ABSTRACT
With a focus on the Lutheran fourth and the sixth commandments, the chapter investigates how the Lutheran confession and the specific, mono-confessional situation in Denmark after the Reformation in 1536 and throughout the period of absolutism (1660–1848), influenced the understanding of criminal behaviour within the household. Thereby, the chapter argues for a gradual adjustment of legislation in line with observance of the Ten Commandments, but also a change in priorities within absolutism: from strictly keeping the Ten Commandments to the creation of a Christian household and society in which Christian duties were to be fulfilled within social relations. In comparison with other Northern European countries, the incorporation of the Ten Commandments into Danish Law in 1683 seems to create a longer-lasting, religiously motivated criminalisation of fornication and adultery, but also crimes such as infanticide. Furthermore, the single jurisdiction and legislation of the king, and the position of the church as part of the state, creates a close connection between the household and the king’s court system in the regulation of crimes within the household and definitions of legitimate and illegitimate violence and behaviour.
