The handling of infanticide in late medieval France offers modern audiences an underappreciated paradox: on the one hand infant murder was deplored as grave sin and crime, on the other hand, it was a pardonable offence, even the infanticidal singlemother who had killed to conceal her sin could obtain royal grace. This is far more than the usual story of law differing from practice. Christian ideology of mercy and forgiveness for sin played a central role in shaping the regulation of illegitimate births as well as abortions, stillbirths, and infanticide. Church and secular authorities alike sought to prevent as well as punish the death of infants, but they also created and implemented systems of justice with the explicit purpose of providing mercy to the repentant murderer, even an infanticide.

中文翻译：

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在中世纪晚期的法国赦免杀婴

中世纪晚期法国对杀婴的处理为现代观众提供了一个未被充分认识的悖论：一方面谋杀婴儿被谴责为严重的罪行和罪行，另一方面，这是一种可以原谅的罪行，即使是杀婴的单身母亲为了隐瞒她而杀了她罪可以获得王权。这远远超出了法律不同于实践的通常故事。基督教关于对罪的怜悯和宽恕的意识形态在塑造对非法生育以及堕胎、死产和杀婴的监管方面发挥了核心作用。教会和世俗当局都试图防止和惩罚婴儿的死亡，但他们也建立和实施了司法系统，其明确目的是为悔改的凶手提供怜悯，甚至是杀婴。