ABSTRACT
Constanta Vintila˘-Ghit¸ulescu develops these themes in a different Christian context, that of Orthodox Romania. Her study of domestic conflict and restrictions to female sexuality is based on the judicial archival records from ecclesiastical tribunals. She suggests that divorce was reserved as an ultimate means for domestic conflict resolution despite official ecclesiastical teaching on marriage as an inviolable sacrament. Vintila˘- Ghit¸ulescu pays specific attention to the procedural matters which allow her to reconstruct the conflict from various points of view: that of a plaintiff (a wife), a defender (an abusive husband), the community (neighbours and witnesses), the court (ecclesiastical judges) and the state (in cases of jurisdictional ambiguities). However, in many cases, she argues, a woman’s petition for divorce could turn against her, especially in cases of imperfect behaviour; the discourse of ‘derangement’ of a woman could be invoked by a specialist (a medical doctor). In the meantime, the church’s position as mediator disappointed the state, which pushed the church to step up the moral supervision of its flock.
