A SODOMY SCANDAL ON THE EVE OF THE FRENCH WARS OF RELIGION

Tom Hamilton

doi:10.1017/s0018246x20000564

Abstract

AbstractThis article uncovers a sodomy scandal that took place in the Benedictine abbey of Morigny, on the eve of the French Wars of Religion, in order to tackle an apparently simple yet persistent question in the history of early modern criminal justice. Why, despite all of the formal and informal obstacles in their way, did plaintiffs bring charges before a criminal court in this period? The article investigates the sodomy scandal that led to the conviction and public execution of the abbey's porter Pierre Logerie, known as ‘the gendarme of Morigny’, and situates it in the wider patterns of criminal justice as well as the developing spiritual crisis of the civil wars during the mid-sixteenth century. Overall, this article demonstrates how criminal justice in this period could prove useful to plaintiffs in resolving their disputes, even in crimes as scandalous and difficult to articulate as sodomy, but only when the interests of local elites strongly aligned with those of the criminal courts where the plaintiffs sought justice.

Highlights

Jean Hurault, abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of the Holy Trinity in Morigny, died in August with a troubled conscience
Despite all of the formal and informal obstacles in their way, did plaintiffs bring charges before a criminal court in this period? The article investigates the sodomy scandal that led to the conviction and public execution of the abbey’s porter Pierre Logerie, known as ‘the gendarme of Morigny’, and situates it in the wider patterns of criminal justice as well as the developing spiritual crisis of the civil wars during the mid-sixteenth century
Abbot Hurault tolerated a sodomy scandal that all of Morigny knew about but which only came before a criminal court after his death

Summary

TOM HAMILTON Durham University

Abbot Hurault tolerated a sodomy scandal that all of Morigny knew about but which only came before a criminal court after his death This scandal was the case of Pierre Logerie, known as ‘the gendarme of Morigny’, one of the earliest and most detailed sodomy cases preserved in the criminal archives of the parlement of Paris, a court that tried hundreds of criminal cases on appeal every year from across its jurisdiction that covered over half of the French population, or around eight to ten million people in this period. Recent research has posed a serious challenge to legal historians’ assumptions, drawing on the theoretical insights of anthropologists and the empirical findings of social and cultural historians Researchers in these fields have demonstrated both how courts in this period lacked resources to pursue prosecutions effectively and how people throughout the social hierarchy made use of a variety of alternative forums for dispute resolution beyond state institutions. The development of this line of argument is best represented by a sequence of collected volumes: Stephen Cummins and Laura Kounine, eds., Cultures of conflict resolution in early modern Europe (Farnham, ); Benoît Garnot and Rosine Fry, eds., L’infrajudiciaire du moyen âge à l’époque contemporaine: actes du colloque de Dijon, – Octobre (Dijon, ); John Bossy, ed., Disputes and settlements: law and human relations in the west (Cambridge, )

TOM HAMILTON

Age in Encounter with Logerie