Talking about women’s bodies to be manly: faming and defaming in reformation Zurich

When the city state of Zurich gave up the Catholic mass in 1525 and introduced the Reformation, it founded a new matrimonial court (Ehegericht), which no longer referred to Catholic canon law but to mandates of the secular court (Ratsgericht). That same year, the mandates defined a new offence called berühmen: men publicly claiming illegitimate sex with women were to be severely prosecuted. This paper argues that men’s talk about illegitimate sex with women was defined by a plurality of norms. In informal contexts, men practising berühmen expected to rise in their peers’ estimation. Before court, however, they had to renounce their presumed virility. Women affected by berühmen had to prove their immaculate way of life. If they succeeded, the courts punished the defendants. The Reformation thus sought to control the verbal sexualization of the female body in a society permeated by the ideal of male sexual prowess.