The Marriage Relationship: Sexuality and Society

views updated

The Marriage Relationship: Sexuality and Society

Records of Sexual Behavior. One of the few ways in which historians track the actual sexual practices of medieval people is by studying the cases of sexual transgressions that were documented in the records of secular and ecclesiastical courts. There are many extant records of cases of unmarried couples having to swear to cease having sexual relations on pain of marriage {sub pena nubendi). Records from both ecclesiastical and local manor courts reveal that villagers and the Church differed quite markedly in their views of sexual behavior. Occasionally, comparisons of the records show that people who were convicted of fornication (premarital sex) by Church courts were often found innocent by manor courts. Sometimes the manor jurors appeared uncertain exactly what fornication involved. Many people who were joined in informal or clandestine marriages were considered married by the local community but not by the Church.

The Legerwite. Another sort of case found in the records of manorial courts also helps to identify the incidence of fornication. In England customary laws allowed lords to fine villein women who were caught fornicating or who gave birth to illegitimate children. Called the legerwite (literally, a fine for lying down), this fine can be dated to the Anglo-Saxon period. The legerwite was one of the few fines, along with the merchet, that did not fall into disuse in the course of the twelfth century. Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manor records indicate that the legerwite was frequently levied, although the reason why was not always recorded. In some cases, it appears that the woman was first found guilty of fornication by the Church and was then was fined the legerwite by the manor court. This practice may have been the result of economic considerations rather than morality. If the woman had paid a fine to the Church rather than submit to corporal punishment, she would have probably have sold goods theoretically belonging to the lord, who then sought to recover the value of his property by levying the legerwite.

Visible Transgressions. Because the clergy who supervised morality in local communities were unpopular among the villagers, neighbors were unlikely to inform on each other. Authorities most often became aware of unmarried women’s sexual transgressions if they became pregnant. In the court records the legerwite was more frequently associated with pregnancy, sure proof of fornication, rather than with fornication alone. The amount of the fine varied with the nature of the transgression and the woman’s status. The manor court reduced the size of the fine for poor women, but a woman who had fornicated with more than one man or a cleric paid a higher fine. The legerwite disappeared in the mid fourteenth century, in the wake of the Black Death, along with the last vestiges of customary dues and services. Communities developed other means by which to supervise the morality and control the sexual conduct of its members.

Illegitimate Children. The presence of illegitimate children, at all levels of society, throughout the Middle Ages, is another indication that sexual practice deviated from the moral code. Unfortunately for historians, the lack of birth and marriage records prevents an estimate of the number of premarital pregnancies or illegitimate births. Ecclesiastical and secular law placed many restrictions on illegitimate children, who were nevertheless a part of everyday life. Secular society valued legitimate heirs to perpetuate the family’s lineage, but noble fathers did not hesitate to recognize and grant property to their illegitimate children. The Church forbade the ordination of illegitimate men, but it regularly granted dispensations so that such men—frequently the sons of clerics—could enter service of the Church. Official sanctions existed throughout the medieval period. For example, in 1234 Pope Gregory IX instituted legislation that barred illegitimate children from inheriting property unless they had been legitimated by their parents’ subsequent marriage. Yet, it has been suggested that in some rural areas premarital conception was a precondition to marriage. Children were so central to the household economy that a couple did not want to risk marrying and then discover they were infertile.

Rural Sex. Some sources suggest that people in rural areas engaged quite freely in sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage. The fabliaux, bawdy popular stories from rural France, tell of sexual adventures and improprieties whose participants express little regret or guilt. Another form of evidence comes from the records of the Inquisition, which interrogated suspected heretics in the village of Montaillou during the early fourteenth century. In the process the inquisitors recorded information about many aspects of daily life, including concubinage and other informal sexual liaisons, which occurred across the lines of social class and religious status. For example, the widow of the lord’s local representative, Beatrice de Planissoles, maintained a sexual relationship with two brothers. One of these men, Pierre Clergue, was the parish priest. Not only were these relationships fornication, but they were also incestuous because they involved brothers and sacrilegious because one of the men was a cleric. Moreover, Pierre instructed Beatrice in contraceptive techniques, including the use of certain herbs, and the couple engaged in intercourse in the church and on holy days, such as Christmas Eve. This one example shows how far popular practice could deviate from conventional morality. It must also be remembered, however, that many of those involved in these activities were Cathar heretics, who explicitly rejected the teachings of the Catholic Church.