Adultery is the voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with any other than the offender's husband or wife; when committed between two married persons, the offence is called double, and when between a married and single person, single adultery. The Mosaic, Greek, and early Roman law only recognized the offence when a married woman was the offender. By the Jewish law it was punished with death. In Greece the laws against it were severe. By the laws of Draco and Solon adulterers, when caught in the act, were at the mercy of the injured party. In early Rome the punishment was left to the discretion of the husband and parents of the adulteress. The punishment assigned by the LexJulia, under Augustus, was banishment or a heavy tine. Under Constantius and Constans, adulterers were burned or sewed in sacks and thrown into the sea; under Justinian the wife was to be scourged, lose her dower, and be shut up in a monastery; at the expiration of two years the husband might take her again; if he refused she was shaven and made a nun for life. By the ancient laws of France this crime was punishable with death. In Spain personal mutilation was frequently the punishment adopted. In several European countries adultery was regarded as a criminal offence, but in none did the punishment exceed imprisonment for a short period, accompanied by a fine. In England formerly it was punishable with fine and imprisonment, and in Scotland it was frequently made a capital offence. In the United States the punishment of adultery has varied materially at different times. It has, however, very seldom been punished criminally in the States. Research Adultery
Buddhism is the religious system founded by Buddha, one of the most prominent doctrines of which is that Nirvana, or an absolute release from existence, is the chief good. According to it pain is inseparable from existence, and consequently pain can cease only through Nirvana; and in order to attain Nirvana our desires and passions must be suppressed, the most extreme self-renunciation practised, and we must, as far as possible, forget our own personality.
In order to attain Nirvana eight conditions must be kept or practised. The first is in Buddhistic language right view; the second is right judgment; the third is right language; the fourth is right purpose; the fifth is right profession; the sixth is right application; the seventh is right memory; the eighth is right meditation. The five fundamental precepts of the Buddhist moral code are: not to kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, and not to give way to drunkenness. To these there are added five others of less importance, and binding more particularly on the religious class, such as to abstain from repasts taken out of season, from theatrical representations, etc. There are six fundamental virtues to be practised by all men alike, vizcharity, purity, patience, courage, contemplation, and knowledge. These are the virtues that are said to 'conduct a man to the other shore'. The devotee who strictly practises them has not yet attained Nirvana, but is on the road to it.
The Buddhist virtue of charity is universal in its application, extending to all creatures, and demanding sometimes the greatest self-denial and sacrifice. There is a legend that the Buddha in one of his stages of existence (for he had passed through innumerable transmigrations before becoming 'the enlightened') gave himself up to be devoured by a famishing lioness which was unable to suckle her young ones. There are other virtues, less important, indeed, than the six cardinal ones, but still binding on believers. Thus not only is lying forbidden, but evil-speaking, coarseness of language, and even vain and frivolous talk, must be avoided. Buddhist metaphysics are comprised in three theories - the theory of transmigration (borrowed from Brahmanism), the theory of the mutual connection of causes, and the theory of Nirvana. The first requires no explanation. According to the second, life is the result of twelve conditions, which are by turns causes and effects. Thus there would be no death were it not for birth; it is therefore the effect of which birth is the cause. Again, there would be no birth were there not a continuation of existence. Existence has for its cause our attachment to things, which again has its origin in desire; and so on through sensation, contact, the organs of sensation and the heart, name and form, ideas, etc, up to ignorance. This ignorance, however, is not ordinary ignorance, but the fundamental error which causes us to attribute permanence and reality to things. This, then, is the primary origin of existence and all its attendant evils.
Nirvana or extinction is eternal salvation from the evils of existence, and the end which every Buddhist is supposed to seek. Sakya-muni did not leave his doctrines in writing; he declared them orally, and they were carefully treasured up by his disciples, and written down after his death. The determination of the canon of the Buddhist scriptures as we now possess them was the work of three successive councils, and was finished two centuries at least before Christ. From Buddhism involving a protest against caste distinctions it was eagerly adopted by the Dasyus or non-Aryan inhabitants of Hindustan. It was pure, moral, and humane in its origin, but it came subsequently to be mixed up with idolatrous worship of its founder and other deities. Although now long banished from Hindustan by the persecutions of the Brahmans, Buddhism prevails in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Indonesia, and Japan, and its adherents are said to comprise about a third of the human race. Research Buddhism
The Children of God is a religious movement, or more properly cult, founded by the late David Berg in 1969 after supposedly receiving a revelation from God that California was about to be devastated by an earth quake. The cult uses David Berg's own interpretation of the bible and insists that all new members sever all ties with their families and surrender their worldly belongings to the group and become full time evangelists. Berg introduced free consensual sexual activity among the membership encouraging fornication, adultery, lesbianism and incest with children as young as 18-months being sexually abused, with the approval of the cult.
