User:Hecate's Sister/sandbox

Assignment 1 – Research report on Wikipedia Comparison
The topic I chose to tackle was prostitution in Medieval Europe. I know a fair amount about this as I chose it for one of my thesis papers in my undergraduate. I focused my thesis on prostitution and how the Church reacted to it. I am really interested in female sexuality in Medieval Europe. Upon an initial search of Wikipedia I found that there was a very small amount of information available concerning female sexuality in the Middle Ages, let alone prostitution. There is some information about the jobs women held, but there is a large amount of information that could still be added. I am interested in adding to a few articles concerning women in the Middle Ages and the roles they played. I started my search on Wikipedia using the words 'Medieval prostitution' and a few variations of the same. However, only the search term prostitution yielded any results. Under prostitution is a section labelled the Middle Ages. This section provides very little information about prostitution in the Middle Ages, and specifically references courtesans. Courtesans were a type of prostitute in Medieval Europe, but they were only one type and came into prominence mostly during the Renaissance. There were prostitutes that the everyday man could afford as well. I am also using the article on courtesans, however, as they help fill out the information regarding this old profession. Next I looked up sumptuary laws, the laws in Medieval Europe that dictated how individuals of certain stations could dress. Prostitutes were subject to these laws in order to make them obvious to the rest of society. The final source from Wikipedia I thought I should add was 'Women in the Middle Ages'. This page provides some information on what other roles women were expected to play in Medieval Europe. It is an important to paint the whole picture of women in the Middle Ages in order to situate prostitutes in the bigger picture. I searched the word prostitution in Encyclopedia.com and the term succubus came up. This relates to female sexuality in the Middle Ages and so I have included it in my sources. The Encyclopedia Britannica and Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia provided definitions of the word prostitution. The Wikipedia entry provided more information on prostitution in the current context, focusing a small amount on prostitution throughout history. Britannica does not provide as much information as Wikipedia, only a perfunctory definition. Funk & Wagnalls focuses on prostitution in America, but does mention prostitution in the Middle Ages. Wikipedia gives a better picture of prostitution in history than the other two sources. The Renaissance provides information on the term courtesan, very similar to the one present in Wikipedia. Once again, a courtesan was not the only type of prostitute and became prominent during the latter Middle Ages. The Wikipedia article contains more information about what a courtesan was, rather than an overview and general definition as present in The Renaissance article.

The Encyclopedia Britannica as well as Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World both contain articles concerning sumptuary laws. The information contained within is similar to that in the Wikipedia entry. Sumptuary laws existed in more than just the Middle Ages as is discussed in all three articles. The Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World focuses primarily on sumptuary laws in the early modern world, but does reference them in the Middle Ages. The Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia discuss sumptuary laws in the wider context of their history. These sources provide more detail on the topic during all periods of history.

Expected Roles of Women in Medieval Europe
The expectations for how men and women behaved sexually varied greatly in Medieval Europe. Women in the Middle Ages were expected by Church, state and society to be chaste individuals. Sex outside of marriage could mean disastrous results for a woman and her family.

Defining Prostitution in Medieval Europe
In modern terms prostitution is the act of selling sexual deeds for money. Without monetary exchange it is not considered prostitution. A problem arises when attempting to define prostitution in medieval society because Latin as well as the Romance Languages have no noun which translates directly into the English word prostitute or any of its synonyms. The Latin word meretrix is often directly translated into prostitute, but it is more correctly translated to mean whore or common woman. A whore or common woman was considered any woman who was open for sexual acts with anyone, hence she is common.

Unlike today, civil and Church authorities had opposing definitions of what it meant to be a prostitute, Civil law, such as that in Marseille’s in the 13th century defined prostitution as having a financial element. Canon, or Church, law did not consider this a necessary element. The Church as a whole considered the most important element in defining prostitution to be a woman’s availability or her promiscuity. Some canonists also added that a prostitute was someone who accepted money for sex, just as Roman law had defined it. Cardinal Cajeton stated that for a prostitute to retain what she earned she must pay a fair price. However, the cardinal never explained what a fair price was. In general, all women in the Middle Ages in Europe who were indiscriminate about their sexual partners were prostitutes whether or not they took payment for their actions.

