Carnal Knowledge
Regulating Sex in England, 1470–1600

This major study explores sexual regulation in London and provincial England before, during and immediately after the Reformation.

Martin Ingram (Author)

9781316631737, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 March 2017

340 pages, 2 maps 13 tables
22.7 x 15 x 2.2 cm, 0.68 kg

'Ultimately, often superbly, it makes an important challenge to current understanding of the post- and pre- Reformation world of sexual regulation. In 1987 Ingram provided new inspiration and motivation. This new volume should do the same.' Martin Roberts, Nottingham Medieval Studies

How was the law used to control sex in Tudor England? What were the differences between secular and religious practice? This major study reveals that - contrary to what historians have often supposed - in pre-Reformation England both ecclesiastical and secular (especially urban) courts were already highly active in regulating sex. They not only enforced clerical celibacy and sought to combat prostitution but also restrained the pre- and extramarital sexual activities of laypeople more generally. Initially destabilising, the religious and institutional changes of 1530–60 eventually led to important new developments that tightened the regime further. There were striking innovations in the use of shaming punishments in provincial towns and experiments in the practice of public penance in the church courts, while Bridewell transformed the situation in London. Allowing the clergy to marry was a milestone of a different sort. Together these changes contributed to a marked shift in the moral climate by 1600.

Prologue
1. Contexts and perspectives
2. Marriage, fame and shame
3. 'Bawdy courts' in rural society before 1530
4. Urban aspirations: pre-Reformation provincial towns
5. Stews-side? Westminster, Southwark and the London suburbs
6. London church courts before the Reformation
7. Civic moralism in Yorkist and early Tudor London
8. Sex and the celibate clergy
9. Reform and Reformation, 1530–58
10. Towards the new Jerusalem? Reformation of sexual manners in provincial society, 1558–80
11. Brought into Bridewell: sex police in early Elizabethan London
12. Regulating sex in late Elizabethan times: retrospect and prospect.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH], British & Irish history [HBJD1]