ABSTRACT
The number of illegitimate children in the Middle Ages was relatively high, and canon law devoted a great deal of attention to their position. The class of illegitimate children created by ecclesiastical restrictions did not consist only of priest's offspring. From the pontificate of Pope Martin V onwards, the Penitentiary had the powers to grant three different types of dispensations for illegitimate children who were about to start their ecclesiastical career. The provenance of the illegitimacy petitions is an important indicator of which parts of Christendom had a need for such dispensations. The differences in the number of graces granted to supplicants from various territories indicate how big issue illegitimacy was in each region. The Scandinavian provincial and state laws define very precisely the position of illegitimate children, even confirming their inheritance rights, which is a clear sign that illegitimate children must have been relatively common in Nordic societies.