Reasons for Becoming a Prostitute
There were a number of reasons women became prostitutes. The obvious explanation was for monetary gain as a mean to support both themselves and their families. Not many jobs were available to women during this time that would give them adequate income to support themselves so they often turned to prostitution. Many of the real reasons women became prostitutes stem from poverty. Women during the Medieval Ages were relegated to the domestic sphere of work, outside of the protection of guilds, and into jobs that did not pay very much. Women could become laundresses, spinners and weavers as well as re-sellers of goods. Even if a woman was permitted to a guild based on one of these trades it did not guarantee her financial stability if something should happen that forced her to quit her job. It was difficult for women to receive and maintain work and so some women turned to prostitution as a way to supplement their incomes or as their main form of work.

Other women turned to the profession because of lack of family support. Some families did not have the money to support their daughters and were just barely getting by themselves. At times families turned their daughters out as prostitutes in order to supplement the family’s pre-existing income. Unwed mothers had little choice, but to turn to prostitution in order to survive. While being a concubine did not make one a prostitute, it did not mean one was married either. This example is proof of how desperate some individuals were to make a living and how the courts attempted to keep sexual relations bound within marriage. Kicked out by their families, unmarriageable because they have lost their virginity, unwelcome in convents because of their impurity, unwed mothers had little other choice.

Women entered and left the trade as their lives required. Prostitution for a lucky few could be a lucrative practice. Prostitution was by no means a way out of poverty for most. Payment could be irregular and uncertain as there was not always a set price for certain acts. There are also references to women spending the night in a customer’s bed leading one to believe that a prostitute may not turn that many tricks in one day and thus not make very much.

Some religious thinkers postulated that women were not created in the image of God as man was so they were inherently flawed. Because of this flaw women simply could not help themselves. Some clerics even believed that women were always sexually ready and that it was a man’s job to keep his wife sexually satisfied to prevent her from straying.

An Urban Phenomenon
While prostitution was not solely an urban phenomenon, it did occur most often in large urban centres. To be a prostitute in a small village meant an extreme amount of notoriety. The agricultural revolution which occurred in Europe starting around the 11th century introduced animals into the labour intensive farm industry. More people were now freed from farm work and moved to the cities in order to find jobs. Cities allowed for anonymity, allowing prostitutes to be freer from criticism than in smaller communities where everyone knew their neighbour. Cities also produced a greater demand upon sex trade workers as there were more people looking to purchase sexual favours. The Church recognized this problem as a mostly urban one as most of their focus in converting prostitutes was placed in large urban centres.

Civil Concerns
Civil authorities saw prostitution as a threat to public and economic order. Civil authorities were concerned with keeping regular citizens happy. No doubt some citizens complained of brothels in their areas and took the removal of such unsavoury places and the characters they held into their own hands. The exchange of money was also a concern as civil authorities did not want prostitutes to have too much money for fear of what they would do with the power that came with cash. There would also have been a concern for civilians paying a fair price. Prostitutes also caused health risks to the general population. Prostitutes were known for spreading venereal diseases and were believed to be the primary transmitters of leprosy.

Church Concerns
Church authorities were concerned with the morality of the people involved with prostitutes. The Church wanted to protect the souls of its parishioners. In Paris, the relationship between prostitutes and students during the medieval ages is renowned. Oftentimes, prostitutes operated on the main floor of the building where students took their classes. It is inevitable that the two groups would meet. Students, being away from home and tempted by the paramours of a woman, often succumbed to the solicitations they received. It was imperative that the Church protect these young minds, especially since these men were studying to be clerics and potential religious leaders. Sex outside of marriage was a sin so the fact that prostitutes made a living off of this sin was extremely problematic. Prostitutes were damning themselves as well as any man they enticed into the act.

Prostitutes embodied two of the seven deadly sins, avarice and lust. They committed sexual acts outside of marriage because they wanted money or goods. Because canon law defined a prostitute as any woman who indiscriminately performs sexual favours, prostitutes were viewed as lust come to life.

Legislation
Where prostitution was not altogether banned, red light districts were created. Prostitutes were often confined to these areas. Some were allowed to solicit outside of the red light districts, but all transactions had to take place inside these sectioned off areas. Red light districts kept citizens from taking actions into their own hands. These districts ensured that prostitutes did not sully a good neighbourhood, nor were they visible to the regular public. Red light districts protected those who did not want to come into contact with common women as these areas could be easily avoided by the innocent, including children and women.

Sumptuary laws also required prostitutes to wear specific garments such as striped hoods and in some places carry a white cane. These laws kept prostitutes from dressing above their station. They kept women who were not prostitutes from being mistaken for one. Sumptuary laws may have also discouraged women from becoming prostitutes as their shame would be clearly marked.