In 1985, David Berg's daughter Deborah Davis published the book 'The Children of God: The Inside Story' in which she described how she and her sister had been sexually abused by their Father, and revealed some home truths about the cult. Cult members are forbidden to read the book, but many have and subsequently left the cult. Other strange ideas among the cult are that children are raised in groups by foster parents, the man being referred to as the 'shepherd', and the female children being encouraged to regularly perform oral sex on him. Women in the cult are forbidden to shave any part of their body, and all members are limited to three minutes shower time. Members are severely restricted in the possession of money, and denied access to newspapers, and television with occasional video rentals limited to 'approved' films. Members failing to speak in tongues are punished, leading many to learn gobbledegook and pretend to speak in tongues. Research Children Of God
A co-respondent is the person charged with adultery jointly with the defendant spouse on a divorce petition, or a joint defendant to an appeal. Research Co-respondent
Courtly love was a code of behaviour that defined the relationship between aristocratic lovers in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. Influenced by contemporary chivalric ideals and feudalism, courtly love required adherence to certain rules elaborated in the songs of the troubadours between the 11th and the 13th centuries and stemming originally from the Ars Amatoria of the Roman poet Ovid. According to these conventions, a nobleman, usually a knight, in love with a married woman of equally high birth - or, often, higher rank - had to prove his devotion by heroic deeds and by amorous writings presented anonymously to his beloved. Once the lovers had pledged themselves to each other and consummated their passion, complete secrecy had to be maintained. Because most noble marriages in the Middle Ages were little more than business contracts, courtly love was a form of sanctioned adultery, sanctioned because it threatened neither the contract nor the religious sacrament of marriage. In fact, faithlessness of the lovers toward
each other was considered more sinful than the adultery of this extramarital relationship. Research Courtly Love
Divorce is a separation, by law, of husband and wife, and is either a divorce a vinculo matrimonii, that is, a complete dissolution of the marriage bonds, or a divorce a mensa et thoro (from bed and board), whereby the parties are legally separated, but not unmarried.
The causes admitted by different codes of laws as grounds for the modification or entire dissolution of the marriage contract, as well as the description of tribunal which has jurisdiction of the proceedings, and the form of the proceedings, are various.
Divorce was permitted by the law of Moses, but forbidden in the New Testament, except for unchastity. The early laws of Rome permitted the husband to divorce his wife for adultery and many other alleged offences. The facility of divorce continued, without restriction, under the Roman emperors, but as the modern nations of Europe emerged from the ruins of the Roman Empire, they adopted the doctrine of the New Testament. Marriage, under the Roman Church, instead of a civil contract, came to be considered a sacrament of the church, which it was unlawful to dissolve. The ecclesiastical courts could indeed annul a marriage, but only for a cause that existed at the time the marriage was contracted, such as prior contracts, impotency, etc. For any cause arising after marriage they could only pronounce a divorce a mensa et thoro, which did not leave either party free to marry again, except by papal dispensation.
A divorce a vinculo matrimonii, for any cause arising subsequent to marriage, could formerly be obtained in England only by an act of parliament, and the ecclesiastical courts must have previously pronounced a divorce a mensa et thoro. The act passed in 1857, however, established a new court for trying divorce causes, called the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, subsequently absorbed into the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice.
