Sex and secrecy: a secular prosecution of abortion in fourteenth-century Zurich

Abstract

Until now the earliest known evidence in the German-speaking lands of the prosecution of abortion according to Roman-canonical procedure has been dated to the fifteenth century. This article examines a case from 1392 investigated by the municipal council court of the Free Imperial City of Zurich apparently according to these procedural rules. The case focussed upon a single woman named Repplin accused of aborting or killing her child. The article looks closely at the fama reported by witnesses who knew her, a number of whom also claimed to be recent sexual partners of Repplin. Although the case indicates that some individuals might tolerate or overlook the actions of women who terminated pregnancies, the record also suggests how the web of associations in the Middle Ages between sex, secrecy, and the female body might come together with devastating effect for individual women in a judicial context, decreasing their ability to resist negative gossip and to defend themselves.