Discipline and Respectability: Prostitution and the Reformation in Augsburg
Author(s): Lyndal Roper
Reviewed work(s):
Source: History Workshop, No. 19 (Spring, 1985), pp. 3-28
Published by: Oxford University Press
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ARTICLES & ESSAYS
The Prostitute and the Fool. 1530.
Discipline and Respectability:
Prostitution and the Reformation in
Augsburg
by Lyndal Roper
'Here at Augsburg the Council did away with the brothel at the prompting of the
Lutheran preachers'.' This laconic sentence - a notation under the year 1532 by
the Catholic monk Clemens Sender - is the only reference made by any of the
town's chroniclers to the closure of the city brothel, an event which they and
historians since seem to have thought of little consequence in the turbulent years
of the Reformation. Augsburg was not the only town at this time to close a city
brothel which had been an established part of civic life for more than two
centuries.2 Such decisions marked a turning point in the organization of prostitution, attitudes to it and, indeed, to sexuality. As the chronicler knew, these
changes were connected with the new ethos of the Reformation; but what remains
obscure, then and now, is quite how the two were related, or what the altered
sexual regime reveals of the nature of the Reformation.
Historians have often pointed to what they consider to be a shift in sexual
values accomplished by the Reformation. It is generally considered to have brought
about a new positive affirmation of marriage and married life. As one recent writer
expressed it: 'While it cannot be claimed that Protestants were unique in achieving
loving marriages, their new marriage laws . . . became the most emphatic statement of the ideal of sharing, companionable marriage in the sixteenth century'.3
Much less has been written about the movement to abolish city brothels, though
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this casts a different light on the new sexual ethic. Where it is mentioned, it
frequentlytends to be presented as yet another of the Reformation'spurifying
onslaughtson the corrupt and lasciviousworld of the late medieval city, as it
establishedthe values of marriageand fidelity.Yet the historyof the campaignto
end prostitutionin Augsburg- a large, wealthyimperialcity - is far more contradictory, and its presuppositionsmore ambiguous,than such a black and white
picturewould suggest.
I
But what was the system of toleratedprostitutionwhich the reformersfound so
ungodly?Its most distinctivefeature was the municipalcharacterof the city-run
brothel.The brothelkeeperwas required,in most towns, to swearan annualoath
of office to the Councillike other civic officials;and its terms might describehis
duties as (to quote the Ulm oath) 'to furtherthe interestand piety of the city and
its folk, and to warn and keep it from harm'.4Thoughthe brothelkeeper ran the
business, and in some towns (as in Augsburg) owned the buildings, the civic
authoritymight still be liable for repairsto the premises.5In return, the town
made use of the brothel as a civic resource.During Imperialvisits, the emperor
and his retinue might be given a complimentarynight at the brothel; and their
evening was celebrated with torchlightprocessions and luxuriousfeasting.6At
Wurzburg,visits by town officialson St. John'sDay, and at Frankfurt,invitations
to the prostitutesfor the Council'sannualvenison feast confirmedthe brothel's
role as partof the town'sceremonialresources,a meansto demonstratethe power
and hospitalityof the commune.7The women, like other civic assets, were subject
to inspectionby civic officials;the latter were usually midwives(though to the
brothelkeeper's horror,the Ulm Councilintroducedinspectionby male doctors,
in the presence of the city employees responsiblefor patrollingbeggars). The
inspectorsensuredthat the brothel keeper was fulfillinghis obligationto provide
the city with 'suitable,clean and healthywomen'.8These three adjectivesencapsulate the Council'sconcerns:the women should be free from disease (syphilisis
clearlyone of its anxieties), should be of age and should be sound specimens.In
formulatingsuch ordinancesand arrangingannual inspections,the Council was
declaringitself the adjudicatorin disputesbetweenprostitutesand brothelkeeper,
and adoptingspecial responsibilityfor a tradewhich had no guild structureof its
own.
It was therefore fully consistentwith the brothel'splace in civic society for
the Councilto speak of it as 'enhancingthe good, piety and honourof the whole
commune'.9But this language, and the mannerin which the Council employed
the brothel as show piece, rested upon a male-definedunderstandingof who the
term 'commune'included.The brotheloffered a sexualitywith which men could
identifyand the Council'srhetoricaddressedthe males who would have access to
the prostitutes.Just as only adultmale citizenscould enjoy full politicalrightsand
bear arms in defence of the commune, so here also, masculinity,virility and
membershipof the polity were intimatelyconnected. In theory, women too were
supposedto benefitfromthe brothelbecauseit madethe city safe for 'respectable'
women: yet here, they were referredto protectivelyin terms of their relationsto
men, as the wives and daughtersof citizens, even though they could be citizens
in their own right.
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Prostitutionand Reformation
5
Thougha publicinstitution,the city brothelwas not officiallyopen to all men.
Theoretically,marriedmen were forbiddento visit it; and all cities threatened
punishmentfor any marriedman foundwithinits walls.10Restrictionswere placed
on clericsusing the brothel:Nurembergbannedthem outright,while Nordlingen
more realisticallyforbadethem only to stay overnight."But in Augsburgat least,
in the early years of the 16th century,there are suspiciouslyfew cases of married
men being caught in brothels, and in other towns, cases usually multiplyin the
wake of mandatesagainstconcubinageand adultery."2One has only to compare
the numerousconvictionsof marriedmen found in the Zurichbrothelduringthe
Reformationyears, when the Councilwas determinedto translateprincipleinto
practice.'3Travellers,a group who broughtmuch of the brothel'scustom, could
easily deny being married;and such nicetieswere forgottenduringthe Emperor's
visits or at Imperialdiets.
Brothels were designed for one particulargroup of men: journeymenand
apprenticesnot yet married;and the 'free house', 'commonhouse' or 'women's
house', as it was variouslyknown,was a centralpartof theirculturalworld. Richer
men could afford the services of courtesansor retain a mistress,but in the city
brothels, low prices ensured that ordinaryapprenticesand journeymencould
affordto pay. A centreof popularentertainmentof all kinds,brothelssold alcohol,
board games were played, and the brothel keeper was supposed to watch out
for professionalcheats.'4 Its function, like that of taverns, as a focus of male
entertainment,explains why (as the Ulm Council complained)young lads aged
twelve or less were frequentingit's - for many, the excitementof going with a
group of workmates,of looking, teasing and fantasising,comprisedthe amusement. The sale of food and alcoholwas an importantsourceof the brothel'sprofit,
and in 1510 and 1512 the Ulm Council found it necessaryto forbid the brothel
keeper selling alcoholto take away, holdingdrinkingsprees or forcingprostitutes
and clients to buy alcohol at inflated prices.'6Brothels were a stage for male
bravado;and they were frequentlythe scene of fights, even though causing a
disturbancein the brothel carrieda double penalty.'7The brothel's popularity
exemplifiesthe distinctnessof the leisure lives of young men and women: while
men's entertainmentinvolvedspendingmoney, drinkingor roamingthe streetsin
bands at night to fight or perhapsto serenade the young women they fancied,
women's social lives do not seem to have dependedto the same extent on ready
cash. They do not appearto have made muchuse of guildor local drinkingrooms,
and the indoorsewingcircle underthe watchfuleye of elderswas more important
to their leisure. Women who walked the streets alone at night risked being
mistakenfor prostitutes.Dances, fairs and churchales were the occasionswhere
young men and women mightmeet; but sexual contactwas not allowed.
Thus, throughthe institutionof the brothel, the city was able to celebrate
and encourageyouthful male virilitywhile at the same time insistingthat these
young men should not marry until, their craft trainingcompleted, they could"
supporta wife and children.Fromthis perspective,the argumentthat the brothel
preventedanarchicsexual relationshas a special point: the city fathershad long'
supportedparents'rightto a say in their children'smarriages,even in spite of the
Church'sdoctrine that marriageconsisted solely in the mutual consent of the
couple themselves.At dances,weddings,fairsand churchales youngpeople often
did promisemarriage'secretly'or consummateillicitunions,upsettingthe delicate
balance between male sexual vigour and delayed marriagewhich the city elders
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wantedto maintain.As they saw it, the brothelforestalledsuch relationshipsand
helped to keep the town's 'respectable'women sexuallyinaccessible.'8
The prostitutes,on the otherhand,were sexuallyavailableandwere presented
as objects of sexual fantasy and glamour;but they were not the social equals of
their clients. When, in Nuremberg,the Council discoveredthat the prostitutes
were preferring'special beaux, whom they call their beloved men' over other
customers,it was quick to order that this practicebe stopped, and decreed that
the women shouldbe availableto any manwho paid.19As 'commonwomen',they
were not to develop disruptivepreferences,relationshipswhich mightimperilthe
distinctionsbetweenon the one handrespectableyoungwomenwho couldbecome
wives; and on the other the free, common women who, under Augsburglaw,
could not sue for paternity,and in some other towns could not even be raped,
since they were owned by all men.20For youths,sexualexperiencewith prostitutes
was part of becominga real man; but becauseits contextwas the milieu of young
men's bands, and civic prostituteswere thought of as belonging to all men in
common, it could also strengthenmale bonding.21
From the prostitutes'point of view, the civic brothelmight appearto be an
institution which accorded them both respect and protection. Many measures
served their interests:in Ulm, there was a separatebath for their use, and the
food they were to receive was preciselyprescribed;in Nordlingen,a weekly bath
was included in the rent. But if it seemed a beneficent regime, it placed the
prostitutesfirmly under the brothel keeper's hand. In Ulm, his control of the
fwomen'slabour power was so complete that he could requirethem to spin yarn
during the day or else reimbursehim for the lost earnings.22As we saw, the
women did not have the right to refuse a client. From the brothel ordinances,
which concern the keeper's provisionof food, alcohol, clothing, baths and rent,
it is obvious there was little need for the woman to step outside the brothel to
make any purchases.That this might amountto a total de facto curfewis evident
fromthe manyregulationsforbiddingthe brothelkeeperto preventwomenleaving
the brothel, especiallyif their purposewas to go to church.23
Economicpressuresforced the women to keep workingand made it hardfor
them to leave. In some towns, menstruatingor sick women could choose not to
work; while pregnantor seriouslyill women were forbiddento do So.24 On the
eves of holy days and throughoutHoly Week, the brothel was shut.25On these
days they earned nothing, yet they still had to meet the costs of food, rent and
clothing. Many fell into a cycle of debt, for the brothel keepers would allow
women to buy goods throughthem (at pricesthe keepersnominated)and deduct
the money from their future wages. In Uberlingen, for example, the keeper
pocketed a third of each woman'searningsand then deducteddebt repayments
from the rest. In Ulm, the money the women made was put into a box and
distributedeach week, one thirdpassingto the brothel keeper who also charged
for rent and maintenance.Limitswere imposed on how much he might lend the
women or what he could sell them, though it is not clear whether these were
effective. Though the women might scrutinizethe pay out, their control of their
earningswas reducedto a minimum.In Uberlingen,only giftsandwhatthe woman
earnedfrom an 'overnight'customerwere paid directlyto her. This systemmade
it hard for her to forgo a night customerand crucialto please the client so that
she could commandthose extra gifts. A bout of sicknesscould be enough to put
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the woman behind in repayments,thus compellingher to chalk up yet another
debt againsther futureearnings.26
The vicious circle of indebtednesswas aggravatedby the practiceof 'lending
money' using the women as security.The documentsare vague on the point, but
the inescapableconclusionis that women were in effect being sold into the trade
and compelled to repay the capital 'lent' throughtheir labour. It was rumoured
that there were prostitutemarketswhere women were bought or exchangedby
brothels.If these tales have the ring of fancy, they do demonstratethat there was
some concern about methods of procurement.27
Yet this had its limits. The 1428
ordinanceof Augsburg,which accusedthe brothelkeeper of 'pilingsin upon sin'
by refusingto permit indebted prostitutesto leave the brothel, reveals that the
'sin' lay not so much in purchasingprostitutes,but in preventingwomen from
reforming.28
In Ulm, where it was, interestinglyenough, the Churchwhichraised
this complaint, the Council decreed that women should be free to leave the
brothel, whether or not their debts had been settled, on paymentof one gulden
- not an easy sum for a woman to raise. When she left, she could take only the
clothes with which she had come to the brothel. For a known prostitute,without
means of supportand usuallywithoutaccumulatedcapital, findinga position and
makinga new life outside the brothelwould have been extremelyhard. But if she
once returnedto prostitution,the brothel keeper could reclaimher and demand
paymentof all debts.29
The so-called 'free women' thus had little power over their lives or their
earnings, and would have found it nearly impossibleto leave a brothel whose
regimethey found intolerablefor another.As a form of labour,it was unlike any
other withinthe town walls, where, as the boastfulproverbhad it, 'city air makes
one free'. Though apprentices,servantsand journeymentoo might be subject to
restrictionson movement, might find it hard to leave an unpleasantmaster and
might also fall into debt with him, prostitutesfaced a far severerdiscipline.They
had little or no chanceof ever becomingbrothelkeepersthemselves- in Augsburg,
the brothel seems to have been run only by men in this period - and they might;
become indenturedlabour bound to work off debts which they had not even
contracted. Ironically,the town brothel, used so often to represent the proud
munificenceof the free city, operatedon a systemwhichwas the antithesisof the
ideal of the free citizen controllinghis own labour.
