"The Book of Punishments", witch midwives and other marital rules of the Middle Ages (7 photos)

The Middle Ages in Europe passed under the strict control of the church. Severe monastic asceticism required people to renounce everything carnal and, finally, to think about the soul. It was under this auspices that mass burning of everyone and everything. True, it was necessary to continue the race, but It means that concessions were needed. True, and here it was not without control churches…





How was it?

Until the 12th century, men could freely change wives and even to enter into intimacy with relatives until the church took for the fight against polygamy. At least it's worth saying for sure thank you, because it was then that the usual family model was formed from the husband and one woman.



True, not everything was so simple, since intimacy was approved solely as a means of procreation. However, to fulfill the conjugal duty, it was extremely forbidden on weekends and during Lent.

Yes, and to follow in bed it was necessary to certain rules. So, for example, everything had to happen in complete darkness and silence. Only a man could move, while a woman had to to remain completely calm, otherwise they could burn her at the stake, as witch. There were similar precedents when the spouse himself wrote a denunciation.



With a divorce, everything was also not easy, because the reason for this could only become a man's inability to continue. Simply put, impotence. The court took such claims seriously. And so much so that the husband had to first demonstrate his body of the commission, and then demonstrate its functionality on practice.



There were problems with pregnancy. Among women in labor, there was a high mortality, but no one thought that you just need better take care of women. Instead, it was considered normal immediately after birth to bury his wife, leaving the health of the child to God's will. Not surprising, that wealthy ladies often wrote a will, while simple the girls just had to confess.



Moreover, most often death occurred if in childbirth he took involvement of a physician. Midwives had a lower mortality rate, but they were considered witches who call on dark forces through rituals with babies. What's up doctors, the problem was not in them, but in the absence of any hygiene. Hands were rarely washed, and given that the doctor could come to the procedure immediately after the autopsy, there was no blood infection in any nothing surprising.



Well, let's end with such a terrible thing as the "Book of Punishments", in which fixed all the rules of punishment for each "sinful" deed. There were also those connected with bed comforts, about which priests recognized during confessions. To understand how this book was harsh, it is worth knowing what kind of "eruption of male seed into the mouth" only execution was prepared.