Concubinage in Montaillou was accompanied by contraceptive precautions
which were more or less efficient, birth control obviously being
more sought after by lovers than by husbands. For example, Beatrice
de Planissoles, at the beginning of her relationship with Pierre Clergue,
was haunted by the fear of having an illegitimate child (i.243-4) : ' What
shall I do if I become pregnant by you l' she said to the priest. '/ shall be
ashamed and lost.'
Clergue had an answer for everything. He told his sweetheart that he
had a special herb which acted as a contraceptive, both masculine and
feminine. He said : I have a certain herb. If a man wears it when he
mingles his body with that of a woman he cannot engender, nor she conceive.'
Beatrice, a real country girl despite her noble extraction, asked : 'What sort of herb ? Is it the one the cowherds hang over a cauldron of
milk in which they have put some rennet, to stop the milk from curdling so
long as the herb is over the cauldron ?'
The reference to rennet is very relevant. Since the days of Dioscorides
and of Magnino of Milan, his thirteenth-century successor, the rennet
of a hare was thought to be a contraceptive. Beatrice did not see it as a
contraceptive, butas somethingwhich made cow's milk or a man's semen
curdle, thus producing either cheese or a foetus.
Pierre Clergue's magic herb prevented this solidification, and thus acted as a contraceptive.
Beatrice gave some more details about the famous 'herb' : When Pierre
Clergue wanted to know me carnally, he used to wear this herb wrapped up
in a piece of linen, about an ounce long and wide, or about the size of the
first joint of my little finger. And he had a long cord which he used to put
round my neck while we made love ,· and this thing or herb at the end of the
cord used to hang down between my breasts, as far as the opening of my
stomach [sic]. When the priest wanted to get up and leave the bed, I would
take the thing from around my neck and give it back to him. It might happen
that he wanted to know me carnally twice or more in a single night ; in that
case the priest would ask me, before uniting his body with mine, ' Where is
the herb ?' I was easily able to find it because of the cord round my neck ; I would
put the 'herb' in his hand and then he himself would place it at the opening of
my stomach, still with the cord between my breasts. And that was how he
used to unite himself with me carnally, and not othewise.
Was the object in question in this fascinating lovers' game simply a
magic amulet ? Or was it a kind of pessary, as the vague reference to the
opening of the stomach may suggest ? Who knows. The fact is that the
herb 'worked'. Or at least, and it amounts to the same thing, Beatrice
believed that it did.
Clergue exploited his mistress's fear of pregnancy. One day, said Beatrice, I asked the priest : 'Leave your herb with me.'
'No', he said, 'I won't, because then you could be united carnally with
another man, and thanks to the herb avoid becoming pregnant by him !'
