Hincmar of Reims and his contemporaries about the uxoricide: church teaching and social practice

Abstract

In the early middle ages the customary practice of killing wifes who did not conformed to the accepted norms (by breaking sexual code, plotting against her husband, practicing witchcraft), or were only suspected of doing it, was generally considered legal and tolerable, as testified the legal sources from different parts of Europe. During the 8th and 9th centuries growing influence of the Church on the matrimonial matters and the consolidation of the doctrine about spiritual nature of christian marriage and marital relations inclined the ecclesiastical authorities to make efforts to eradicate this sinful practice from social life. The different texts of this period cast light on the tension between traditional morality based on the „economy of honour” and christian teaching. This tension disturbed the stability of value systems of early medieval society. Writings of Hincmar of Reims dealing with the theory of christian marriage and the limits of husband’s authority over his wife (De coercendo ed exstirpando raptu viduarum, puellarum ac sanctimonialium; De divortio Lotharii regis et Theutbergae reginae) are here analysed in order to reveal that canonists and moralists of this period were aware of these conflicts, and tried to harmonize the contradictory norms. Such practices as mediation between the spouses, public penance and monastic exclusion of the adulterous wife can be considered as a model of the strategies proposed by ecclesiastical authorities to protect the woman’s life and at the same time to preserve honour of her husband. However, in spite of the Church condemnation of uxoricide and dissemination of the Christian concept of the marriage, the several cases from the narrative and diplomatic records from the 9^th century clearly demonstrate that killing the wife in the name of family’s honour was not only the accepted tradition, but it was also considered as the moral obligation of the husband or his male relatives. The refusal to fulfill such obligation, even in the name of Christian principles, could be dangerous not only for the social position of the husband but also for his male identity.