Abstract

Only two notary deeds concerning the separation of spouses in order for for one or both of them to enter a religion have been found in the late medieval documentation of Rome: the case of a converted Jewess, married to a Christian, and from whom her husband was dispensed in 1537, in order to be locked up in the Lateran basilica, and of the affair concerning Friar Cesario de Ursinis, who separated from his wife in order to enter the Augustinian order, while his consort was to become an Augustinian tertiary; finally, we mention St. Francesca Romana, who was dispensed by her husband from the debitum coniugalem while continuing to live with him until her death.