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The Buggery Act 1533, formally An Acte for the punishment of the vice of Buggerie (25 Hen. 8 c. 6), was an Act of the Parliament of England that was passed during the reign of Henry VIII. It was the country's first civil sodomy law, such offences having previously been dealt with by the ecclesiastical courts. The Act defined buggery as an unnatural sexual act against the will of God and man. This was later defined by the courts to include only anal penetration and bestiality.〔''R v Jacobs'' (1817) Russ & Ry 331 confirmed that buggery related only to intercourse ''per anum'' by a man with a man or woman, or intercourse ''per anum'' or ''per vaginam'' by either a man or a woman with an animal. Other forms of "unnatural intercourse" may amount to indecent assault or gross indecency, but do not constitute buggery (see generally: Smith & Hogan, ''Criminal Law'' (10th ed.) ISBN 0-406-94801-1)〕 The Act remained in force until it was repealed and replaced by the Offences against the Person Act 1828, and buggery would remain a capital offence until 1861. ==Description== The Act was piloted through Parliament by Thomas Cromwell. The Act established punishment of buggery by hanging, a penalty lifted in 1861. According to the Act: ... the offenders being hereof convicted by verdict confession or outlawry shall suffer such pains of death and losses and penalties of their good chattels debts lands tenements and hereditaments as felons do according to the Common Laws of this Realm. And that no person offending in any such offence shall be admitted to his Clergy ... This meant that a convicted sodomite’s possessions could be confiscated by the government, rather than going to their next of kin, and that even priests and monks could be executed for the offence—even though they could not be executed for murder.〔 Henry later used the law to execute monks and nuns (thanks to information his spies had gathered) and take their monastery lands—the same tactics had been used 200 years before by Philip IV of France against the Knights Templar. It is likely that Henry had this in mind when he drafted the Act.〔 In July 1540 Walter Hungerford, 1st Baron Hungerford of Heytesbury was charged with treason for harbouring a known member of the Pilgrimage of Grace movement. Although he had been married three times, and had four children, he was also accused of Buggery. He was beheaded at Tyburn (as he was not hanged it suggests the accusations of buggery were for purposes of humiliation). Nicholas Udall, a cleric, playwright, and Headmaster of Eton College, was the first to be charged with violation of the Act alone in 1541, for sexually abusing his pupils. In his case, the sentence was commuted to imprisonment and he was released in less than a year. He went on to become headmaster of Westminster School. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Buggery Act 1533」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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