Records of Sexual Behavior. One of the few ways in which historians track the actual sexual practices of medieval people is by studying the cases of sexual transgressions that were documented in the records of secular and ecclesiastical courts. There are many extant records of cases of unmarried couples having to swear to cease having sexual relations on pain of marriage (sub pena nubendi). Records from both ecclesiastical and local manor courts reveal that villagers and the Church differed quite markedly in their views of sexual behavior. Occasionally, comparisons of the records show that people who were convicted of fornication (premarital sex) by Church courts were often found innocent by manor courts. Sometimes the manor jurors appeared uncertain exactly what fornication involved. Many people who were joined in informal or clandestine marriages were considered married by the...