Love, sex, and marriage are recurring themes in inquisition records of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and especially in the register of Jacques Fournier, bishop-inquisitor of Pamiers from 1318 to 1325. The significance of these confessions cannot be understood without indicating the ecclesiastical authority’s interest: adultery, incest and homosexual relations of the accused are in fact mediated by Fournier within a court that superimposes episcopal and inquisitorial competences. Linking licentious conducts and libertine statements to the anti-matrimonial tenets of the Cathars, the bishop establishes, during the trial, a connection between sexual sin and heretical crime. Any transgression of the sacred space of marriage is understood to be an indication sign of heresy and contributes to depict a dissolute and vicious portrait of the heretical believers, which is ultimately functional to the success and popularity of repression.
Dal carnalis concubitus all’heretica pravitate. Sesso, matrimonio ed eresia nel tribunale di Jacques Fournier (1318-1325)
BUENO, IRENE
2009
Abstract
Love, sex, and marriage are recurring themes in inquisition records of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and especially in the register of Jacques Fournier, bishop-inquisitor of Pamiers from 1318 to 1325. The significance of these confessions cannot be understood without indicating the ecclesiastical authority’s interest: adultery, incest and homosexual relations of the accused are in fact mediated by Fournier within a court that superimposes episcopal and inquisitorial competences. Linking licentious conducts and libertine statements to the anti-matrimonial tenets of the Cathars, the bishop establishes, during the trial, a connection between sexual sin and heretical crime. Any transgression of the sacred space of marriage is understood to be an indication sign of heresy and contributes to depict a dissolute and vicious portrait of the heretical believers, which is ultimately functional to the success and popularity of repression.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