In additionto legal prostitutionhowever, there were networksof free prostitution, tolerated to some extent by civic authorities. Nurembergon occasion
allowed civic prostitutesto attack and 'discipline'free prostituteswho detracted
from their trade.30In Augsburg,a motley assortmentof illegal prostitutes,their
procurersand smallbrothelholders, were banishedeach year just after St. Gall's
day, the beginningof winter.3'This fell a few weeks after St. Michael'sDay when
those who had been banished previously,travellingfolk and vagabonds,might
freely enter the city; and it coincidedwith the meetingof the LargeCouncilwhen
the tax rate for the comingyear would be fixed.32A ritualof purification,a public
spectaclewhere those on the Galli list were marchedout of town to the sound of
the stormbell, it was hardlya seriousmeasureof policing.The guiltywould soon
secure an intercessionfrom some dignitaryand gain a pardon.33Indeed, the same
women appear regularlyon the lists of offenders: 'Margaretthe Court Virgin
behind St. Steven's'was listed nearlyevery year between 1515 and 1520.
Augsburg'spolicing,like that of other towns, concentratedinsteadon limiting
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noise and public disturbancefrom prostituteswho solicited on the streets, and
distinguishingprostitutesfrom 'respectable'women. Prostituteswere requiredto
wear a broad green stripe on their veil, forbiddento wear wreathslike maidens
and were not allowedto wear silk cloth or rosaries.34They could not have a maid
Accompanythem on the street. The distinguishingmark- whethera yellow stripe
or a red beret as in other towns- classedprostitutesin a similarcategoryto Jews,
who were also compelled to wear some visible sign of difference.Both Jew and
prostitutewere believed to performessentialservicesfor the commune,yet both
groups were excluded from full membershipof the city, and Jews even from
residence after the mid 15th century expulsions. Intercoursebetween Jew and
Christianwas theoreticallypunishableby death.35So also, ties with prostitutes
were discouraged:women who befriendedthem might find themselves reputed
prostitutestoo; and men who had too close a relationshipwith such women, who
had one 'hanging about him', might be threatened with expulsion from their
craft union.36Prostituteswere supposedto be foreign women, and brothelswere
forbiddento employ local girls - though many women from the town certainly
workedas free prostitutes.37
Like the Jews, prostituteswere conceivedof as foreign
in some sense; and just as Jews were buried outside the city walls, so also in
Frankfurt,the Council threatened the prostituteswith burial 'in the ditch', in
unblessedearth.38Too intimatean associationwith eitherJewsor prostitutescould
endangerthe respectablecitizen'scivic existence.
Indeed, the symbolicposition of the prostitutecould be describedas one of
clearly defined marginality.Regulationsmade sure that 'the two species of the
honourable and the dishonourable'were easily told apart.39Urban geography
made the point: in Augsburg,the brothel was strategicallyplaced near a minor
city gate by the wall, only just withinthe town borders,yet convenientlyclose to
the city centre. In Hamburgand Strasbourgthe city councilsrestrictedfree prostitution to a few streets.40None the less, prostitutesformed part of urbanculture,
participatingin races at the shooting carnivalsand appearingat weddings and
dances.41In Vienna, they partneredthe young men in the St. John's Day Fires
dances, and at carnivaltime in Leipzig,they processedthroughthe city to protect
the town from plague and preservewomen's fertility,as it was said.42Prostitutes
had particularsaints- St. Affra of Augsburghad herself been forced into prostitution by her mother- and in Ulm, the prostitutesburnta weekly candle in Our
Lady'sChurch'to the praiseand honourof Mary,and as a comfortto all Christian
souls' - a phrasewhich expressesthe prostitutes'inclusionin the work of prayer
and worshipof the community.43
But this public acceptancewas double-edged, serving also to imprisonthe
women in their identity as prostitute,a separatespecies of woman. At the same
time, the provisionof brothels legitimatedthe social constructionof male desire
as a force which must have an outlet or cause chaos. The men who gained their
firstsexual experienceswith prostituteswere distancedfrom them psychologically
and socially.Prostitutescountedas dishonourablepeople who couldpolluteothers.
The extent of theirdishonourwas clearlymanifestedin the varioussystemsdevised
to supervisethe women. Accordingto the 1276civic code of Augsburg,prostitutes
shouldbe underthe controlof the hangman,the most dishonourablefigureof the
entire city.44So polluting and injuriousto honour was contact with him or his
work that the entire carpenters'guild had to repairthe gallowstogether, in order
that none should be more tainted than his fellow guildsmen.45In Regensburg,
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when the brothel keeper died in 1532 he was buried under the gallows like a
criminal,despite the considerablefortunehe had amassed.,*In Vienna, hangman
and beadle were paid from the revenues of the brothel. All these regulations
alignedprostituteswith the social outcasts,pollutersand dishonourablemembers
of the city.
Such a marginalposition also gave prostitutesa paradoxicalkind of symbolic
freedom. According to the folk customs of one area, prostitutescould attend
weddings and they chased the groom, staging a mock capture and demanding
money to let him go.47 They could punish those who misbehavedsexually by
rituallyshamingthem. Thus the NurembergCouncilpermittedcivic prostitutesto
shame their free competitors;and on another occasion, prostitutesparaded a
woman found committingfornicationwith her lover in the brothel throughthe
streets.48Free prostituteshad more freedom to walk the streets at night than did
'respectable'women; and though their dress was supposed to be restricted,its
style did not fit the strict categoriesto which 'respectable'women were subject
accordingto their class position.
The Church too gave prostitutionconsiderablesanction. The tradition of
tolerationderivedfrom Augustine;and Aquinasjustifiedthe need for prostitutes
in vivid analogy as well, comparingthem to a cesspit for a palace. Thoughdirty
in themselves, it is their functionto purifya town - withoutthem, it would soon
become corrupt.49The image equated prostituteswith what was dirty and evil,
while making men's sexuality appear an uncomplicated natural urge like
defecation. It diagnosedthe problem as prostitution,not male sexuality. These
ideas could lead to the advocacyof prostitutionby appealto religiousvalues. The
ordinancesof both Nordlingenand Nurembergopened with prefaces defending
the brothel's existence and noting that 'in Christendomcommon women are
tolerated by the holy church in order to prevent worse evil'.50A Dominican
preacher,JohannesFalkenberg,could even advisethe city of Cracowto establish
a brothelon preciselythese grounds;and in some ecclesiasticaltowns, the Church
derivedrevenuesfrom the local brothel.51
In confessionalmanuals,visits by bachelorsto prostituteswere rankedamong
the less serious sexual sins, and in one such manual, they were classed in the
second of eight ascendingcategories, as 'whoring',worse only than fornication
and on a par with intercourseon severaloccasionswhile single. Anotherpublished
in Augsburgranked'the commonand publicsinningwomen'in the second of the
eight categories too, above single folk who committed fornication but below
adulterers,seducersand masturbators.The authorwarnedthat fornicationalone
was 'sufficientfor eternal damnation',but he noted that people thoughtlittle of
it. 52
Though prostitutes might have a representativepresence in the church witness the prostitutes'candle at Ulm - it is more difficultto determinewhether
they attendedchurchand mass. The brothelordinancesinsistedthat they be free
to do so, but the need for such a rulingsuggeststhat in practicethey were hindered
or chose not to attend. Some towns orderedthe women to sit separatelyin church.
so that 'respectable'women shouldnot be offended- or men distracted.At Ulm,
prostituteswere allowed an annualconfession, but they were to be directedto a
particularchurch by the officials in charge of beggars, a humiliatingprovision.
Even in church,a prostitutewas remindedthat she was not like other women.53
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II
Augsburghad not permittedits prostitutesto attend churchuntil 1520, so their
appearanceat St. Moritz'sin a special area of the churchto hear the sermon of
Dr. Speiser was a dramaticevent.54By 1522 at the latest, Speiser was clearly
identifiedwith the evangelicalcamp. So, when Easter approachedin 1526, and
Augsburg'sLutheranpreacherJohannesFroschheardthe confessionsof the prostitutes, what better proof could there have been of the power of the preachingof
God's Word?We do not know what Froschpreached,but we can assumethat he
would have exhortedthem to leave theirprofession,not for the wallsof a convent
of Magdalenes,but to marry,just as the reformerswere doing. The periodbefore
Easter in these early years of the Reformationwas always especially charged.
