Sinful Sex: Legal Prosecution of Extramarital Sex in Preindustrial Sweden

• Published in: Social science history 1992-04, Vol.16 (1), p.99-128
• Main Author: Sundin, Jan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adultery; Children; Churches; Criminal sentencing; Criminals; Eighteenth Century; Extramarital Sexuality; Legal Cases; Men; Mothers; Nineteenth Century; Religious authorities; Seventeenth Century; Sex; Single status; Social History; Social science history; Social Work Education; Superior courts; Sweden; The History of Urban and Rural Crime
• ISSN: 0145-5532; 1527-8034
• DOI: 10.1017/S0145553200021398

There is no Doubt that Sweden, at least from the middle of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth century, belonged to the European countries where legal control of extramarital sex was most extensive. First of all, there was a difference between Protestant and Catholic countries, not in principle but in emphasis and form. The Spanish Inquisition was, for instance, mainly interested in whether people thought that a certain behavior was a sin or not. Religious confessions proved that the sinner realized that he had done something wrong, and he could therefore be treated with a certain mildness afterwards (Benassar et al. 1979; Henningsen et al. 1986). Protestantism, at least in Sweden, tended to be more interested in people's actual behavior, usually leaving the internal spiritual life of the sinner aside. This dichotomy between thought and behavior was of course not total in practice, but it tells us something important about the difference between Catholic and Protestant attitudes towards religious control. Religious homogeneity also explains some of the success of Swedish orthodox Protestantism in creating a system of tight control. There was no escape for dissenters except emigration, since the creed was protected by the civil state.