Another note regarding the cross-dressing adulterous woman transgressing the
laws of God: in the second half of the 15th century (and through the 16th
century) it became fairly common for local secular courts to pursue
prostitution, adultery, and fornication, as offences against "good order".
Marjorie McIntosh's recent book, CUP 1998, the title of which escapes me for
some reason (something like Regulating Misbehaviour?) talks about this in
detail, although she doesn't discuss London. In most jurisdictions in
England, the secular courts did not cite "religious" reasons for their
pursuit of this misbehaviour, but in London, it was quite common, from the
early 15th century, for the civic officials to call such acts "contrary to
the laws of God". I have a short piece, in a forum on McIntosh's book, that
discusses this ("Jurors, Respectable Masculinity, and Christian Morality,"
Journal of British Studies 37 (1998): 269-278). Hope this is helpful.
Where does the passage you quoted come from?
Shannon McSheffrey
Department of History, LB-601
Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal, Quebec CANADA H3G 1M8
[log in to unmask]
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~shannon
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|