Leek Chicken & Milk Thief (Part 2)
British poet Novalis once said, "When I give something lowly a lofty meaning, give something ordinary a mysterious appearance, give the known the solemnity of the unknown, and give the finite the appearance of infinity, I romanticize them."
The English word for incest, "incest," came from the Latin "incestum," meaning unchaste or impure.
The ascetic ideals of Christians in the Middle Ages came from ancient Rome. People in ancient Rome had lived too licentiously, so medieval people went from one extreme to the other.
There was nothing unusual about a widow remarrying. She had not only herself to support, but children to raise as well. Later, incest came to mean marriage between close relatives, yet aristocrats almost all married among close kin. Otherwise, Queen Victoria's blood disease would not have spread among Europe's royal houses. The concept of incest therefore became increasingly blurred.
Incest was absolutely forbidden. No matter how the outside world judged him, Victor Hugo had never agreed to divorce Adele, Severus said. Things were different now from the Middle Ages. After divorce, both sides could start new families anyway, and they had no children tying them together.
After a divorce, the former husband could no longer accuse his former wife of infidelity. If he was so unwilling to accept it, why had he not followed Hugo's example instead of agreeing to the divorce?
Family ethics were inevitably connected to social ethics. In ancient times, population was a resource. Rome acquired many slaves through its foreign wars, using them as labor to build the city.
It was still the same now, except today's "slaves" were not captured by armies; they eagerly went themselves, like the Italian funeral-home owner in The Godfather. People raised in Catholic countries tended to be more obedient.