Should requirement of marriage licenses be ended?

Well, for starters, for what is a marriage license actually required for? Legally, I mean?

Roger
Roger, good question and a good place to start. What is the origin of marriage license in the old world and in the new?

BBB

I don't know the origins, but since it's a civil convention, suspect it's fairly recent. Much more so than the religious rites and celebrations.

Really, I believe there is a break on inheritance taxes for spice, and in certain medical situations, one spouse may be able to speak for the other, but holding property jointly, cohabitating, and raising children no longer seem related to such a civil license. Well, creditors may still favor the married couple for home mortgage money, but the advantages seem mostly related to laws, which are subject to change.

I believe the sanctification/certification of marriage is to protect property rights: of the bride, of the groom and so that any children of the union will not wind up as paupers for the taxpayers to finance.

Listening here.

Fort Klock Historic Restoration & Indian Castle Church

Names of Persons for whom MARRIAGE LICENSES Were issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York Previous to 1784.
By E. B. O'Callaghan
Printed by order of Gideon J. Ticker, Secretary of State.
Albany: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1860.

Introduction

THE origin of Marriage Licenses, in the territory comprised within the State of New York, merits a word or two of explanation.

Under the Roman-Dutch law, which obtained in New Netherland on its first colonization, the following particulars were requisite to constitute a legal marriage:

All persona desirous of entering the married state were obliged to appear before the Court of Justice, or the Ministers of the Church of their place of abode, where they had their fixed domicil for the last year and day, and to apply there, for three Sundays or Market Days, when publications of the banns were to be made in the Church or the Court House, or other places where the Court of Justice was held; and every one who had any impediment to propose, was obliged to state the same in the meantime, on pain of being otherwise deprived of that right.

These proclamations were designed to preserve the right of a third person; marrying in church being held to be only an external ceremony of a public confirmation introduced likewise for better security.

As cases, however, might arise where it would be impossible to comply with the general law, provision was made for dispensing with such proclamations for legal and valid reasons, by consent of the government, or (some held) of the judge.*

From these provisions of law, Marriage Licenses-which are only dispensations from the proclamation of Banns- took their origin in this country.

When the Colony passed into the hands of the English, the practice continued to prevail; Marriage License issued by them, bearing date as early as 29th December, 1664,+ being found on record. Subsequently, the collating to Benefices, granting Licenses of Marriage and Probate of Wills were declared in the Royal Instructions, to be exclusively reserved to the governor. ++

The License was issued from the Provincial Secretary's office, and in return those obtaining it gave a Penal Bond in the sum of £500, that there was no " lawful let or impediment of Pre-Contract, Affinity or Consanguinity, to hinder the parties being joined in the Holy Bonds of Matrimony, and afterwards their living together as Man and Wife."

There are forty volumes of these Bonds in the office of the Secretary of State. The names of the parties licensed
to marry, contained in these and in other State Records, having been indexed in alphabetical order, application was

* Van Leeuwen's Commentaries on the Roman-Dutch Law. London: 1820, p. 72.
+ New York General Entries, I. 85.
++ New York Colonial Docnmente, in. 372, 668.

made to the Hon. GIDEON J. TUCKER, late Secretary of State, for authority to print the Index, for public convenience, and it composes the present Volume.

The date prefixed to each name is that of the License or of the Bond. The abbreviation for the title of the volume
of Records is affixed to the name.

EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS
A. R., Refers to volumes known as Albany Records, and indorsed-Translations from the Dutch.
C. A., Refers to volumes indorsed-Court of Assize.
C. M., Refersto volumes indorsed-N. Y. Colonial MSS.
C. Min., Refers to volumes indorsed-Council Minutes.
E., Refers to volume indorsed-Entries.
G. E., Refers volume indorsed-General Entries.
M. B., Refers to volumes indorsed-Marriage Bonds.
O. W, L., Refers to volume indorsed-Orders, Warrants and Letters.
O. W., Refers to volmne indorsed-Orders, Warrants.
P. B., Refers to volume indorsed-Pass Book.
W. O. P. Refers to volume indorsed- Warrants, Orders, Passes.
The practice of issuing Marriage Licenses fell into total desuetude in this State, on the Evacuation of New York
by the British in 1783. It continued for some years longer in the State of Pennsylvania, as appears by the following letters of Bishop White, to the Governor of that Commonwealth :

Sir, [1778]
When I had ye Honor, yesterday, of stating to your Excellency my Objections to ye present System of Marriage Licenses, & you condescended to recommend to me ye promoting of a clerical Representation of ye Subject ; I expressed my Doubts as to ye Expediency of such a Measure. My Reason is, that I do not think ye Clergy, as such, materially interested in the correcting of ye Evil. We marry whom we please, under no other Restriction than what should prevail in every Line of Life, if not invading of ye Rights of others. It is true, a Stranger may be imposed on, by big imagining that a License from Government is something more than a blank Paper. But to prevent this, I have made it my Business to advertise every such, of ye Church under my care, of ye State of ye Case & of his own Responsibility.

