Prohibiting Sexual Relations Across Religious Boundaries in Fifteenth-Century Portugal: Severity and Pragmatism in Legal Theory and Practice

Title
Prohibiting Sexual Relations Across Religious Boundaries in Fifteenth-Century Portugal: Severity and Pragmatism in Legal Theory and Practice
Publication Date
2017-01
Author(s)
Soyer, Francois
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1890-3043
Email: fsoyer@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:fsoyer
Editor
Editor(s): Nora Berend, Youna Hameau-Masset, Capucine Nemo-Pekelman and John Tolan
Type of document
Book Chapter
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Brepols Publishers
Place of publication
Turnhout, Belgium
Edition
1
Series
Religion and Law in Medieval Christian and Muslim Societies
DOI
10.1484/M.RELMIN-EB.5.111606
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/28956
Abstract
The issue of sexuality and reproduction across religious and ethnic lines has always been one of the major flashpoints and causes of anxiety in power relations between different communities. In numerous societies, and across different eras, many attempts have been made to dissuade or prevent interfaith sexuality through the force of religious injunctions and legislation: from the biblical proscriptions (Deuteronomy 7: 3-4 and Corinthians 6:14) to late Roman and medieval canonical legislation and finally to the modern anti-miscegenation laws introduced in parts of the United States (before 1967), Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa. In the late Roman and medieval Christian world, the fear that unrestricted contact between Christians and Jews or Muslims, and especially sexual activity, would lead to apostasy or heresy led canon lawyers to prominently consider the theme of such sexual relations in their treatment of Jews and caused the secular authorities to severely punish them through fines, castration or even death by burning.
Link
Citation
Religious Minorities in Christian, Jewish and Muslim Law (5th - 15th Centuries), p. 301-315
ISBN
9782503565712
2503565719
9782503567099
2503567096
Start page
301
End page
315

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