Carnal Knowledge: Regulating Sex in England, 1470–1600 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)
Cambridge University Press, 3/23/2017
EAN 9781107179875, ISBN10: 1107179874
Hardcover, 340 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
How was the law used to control sex in Tudor England? What were the differences between secular and religious practice? This major study reveals that - contrary to what historians have often supposed - in pre-Reformation England both ecclesiastical and secular (especially urban) courts were already highly active in regulating sex. They not only enforced clerical celibacy and sought to combat prostitution but also restrained the pre- and extramarital sexual activities of laypeople more generally. Initially destabilising, the religious and institutional changes of 1530–60 eventually led to important new developments that tightened the regime further. There were striking innovations in the use of shaming punishments in provincial towns and experiments in the practice of public penance in the church courts, while Bridewell transformed the situation in London. Allowing the clergy to marry was a milestone of a different sort. Together these changes contributed to a marked shift in the moral climate by 1600.
Prologue
1. Contexts and perspectives
2. Marriage, fame and shame
3. 'Bawdy courts' in rural society before 1530
4. Urban aspirations
pre-Reformation provincial towns
5. Stews-side? Westminster, Southwark and the London suburbs
6. London church courts before the Reformation
7. Civic moralism in Yorkist and early Tudor London
8. Sex and the celibate clergy
9. Reform and Reformation, 1530–58
10. Towards the new Jerusalem? Reformation of sexual manners in provincial society, 1558–80
11. Brought into Bridewell
sex police in early Elizabethan London
12. Regulating sex in late Elizabethan times
retrospect and prospect.