Easter, the occasion of the annual communion, was the festival where the
reformersfocusedtheirdemandsto celebratethe Last Supperin both kinds,giving
the Cup to the laity - or else carriedout liturgicalexperiments,even withoutthe
permissionof the civic authority.The exhortationsto prostitutesto repent thus
took place at a moment of intense popularpiety and expectation. Though the
Council was not to declare for the Reformationuntil eight years later, and did
not introducea full Reformationuntil 1537, on this occasion it identifieditself
publiclywith Frosch'scampaign,and awardedhim an honorariumof one gulden.55
And in the followingyears, as small numbersof prostitutesleft the brothel, the
Council showed its supportfor the reintegrationof the women into respectable
life by presentingthemwith an outfitof clothes- a gift both practicaland symbolic,
for the mock noble attireof prostitutesbrandedthem as such.56One of the women
at least married;but we do not know what became of the others.57In 1533, with
the brothel shut, the turn against prostitutionseemed complete when a former
brothel keeper's wife could write 'and we both spouses daily give God Almighty
thanks,praiseand honourbecause (the Council)has helped the above-mentioned
my husband to leave this sinful state and condition'. Even the brothel keeper
appearedto have seen the error of his ways, an impressiondented only by her
shrewd assessmentin the next line of this petition that my lords of the Council
would not, in any case, permitthe brothelto reopen.58
The evangelicalpreacherswere closely associatedwith the campaignagainst
prostitutionwhich gained momentumin the 1520s and 1530s;but their rhetoric
can be seen to pass throughdifferentstages and directions.At first, attackson
prostitutionwere part of a range of anticlericalsalvoes. Takingup elements of a
long tradition hostile to monks and priests, they portrayedthem as lecherous
women-stealers.59In this propaganda,little distinctionwas made between allegations that monks frequentlyresorted to brothels, that they seduced married
women and virgins,or that they kept concubines- all was 'whoring'.So Johannes
Strauss,in a pamphleton confession,urgedmen to be waryif theirwives'sessions
at confessionlasted suspiciouslylong.60Unlike Protestantpastors, priests lacked
wives; and thereforethey endangeredother men's women. UrbanusRhegius, an
evangelicalpreacherat Augsburg,went so far as to delare that 'every monk is a
whorer, either in secret or in public'.6'
These themes find pointed illustrationin a woodcutof 1523 (see illustration,
top, p. 11). At one level, the pictureis a typical Reformationindictmentof the
lustful monk. The trusty peasant stands for the common man, supporterof the
Reformation. He is the actor in the picture, and his discovery of the priest's
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Monk and Maiden. 1523
1. I must keep quiet about the matter but it is not my will.
2. Peasant, I'll get your daughter a position and make matters right for you.
3. Father, I don't understand things properly, otherwise I wouldn' have come to the monk.
4. Monk, you've deceived me, and stolen my daughter from me with your lies.
5. That I must endure this great shame to my child, I bewail it to God.
Right: The Power of Womanhood. Peter Flotner, 1534.
Left: The Babylonian Whore astride the seven-headed beast. Mathias Gerund, circa 1545.
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seductionof his daughteris the drama.Yet at anotherlevel, the woodcut can be
interpretedas a satireon prostitution,directedas muchagainstthe women characters as againstthe clergy. The mother who turns away from the scene is smiling
as she holds her hand to her face; and the viewer is struckby her large, bulging
purse. Her daughterseems captivatedby the monk, despite her professedrepentance of her loss of virginity.The mother'sfeet lead away from the monk as if,
unlike her husband,she is departing:has she been paid off by the monk just as
he now attemptsto bribethe peasant?Drawingon a stockmythaboutprostitution,
the artistimplies that the women are in league for the monk'smoney.62
The linkingof anticlericalismand prostitutionwas not restrictedto the level
of a literaryand pictorialdevice. By 1537, the Councilwas orderingall men to
separatefromconcubinesandcommandingthe womento leave town.63Suchedicts
had been repeatedlypromulgatedthroughoutthe 15th and 16th centuries,64but
now the Councilset about enforcingthem, institutinga specialcourt to deal with
this and other offences, payingspies to report on 'suspiciouspersons'and fining
heavily those men whom it found guilty. Particularconcernwas expressedabout
the 'whoring'of the priestsas the Councilmadeits firsttentativesteps to introduce
the Reformationin 1534.65At the same time, a dramaticseries of trialsof prostitutes who confessedtheir dealingswith clergy, and told how one young virginhad
been hawked aroundto variousclerics, fuelled the tendencyto identifypriests as
the pollutersand women-stealersof the town.66
Anticlerical feeling of this type, however, rapidly shaded into attacks on
prostitutesthemselves.They came to be classedwith the Catholicpriests;and the
concubineswere the people exiled followingthe trials. As early as 1520, Luther
had explicitlyarguedthat in a Christiansociety, there shouldbe no brothels:
'Finally,is it not a lamentablethingthat we Christiansshouldopenly tolerate
in our midst common houses of ill-fame, though we all took the oath of
chastity at our baptism?I am well aware of the frequent reply, that it is a
custom not confinedto any one people, that it would be difficultto stop, and
that it is better to have such houses than that marriedwomen, or maidens,
or others held in greaterrespect,shouldbe dishonoured.Nevertheless,ought
not the secularbut Christiangovernmentto considerthat that is not the way
to get rid of a heathen custom?'67
Here, Lutherwas engaging(albeit tentatively)with the time-honoureddefence of
brothels: that they protected the honour of respectablewomen. This argument
became more sophisticatedas reformersbegan to claim that brothels actually
causedthe ill they were supposedto contain.
As JohannesBrenzwrote, 'Somesay one musthave publicbrothelsto prevent
greater evil - but what if these brothels are schools in which one learns more
wickednessthan before?' Here, the reformerswere questioningthe cornerstone
of the theory of male desire which justifiedprostitutionbecause men's lust was
an anarchic,uncontrollableforce which could only be channelledin specific, less
socially disruptivedirections.At times, the reformerseven seem to be grappling
with the paradoxesof their society'ssexual paradigms:
'If the authoritieshave the power to allow a brothel and do not sin in this,
where not only single men (who sin heavily) but also marriedmen may go,
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and say this does no harm . . . Why do they not also permit a women's
brothel, where women who are old and weak and have no husbandsmay
go?'68
If women are indeed the more sensual sex, as 16th centurysociety held them to
be, and if men, as more rationalbeings, are better able to controltheir lusts than
women, why should women not be allowed brothels? The writer, Melchior
Ambach, pushed the argument to this 'absurd' point to show the fallacious
reasoningof those who supportedbrothels;but as he did so, he at least laid bare
the contradictionsin the sexual naturesascribedto women and men. Implicitlyhe
was claimingthat men, too, must be regardedas sexuallyresponsiblesubjects.
However, the belief that sex was a force which is denied at society's peril
returnedin the demandsthat men and women ought to marryyoung. Indeed, in
the passages cited earlier, the writersusuallyproceeded to praise marriage,the)
'betterway' institutedby God. Marriagewas classed as the only possible context
for sex for the Christian.But if the reformersrejectedchastityas an ideal binding
on all clerics, they did advocatechastityfor those men and women who were not
of an age to marry.Certainly,the pre-Reformationchurchdid not advocatesexual
experience for youths, but it did not assume that young men would be virgins
when they married.Yet this was exactlywhat the new churchheld up as the ideal
for all men - an interestingexample of the ways in which the preoccupationsof
the reformersthemselves, so heavily determinedby the monastic experiences
many had rebelled against, could lead them to advocatea monasticideal for all.
Even so, they did not believe that men or women could be expected to maintain
this chastity for any length of time, and their consequent advocacy of early
marriageto avoid the perils of unsatisfiedlust led them into open conflictwith
seculartradition.The latterfavouredlate marriageand discouragedmatchesuntil
the man had completedcraft training.69
As the reformers'ethic was elaborated,prostitutesthemselves began to be
perceivedas evil temptresses,figuresof hate in their own rightratherthan as the
satellitesof the old priests. Worse than merelyvain, selfishand luxurious,prosti.
tutes came to be regardedas evil. It is surelysignificantthat the reformerswere
drawn to the symbol of the Whore of Babylon to represent the Papacy (see
illustration,bottomleft, p. 11).70 The polemicalimagesof the richlyattiredprostiftute, dressed like a noble woman, and riding the seven-headed Beast, which
adorned the LutheranBible and appeared as pamphletillustrations,were also
visionsof the powerfulwomanflauntingher sexualityand the richesit has brought
her. Perhaps the viewer was reminded of the depictions of women riding not
animalsbut men - for example, that of Phyllis astrideAristoteles, made foolish
by his love of a woman (see illustration,bottom right, p. 11).71 And the rhetoric
whichsurroundedthe theme of the Pope as BabylonianWhorewas deeplyimbued
with the sense that these were the Last Days, the Prostitute-Popea sign of the
impendingapocalypse.The prostitutewas a menacingas well as a sinfulcharacter.
The variouslevels of the demonisationof prostitutescan be seen coalescing
in Luther'sdenunciationto his studentsof a groupof prostituteswho had recently
arrivednear Wittenberg.He asked them to believe that 'the evil spiritsent these
whoreshere' and calls them 'dreadful,shabby,stinking,loathsomeand syphilitic'.
These women, Luthersays, are murderers,worse even than poisoners,for 'such
a syphiliticwhore can give her disease to ten, twenty, thirty, and more good
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people', and continues that, were he a judge, he should have them 'broken on
the wheel and flayed'.72
Here there is no sympathyfor the prostitute,and she, not the men who are
her customers,is namedas the sourceof sin. Disease is a metaphorof her nature,
and she, not her clients, is the origin of the illness. Her infection is of little
consequence:it is the transmissionof the sickness to 'good people' which calls
forth Luther'sinvective.
The argumentthat prostitutescaused syphilis was propoundedby medical
writerstoo, but it was not the chief or only groundthey cited. Syphilishad become
recognizedas a majorEuropeanepidemicin the late fifteenthand early sixteenth
centuries,but there was considerabledisputeas to its nature,cause and cure. On
the introductionof the diseaseto Germanythere were severaltheories. Some held
that Germanmercenarysoldiershad importedit, one that it had been deliberately
caused by French soldiers who had mixed leper's blood into the bread they fed
the German soldiers. Others blamed Italian prostitutes,and one even named a
single woman as the sole cause of the plague.73All these myths shared the
assumptionthat it was some undesirablegroup, whether German mercenaries,
who stood for the antithesisof settled bourgeois life, prostitutes,or the hated
Southerners.As to the immediate causes of the disease, opinion was divided.
Most mentionedintercoursewith people sufferingfrom the illness; and yet, as J.
K. Prokschhas pointedout, it was chieflywomen whom the writersmentionedas
a danger.74This is a linguisticslip in part because the writers assumed a male
readership;but it meant that women as a sex could be regardedas a possible
source of contagion. But 'bad air', the eating of infected pork (it was held that
animals could contract the disease), medical bleeding and even (some held)
decayed menstrualblood could cause the illness.75In some writers,these themes
merged into a general complaint against the 'times' and its morals, for which
syphiliswas seen as God's punishment.
The contradictionsin popular attitudesto venereal disease and prostitution
arenicelyconveyedby JohannesHaselbergk'ssatiricalpoem 'Onthe SouthernPox',
which begins in the form of a dialogue between a merchantand a citizen. The
merchantis to blame for his own sufferings,the citizen tells him, for 'God has
sent this plaguebecauseof our loose living'and 'You merchantfolk travelfar and
wide/Wellknown to the WomenBeautiful/Withthem you have your amusement/
and they know how to entertainyou/You forget your wife and child'. The link
between prostitutionand syphilismade here is as much moral as biological.Yet
a major section of the poem is a lengthy list of all the brothels and prostitutes'
hauntsin every major Germantown, interspersedwith puns and sexual jokes. It
could clearlydouble as a guide book. The poem's apparentmoralismis undercut
by its fascinationwith prostitution,and syphilissimplyadds a comic piquancy.76
Thoughworryabout the disease contributedto the movementagainstprosti-tution,prostituteswere never regardedas the sole source of the illness. Nor did
recognitionof the connectionbetween the two lead of itself to abolitionism.The
Ulm Council seems to have believed the danger could be averted by a ban on
women 'with the warts', frequent inspection of prostitutes, and special baths.77
Furthermore,the thesis that prostitutescould be held responsiblefor the plague
was as much a productof the turn againstprostitutionas a cause of it. We need
to explain why prostitutesrather than, for example, mercenarysoldiers should
have come to be identified with the disease. As the stronglymoral tone of so
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muchof the medicalliteratureagainstprostitutionsuggests,the equationof prostitute and disease was itself colouredby attitudesto women and their sexuality.
