Catching up to the clerics

In her study of Incest and the Medieval Imagination , Elizabeth Archibald notes that medieval clerical writers were far more open about incest and incestuous desire than moderns have been until very recently:

“On might have expected that the medieval church would have avoided telling stories about incest for fear of putting dangerous ideas into people’s heads. On the other hand, to be plausible and powerful, cautionary tales should bear a strong resemblance to real-life situations, must be recognizable as within the bounds of possibility. The frequent use of the incest theme by clerical writers shows that incestuous desire was not regarded as a rare and barbaric perversion, but rather as a constant danger for all, rich and poor, powerful and humble, male and female. Some writers went so far as to acknowledge the possibility of consensual incest between close relatives who love each other deeply, though of course this was no excuse for sin. By insisting that even this heinous sin could be absolved through contrition and grace, Christianity put a new spin on the incest theme, and on plots which must have been circulating a long time in oral literature as well as in written sources.”