In Victorian England, the husband could obtain a divorce for simple adultery; but if the wife is the petitioner, she had to show that her husband had been guilty of certain kinds of adultery, or of adultery coupled with desertion or gross cruelty. Either party could marry again after divorce. A divorce could not be obtained if it appeared that the petitioner had been guilty of the same offence, or that there had been collusion between the parties to obtain a divorce, or if they had condoned the offence by living together as man and wife after discovery. The husband could claim damages from the adulterer, and the court could also order the adulterer to pay the costs of the proceedings, in whole or in part. The act also abolished divorces a mensa et thoro, substituting, however, judicial separations. Since the late 20th century, divorce in BritainEngland has become a simple affair with either party simply having to claim that the marriage has broken down irretrievably.
A decree for a divorce is always in the first instance a decree nisi. In Scotland, from the time of the Reformation, divorce might be obtained by either party on the ground of adultery, marriage being held to be only a civil contract, and as such under the jurisdiction of the civil courts. Condonation or collusion was sufficient to prevent a divorce from being obtained on the ground of adultery, but not recrimination, that is, a counter charge of adultery. Wilful desertion was also held a valid reason for divorce.
In France divorce was legalized in 1884, with conditions, after having been prohibited for many years. Research Divorce
The wicked bible is a nickname given to the bible printed by Barker and Lucas in 1632 on account of an error made in the printing. The seventh commandment has the word 'not' omitted making it read:
Anne Boleyn (Anne Bullen) was the second wife of Henry VIII. She was born in 1501 or 1507 and died in 1536. She was the eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn and Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the Duke of Norfolk.
She attended Mary, sister of Henry, on her marriage with Louis XII., to France, as lady of honour, returning to England about 1522, and becoming lady of honour to Queen Catherine. The king, who soon grew passionately enamoured of her, without waiting for the official completion of his divorce from Catherine, married Anne in January, 1533, having previously created her Marchioness of Pembroke. When her pregnancy revealed the secret, Thomas Cranmer declared the first marriage void and the second valid, and Anne was crowned at Westminster with unparalleled splendour. On September the 7th, 1533, she gave birth to a baby girl who was to become Elizabeth I.
She was speedily, however, in turn supplanted by her own lady of honour, Jane Seymour. Suspicions of infidelity were alleged against her, and in 1536 the queen was brought before a jury of peers on a charge of treason and adultery. Smeaton, a musician, who was arrested with others, confessed that he had enjoyed her favours, and on May the 17th she was condemned to death. The clemency of Henry VIII went no further than the substitution of the scaffold for the stake, and she was beheaded on May the 19th, 1536. Whether she was guilty or not has never been decided; that she was exceedingly indiscreet is certain. Five hundred years later demands were made for her to be granted a royal pardon on the grounds that charges against her were obviously fabricated by the king who simply wanted to be rid of her. Research Anne Boleyn
Caroline was a British queen. She was born in 1768 and died in 1821. She was a daughter of the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and in 1795 she was married to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV. The marriage was not to his liking, and after the birth of the PrincessCharlotte he separated from her. Many reports were circulated against her honour, and a ministerial committee was formed to inquire into her conduct. But the people in general sympathized with her, regarding her as an ill-treated wife. In 1814 she made a journey through Germany, Italy, Greece, etc, to Jerusalem, in which an Italian, Bergami, was her confidant and attendant.
When the Prince of Wales ascended the throne in 1820 he offered her an income of 50,000 pounds on condition that she would never return to England. She refused, and in the June of same year entered London amid public demonstrations of welcome. The government now instituted proceedings against her for adultery, but the public feeling and the splendid defence of Brougham obliged the ministry to give up the Divorce Bill after it had passed the Lords. Though banished from the court, the queen now assumed a style suitable to her rank. Research Caroline
Saint Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris. She was born in 423 at Nanterre, about 5 miles from Paris died about the beginning of the 6th century. She devoted herself while still a child to the conventual life. Her prayers and fastings are credited with having saved Paris from the threatened destruction by Attila in 451. Many legends are told respecting her, and several churches have been dedicated to her. Her festival is held on the 3rd of January.
Saint Genevieve (by birth the Duchess of Brabant) was the wife of Siegfried, countpalatine in the reign of Charles Martel about 750. According to the legend, which is the subject of several tales and dramas, she was accused of adultery during her husband's absence and condemned to death;
but was allowed to escape, and she lived six years in a cave upon nothing but herbs. She was finally found, and carried home by her husband, who in the meantime had become convinced of her innocence. Research Saint Genevieve
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Adultery
