Adultery

===Other historical practices===
[[File:Sacrificio azteca.jpg|thumb|200px|An [[Aztec]] adulterer being stoned to death; [[Florentine Codex]] ]]
[[File:Ordeal by red-hot iron.jpg|thumb|200px|According to legend, after being accused of adultery, [[Cunigunde of Luxembourg]] proved her innocence by walking over red-hot ploughshares.]]
In some Native American cultures, severe penalties could be imposed on an adulterous wife by her husband. In many instances she was made to endure a bodily mutilation which would, in the mind of the aggrieved husband, prevent her from ever being a temptation to other men again.<ref>Schoolcraft, ''Historical and Statistical Information Respecting the History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States'', I, 236; V, 683, 684, 686.</ref><ref>H.H. Bancroft, ''The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America'', I, 514.</ref> Among the [[Aztec]]s, wives caught in adultery were occasionally impaled, although the more usual punishment was to be stoned to death.<ref>{{Google books |id=m7gaeXC-aTgC |page=738 |title=ABA aug Journal 1969 }}</ref>

The [[Code of Hammurabi]], a well-preserved [[Babylonia]]n [[law code]] of ancient [[Mesopotamia]], dating back to about 1772 BC, provided [[drowning]] as punishment for adultery.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/hammurabilawcode.htm|title=New Page 6|work=womenintheancientworld.com|access-date=5 June 2014|archive-date=29 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180929003410/http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/hammurabilawcode.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

Amputation of the nose{{snd}}[[rhinotomy]]{{snd}}was a punishment for adultery among many civilizations, including ancient India, ancient Egypt, among Greeks and Romans, and in Byzantium and among the Arabs.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Amputation of the nose throughout history |date=12 November 2014 |pmc=2689568 | pmid=19609383 |volume=29 |issue=1 |journal=Acta Otorhinolaryngol Ital |pages=44–50 | last1 = Sperati | first1 = G}}</ref>

In the tenth century, the Arab explorer [[Ibn Fadlan]] noted that adultery was unknown among the pagan [[Oghuz Turks]]. Ibn Fadlan writes that "adultery is unknown among them; but whomsoever they find by his conduct that he is an adulterer, they tear him in two. This comes about so: they bring together the branches of two trees, tie him to the branches and then let both trees go, so that he is torn in two."<ref>Aḥmad Ibn Faḍlān, Richard Nelson Frye, ''Ibn Fadlan's journey to Russia: a tenth-century traveler from Baghad to the Volga River'', Markus Wiener Publishers, 2005, p. 34.</ref>

In medieval Europe, early Jewish law mandated stoning for an adulterous wife and her partner.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html |title=Historical Context - Origins of Honour Killing / Honour Killing - Worldwide / Honour Killing - In Countries with Islamic Law - Preliminary Examination of so-called Honour Killings in Canada |publisher=Justice.gc.ca |date=24 September 2013 |access-date=26 February 2015 |archive-date=15 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215194049/http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/fv-vf/hk-ch/p3.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In England and its successor states, it has been [[high treason]] to engage in adultery with the King's wife, his eldest son's wife and his eldest unmarried daughter. The jurist Sir William Blackstone writes that "the plain intention of this law is to guard the Blood Royal from any suspicion of bastardy, whereby the succession to the Crown might be rendered dubious." Adultery was a serious issue when it came to succession to the crown. [[Philip IV of France]] had all three of his daughters-in-law imprisoned, two ([[Margaret of Burgundy, Queen of France|Margaret of Burgundy]] and [[Blanche of Burgundy]]) on the grounds of adultery and the third ([[Joan II, Countess of Burgundy|Joan of Burgundy]]) for being aware of their adulterous behaviour. The two brothers accused of being lovers of the king's daughters-in-law were executed immediately after being arrested. The wife of Philip IV's eldest son bore a daughter, the future [[Joan II of Navarre]], whose paternity and succession rights were disputed all her life.<ref>McCracken, 171.</ref>

The [[christianization of Europe]] came to mean that, in theory, and unlike with the Romans, there was supposed to be a single sexual standard, where adultery was a sin and against the teachings of the church, regardless of the sex of those involved. In practice, however, the church seemed to have accepted the traditional double standard which punished the adultery of the wife more harshly than that of the husband.<ref name="web.clark.edu">[http://web.clark.edu/afisher/HIST252/lectures_text/Women%20in%20the%20Early%20Middle%20Ages.pdf] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150319072837/http://web.clark.edu/afisher/HIST252/lectures_text/Women%20in%20the%20Early%20Middle%20Ages.pdf Web archive link]</ref> Among Germanic tribes, each tribe had its own laws for adultery, and many of them allowed the husband to "take the law in his hands" and commit acts of violence against a wife caught committing adultery.<ref name="web.clark.edu"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=BULLOUGH |first1=VERN L. |title=Medieval Concepts of Adultery |journal=Arthuriana |date=1997 |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=5–15 |jstor=27869285|doi=10.1353/art.1997.0049 |s2cid=159806337 }}</ref> In the Middle Ages, adultery in [[Vienna]] was punishable by death through [[impalement]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www1.wdr.de/themen/archiv/stichtag/stichtag1344.html|title=22. März 2005 - Vor 665 Jahren: Wiener Stadtrecht ordnet Pfählen für Ehebrecher an - Zeitgeschichtliches Archiv - WDR.de|work=wdr.de|date=21 March 2005|access-date=29 July 2014|archive-date=9 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140809225602/http://www1.wdr.de/themen/archiv/stichtag/stichtag1344.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Austria]] was one of the last Western countries to decriminalize adultery, in 1997.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/debatte-ueber-untreue-gesetz-noch-1997-drohte-oesterreichs-ehebrechern-gefaengnis-a-317486.html|title=Debatte über Untreue-Gesetz: Noch 1997 drohte Österreichs Ehebrechern Gefängnis|author=((SPIEGEL ONLINE, Hamburg, Germany))|date=10 September 2004|newspaper=SPIEGEL ONLINE|access-date=29 July 2014|archive-date=25 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170125204902/http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/debatte-ueber-untreue-gesetz-noch-1997-drohte-oesterreichs-ehebrechern-gefaengnis-a-317486.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The ''[[Encyclopédie|Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert]]'', Vol. 1 (1751) noted the legal double standard from that period, it wrote:<ref name="quod.lib.umich.edu"/>

<blockquote>
"Furthermore, although the husband who violates conjugal trust is guilty as well as the woman, it is not permitted for her to accuse him, nor to pursue him because of this crime".
</blockquote>