To Preserve the Marital State: the Basler Ehegericht,1550-1592

Abstract

The Protestant magistrates of early modern Europe sought to control marriage as a primary element of social order. To accomplish this, they tried to educate and discipline their subjects in a reformed definition of marriage and its purpose in the community. ¹ The records of the Ehegericht, or marriage court, of Basel, Switzerland, from 1550 to 1592, demon strate two fundamental theses. First, en forcement of the reformed marital code sharpened and reinforced a specific model of marriage which was indicative of the values and concerns of the Basel magistra cy. Second, in the last half of the sixteenth century the Protestant tribunal of Basel as sumed an increasingly activist posture in the enforcement of marital discipline and public morality. Both of these conclusions are based on the notion that marital crime and dysfunction, exposed and corrected by the authorities, served a vital purpose in defining the group experience of the com munity. This essay examines the contem poraneous role and definition of marital deviance in Basel.