Law and Women in Medieval Europe

Women have always been victims of various legislations and the way the law is applied concerning the crimes that they commit in the society. The suffering that women underwent in medieval Europe cannot be emphasized much as seen from this study. In late medieval Europe, religion played a significant role in shaping the way the law was practiced. A very wide jurisdiction was controlled by the ecclesiastical courts exempted the clergy from secular jurisdiction by extending their control over the laymen. The ecclesiastical courts protected the helpless people in the society like women, orphans, and children. It also handled a broad range of semi-secular offenses like forgery, perjury, libel, and falsification of testimony, weights, and measures among other crimes (Merback 8). In most of these cases, the church did not have exclusive jurisdiction, but concurrently exercised a considerable degree of influence by the secular...
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