ABSTRACT
As to the nature of the relationship being celebrated, Boswell argues that while these relationships did not exactly parallel heterosexual marriages in that they did not involve procreative purpose, or transfer of property, they were nonetheless ‘a permanent romantic commitment between two people, witnessed and recognized by the community’. Cases to enforce marriage vows are the most common sort of case involving marriage to appear in the ecclesiastical courts of later medieval England. This chapter is a selection of the sorts of offences concerning sex and marriage that the ecclesiastical courts dealt with in rural localities: for the most part, fornication, adultery, and the mistreatment of spouses. Arnaud made Guillaume swear on a missal that he would reveal to no one the canon's secrets and manner of living.
