the New Testament was 'filthily written' and he could have done better himself and that the Christian community would be more satisfying if smoked in 'in a tobacco pipe'.
In a personal addition, Baines wrote: 'All men in Christianity ought to endeavour that the mouth of so dangerous a member may be stopped.'
Marlowe, later hailed as a gay icon, was killed days later.
The reliability of the document is questioned with some scholars saying Baines was a fantasist and the note was an attempt to get Marlowe in trouble.
Although the letter has been held by the British Library since it opened in 1783, its publication online will be the first time the public can see it.
Curator Andrea Varney told the Guardian: 'There's nothing quite like being able to look at the real thing, and this will let students and readers from all over the world get close to Baines's original report. The manuscript itself is over 400 years old and fragile, so digitisation really helps.'
She added: 'So often we focus only on Shakespeare, but there are a whole world of other people out there, many of them just as brilliant. It's about opening a window on that.'