III
When the AugsburgCouncil came to close the brothel, pronouncementsabout
the dangersto health it causedwere notablyabsent;78and when, in the 1530sand
1540s, it campaignedto abolishfree prostitutionand punishthose involvedin it,
no mention was made of venereal disease. Rather, it developed a new language
to define sexual sin which was a fusion of elements of both civic moralismand
religiousrhetoric,all the more powerfulfor its ambiguity.
In 1537, it publisheda new, comprehensiveDiscipline Ordinanceand established a special court to deal with disciplineoffences. The 1537 ordinancedoes
not mentionprostitutionby name, but speaksinsteadof those who commitfornication and adultery. No longer a clearly identifiable trade, prostitution was
subsumedunder these sins; and the prostitutewas not addressedas a separate
class of woman. The sexual disciplinewhich the whole citizenrywere to adopt
was both more all-embracingand less well defined than it had been before the
Reformation.Now any sexual relationshipoutside marriagewas counted sinful
and any occasion where the sexes mingled, such as dances, might lead to sin. So
absolutewere the demandsof the ideal that the Councilwas drawninevitablyto
define marriageand the relationswhichought to hold between husbandand wife,
parentsand children,mastersand servantsas it articulatedthe concept of discipline. Parentsought to take responsibilityfor their childrenwho, in turn, should
obey their parents; masters should pay their servantswhile servantsshould be
tractable.Indeed, the ordinanceamountedto an attemptto orderthe household,
to emphasizethe distanceswhichoughtto exist betweeneach of its members,and
to define the rights and duties of each. The same ordinance also included an
admonitionto all citizensto wear clothingappropriateto their social position, so
that each may 'be recognizedfor whom he or she is'.79
Prostitutionhad previouslybeen regardedas the cure for the dangersof male
lust, protecting(as all who favouredits existence insisted) the honour of wives
and virgins. Such claims were of course related to concernabout sexual anarchy
withinthe household- the wives, daughtersand maidsfor whomthey fearedwere
their own; the sexual threat derivedfrom the young men of the house. Once the
brothelwas abolished,and prostitutesconsideredeitherfornicatorsor adulteresses
like other women, it is not surprisingthat there should have been such care
devoted to redrawingthe boundarieswithin the household. Nor is it difficultto
see why one of the Reformation'smajorconcernsshouldhavebeen withreworking
the concept of incest, makingit both a narrowerbut a far more strictlyheld set
of rules.80
But it was as it was put into practice,in the investigationsand interrogations
of wrongdoers,that the meaningof the new ideal of disciplinewas worked out;
and the trialsof prostitutesgave the opportunityfor its fullest expression.Instead
of merelywarningor banishingprostitutes,the Councilnow began to subjectthem
to systematicinterrogation;and the questioningincreasedin length and detail,
frequentlyextendedover more than one session, and more often involvedthe use
of torture.8'Less concernedwith travellingprostitutes,who, in any case, were
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probablybetter able to slip the Council'snet, the Councilshowedespecialinterest
in women domiciledin the town, particularlythose of the lower guild strata.
Above all, the prostitutiontrials of the second quarterof the 16th century
reveal an obsession with the parentalbackgroundof the accusedwoman. Thus,
when Appolonia Strobel was suspected of prostitution,both her parents were
summonedby the Council and interrogated.Her father was asked 'whetherhe
had not noticed and known that his daughterwent after dishonourablethings',
'why he had allowedher to leave his house and be outside it day and night', 'why
he had not punishedher indisciplinein a fittingmanner'.These were not ingenuous
questions but accusationsdesigned to impressupon him his failure as a father.
The followingday he was interrogatedagainunderthreatof tortureand told that
the Council refused to believe that he had not known all about his daughter's
misdeeds. The questions put to Appolonia's mother were different. She was
informedthat 'it is well known that her daughterleads an unchristiandishonourable life' and asked 'why she had permittedand not interferedwith this for some
time past'. The Counciltried to bring her to confess that she had been party to
her daughter'sprostitutionand profitedfrom it. At her second questioning,she
was told that 'it is not to be believed that she knew nothing of her daughter's
affairs'and admonishedthat 'if she were an honourablemother she could well
have preventedsuch things'.82
Showinga genuine fascinationwith prostitutionand its causes as an almost
pathologicalcondition,the Councilwas here locatingthe reasonsfor Appolonia's
disgracein her parents'failureto behave as true mother and father. The careful
lines of questioningconvicther motherof failingto safeguardher daughter'svirtue
and make it plainthat this was her moralduty as an 'honourablemother'.Parents'
duties were thus seen to involve religiousduty, and the roles accordedfather and
mothervveresharplydifferentiated.LienhartStrobel,as befitteda householdhead,
was to observe his daughter'sstyle of life and punish her for any moral lapses;
while her mother'sauthoritywas conceived of as more personaland immediate.
Her influenceover her daughterwas supposedto relate directlyto sexual matters
- she, ratherthan her husband,was chidedfor the loss of her daughter'svirginity,
and the Councilpressedher to admitthat she had acted as her daughter'sprocuress. Behind this accusationwe might detect the belief which seemed to emerge
in the 1523 woodcut- that mothersare only too eager to entice their daughters
into prostitutionand that motherand daughtercolludeto profitfromthe business.
This was an essentiallybourgeoisconceptionof parentalresponsibility.Lienhart Strobelwas not a craftsmanbut a day labourerand spent his workingday in
fields or in town, not in a workshopbased in the house where he lived. His wife
took in washingand did needleworkwhile Appolonia also earned money sewing
on contract.Each family memberhad to work independentlyfor the household
to survive. LienhartStrobel explainedthat he could not know what went on in
his house duringthe day, and he saw nothingunusualin his daughterstayingout
overnightor leaving home for a period while she was on a sewing engagement.
Strobelcould not be an ever-presentpatriarch,notinghis daughter'sactivitiesand
guardingher virginity,for his workwas structureddifferently.Yet he had his own
conceptionof good fatherhood- as his perplexedaccountof how he saw his duty
puts it, 'He had alwaysdirectedhis daughterto the good', and 'if she h4d done
somethingdishonourabledespite this, he did not know about it'. His words lack
the convictionof paternalauthority,confidentof its power to punish, and they
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reveal a willingnessto allow his daughterher own life. His view of what was
'dishonourable'was inherently practicaland related to meeting general social
obligationsratherthanfocusingon sexualbehaviour.Repudiatingsuggestionsthat
he had lived off his daughter'searnings,he maintainedthat 'he had alwayspaid
his round', and never profitedfrom immoralearnings. 'Payingone's round', his
practicalmetaphorfor right living, was far removedfrom the Council'sreligious
terminology:two ratherdifferentmoralworldswere broughtinto collision.
Appolonia'smotheralso defendedher behaviouras a parent,but her replies
betray contradictoryattitudes. She insisted that she did not at first know of her
daughter'srelationshipwith the patricianDavid Baumgartnerand so could not be
held responsible;and, she added, nothingdishonourablehad ever taken place in
her house. Yet she also admittedthat once she discoveredthe situationshe had
warnedBaumgartnerthat he ought to keep the promisehe had made to compensate her daughterfinancially,and she threatenedto writeto his father.Her careful
distinctionsreveal her sense of discomfort- if she claimednot to be involved,she
was determinedthather daughtershouldreceivefinancialcompensation.Similarly,
Anna Stockler'smother, a widow, assertedunderinterrogationthat, like a dutiful
parent, and acting in her father's place, she had admonishedand beaten her
daughter as soon as she discovered her involvement in prostitution.But, she
explained, she was dependenton her daughter'searnings.If she were too strict,
she feared Anna would desert her. In a casuisticargument,she claimednever to
have touched a penny of her daughter'sdishonestearningsbut only what she was
paid for her sewing; and if she had permittedher to go to the house of a client,
that had been for the sole purposeof sewing, nothingmore. Else Stocklerplaced
trust in the man'spromisenot to leave her daughterin the lurch.83Whatshe saw
as maternal responsibilitywas ensuringher daughter a good match; and both
women knew that their daughterscould only hope to escape from the treadmill
work of poorly paid sewing by offeringtheir clients 'extra services'and saving a
dowry.
But it was in the interrogationsof the prostitutesthemselvesthat the Council
attemptedmost vigorouslyto arousea sense of guilt. Using the religiouslanguage
of sin, it robbed the women of their own wordsto define what happened.Let us
return to the interrogationof Appolonia Strobel.84The first question she was
asked was prefaced'Since it is well knownthat for some time past she has led an
undisciplined and ungodly life . . .' and asked her to name who had first involved
her. These words were new: until the 1530s, a neutralword like 'trade', or the
term Buberei,villainy,a term so broad as to cover any sort of misbehaviourand
lacking religious connotations,would have been used to refer to prostitution.85
The force of the wordunzuchtigcan hardlybe caughtin the Englishword 'undisciplined'. In essence a civil, moralterm- the seriesof ordinancesregulatingcitizens'
- unzuchtigcarriedimplicationsof disorder
moralbehaviourwere Zuchtordnungen
as well as sexual misbehaviour,and it representedthe antithesisof the Zucht,the
moralorder, whichthe Councilwishedto inculcate.The word 'ungodly'addedan
explicitlyreligiousdimension,echoing the religiousinjunctionthat no fornicator
shall enter the Kingdomof Heaven.
The questioningcentredon the occasionon whichshe had lost her virginity.
'Whowas the first?'it askedAppoloniaStrobel;and, doubtingher answer,it tried
to shake her statementat the second interrogation.The very expressionsit used
to refer to firstintercourse- 'robbedher of honour', 'broughther to fall', 'felled
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her', 'weakened her' - imply corruptionand destructionof her integrity. By
extractinga response to the question 'Who had first brought her to fall?', the
Councilmade the woman participatein her own condemnation.
'Because she is robbed of her virginity',the Counciltold KatharinaZiegler,
'it is not to be supposedthat she has remainedpious since'.86Once fallen, promiscuitywas inevitable,the Councilbelieved. Prostitutionwas describedas 'unchaste
acts', 'sinful acts', 'the undisciplinedlife', 'dishonourabledoings'. The central
words from which these expressionsderive are honour, disciplineand sin. Good
women were 'honourable','disciplined','chaste'or fromm, pious. Fromm,as the
Council used the word, meant right living, obeying the sexual code; but it also
meant pious, right-believing. Piety began to merge with sexually orthodox
behaviour.
The techniquesinvolved derived from those of the confessional;but it was
now the Councilwhich requireddetails of the events. The object of the interrogation was a complete revelationof the woman'ssexual history, a kind of verbal
undressingof the prostitute;leading to an acknowledgement,from her, of her
sinfulness.87The new moralismmade a very sharp distinctionbetween married
women and single women working as prostitutes. Marriedwomen were found
guilty and punishedfor 'havingcommittedadulterymany times', as the placard
read out and displayedat their punishmentput it.88Single women were accused
of multiplefornication.The moralizationof the offence had the effect of denying
the existence of prostitutionas a trade - two separatetypes of immoralitywere
distinguished.And conversely,there was now no clear distinctionbetween prostitutes and adulteressesor fornicators.