England
The City of London attempted to stay the sex trade through a number of different punishments. Whoremongers and bawds were subject to public humiliation through having their head and face shaved as a way of singling them out. Repeat offenders could either be placed in prison, regardless of their sex, or expelled from the city altogether. In England, bawds or brothel keepers, paid a reasonably affordable fine and continued to run their bordellos. The fines became a form of tax that allowed the brothels to remain open without any trouble throughout the rest of the year.

France
Louis IX of France is an exception to those civil authorities who would tolerate prostitutes. In 1254 he produced an edict that banned prostitution. All prostitutes were to be expelled from the country of France and their possessions were to be seized by those who arrested them. Those who were not kicked out of the country were forced into a convent which Louis himself donated to often. However, Louis was forced to repeal the edict in 1256 because of complaints from the upper classes that their female relatives were now under attack from lewd soldiers and students. Louis repealed the law, but ordered that prostitutes were to remain partitioned in certain parts of the city, away from religious houses or pious citizens.

Condemnation
The most obvious stance the Church would and did take was to condemn prostitution. In texts like the Destructorium Vitiorum and Summa Praedicantium, prostitutes were the embodiment of lust. The Destructorium Vitiorum blames women for inciting lust even if done so unintentionally. Alexander Carpenter uses the metaphor of a sword to explain his meaning. A sword does not in itself hold evil intention, but rather the man who wields it decided what acts it will partake in. A woman may dress without the intention of inciting lust within a man, but does so as the devil uses women for this very purpose. By condemning prostitution as such a great sin the Church hoped to keep others from sinning through lust and thus keep practitioners from damnation. Condemning prostitution also allowed the Church some control over the sexuality of its practitioners. By preaching against prostitution, the Church ensured that many followers kept sexual relations within marriage. Sermons against prostitution made women in the trade inferior citizens. They were beneath those who did not commit the same sins. This would have discouraged other women from entering the trade.

Acceptance
Some religious authorities took the line that prostitution was a necessary evil. Augustine believed that if men did not have their sexual urges quenched it could lead to chaos within society and some Church fathers agreed. Because of this it was better to abandon a small number of women to the sinful needs of men than let society come to ruin. Prostitution was considered a healthy outlet as it protected innocent daughters and wives from being ravaged. Prostitution was a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless. Prostitutes were excluded from attending church or receiving any of the sacraments until they stopped practicing, leaving some women to be damned for all of eternity.

Men like the Bishop of Winchester benefited by making money from brothels and stew houses. The Bishop of Winchester as well as the Bishop of Mainz actually owned brothels. These bishops gained some income from the brothels as prostitutes were forced to pay for using its facility. The money gained from these facilities went to the bishops and could go to the parish coffers. Bishops could also control who was permitted into these areas, including clients and prostitutes. This was another way to control sexuality as anyone could be banned from entering the bishop’s brothels. The bishops themselves may not have been aware of the fact that they owned these institutions as they had multiple levels of bureaucrats beneath them. However, the men who worked for the bishops claimed to be religious men themselves and so at least some of these men supported prostitution and the idea of benefiting from it. If either bishop did not wish to be associated with such practices surely he would have put an end to them.

Charity
The Church provided charity to prostitutes in a number of different ways in order to save them from their wicked ways. In 1198, Innocent III preached that Christians should make an effort to aid prostitutes and reclaim them back into the fold of Christianity. Dowries were created and given to women to keep them from entering the trade altogether. Dowries were not provided as a form of charity in England, but they were provided in other parts of Europe, including Italy and France. Medieval religious thinkers believed that if a woman could be married it would end the cycle of poverty. Women would not be forced to enter the trade because they would have financial support and a family to keep them busy. Dowries were customary for medieval marriages and a woman without a dowry was not likely to get married. Some confraternities created dowries so that reformed prostitutes could get married. The Church declared that a man who married a reformed prostitute would have all of his past sins cleared. The dowries raised through charitable donations in Paris were considered by potential husbands to be a large enough sum to outweigh any shame felt from his wife’s former occupation.

Surely many woman were happy to marry and excited of the prospect of a comfortable life that did not involve them degrading their bodies. However, marriage did not guarantee economic security, nor did it mean a woman would not have to re-enter prostitution. The shame of a mother’s former profession followed her children. Children of ex-prostitutes were not permitted to take orders. While this was not always the profession individuals might seek, it did limit the potential occupations of children of former prostitutes, as well as marked the woman and her family with shame.

Conversion
Conversion of prostitutes was another goal of the Medieval Church. The Church also made efforts to save potential prostitutes. The Church sanctioned a number of different houses for repentant prostitutes as well as women at risk of falling into the trade. More often than not these houses were named for Mary Magdalene.