‘The Price of Sin’: Sexual Misconduct and its Social Consequences in Sixteenth-Century Transylvanian Towns

The statutes for the barbers’ guild of the Transylvanian towns, drafted in 1550, mention adultery and abandonment of family as one of the reasons for expulsion from the association, highlighting sexual misconduct as one of the offences that deserved the most severe punishment.1 Unworthy of the company of honourable men, those guilty of such misdeeds were expelled from the guilds because they tarnished not just their own good name and respectability but also the reputation of the professional community.2 Moreover, mentioned only three times in the second half of the sixteenth century and always in the statutes of the barbers, adultery is referred to as ‘crime’ rather than ‘sin’.3 By examining the list of sexual offences, the most frequent offenders and the methods used to punish them, this study will explore the definition of sexual misconduct after the Reformation of the Saxon community in the towns of Transylvania and identify the agents involved in the process of moral disciplining.4 The emphasis will be placed on the nature of these offences, its possible re-