Church Courts, Sex and Marriage in England, 1570}}}1640 [Paperback]

This is an in-depth, richly documented study of the sex and marriage business from 15701640.This is an in-depth, richly documented study of the sex and marriage business in ecclesiastical courts of Elizabethan and early Stuart England. This study is based on records of the courts in Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and West Sussex in the period 15701640.This is an in-depth, richly documented study of the sex and marriage business in ecclesiastical courts of Elizabethan and early Stuart England. This study is based on records of the courts in Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and West Sussex in the period 15701640.Adultery, fornication, breach of marriage contract, sexual slander - these, along with religious offences of various kinds, were typical of the cases dealt with by the ecclesiastical courts in Elizabethan and early Stuart England. What was it like to live in a society in which personal morality was regulated by law in this fashion? How far-reaching was such surveillance in actual practice? How did ordinary people view the courts - as useful institutions upholding accepted standards, or as an alien system purveying unwanted values? How effective were the church courts in influencing attitudes and behaviour? Previous assessments of ecclesiastical justice, coloured by contemporary puritan and common law criticisms, have mostly been unfavourable. This in-depth, richly documented study of the sex and marriage business dealt with under church law, based on the records of the courts in Wiltshire, Cambridgeshire, Leicestershire and West Sussex in the period 15701640, presents a more balanced and more positive view.List of tables; List of maps; Preface; Conventions and abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. The Legal and Social Background: 1. The structure of ecclesiastical justice; 2. Economic and social structures; 3. Religion and the people; 4. Sex and marriage: laws, ideals and popular practice; Part II. Sex and Marriage: The Pattern of ProseclCh