Early modern Europe was characterized by a deep interaction between multiple normative orders: secular courts, governed by the jurists stood together with the so-called court of conscience, in the realm of the theologians. The theologians determined the discipline for the soul, while the jurists were concerned with the repression of crimes and protection of the rights. Privacy was therefore the subject of a regulation shaped by theologians and jurists.
This paper will examine this regulation in the works of the moral theologian Conrad Horneius (1590-1649) and the jurist Enoch Gläser (1628-1668), both eminent professors at the Protestant University of Helmstedt. It will investigate the boundaries between public and private built by the spiritual and secular legislation and compare the theological and legal approach. It will propose a number of examples concerning the relationship between family members and the role of the public authority.