chastity

Report BastaBugie editorial team

It is not true that the Crusaders forced their wives to wear them… the first date back to 1800 (such as erotic games or to avoid sexual violence)

and Aleteia

(AUTOMATIC READING)
The use of so-called chastity belts, flexible metal bands capable of covering the genitals and then closed with padlocks, it dates back to the times of the Crusades, when the knights leaving for the Holy Sepulcher wanted to ensure the fidelity of their wives during their absence. The belt is nothing more than a historical fake. Just looking at them is enough to understand how they can be a source of wounds and infections and have locks that are relatively easy to open.
As Focus notes (August 2014) first of all, there is a hygiene problem: even if the classic belt has small openings for the fulfillment of physiological needs, wounds, infections and consequently the death of the wearer would have occurred very quickly.
Furthermore, it is plausible that before leaving the knights mated with their wives, perhaps with the hope of finding a child upon their return. It is evident that the presence of an iron belt would have prevented childbirth. Not to mention the simplest objection: any medieval lock could be opened by a blacksmith in seconds.
THEOLOGICAL PURITY
Beyond these logical inconsistencies, there is the fact that there are no authentic belts dating back to the Middle Ages. The idea of sexual abstinence is certainly very ancient, as is the Latin term cingulum castitatis (translatable precisely as chastity belt) compare, starting from the 6th century, in some texts by Pope Gregory the Great, Alcuin of York, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, up to Giovanni Boccaccio. But in all these cases it is intended as a symbol of theological purity, certainly not as an object of erotic dissuasion. Read More