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Friday 8 July 2011

Adultery

The Seventh Commandment "you shall not commit adultery" was God’s way of preventing epidemics of sexually transmitted diseases. People with a series of sexual partners ran a high risk of catching such diseases, which they were likely to pass on to later sexual partners, including their spouses.


According to ancient Hindu law, the penalty for adultery was the removal of a person’s nose. Hindu physicians in India practiced the first plastic surgery around 600BC. They created new noses for people whose real noses had been amputated after being convicted of adultery.

At the time of King Canute in the 11th century, the penalty in Britain for an adulteress was to have her nose and ears cut off.

When Emma of Normandy, the mother of Edward the Confessor, was accused of adultery with Bishop Ælfwine of Winchester she had to ensure a trial by ordeal - the premise being that God would help the innocent by performing a miracle on their behalf. Emma's test was to walk on nine red-hot ploughshares without injury. She miraculously managed to walk over the blades completely unscathed and was thus declared innocent. She expressed her thanks to God by giving nine manors to the Church of Westminster.

One thousand Bibles printed in 1631 left the "not" out of "Thou shall not commit adultery". Most were burned, but a handful still exist.


The French author Victor Hugo wasn't faithful to his wife. He had a long term relationship with the actress Juliette Drouet, who acted as a secretary and travelling companion. The writer only escaped sentencing for adultery in 1845 by a royal pardon.

In France, it was legal for a husband to murder his wife if he caught her in the act of adultery up until 1975.

Up until 2015, it was illegal to cheat on your spouse in South Korea and the crime was punishable with up to two years in prison.

One in eight women and one in seven men will have an affair within the first two years of marriage.

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands. (The husband’s lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.)

Adultery is a felony in the state of Michigan, and when a married woman and single man commit adultery, the male is also guilty of a felony.

Cheating your spouse is a crime in New York, carrying a possible sentence of up to six months in jail.

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