Fornication

Fornication is generally consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. When one or more of the partners having consensual sexual intercourse is married to another person, it is called adultery.

Þe fyrst ys ‘fornycacyoṅ’, / Whan two vnweddyd haue mysdoṅ ~ Robert de Brunne

Quotes

• Þe fyrst ys ‘fornycacyoṅ’,
  Whan two vnweddyd haue mysdoṅ,
  As sengle knaue and sengle tarne,
  Whan þey synne to-gedyr ȝerne;
  Þe leste hyt ys of allë seuene,
  Ȝyt hyt forbarreþ þe blys of heuene
  • Robert de Brunne, Handlyng Synne (c. 1303)
  • tarne = tharne, glossed ‘a wenche’

• Ay fukkand lyke ane furious fornicatour.
  • Sir David Lyndsay, "The Answer to the Kingis Flyting"