The logicalconsequenceof the redefinitionwas that the women'sclientswere
equally sinners;and indeed, the Councildid begin to take note of the names of
all customers.In the 1540s, it proceededto punish a numberof men, including
some quite prominentcivic figures.It even maintained,consistently,that men who
knowinglyvisited marriedprostituteswere guilty of adulteryeven if they were
bachelors.89
Yet though there are reportsthat MartinHaid, civic notary, Gereon Sailer,
humanistand civic doctor, and Ulrich Jung, doctor and patrician,were all found
guilty of resort to prostitutes, all appear to have been fined and cautioned
privately.90The groupof about a dozen men found guiltyin the 1540sand treated
with what appearsto have been exemplaryfirmnessturn out, however, to have
been connected with three men, Hans Gunzburger,Hans Eggenberger, and
Anthoni Baumgartner.91The last two were members of the patriciate, while
Gunzburger,a friendof the Baumgartnerclan, was able to securethe intercession
of CharlesV's secretaryon his behalf.The Baumgartnerwere a prominentCatholic
family, so one may suspect that motives other than the pursuitof sexual equity
led the now firmlyevangelicalCouncilto act againstthem. Moreover,both Eggenberger and Baumgartnerwere known to have squanderedtheir fortunes;and in
1544, Anthoni Baumgartnerwas to forfeit personalcontrolof his assets.92Of the
three, only Eggenbergerfaced the rigoursof an interrogation,thoughtorturewas
not used. The questionshe facedhad more to do with his financialmismanagement
than with his sexual exploits.93
Though all these men faced very heavy fines and though the Council was
determinedthat even when patricianswere found guilty, 'it should be done this
time as it is done to othersin suchcases', men were not in fact as severelypunished
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as women. Men were more often able to convertimprisonmenttermsinto fines;94
and they found it easier for their offence to be treated as an aberrationrather
than as the occasionfor a full investigationof the detailsof their 'sinfullife'. Many
men whom the Council listed as clients do not appearto have been summoned;
and those it chose to proceed against follow a pattern;where first, priests had
been identifiedas the source of the evil, now suspectedCatholicsand spendthrifts
were its targets. But that it chose to prosecute clients at all did mark a major
change in civic attitudesto prostitution.95
IV
Prostitution,of course, was abolishedneitherby the closureof the brothelnor by
the campaign against prostitutes and clients, riven as it was by contradictory
attitudes to sexuality. Demographicpressures, low wages and a declining job
market for women ensured there was no shortage of women willing to work as
prostitutes.ImperialDiets, where richvisitorsand their retinuescrowdedthe city,
had alwaysbeen magnetsfor prostitutes,foreign and local; yet in 1547 and 1548
when the Diet again met in Augsburg, the Council did not attempt a mass
expulsion.96
Ironically,the closureof the city brothelencouragedthe growthof smallscale
brothelprostitutionand free streetwalking.It gave womengreatercontrolof their
trade;and the dominanceof women workingas procurers,prostitutesand brothel
keepers in the recordsstandsin strikingcontrastto the long operationof the city
brothel by men.97Women certainly lost the protection of the civic institution,
where brothelkeeperand city guardswere soon on handto deal with rowdyyoung
men; and the privatebrothelscould exploit the women who workedin them even
more mercilesslythan the city enterprise.The chancesof discoverywere greater,
and the punishmentsmore severe.
The women interrogated,however, did not seem to regardwhat they were
doing as a form of sexual delinquency,but as work. It is hardto distinguishwhat
may be the scribe'sbowdlerisationsin a text which has alreadybeen transposed
into the third person. But it is noticeable that the women never employed the
moral terms of the Council, choosing instead neutral words, such as 'had to do
with him', 'the matter', 'the business'to describe the sexual transaction.98This
contrastswith the familiaraffectionwith which men spoke of prostitutes,calling
them 'the pretty ones', 'daughters','commonwomen' and using their nicknames
- languagewhich denied that prostitutionis work.99
If prostitutionis indeed a transaction,then we need to place it in the context
of the other exchangesof sex and money which took place in Augsburgif we are
to understandits meaning.A clearlyrelatedexchangeis the money whicha virgin
who had been seduced could claim not only for childbedand child support, but
also for 'her honour', at a price which she determined.100
Here there is the same
conceptualisationof the woman's honour as a materialasset which can be sold;
and whichis distinctfrom the seller. This customin turnderivedits meaningfrom
the institutionof the morning gift, paid to the bride on the morning after the
weddingnight.'0'The seducedwomanis thus a virginwho has sold her reputation
once; and what she receives is calculatedso that she may marrywithinher class,
thus partiallyhealingthe wound to honour. The wife's virginityis also 'sold', but
she has a new honour as a wife, which now rests upon her continuedfidelity. In
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prostitution,the woman is classed as 'dishonourable'.She has severed the link
between money and fidelityto one man;but the bond between money and sexual
ownershipremains,for she is owned by all men.
*
*
*
Prostitution, in common with other such exchanges in 16th century society,
representssex as a transactionwhere men are the purchasersand women are the
thing bought.'02But what preciselywere men buying?If we are to take seriously
the claim that masculinityand femininityare historicallyconstructed,then the
answerto this question is by no means obvious. To say that, for example, men
are seeking 'release from sexual tension', or that prostitutionis a necessity in a
society which delays marriagefor its young men, confuses a theory about what
male sexualityis like with a biologicalexplanation;and masksthe issues of power
and aspects of fantasyinvolved. As a first step, we need to pay attentionto the
elements which seem to be involvedin prostitutionin differenttimes and places.
Such a project is easy to propose: to carry it out is probablya foolhardy
undertaking.What follows are some necessarilytentativeremarksabout some of
the featuresof prostitutionin Augsburg.
The first and most distinctivecharacteristicof late medievalprostitutionwas
that visiting prostituteswas understood and sanctioned as a phase in a young
man's life, part of his inductioninto manhood and marriage.'03Older men who
frequentedbrothels might be describedas behaving 'like youths'. It reinforced
male bonding and defined sexual virilityas the essential male characteristic.The
practicesof prostitution,interestinglyenough, seem to echo those of marriage:
men could sleep overnightwith civic prostitutes;and a man might say he was
'wedded to a prostitutefor the night'. For youths, prostitutionwas understood
through the prism of marriage;and it allowed them to learn and act out the
'masculinity'of marriedmen.
A second aspect we might single out is the importanceof clothes in 16th
centuryprostitution,both as a means of advertisementand as part of fantasyfor
client and prostitutealike. It is suggestivethat town councilsrepeatedlytried to
limit the finerya woman might wear, sometimeseven attemptingto force prostitutes to wear a uniformof short length, utterlydivorcedfrom the patternsof style
and fashion within the town. Prostitutes'finery was a mockery of patricianor
noble dress, favouringmuch jewellery, and dramaticberets or featheredhats in
place of the wifelywimple.Thislove of luxuryhad alwaysbeen one of the standard
componentsof the image of the whore; but as the testimoniesof the Augsburg
prostitutesmake plain, clothes had a very deep imaginativesignificancefor them.
Manymentionedthe clothes they had earned, and one womandescribedin loving
detail the cinnamon-colouredcoat which a patricianhad orderedto be made for
her. Extravagantdress was a way of displayingone's wealth, showingoneself to
be as good as a patricianand free of the drab dress of the 'honourable'women
of one's own class. For the men, prostitutioncould also be a class fantasy, the
brothel the place where identities were shed and emperor and apprenticecould
lie with the same woman. It offered the chance for men to dream of enjoying a
woman of higherclass - or indeed, of humiliatingher.
Finally,virginityappearsto have been a sharedobsessionwithinprostitution
- hardlysurprising,given its centralrole in the systemsof marriageand the notions
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of paternaland maternalresponsibility.Womenchargedmore for their firsttime;
and procurersdemandeda high price for virgins. In Augsburg,the brothel was
known as the 'virgins'court'; and one prostitutewas nicknamed'Margaretthe
CourtVirginbehindSt. Steven's'.But the heavy-handedironyof the slangperhaps
suggestsanotherelement in the desiresat play in prostitution.Just as the Council
demandedof prostitutes'Who was the first?',so the takingof a woman'svirginity
confirmedthe man's masculinity,his ability to destroy her sexual intactnessand
determineher reputation.This was the ultimateconfirmationof manhood,which
men might dreamof, even though an experiencedprostitutecould not fulfil it.104
Let us returnto the questionwith whichwe began:the effect of the brothel's
closure on attitudesto sexualityin Augsburg.The closure representeda recognition that men's sexual natureswere not uncontrollable,and a faith that male
lust could be educatedand directedtowardsmarriage.Prostituteswere no longef
regarded as a separate category of dishonourablewomen to be tolerated and
regulated:indeed, in the new morallanguageof the Council,prostitutionwas not
even a term. But conversely, the implementationof the new ideal requiredfar
greater powers of surveillance.Between 1528 and 1548 there were at least 110
convictionsfor offences relatingto prostitution,while in a further58 cases, people
were suspectedof involvementand questioned.105The numberof visitorsa woman
had, what kind of men and when they came, became indices of suspiciousbehaviour. The boundarybetween prostituteand non-prostitutebecame blurred. No
longer a group of dishonourablewomen, clearlydefinedby where they lived and
what they wore, there was little difference between prostitutes, fornicatorsor
adulteresses- indeed, any woman might be a prostitute.
But these shifts in attitude were always contested and never achieved total
acceptance. By 1562, Augsburgwas respondingto Nuremberg'splea for advice
on whether or not to close their brothel by admittingthat some regretted the
closureof Augsburg'sbrothel.'06The familiardefence of prostitutionas a protection for wives and daughtersof 'respectablefolk' was raisedonce more. Yet what
does appear to have been an abiding legacy of the Reformationwas the new
obsessionwith women'ssexual experience.Whereasthe new churchweakenedor
abolishedindividualconfession,the Councilnow demandeda full andtrue account
of the woman'ssins. The whore had become a moralcategory,not a professional
prostitute;and she stood for the lust of all women. If we might identify a more
lasting transformationin sexual attitudes, it is located in the strengtheningof
the belief that women's lusts were to be feared as unbridledand demonic. The
Reformation,which seemed at first to offer a sexual ethic identicalfor men and
women, and appearedto bestow a new dignityon the marriedwife, suspectedall
women, single or married,of being ever ready to surrenderthemselvesto their
lust for debauchery.
NOTES
* Thanksto the OxfordHistoryWorkshopActivitiesGroup, the London
FeministHistory
Group,the GermanHistorySociety;to Guy Boanas;and to Leonie Archer,OlwenHufton,
MargaretPelling, Raphael Samuel, Bob Scribner,Anne Summers,JohannesWilhelmand
CarolWillock.Researchwas made possibleby grantsfrom the GermanHistoricalInstitute
and the Universityof LondonCentralResearchFund.
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22
History Workshop Journal
1 Die Chronikender deutschenStadte,23 (Leipzig, 1894)p. 337.
2 On closuresin other cities, see IwanBloch, Die Prostitution,2 vols. (Berlin, 1912,
1925)vol. 2, pp. 260-262;and SusanKarrant-Nunn,'Continuityand Change:Some Effects
of the Reformationon the Womenof Zwickau',SixteenthCenturyJournal12, no. 2, 1982,
pp. 16-42, p. 23.
3 Steven Ozment,WhenFathersRuled.FamilyLife in ReformationEurope(Harvard,
1983)p. 99.
4 StadtarchivUlm (hereaftercited as StAUlm)A 3988Der frowenwiertayd (hereafter
referredto as 'oath');and see StadtarchivAugsburg(hereaftercited as StAA) Ratsbuchno.
277, 'Aidbuch'of the fifteenth century, fo. 18v, frowen wirt aid. I am grateful to Rolf
Kiesslingfor this reference.Augsburghasfew recordson the brothelbeforethe Reformation,
so I have drawnon materialrelatingto brothelsin other cities. Survivingordinancesreveal
a broadlysimilarorganization.On Augsburgin the late medievalperiod,see Rolf Kiessling,
BiirgerlicheGesellschaftund Kirche in Augsburg im Spatmittelalter(Abhandlungenzur
Geschichteder StadtAugsburg,19) (Augsburg,1971).
