Adultery has not always been condemned in history. There are a number of mitigating circumstances. Sometimes it is even desirable, from an ethical point-of-view, that a couple commit adultery. Great love has often been taken as sanctifying sex outside marriage! Another excuse is that one is offering oneself to a high-born person. This argument would be hard to advance in the modern world, but there was a time when it had a certain vogue. In mediaeval times folk sometimes saw things in an odd way - "Gawain praises the good taste of his own lady-love, Orgueilleuse, for having offered her favours to so valiant a warrior as the Red Knight." In a Provençal romance, a husband reproaches his wife for her infidelity. She replies: "My Lord, you have no dishonour on that account, for the man I love is a noble baron, expert in arms, namely Roland, the nephew of King Charles." The husband is reduced to silence by the explanation and is filled with confusion at his unseemly interference.