Abstract

This thesis will argue that texts written by clerics in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries discussing sex heavily encouraged celibacy by warning people away from sexual misbehaviours and highlighting the negative consequences that could occur if one were to follow their lust. Although these texts were, for the most part, originally written with a clerical audience in mind, this research highlights the widening of an audience beyond Clerical, leading to different interpretations of these writings and on some occasions a disconnect in ideas about sex between the writings done by clerics and the lay audience that reads them. Firstly, I will argue that texts drawing inspiration from Greek and Roman authors highlight the tragic consequences that befall someone who allows love and lust to overpower their reason, strongly advising their readers to stay away from these feelings and to remain celibate. Fabliaux used humour to show their readers similar consequences of having affairs and committing sexual misbehaviours through characters such as the promiscuous priest and examples of couples having sex on holy grounds. Statutes and canon law are shown to have great concern for sexual sins such as fornication and adultery, discussing these sins in an obviously negative light, and confession manuals reinforce the consequences of priests and other figures not enforcing and respecting the goal of chastity. Finally, visitation reports and ecclesiastical court records show concerns for sexual sins, also depicting illicit and extramarital sex in a particularly negative manner, but also highlight an important disconnect between these texts written by clerics and lay people’s sexual practices, such as the frequency of lay people having sex outside of marriage, which shows a tendency to ignore the rules of chastity before marriage.