5 See G. L. Kriegk, DeutschesBurgerthumim Mittelalter,2 vols. (Frankfurt,1868,
1871)vol. 2, p. 308;KarlObser,'ZurGeschichtedes Frauenhausesin Uberlingen',Zeitschrift
fur Geschichtedes Oberrheins,70, 1916,pp. 631-644;Dr. von Posern-Klett,'Frauenhauser
und freie Frauenin Sachsen',Archivfur die sachsischeGeschichte,12, 1874, pp. 63-89, p.
67.
6 CarlJager, Ulms Verfassungs-,burgerlichesunidcommerciellesLebenim Mittelalter
(Heilbronn, 1831), p. 545; von Posern-Klett,'Frauenhauserund freie Frauen',p. 80; Max
Bauer, Liebeslebenin deutscherVergangenheit(Berlin, 1924), p. 138; see also Chroniken
der deutschenStadte,11(Leipzig, 1874),p. 464; and W. Rudeck, Geschichteder offentlichen
Sittlichkeitin Deutschland(Jena, 1897), pp. 31-33.
7 Kriegk,DeutschesBurgerthum,vol. 2, p. 327; Bauer, Liebesleben,p. 138. On the
municipalnatureof the brothelsee also, for France, JacquesRossiaud,section III of La
villemedievaledes Carolingiensa la Renaissance,ed. JacquesLe Goff (Histoirede la France
urbainevol. 2, ed. G. Duby) (Paris, 1980),p. 532.
8 Brothel keeper's complaint:StaatsarchivLudwigsburg,B 207 Bu 68 no. 166. The
doctor and the official in charge of beggars gave the women an internal examination
('besechentsy einwertzJrsleibs') 'whichno manhas the rightto do'. Cleanwomen:StAUlm
A 3669 (Zweites Gsatzbuch)fo. 416 ff., Newe frawenwierts ordnung1512. I have found
no evidence that Germanprostituteswere organisedin guilds, though this claim is even
repeatedin modernliterature:the 'guildof prostitutes'however, is used ironicallyto refer
to the women.
9 StAUlm A 3988, Draft ordinance1510. On prostitutesas an integralpart of their
community,see Mary Perry, ' "Lost Women" in Early Modern Seville: the politics of
prostitution',FeministStudies4, no. 1, 1978,pp. 195-214;and RichardTrexler,'La prostitution Florentine au xve si&cle:patronageset clienteles'. Annales E.S.C., 26, vi, 1981,
pp. 983-1015.
10 Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 767. Note also StAA, Schatze36 (1), Zuchtordnung 1472.This refersto the woman'whogoes to a marriedman'shouse and does not spare
the wife within';and threatensher with banishment.It suggestsboth that there were 'home
calls' for marriedmen and that this, ratherthan any recourseto prostituteswhatsoeverby
marriedmen, was causingconcern.
11 Bauer, Liebesleben,p. 134 (Metz, 1332), Joseph Baader. NurnbergerPolizeiordnungenaus demxiii bis xv Jahrhundert(Bibliothekdes litterarischenl
Vereinsin Stuttgart,63)
(Stuttgart,1861),p. 119;WilhelmReynizsch,UiberTruhtenunld Truhtensteine,
Bardenund
Bardenliebe,FesteSchmaeuserund Gerichteder Teutschen(Gotha. 1802)p. 31 (Nordlingen
1472).
12 StAA Ratsbuch13, fo. 83X,1515;Strafbuchdes Rats 1509-1526,p. 185, 20 Sept,
1526;and cases of marriedmen punishedfor consortingwith prostitutes,see for example
p. 19, p. 37, p. 46.
13 WalterKohler,ZurcherEhegerichtund GenferKonsistorium(QuellenundAbhandlungenzur schweizerischen
Reformationsgeschichte
vols. 7 and 10) (Leipzig,1932, 1942)vol.
1, pp. 145-7.
14 StAUlm A 3988; (oath); A [6543]Aid- und OrdnungsbuchB, fo. cccxvr; Bloch,
Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 777.
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Prostitution and Reformation
23
15 Gottfried Geiger, Die ReichsstadtUlm vor der Reformation(Forschungenzur
Geschichteder StadtUlm, 11) (Ulm, 1971)pp. 173-4.
16 StAUlm A 3988, (oath); Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, pp. 767-770.
17 StAUlm A 3669 fo. 416 ff.; Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 770; Reynizsch,
UiberTruhtenund Truhtensteine,
p. 31 (Nordlingen,1472);fightsin and aroundthe brothel,
StAA, Strafbuchdes Rats 1509-1526,p. 6, 30 Jan. 1510, p. 119, 10 Dec. 1521;Urgichtensammlung,23 Sept. 1506;cautionsagainstfighting,Kriegk,DeutschesBurgerthum,vol. 2,
p. 307.
18 On the different social worlds of men and women, Rainer Beck, 'Voreheliche
Sexualitatauf dem Land' in R. van Dulmen and H. Heidrich,eds. Kulturder einfachen
Leute. BayerischesVolkslebenvom 16. bis zum 19. Jahrhundert(Munich,1983);on secret
marriages,ThomasRobisheaux,'Peasantsand Pastors:RuralYouth Controland the Reformationin Hohenlohe',Social History6, 1981,pp. 281-300 and ThomasSafley,Let No Man
Put Asunder. The Controlof Marriagein the GermanSouth West:A ComparativeStudy
(Kirksville,1984);and for cases of clandestinemarriagepromisesat churchales, etc. Archiv
des BistumsAugsburg,Protokolledes bischoflichenKonsistoriums1535-6(the one surviving
16th centurypre-Reformationvolume) and StAA Ehegerichtsbuch1537-1546.
19 Baader,NurnbergerPolizeiordnungen,p. 121;Reynizsch,UiberTruhtenund Truhtensteine,p. 31 (N6rdlingen,1472);GustavWustmann,Aus Leipzigs Vergangenheit,
4 vols.
(Leipzig, 1885-1909)vol. 3, p. 120.
20 ChristianMeyer, Das Stadtbuchvon Augsburg,insbesonderedas Stadtrechtvom
Jahre1276 (Augsburg,1872), p. 88, Art XXXI and p. 190, Art CXIII. Prostitutesunable
to bringaccusationsof rape:HeathDillard,'Daughtersof the Reconquest:MedievalWomen
in CastilianTown Society 1100-1300'Ph.D.Diss, Universityof Virginia, 1980, pp. 508,
661-665; and at Ems, von Posern-Klett,'Frauenhauserund freie Frauen',p. 75. Nor if a
citizen'disciplined'or beat a prostitutefor her 'misdeeds'did this countas an assault:StAA
Schatze36(1) (Zuchtordnung,1472).
21 See JacquesRossiaud, 'Prostitution,Youth, and Society in the Towns of SoutheasternFrancein the FifteenthCentury'in Deviantsand the Abandonedin FrenchSociety.
Selectionsfrom the Annales, vol. 4, ed. Robert Forsterand Orest Ranum, transl. Elborg
Forsterand PatriciaM. Ranum(Baltimore,1978).
22 Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, pp. 767-770;StAUlm A 3988 (Draft ordinance);A
3669 fo. 416 ff.
23 For example, Baader, NurnbergerPolizeiordnungen,p. 119; J. Brucker, StrassburgerZunft-und Polizeiordnungen
des 14. und15. Jahrhunderts
(Strasbourg,1889),p. 469.
24 Baader,NurnbergerPolizeiordnungen,p. 120;Bauer,Liebesleben,p. 128-9 (Wurzburg). Both ordinancesclearly allow the women to choose whetheror not to work when
menstruating;though intercoursewith menstruatingwomen was forbiddenaccordingto
Christianprecept and folk lore. In Ulm in 1512 (StAUlm A 3669 fo. 416 ff.) and in
Uberlingenin 1524, menstruatingwomen were bannedfrom working(Obser, 'Zur Geschichte des Frauenhausesin Uberlingen', p. 634). On attitudes to menstruation,see Ian
Maclean, The RenaissanceNotion of Woman.A Studyin thefortunesof scholasticismand
medical science in Europeanintellectuallife (Cambridge,1980), pp. 39-40; and Patricia
Crawford,'Attitudesto menstruationin seventeenthcenturyEngland', Past and Present,
91, 1981, pp. 47-73.
25 Gustav Sch6nfeldt,Beitragezur Geschichtedes Pauperismusund der Prostitution
in Hamburg(Sozial-geschichtliche
Forschungen,Erganzungshefte
zur ZeitschriftfuirSocialund Wirthschaftsgeschichte,
11. Heft) (Weimar,1897), p. 109; Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol.
1, p. 767. But note StAA Ratsbuchno. 277 fo. 18v:the brothelkeeper was merelywarned
to 'permitno disturbance'at these times.
26 Baader,NurnbergerPolizeiordnungen,pp. 118-9;Brucker,Strassburger
Zunft-und
Polizei-Verordnungen,
p. 469; Obser, 'ZurGeschichtedes Frauenhausesin Uberlingen',p.
638; StAUlm, A 3669 fo. 416 ff. It is difficultto see how the muchvaunted'socialsecurity'
system for prostitutesat Ulm, to which each womancontributeda penny a week and the
brothelkeeper two, could ever have been sufficientfor the women'sneeds, since pregnant,
sick and menstruatingwomen were forbiddento work.
27 Rumourthat the Ulm brothelkeeperswere travellingto purchaseprostitutesfor
twentyor thirtygulden:StaatsarchivLudwigsburg,B207, Bu 76; the Augsburgbrothelkeeper
punishedfor exchanginga woman to the Ulm brothelwhen she had arrangeda marriage:
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24
History Workshop Journal
StAA, Strafbuchdes Rats 1509-1526, p. 124 10 March 1522; Complaintson buying and
pawningwomen: Baader, NurnbergerPolizeiordnungen,p. 117 (only those who were not
previously prostitutes might be sold). Brucker, StrassburgerZunft- und Polizei-Verordnungen, p. 468; Reynizsch, Uiber Truhtenund Truhtensteine,p. 31; 'Whoreseller'as a
profession,Kriegk,DeutschesBiirgerthum,p. 318 (1390).
28 StAA, Ratsbuch3, fo. 109r/p. 107, 1428.
29 StAA Ratsbuch3, fo. 109vp. 217, 1428;Baader,NurnbergerPolizeiverordnungen,
p. 120, Obser,'ZurGeschichtedes Frauenhausesin Uberlingen',pp. 642-3. For a letterfrom
the Ulm brothelkeeperobjectingto even these provisions,see StaatsarchivLudwigsburg,B
207 Bu 68, no. 166.
30 Chronikender deutschenStddte, 11 (Leipzig, 1874) pp. 645-6, 695; Reynizsch,
UiberTruhtenund Truhtensteine,
pp. 32-6 (Nuremberg1492);and StAUlm A 3669 fo. 416
ff.
31 The Strafbucherof Augsburgcontainsrecordsof these lists. The last banishment
took place in 1534. See also ArchivarBuff, 'Verbrechenund Verbrecherzu Augsburgin
der zweiten Halfte des 14. Jahrhunderts',Zeitschriftdes historischenVereinsfur Schwaben
und Neuburg,4, 1878pp. 160-232:thoughhe states that petty thieves and vagabondswere
also among those banished,by the 16th century,the lists are almost exclusivelyof people
connected with prostitution.For a similar annual round up of prostitutesin Hamburg,
Sch6nfeldt,Beitrdgezur Geschichtedes Pauperismus,p. 99.
