Did Medieval courts really believe this was a proper way to test impotence? Wouldn't this be a violation of chastity and other religious/cultural values?
>>1317788
What do you mean by "proper?"
Yeah it would have been a violation, but do you really think that most people would have cared? They probably figured that they could just go to confession or have a priest say a few masses for them after they died or have someone pay for an indulgence for them or something to make up for their unchastity.
>>1317788
Violations of chastity were reserved for proper girls of good bearing. They didn't much apply to prostitutes like the witness in that case. The question was more 'how to make sure prostitutes didn't infiltrate proper society' and less 'how to make them chaste.'
>>1317888
The text doesn't really mention that these women were prostitutes though.
>>1317919
The text is a reading of a court transcript in which the witnesses had to swear an oath that they were good, virtuous, upstanding women. However, upon inspection of other records at York, it becomes clear that at least one of these witnesses, Joan Lawrence, had been tried for multiple counts of adultery and fornication. The other witnesses have names suspiciously close to known sex workers (i.e. Joan Semer being close to known prostitute Joan Semster).
Maybe they were in fact all innocent, upstanding girls. But Joan Semer is the one who in the source is said to have bared her breasts, fondled cock and balls, lifted her dress to her stomach, took John's hand and put it on her belly/cunt, and used period slang for goading him to fuck her and prove he was a man.
It's also sort of suspect how seven such witnesses, all girls who had no issue fondling, kissing, and dirty talking to John to fuck them and prove himself a man, were all gathered by the court as if they were publicly known sexperts who were also chaste, dutiful married women. One might think they were just the same whores the court was already aware of, and may have even patronized themselves now and then. The record does go into pretty lurid pornographic detail here, almost like reading an anon's lewd greentext story rather than a dry, professional account.
Maybe in England.
In France to prove you weren't impotent you had to fuck your wife in the courtroom.
>>1318027
All while a panel of judges and witnesses watch.
>>1317788
That's pretty hot.
>>1317788
It wasn't so much about the test so much as the weight of having seven witnesses testifying in unison. The fact that they were women, and maybe even whores, giving handjobs to see if the dude could get a hard-on was less important than the fact that there were seven of them all reaching the same conclusion under oath.
