| Abstrakt: |
The article tackles questions relating to marital violence in the Middle Ages. The author points to the fact that in this period a definition of violence of a husband against his wife -- if anyone had tried to formulate it -- would have sounded different from today's definition. A man responsible for the woman entrusted to him had to watch her behaviour, instruct her, chasten her and sometimes even use a rod. All this was to be done for the benefit of the woman, who -- commonly believed at the time to be more flighty than the man and prone to giving in to evil influences -- could, by acting badly, lose her limited chances for salvation. Examples from both the medieval literature and sermons clearly show that wives were supposed to be subordinated to the authority of their husbands, to listen to them and be humble as well as submissive. However, the sources in question speak with the voice of men -- the author, on the other hand, asks about sources in which it is possible to hear at least echoes of the voices of women themselves. Her search has led her to an analysis of court records of the Late Middle Ages -- sources that are underexplored in historiography. In the article the author analyses eleven oldest volumes of manuscripts left by the Poznań episcopal official (from 1404-1428, kept in the Archdiocesan Archives in Poznań), who on behalf of the diocesan bishop judged marital cases as part of his jurisdiction. Among the 708 individual suits the author has indicated 58 cases in which the court tried to resolve the problem of excessive violence in relationships. In all cases the matter did not concern ordinary punishments for wives -- which were accepted at the time both by the law and the public opinion -- but serious beating often putting the life of the woman at risk (less so the life of the man at risk, for example, of poisoning). The author presents a large group of cases -- she points to the reasons why they were brought before the episcopal official, their number in comparison with other marital problems and, finally, judgement formulas used in these special cases by the Poznań consistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
