Catholic monarchs and infidelity

[EphelDuath]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this, but many Catholic kings in history have been known to have affairs – and this was apparently encouraged, as it demonstrated the virility of the king. Louis XV of France was known to have over twenty mistresses, for instance.

Why is it that the Church tolerated this? Couldn’t priests refuse to give absolution to the king if he did not renounce adultery?

 

[rwoehmke]

Yes, I suppose they could refuse, but it would be a good way to lose ones head. Some clergy who tried to correct kings died in this way. Thomas More was not a clergyman but he lost his head. There are certainly other examples. Kings do not like to be corrected. Their equivalents in our government and business today seem to feel they have a right to pluck the flowers where they will. Some times do not change.

 

[LilyM]

If these kings were ‘encouraged’ in their amorous exploits, it certainly wasn’t by the Church, unless it was by churchmen who were also venal and subject to sins of the flesh.

How do you know that their priests and confessors didn’t remonstrate against them? People sin all the time in spite of being told by their priests that they are doing wrong - otherwise no-one would ever need to return to the confessional as we all do!

We don’t know how often they confessed - perhaps they didn’t. Charles II of England (a notorious womaniser) took the view that ‘God would never damn a man for seeking a little pleasure’ - Catholic kings of the time probably thought similarly

Besides which - there are every bit as many examples of immoral non-Catholic kings as Catholics. Charles II was probably the most notorious, but George IV and Edward VII were also well known as ladies’ men, not to mention the marital kerfuffles of the current crop of English royals. All of them absolutely had not just clergy but laypeople criticising their loose morals, didn’t make a blind bit of difference to them.