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

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.