Telling someone
they had "a turd in
their teeth" or suggesting their wife had had sex before marriage were once
punishable offences, newly-translated Cambridge court records reveal.
The Latin records date from the 16th Century when the university courts tried
some cases in the city. About 4,000 cases have been summarized so far as part of an online
project.
Cambridge University's Chancellor's Court had wide-ranging powers during the
16th and 17th Centuries for criminal and civil cases as well as ecclesiastical
matters.
Archivist
Jacky Cox worked for a year to summarize a selection of the papers
and put them online.
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