On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Bill Netherton wrote:
> Two questions:
> have multiple sexual partners.) Question one, then: were such multiple
> sexual relationships practised by English and Celtic Christians this late;
> were they sanctioned by the church; and if they were, when were they
> forbidden?
>
From the New Testament forward, monogamy was expected of Christians and
fornication was a sin. But have you never heard of people sinning? I
understand that many people still do it. What the church said and what
people did publicly and even, to some extent, legally (under secular law)
in the seventh century tended to be two different things. The Frankish
upper class men not only had concubines but they practiced polygamy. In
England, our principal historical source for the seventh century is Bede
and he is not so fond of sexual misbehavior as Gregory of Tours for sixth
century Francia. But his failure to mention it does not mean it didn't
happen. I am convinced that it did at least once in the case of Egfrid
of Northumbria who agreed (grudgingly) to a chaste marriage with
Etheldreda of East Anglia. He had another wife, Jurmenberga, and though
Bede does not say that he was married to both at the same time, the
chronology makes it almost inescapable, in my opinion.
Jo Ann
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