Madeleine D'Auvermont

In France in 1637, a noblewoman, Madeleine D'Auvermont, was put on trial for adultery. She had given birth to a healthy baby boy, which in itself was no crime, but she had been separated from her husband, who was out of the country, for four years! The birth of the baby caused a huge scandal at the time; her husband was a wealthy nobleman, and the boy would stand to inherit a substantial hereditament as well as a title. Madeleine’s reputation was at risk, and possibly her life as well.

At the trial, her defence was that she had thought about her husband so vividly at night, often having dreams of an intimate nature about him; her claim was that she had conceived his child through the power of imagination!

The claim was quite a wild one, but she insisted she had been faithful to her husband and the child was his. Experts in the fields of medicine and theology were brought in to testify in the case. After much discussion, all experts agreed that it was possible to conceive in this way if her imagination was very vivid and she dreamed really hard. The court found in her favour, and her son was legitimised and declared his ‘father’s’ heir. The reaction to the judgment by her husband is unknown.

Portrait (not of Madeleine) by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Source: Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness, By Candida R. Moss and Joel S. Baden.