32 StAA Schatze 63, fo. 170r;and fo. 8v, 17r;Claus Peter Clasen, Die Augsburger
Steuerbucherum 1600 (Augsburg,1976), pp. 17-18.
33 Thus in 1516the banishmentswere delayedbecauseof the Emperor'spresenceso
that 'my lords' should not be overwhelmedby petitioners. StAA, Strafbuchdes Rats,
1509-1526,p. 64.
34 StAA Ratsbuch3, p.464/fo.406v232v;
on prostitutes'clothingelsewhere,Bloch, Die
Prostitution,vol. 1, pp. 814-5; and for clothes in the colours of the city, see Wustmann,
Aus Leipzigs Vergangenheit,p. 122; prostitutesforbiddento wear wreaths, von PosernKlett, 'Frauenhauserund freie Frauen'p. 84.
35 Meyer, Das Stadtbuchvon Augsburg, p. 57 Art. XIX, s. 11; but see Buff,
'Verbrechenund Verbrecher'- the sentence was commuted.On distinguishingclothes for
Jews, see Anton Binterim,PragmatischeGeschichtederdeutschenNational-,Provinzial-und
vorzuiglichsten
Diozesanconcilienvon dem viertenJahrhundertbis auf das Conciliumzu
Trient,7 vols., (Mainz, 1843-52)vol. 7, p. 468 (Mainz, 1451), p. 481 (Cologne, 1452).
36 For an example, StAA, Urgichtensammlung
27 Feb. 1532 KunigundSchwaiher.
On the threatprostitutesposed to honour,von Posern-Klett,'Frauenhauser
undfreieFrauen'
p. 71; and ErichMaschke,'Die Unterschichtender mittelalterlichenStadtenDeutschlands'
in Maschkeand J. Sydow, GesellschaftlicheUnterschichten
in den siidwestdeutschen
Stddten
(Stuttgart,1967).
37 Baader,NurnbergerPolizeiordnungen,p. 119;andfor punishmentof brothelkeeper
for doing preciselythis, StAA Strafbuchdes Rats 1509-1526,p. 214 10 March1522.
38 Kriegk,DeutschesBurgerthum,vol. 2, p. 329 andp. 394, note 256 (Frankfurt1546).
CompareBinterim,PragmatischeGeschichteder deutschenConcilien,vol. 7, p. 469, Mainz
1451:priests'concubineswere threatenedwith refusalof churchburialby the Church.
39 HermanHoffmann,ed. Wurzburger
PolizeisatzeGeboteund Ordnungendes Mittelalters1125-1495 (Veroffentlichungen
der Gesellschaftfar frankischeGeschichte,Reihe X
vol. 5) (Wurzburg,1955)p. 203; and see also H. Deichert, Geschichtedes Medizinalwesens
im Gebietdes ehemaligenKonigsreichsHannover(Quellenund Darstellungenzur Geschichte
Niedersachsens26) (Hannoverand Leipzig 1908) p. 243.
40 Schonfeldt,Beitragezur Geschichtedes Pauperismus,p. 99; Brucker,Strassburger
Zunft-und Polizei-Verordnungen,
p. 459, pp. 465-6.
41 (Shootings:)Kriegk, DeutschesBuirgerthum,
vol. 2, p. 327; Max Radlkofer,'Die
und Schuitzenfeste
Schiitzengesellschaften
Augsburgsim 15. und 16. Jahrhundert',Zeitschrift
des historischen Vereinsfar Schwaben und Neuburg, 21, 1894, pp. 87-138, p. 103;
(Weddings:)Bauer, Liebesleben,p. 137 (Rothenburg);Kriegk;DeutschesBurgerthum,vol.
2, p. 327; (Dances:) Brucker,Strassburger
Zunft-und Polizei-Verordnungen,
p. 466 (prostitutes banned from attending);Josef Schrank,Die Prostitutionin Wien, 2 vols., (Vienna,
1886) vol. 1, p. 105 (prostitutesbannedhenceforth).
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Prostitution and Reformation
25
42 Schrank,Die Prostitutionin Wien,vol. 1, p. 105Rudeck,Geschichtederoffentlichen
vol. 3, p. 129.
Sittlichkeit,p. 35; Wustmann,Aus LeipzigsVergangenheit,
43 Thoughof course directingprostitutesto burna candleto the Virginmay have an
ironicpoint. I am gratefulto CarolWillockfor suggestingthis. Geiger, Die ReichsstadtUlm
vor der Reformation,pp. 173-4 StAUlm A 3669 fo. 416 ff.
44 Meyer, Das Stadtbuchvon Augsburg, p. 71 Art. XXVII s. 3; p. 72, s. 8. In
Vienna, the hangmanand beadle were paid from the brothel'srevenues,Kriegk,Deutsches
Burgerthum,vol. 2, p. 298; in Leipzig,the executionerwas in chargeof the brothelas late
as 1519, J. Glenzdorfand F. Treichel, Henker,Schinderund arme Sander, 2 vols., (Bad
Munster,1970)vol. 1, pp. 92-3; at Zwickau,the brothelwas next to the hangman'shouse
on the city wall, Karrant-Nunn,'Continuityand Change:Some Effects of the Reformation
on the Womenof Zwickau',p. 21, and Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 745.
45 StAA, Schatze63, fo. 3v.
46 Chronikender deutschenStadte, 15, (Leipzig, 1878)p. 108 (LeonhartWidmann's
chronicle). On the concept of honour and the class of the 'Unehrlichen',dishonourables,
see esp. KarlLorenzenSchmidt,'Beleidigungenin Schleswig-Holsteinsichen
Stadtenim 16.
Jahrhundert,soziale Norm und soziale Kontrollein Stadtegesellschaften',KielerBlatterzur
Volkskunde,10, 1978. pp. 5-20.
47 Sebastian Franck, Weltbdch: Spiegel und bildtnisz des gantzen erdtbodens
(Tubingen,V. Morhart,1534)fo. cxxviii".
48 Chronikender deutschenStadte,11, pp. 645-6.
49 JamesBrundage,'Prostitutionin the MedievalCanon Law', Signs, 1, no. 4, 1976,
pp. 825-845; Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 645.
50 Baader,NiirnbergerPolizeiordnungen,p. 117;Reynizsch,UiberTruhtenund Truhtensteine,p. 29 (Nordlingen1472).
51 Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 646.
52 Spiegeldes sanders[Augsburg,1480,A. Sorg]and Beichtbachlin,(Augsburg1491).
See also Thomas Tentler, Sin and Confessionon the Eve of the Reformation,(Princeton,
1977),esp. p. 141;and note Binterim,PragmatischeGeschichtederdeutschenConcilien,vol.
6, p. 286 (Constance 1328), p. 306-7 (Augsburg,1355), p. 397 (Trier, 1310): intercourse
with prostitutesis not classed as a 'reservedsin'; and note also vol. 7, p. 302, Eichstetten
1453, 'some go so far as to say that simple fornication(Hurerei)is no serious sin', and
advisesconfessionalinstructionto counteractthis error.
53 Chronikender deutschenStadte25 (Leipzig,1896)CronicanewerGeschichtenvon
Wilhelm Rem, p. 123: on the first occasion when the women went to the sermon at St.
Moritz's,two escaped.For Ulm, St A Ulm, A 3669, fo. 416 ff. Prostitutessittingin separate
partsof the church:Brucker,Strassburger
p. 406; warned
Zunft-und Polizei-Verordnungen,
to do so, Kriegk,DeutschesBargerthum,vol. 2, p. 325; Prostitutesnot to take communion.
Binterim,PragmatischeGeschichteder deutschenConcilien,vol. 5, p. 367; must go on the
Fridayafter Easter to avoid offence, vol. 5, p. 367; Prostitutesno longer to go in pairsto
church, J. Siebenkees, Materialienzur NarnbergischenGeschichte,4 vols., (Nuremberg,
1792-4), vol. 4, p. 592.
54 On the Reformationin Augsburg,see FriedrichRoth, AugsburgsReformationsgeschichte,4 vols., (Munich, 1901-1911);and Philip Broadhead,'InternalPolitics and civic
society in Augsburgduringthe Era of the EarlyReformation1518-1537',Ph.D.Diss, Kent,
1981;For the prostitutes'firstattendanceat sermons,Chronikender deutschenStddte25, p.
123; Roth, AugsburgsReformationsgeschichte,
vol. 1, p. 95-6.
55 StAA Baumeisterbuch1526, fo. 67vand Baumeisterbuch1530, fo. 60r.
56 StAA Baumeisterbuch1529, fo. 66r;Baumeisterbuch,1530, fo. 60r;Baumeisterbuch, 1532fo. 67v,and fos. 74v,75v,fo. 80r. Most seem to have left just after Easter.
57 StAA Baumeisterbuch1529, fo. 67r Note an early redemption,Baumeisterbuch
1513,fo. 53v.In Nurembergwhen the brothelwas closed in 1562,however,the womenwere
expelled from the city: Siebenkees, Materialienzur NarnbergischenGeschichte,vol. 4, p.
595.
58 StAA. StadtkanzleiUrkundenkonzepte2.75 Schuldbriefe,supplicationMargaret
Stegman.The brothelwas eventuallysold to the Councilfor debt. Fromthe intricateseries
of documentssurroundingthe sale it emerges that the brothelkeeperusuallypaid off the
purchaseprice throughthe brothel income, which was lucrativeenough for one keeper to
pay 2 gulden per week. The brothel itself was a valuable piece of property,worth 1050
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26
History WorkshopJournal
guldenin 1531. See StAA, StadtkanzleiUrkundenkonzepte2.75 Schuldbriefe19 Oct. 1530;
6 March1531;post 18. March1533;18 March1533;26 March1533;Stadtgerichtsbuch
1533,
fos. 32b, 39a, 45a, 77b, 80a; Realitatensammlung
16 June 1533, 16 Sept. 1533.The Imperial
Ordinancesof 1530 and 1548 and the Carolinaof 1532 have sometimesbeen creditedwith
bringingabout the closure of city brothels;but since their provisionsare directedagainst
fornication,adulteryand procuringalone, and on restrictingprostitutes'clothing,this seems
unlikely.Aller dess HeiligenRomischenReichssgehaltenerReichstagOrdnung... 1356 bis
1603 (Mainz, 1607, J. Albin), pp. 218, 374, 688; and Die PeinlicheGerichtsordnung
Kaiser
KarlsV von 1532 (Carolina),ed. A. Kaufman,4th edn., (Munich,1975), p. 80, 81.
59 For example, Anton Firn, Supplicationdes Pfarrersvnnd der Pfarrkinderzd2sant
Thoman[P. Ulhart:Augsburg]1524;JohannEberlin, Die andergetrewvermanungan den
Rath der stadt Vlm [M. Ramminger,Augsburg],1523;Jakob Strauss,Ein Sermonin der
deutlichangezaiget[G. Nadler, Augsburg1523?]Ein neuiwwunderbarlich
Beychtbuiechlin,
[S. Grimm,Augsburg,1523].
60 Jakob Strauss,Ein neuw wunderbarlich
Beychtbuechlinand see Steven Ozment,
The Reformationin the Cities,(Yale, 1975)pp. 51-3. But the pre-Reformationchurchhad
also takenthe problemseriously.Binterim,PragmatischeGeschichtederdeutschenConcilien,
vol. 6, p. 412 (Trier, 1310), 'The confessionsof women should be heardin a public, not a
covered place; also one should not look in their faces, but either the headclothshould be
held before the eyes or one shouldlook away'.
