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Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: Death By Sex
Description: The Adultery Act, passed into British law on 14th May, 1650, made having sex with a married woman a crime so severe it was punishable by death – but only for her.Â
Radical groups like the Ranters mocked Puritan prudishness, Royalists called the law joyless and tyrannical, and Presbyterians argued the law would be impossible to apply fairly. But the Puritans needed something everyone could rally around – and sexual sin was an easy target.Â
Those who thought the English Civil War had been divine punishment for a sinful nation believed only Old Testament-style legislation could stop society from d...