4 Extenuation and rescue
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Brian Pullan
Abstract
How and why did women become prostitutes or otherwise lose their good name? This chapter considers, in the light of what is known about their experiences, some standard explanations offered by commentators in the early modern period, and touches on others: it asks whether social superiors held dishonoured women entirely responsible for their condition, or whether they recognised extenuating circumstances, attempted to discipline corrupters and seducers, offered some legal redress to wronged women. The discussion focuses mainly on three topics: poverty and destitution, partly caused by a combination of low wages, widowhood, husbandly desertion, and barriers to female advancement in skilled trades; corruption by parents or husbands bent on exploiting daughters and wives; seduction by faithless lovers or violation by sexual predators. Did the Council of Trent’s decree on marriage protect women against relying on dubious promises, or did it for a time inadvertently act as a seducer’s charter?
Abstract
How and why did women become prostitutes or otherwise lose their good name? This chapter considers, in the light of what is known about their experiences, some standard explanations offered by commentators in the early modern period, and touches on others: it asks whether social superiors held dishonoured women entirely responsible for their condition, or whether they recognised extenuating circumstances, attempted to discipline corrupters and seducers, offered some legal redress to wronged women. The discussion focuses mainly on three topics: poverty and destitution, partly caused by a combination of low wages, widowhood, husbandly desertion, and barriers to female advancement in skilled trades; corruption by parents or husbands bent on exploiting daughters and wives; seduction by faithless lovers or violation by sexual predators. Did the Council of Trent’s decree on marriage protect women against relying on dubious promises, or did it for a time inadvertently act as a seducer’s charter?
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i 1
- Contents v
- Preface vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Women of lost honour 10
- 2 Prostitution, sin and the law 29
- 3 Prostitutes, courtesans and public morality 48
- 4 Extenuation and rescue 67
- 5 Penitent sinners 86
- 6 Women and girls in danger 106
- 7 Foundlings and orphans 125
- 8 Natural and spurious infants 140
- 9 Abandonment, reception and infant mortality 159
- 10 Fostering and adoption 177
- 11 Foundlings and society 192
- Conclusion 210
- Bibliography 217
- Index 237
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i 1
- Contents v
- Preface vii
- List of abbreviations ix
- Introduction 1
- 1 Women of lost honour 10
- 2 Prostitution, sin and the law 29
- 3 Prostitutes, courtesans and public morality 48
- 4 Extenuation and rescue 67
- 5 Penitent sinners 86
- 6 Women and girls in danger 106
- 7 Foundlings and orphans 125
- 8 Natural and spurious infants 140
- 9 Abandonment, reception and infant mortality 159
- 10 Fostering and adoption 177
- 11 Foundlings and society 192
- Conclusion 210
- Bibliography 217
- Index 237
