Rules of Use and Impunity of Abuse. Marriage, Sacerdotal Celibacy, and the Sexually Illicit Between the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

The essay investigates the reasons for the gap between secular discourse on the abuse committed by members of the clergy on minors and that of Catholic authorities, examining doctrinal sources from the early modern age. Has the identification of marriage as the only framework in which sexuality is allowed, provided it abides by its contractual rules and sacramental dignity, possibly contributed to making all other expressions of sexuality unthinkable? And has this, in turn, prevented that positive prescriptions or injunctions be set forth to regulate them, while also rendering abuse victims invisible?