Sexuality, Law and Legal Practice and the Reformation in Norway Th e Northern World North Europe and the Baltic c. 400–1700 AD Peoples, Economies and Cultures Editors Barbara Crawford (St. Andrews) David Kirby (London) Jon Vidar Sigurdsson (Oslo) Ingvild Øye (Bergen) Richard W. Unger (Vancouver) Piotr Gorecki (University of California at Riverside) VOLUME 44 Sexuality, Law and Legal Practice and the Reformation in Norway By Anne Irene Riisøy LEIDEN • BOSTON 2009 Cover illustration: NRA Norrøne fragmenter 1 C II a, with kind permission of the National Archives of Norway (Riksarkivet). Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Riisøy, Anne Irene. Sexuality, law and legal practice and the reformation in Norway / By Anne Irene Riisøy. p. cm. — (Th e northern world no. 44) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-17364-4 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Sex crimes—Norway— History. 2. Sex and law—Norway—History. 3. Sex—Religious aspects—Christian- ity—History. 4. Reformation—Norway—History. 5. Law, Medieval—History. I. Title. II. Series. KKN4200.R55 2009 345.481’0253—dc22 2008051633 ISSN 1569-1462 ISBN 978 90 04 17364 4 Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands CONTENTS Acknowledgements ............................................................................ vii Abbreviations ...................................................................................... ix Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Previous Research .......................................................................... 2 Research Questions, Lay-Out, and Terminology ..................... 8 Th e Sources ..................................................................................... 9 PART A CRIMINALISATION OF SEXUAL ACTS Chapter One New Laws, Old Principles ..................................... 25 Adultery .......................................................................................... 25 Fornication ..................................................................................... 28 Prostitution and Moral Looseness .............................................. 34 Incest ................................................................................................ 43 Rape ................................................................................................. 45 Bestiality and Homosexuality ...................................................... 46 Th e Term Heresy (Kjetteri) .......................................................... 50 Chapter Two Individual Criminal Responsibility ..................... 55 Criminal Responsibility and Sin ................................................. 55 Th e Medieval State and the Growth of Individual Criminal Responsibility ............................................................................. 62 Chapter Th ree Th e Final Criminalisation of Sexual Acts in the High Middle Ages .............................................................. 69 PART B PUNISHMENT Chapter Four Capital Punishment ............................................... 77 Medieval or Modern? ................................................................... 77 vi contents Punish and Purge .......................................................................... 94 Aft er Death ..................................................................................... 110 Chapter Five Fines and Confi scation of Property ..................... 115 Chapter Six From Penance to Church Discipline ..................... 125 Chapter Seven Th e Reward of Sin ............................................... 131 PART C GENDER EQUALITY? Chapter Eight Who Was Punished, and for What? .................. 143 Adultery .......................................................................................... 144 Fornication ..................................................................................... 152 Incest ................................................................................................ 157 Chapter Nine Losing One’s Inheritance ...................................... 163 Chapter Ten Sexual Crimes as a Function of Marriage: Lutherism or Christianity? ........................................................... 169 Chapter Eleven Gender Diff erences ............................................ 181 Conclusion Th e Long High Middle Ages ................................... 187 Old and New .................................................................................. 187 Premises .......................................................................................... 190 Appendix I .......................................................................................... 195 Adultery: the younger Christian laws ........................................ 195 Adulterers who “ran away” (brot laupa), the younger Christian laws ............................................................................ 196 Bestiality and Homosexuality, the younger Christian laws .... 196 Incest, the younger Christian laws ............................................. 196 Decree of 1478 ............................................................................... 197 Ordinance against loose living of 1617 ...................................... 198 Sources and bibliography ................................................................. 201 Index .................................................................................................... 211 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Th is book is the off spring of my doctoral dissertation, which I defended at the University of Oslo in December 2006. First of all I would like to thank Jón Viðar Sigurðsson and Steinar Imsen for their advice, support and generous help. I would also like to thank Signe Horn Fuglesang, Joanna Agnieszka Skórzewska, Annelene Svingen, Justyna Wubs- Mrozewicz and Randi Werdahl who have given me excellent support and reading help all around the clock. Th is slightly revised version of my doctoral dissertation has also benefi ted from comments and con- structive criticisms by my doctoral opponents Th omas Lindkvist and Tor Weidling. Th e National Archival Services of Norway, in particular Gunnar I. Pettersen and Halvor Kjellberg, have given invaluable help with the interpretation of sources. I am also very grateful to the Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law in Munich for generous provision of research facilities, to Peter Landau and his Frau Angelika for their warm welcome and to Jörg Müller who is always very kind and helpful. Karan Danbolt, at the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo, is a pearl among librarians and I am also indebted to Brill’s Marcella Mulder for enduring patience and for providing me with quick and effi cient help. Besides, in times of need, the administrators are friends indeed: thanks to Jorunn Bjørgum, Kristin Kjellberg and Finn Erhard Johannessen. Without fi nancial support of Th e Research Council of Norway (three years doctorate funding followed by funding for translation and proof- reading) this work would not have been possible. I am also indebted to the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Oslo which granted me four extra months of funding. For translating and proofreading: thanks to Ian Bauermann and Susan Jackmann. ABBREVIATIONS Full bibliographical references to the works mentioned in the list below are given in the bibliography at the end of this book. A Bishop Arne’s Christian Law B Old Christian Law of the Borgarthing DI Diplomatarium Islandicum DN Diplomatarium Norvegicum E Old Christian Law of the Eidsivathing F Old Law of the Frostathing G Old Law of the Gulathing J Archbishop Jon’s Christian Law KL Kulturhistorisk leksikon for nordisk middelalder fra vikingetid til reformationstid L Landslaw of 1274 NB Young Christian Law of the Borgarthing NG Young Christian Law of the Gulathing NgL Norges gamle Love indtil 1387 (5 vols), I–V NgL 2 rk Norges gamle Love, andre rekke NLR Norske Lensrekneskapsbøker NoMiddalddok Norske Middelalderdokumenter NRJ Norske Regnskaber og Jordebøger RegNorv Regesta Norvegica INTRODUCTION During the last thirty years illicit sexuality has become an important line of research in Norway. Whereas medievalists have discussed the impact of Christianisation focusing on the period before the mid-thir- teenth century, Early Modern scholars have been concerned with the impact of the Reformation, concentrating on sources primarily from the seventeenth century. In this book it will be argued that the period from ca. 1250 to the promulgation of King Christian V’s Norwegian Law in 1687 was marked by substantial legislative and judicial continuity in regards to extramarital sexuality and the manner in which it was criminalised and punished, as well as the position of women