Authority and Sexuality in Early Modern Burgundy (1550-1730) (Studies in the History of Sexuality) - Hardcover

James R. Farr draws heavily upon archival research and a careful reading in Counter-Reformation and social theory scholarship...this is more than a narrow regional study. it is a deeply textured argument, intended for a wide audience, that ably demonstrates that even though the religious fervor of the Counter-Reformation peaked in the 1690s, the judicial politics of eighteenth-century France elites remained heavily influenced by Counter-Reformation ideas of discipline, sin, and female concupiscence. (History)

A sociocultural analysis of the relationships among law, religion, and sexual morality in Burgundy during the Catholic Reformation, this book is divided into two, interrelated parts: the world of prescription and the world of practice. The first part examines the construction of authority, focusing primarily upon Burgundy's dominant elite legal community. The second part of the book examines the deployment of authority, and its appropriation by French men and women. The new moral order focused on sexuality and the imposition of this order involved a legal contest over the disposition of bodies, both male and female, be they priests, courting couples, victims of seduction or rape, or prostitutes. James Farr's book offers an unusually fertile approach to study the link between sexuality and criminality.