Center for the Premodern Worl | Premodern Mediterranean Seminar Series

Speaker:  Thomas Barton (University of San Diego, History & USD’s Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program)

While ecclesiastical and secular laws throughout the pluralistic medieval Iberian Peninsula universally condemned interfaith sexual relationships, especially those involving Christian women and non-Christian men, scholars have long noticed inconsistencies in their application by royal, seigniorial, and municipal authorities alike. This article explores this phenomenon by reconstructing the socio-political circumstances that could lead authorities to turn a blind eye towards such illicit intimate relationships, on the one hand, and identifying circumstances that could trigger sensitivity among authorities and prompt vigorous prosecutions, on the other.