Keywords

• Early modern Catholic Church used the term â€
• œ
• rapeâ€
• 
• to indicate a sexual intercourse between a man and woman who were not married. Thirty-four trials were celebrated for this crime by the Episcopal tribunal of Teramo during the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Century. Trial records clearly show that premarital sex did not mean an irreparable damage for the public image of peasant girlsâ€
• ™
• families. Especially during the Eighteenth Century
• premarital pregnancies were not necessarily kept secret
• because little social shame was associated with them. On the contrary
• since female honour had a corresponding economic value
• parents made pregnancies public and reported them to the tribunals in order to earn financial compensation from the seducersâ€
• ™
• families. Communities strongly supported their efforts and showed concern for the future of pregnant girls