61 UrbanusRhegius,Ernstlicheerbietungder EuangelischePrediger[P. Ulhart,Augsburg, 1524]andsee also JakobFuchs,Ain schonerSendbrieffan Bischofvo Wirtzburg
darinn
PriesterEe beschirmbtwirdt[H. Steiner,Augsburg,1523].For examplesof hostileinvective
directedagainstthe priests'concubinesthemselves,Concubinarij.Vnderrichtob ein Priester
ein beyschlaferinhaben mog [J. Cammerlander,Strasbourg],1545; fo. D; Dialogus von
Zweyen pfaffen Kochin [M. Buchfurher,Erfurt, 1523]; Hans Kolb, (Ein) Reformation
notdurftigin der Christenheit
mit den Pfaffenund ihrenMagden(n.d., n.pl.) (Die Flugschriftendesfruhen16. Jahrhunderts,
Microficheseries, ed. Hans-JoachimKohler,(Zug, 1978-)
no. 328/924; Von dem Pfrundmarktder Curtisanenund Tempelknechten(1521, n. pl.),
FlugschriftenMicrofiche279/796.
62 Max Geisberg, The GermanSingleLeaf Woodcut1500-1550,4 vols., (New York,
1974). Vol. I, p. 120. Artist LeonhardBeck, 1523 Berlin. On the Reformationand iconography, see R. W. Scribner,For the Sake of Simple Folk. Popular Propagandafor the
Reformation(Cambridge,1981).
63 StAA Zuchtordnung,1537.
64 StAA Schatze36(1) Zuchtordnung1472.
65 StAA Literalien1534NachtragI, no. 24 fo. 29r and NachtragII, no. 29 (Kotzler)
fos. 1r-4v;see PhilipBroadhead,'Politicsand Expediencyin the AugsburgReformation',in
ReformationPrincipleand Practice,Essaysin Honourof A. G. Dickens,ed. PeterN. Brooks,
(London, 1980) and K. Wohlfart, Die AugsburgerReformationin den Jahren 1533-34,
(Leipzig, 1901).
66 StAA Urgichtensammlung
27 Feb. 1532 KunigundSchwaiherand see also 9 Sept.
1532 Ulrich Diether, BarbaraDiether.
67 J. Dillenberger,ed. MartinLuther.Selectionsfrom his Writings(New York, 1961),
p. 483.
68 JohannesBrenzas cited in MelchiorAmbach,VonEhbruchvndhurerey.(C. lacob,
Frankfurt,1543) fo. H4vand Ambach,fo. A3vand throughout.See Ozment, WhenFathers
Ruled, pp. 55-56.
69 See my 'Going to Churchand Street: Weddingsin ReformationAugsburg',Past
and Present106, 1985, pp. 62-102.
70 See MerryWiesner, 'Lutherand Women:the Death of Two Marys',forthcoming
in J. Obelkevich,L. Roper and R. Samuel, Religionand Society, (London, 1985) and on
Luther'sattitudeto sexuality,Heiko Oberman,Luther.MenschzwischenGott und Teufel,
(Berlin, 1982).
71 Geisberg,GermanSingleLeaf Woodcut,Artist Peter Flotner,(detailof ThePower
of Womanhood),Vol III, p. 780. and for a literaryequation of the prostitute,the 'free
woman'withthe powerfulfemale,JohannesDiepolt, Ein Sermonan SanktMariaeMagdlenae
Tag . .. (n.pl., 1523) FlugschriftenMicrofiche,456/1233.
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Prostitution and Reformation
27
72 MartinLuther,in Luther:Lettersof SpiritualCounseled. G. Tappert(Libraryof
ChristianClassics,18) (Londonand Philadelphia,1955), pp. 292-4, p. 293.
73 See C. H. Fuchs, Die altestenSchriftsteller
uberdie Lustseuchein Deutschlandvon
1495 bis 1510, (Gottingen,1893);esp. p. 375, 377-8; and J. K. Proksch,Die Geschichteder
venerischenKrankheiten.Eine Studie2 vols., (Bonn, 1895);Alfred Crosby,jr. 'The Early
Historyof Syphilis:A Reappraisal',AmericanAnthropologist71, 1969, pp. 218-227;Owsei
Temkin, 'Zur Geschichtevon "Moralund Syphilis"', Archivfur Geschichteder Medizin
19, 1927pp. 331-348;andesp. MargaretPelling,'Appearanceand Reality:Barbersurgeons,
the Body and Disease in EarlyModernLondon'in L. Beier and R. Finlayeds., TheMaking
of the Metropolis,forthcoming.
74 Proksch,Die Geschichteder venerischenKrankheiten,vol. 1, p. 400.
75 Proksch,Die Geschichteder venerischenKrankheiten,vol. 1, p. 400 and vol. 2, pp.
156-161.
76 JohannesHaselbergk,Von den welschenPurppeln[Ivo Schoeffer,Mainz]1533.
77 StAUlm [3988] and see also Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 2, p. 12 (Winterthur,
1503). On this point, see in particular,JudithWalkowitz,Prostitutionand VictorianSociety.
Women,Classand the State(Cambridge,1980).
78 But compareKarrant-Nunn'Continuityand Change:Some Effects of the Reformationon the Womenof Zwickau',pp. 23-4 - the Councilmentionedthe dangerof syphilis
when it closed the brothel. But note her comments,p. 24 'Venerealdisease itself did not
drive them to close the brothel.The Reformationdid.'
79 StAA Zuchtordnung1537;and note the very lengthyeditionof 1552.
80 See K6hler, ZurcherEhegerichtund GenferKonsistorium;and Jack Goody, The
Developmentof thefamily and marriagein Europe(Cambridge,1983)on the Reformation's
redefinitionof incest.
81 See chapteron Prostitutionin my forthcomingthesis, 'GenderandSociety.Women
and the Reformationin Augsburg'(Ph.D., London)for figures.
82 StAA Urgichtensammlung
28, 29 July 1542 LienhartStrobel;25, 28, 29 July 1542
AppoloniaStrobelthe elder.
83 StAA Urgichtensammlung
27 April 1541Els Stockler.
84 StAA Urgichtensammlung
25, 28, 29 July 1542AppoloniaStrobelthe younger.
85 For examplesof this language,see Strafbucherdes Rats. I am not arguingthat 'sin'
had never been used by the Councilin relationto prostitutionbefore the Reformation.But
it is used infrequently,and withoutthe consistency,clarityand associationwith the concepts
of honourand discipline.
86 StAA Urgichtensammlung
8, 11 Aug. 1541KatharinaZiegler.
87 CompareAnnemarieDross, Die erste Walpurgisnacht,
(Hamburg,1981) on the
interrogationof witches.
88 For example, StAA Strafbuchdes Rats 1547, fo. 112r 20 Sept. (Ursula Niclin);
Urgichtensammlung14, 18 July 1533 (Agnes Veiheler); Strafbuch1547 fo. 113v1 Sept.
(KunigundGeiger); Strafbuch1547, fo. 103r2 April (Anna Beckh).
89 StAA Strafbuchder Zuchtherren21 Sept. 1541p. 72 (Hans Eggenberger,Endris
Degen); p. 73 (PhilipBloss); 7 October 1541, p. 77 (three men); 11 February1542, p. 103
(Georg Beckh), 13 February1542, p. 104 (JacobRuff, Jacob Breising).
90 Chronikender deutschenStadte,13 (Sender)p. 404.
91 See the Urgichtenof BarbaraScherer(9 July 1541), BarbaraRiedhauser/Mair(19
Sept. 1541) and EmerencianaHefeler (9 Feb. 1542):they implicatedsome men who were
not, as far as we can tell, punished- see note 89.
92 StAA Urkundensammlung
30 January1544.
93 StAA Urgichtensammlung
26, 27, 28 April 1541(Hans Eggenberger).
94 For example, StAA Ratsbuch17, I, fo. 102v13 May 1543 (David Baumgartner);
Strafbuchder Zuchtherren7 Oct. 1541p. 77 (MarxHartman,Hans Fockher);21 Sept. 1541
p. 73 (EndrisDegen); Ratsbuch17, I, fo. 47v15 March1543 (Anthoni Baumgartnerfined
the colossal sum of 400 gulden for the third offence). See, on the double standard,Keith
Thomas, 'The Double Standard',Journalof the Historyof Ideas 20, 1959, pp. 195-216.
95 This raises the fascinating question of the Counter-Reformation'sdistinctive
moralismand its attitudeto prostitution- this cannotbe discussedhere. But see Bloch, Die
Prostitution,vol. 2.
96 A higher numberthan average (twelve) were convictedof involvementin prosti-
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28
History Workshop Journal
tution and a further18 were suspectedin 1547;while in 1548, nine were convictedand 14
suspected. See chapter on prostitutionin my thesis, 'Gender and Society'. But this was
insignificantin relationto the numberof prostitutesworking.Compareestimatesof 1,500
prostitutesat the Diet of Regensburg,1471;700 'public'and at least as manymore 'secret'
prostitutesat the Councilof Constance,Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, pp. 710-711; and
on sexual indulgenceat the Diet in 1547-8, see BartholomausSastrow'scomments, V.
Brosthaus,ed., Burgerlebenim 16. Jahrhundert.Die Autobiographiedes Stralsunder
BurgermeistersBartholomdusSastrowals kulturgeschichtliche
Quelle(Vienna 1972), p. 57.
97 On the controlof prostitutionby womenin this period,see chapteron Prostitution
in my thesis, 'Gender and Society': between 1528 and 1548, 97 women but only 13 men
were convictedof involvement;and manyof those menwere marriedto womenin the trade.
98 See StAA Urgichtensammlung.
99 These are expressionswhichoccurin the Augsburgdocuments.For a list of all the
knownexpressions,see Bloch, Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 732 ff.
100 For cases of compensation,see Ordinariatsarchiv,Augsburg, Protokolle des
bischoflichenKonsistoriums(the volumes1535-6survivefromthe pre-Reformationperiod)
and for recordsof the evangelicalmarriagecourt, StAA Ehegerichtsbuch1537-1546.
101 See Roper, 'Goingto Churchand Street'.
102 There is some evidenceof male prostitutionin Cologne and in Italy, see Bloch,
Die Prostitution,vol. 1, p. 799.
103 CompareRossiaud,'Prostitution,Youth and Society'.
104 On the meaning of virginity, see Luisa Accati Levi, 'Il furto del desiderio',
Memoria7, 1983, pp. 7-16. On the imagesof the harlotand the virgin,see Perry, ' "Lost
Women":Prostitutionin EarlyModernSeville'and for a fascinatingaccountof the parallels
between nuns and prostitutes,Nikki Harrison, 'Nuns and Prostitutesin Enlightenment
Spain', forthcoming.
105 110 individualswere convictedof involvementin the tradeof prostitution,97 of
them women; of 58 suspected and interrogated,45 were women. Details in chapter on
Prostitutionin 'Genderand Society'.Figureswere derivedfromStAA Urgichtensammlung,
Ratsbucher,Strafbucherdes Rats, Strafbucherder Zuchtherrensince no one source was
complete.
106 J. Siebenkees,Materialienzur NurnbergischenGeschichtevol. 4, pp. 593-596. I
am gratefulto MerryWiesnerfor drawingmy attentionto this.
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