Sins wide open, they are over with you: The beginning of the end of the Castilians brothels in the xvii century. An approach from the Jesuit intervention in Antequera (1610-1623)

Abstract

The article aims to highlight the precedents of the decline of legalized prostitution in the Castile of the first quarter of the sixteenth century. To that purpose, the double morality of the Modern Age society will be contextualized, on the one hand, by censoring more rigorously, in the sexual and honour field, the behaviours of the woman and to excuse those of the man, at the same time that legitimized prostitution through policies deployed since the late Middle Ages by the Hispanic Monarchy itself. On the other hand, we will analyse the intense Jesuit preaching and action campaigns against the brothels based on the documentation traced in the National Historical Archive for the case of Ante- quera in the early decades of the xvii century, prime example, along with other Castilians enclaves, of the causes that precipitated the end of authorized and controlled prostitution by the Crown in 1623, criminalising the public woman ever since.