'Women seen as likely candidates for "the world's oldest profession" '. [emphasis mine]
So, the Church's reaction seems to have been to punish a potential social ill (prostitution) with an actual one (slavery). This is repugnant, but actually self-consistent, as the Church has always condemned whores, but never slaveholders.
While the Magdalen Laundries were pretty awful, this sort of thing happened as much in the secular world as the religious one. It wasn't uncommon (until fairly recently) for the poorest of the poor to find themselves in workhouses, or one sort or another. Many social institutions had no qualms whatsoever about using any excuse available to gain slave labour.
Boru
So, the Church's reaction seems to have been to punish a potential social ill (prostitution) with an actual one (slavery). This is repugnant, but actually self-consistent, as the Church has always condemned whores, but never slaveholders.
While the Magdalen Laundries were pretty awful, this sort of thing happened as much in the secular world as the religious one. It wasn't uncommon (until fairly recently) for the poorest of the poor to find themselves in workhouses, or one sort or another. Many social institutions had no qualms whatsoever about using any excuse available to gain slave labour.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