It was as a citizen that I introduced ye Subject to your Excellency ; And ye Evils -which, as such I reprobate in ye present System are as follow:

1. The Practice of issuing Licenses is, as I apprehend, without any Foundation of Law. The only Passage in our Acts of Assembly that can be supposed applicable, & this can be so by Implication only, defines a lawful License to be one which contains ye Consent of the Parent or Guardian expressed in ye Body of it. But such a License I never saw, nor do I know of any Clergyman who has.

2dly. It seems to me (I speak it with submission) disreputable to Government to be in ye Exercise of an Act of Authority, disregarded (as far as I can hear) & that with Impunity, by the most respectable Clergymen in this City; who instead of thinking themselves under any Obligation, either of Law or of Morals, to ask for ye Licence, consider it rather as a Snare, against which they are to be on their Guard.

3dly. The Licenses, as issued, are a most cruel Invasion of domestic Rights. For, as if it were not enough, that ye Citizen has ye Peace of his Family exposed to ye Acts of ye desperate Adventurer, ye Villain robs him of his Child under a warrant with ye Seal of ye State annexed to it, & signed by ye first Magistrate. I hope your Excellency will not mistake me ; I am as much an Enemy to domestic Tyranny as to ye civil; And I know that there sho'd be a certain Age when young People may dispose of themselves without the Consent of their Parents. What I contend for is, that there should also be a Period, during which ye Parent should have an uncontroulable Authority over ye Child, in ye Article of preventing Marriage.

As to ye Bond of £100 taken at the office, I think nothing of it. To my certain Knowledge it has been taken, both before & since ye Revolution, from persons not worth 100 pence ; And besides, there are Doubts as to ye Recovery of ye Penalty. I should be sorry to be understood, in this Part of ye Subject, as reflecting either on ye worthy Gentleman who has, nominally, ye Administration of ye Licenses, or on his Deputy, who is supposed to do his Business. On ye contrary, I declare that I believe ye Fault to be, not in them, but in ye System, which while it prevails, must involve ye present Consequences, let who will have ye Administration; And besides, I have not seen above one or two Licenses during Col. Biddle's Secretaryship nor long before.

4thly. It may be of Importance to mention that ye Practice has been stigmatised as illegal by ye Council of Censors. I speak from Report, not having seen their Resolves on ye Subject. But my Authority is such that I cannot doubt ye Truth of it.

And now, Sir, if your Excellency is disposed to listen to my Proposal of a Remedy, it is as follows:

1. In regard to all Persons marrying agreeably to ye Notifications required by their respective religious Societies, ye Clergyman celebrating ye Marriage sh'd be responsible in a pecuniary, or, if you please, on repeated Transgression, in a corporal Penalty. If meer publication be made sufficient, it will amount to Nothing; because it may be made & is made in some Congregations) in such a Manner as to be a meer Evasion.

2dly. As to Persons who may not come within ye Rules of any religions Society, some Mode of Publication sh'd be provided for them. There is one indeed, but it is thought insufficient.

3dly. The License sh'd be considered as a Dispensation from ye Notoriety of Publication; And accordingly, Government sh'd assume ye Responsibility. The dispensing Officer should have a Reward proportioned to his Trouble & Risque. He sh'd be liable to a Penalty, according to ye Damage sustained at ye Discretion of ye Court, within certain Limits. He sh'd therefore, be ye Judge of ye Amount of ye Security to be required; And if he take insufficient Bondmen, it sh'd be at his Peril. The most material Difficulty that can occur in ye above Plan is ye discretionary Power of ye Court. But I know no other Substitute for ye English Mode, which is ye taking of Oaths that there is no legal Impediment.

Your Excellency's desiring of me to state my Sentiments in writing has occasioned you ye Trouble of reading this long Letter. I am not tenacious of any Advice I have presumed to oner; But am fixed in my knowledge of ye Fact & I hope ye Freedom of ye Citizen will justify my declaring it that ye present Practice makes Government contribute to ye sacrificing of ye Peace, Honor & Fortunes of Families.

I have ye Honor to subscribe myself,
Your Excellency's very humble Servant,
WM. WHITE.
His Excell'y, Thos. Mifflin, Esq.

Dec. 22, 1790.
Sir,

In Compliance with your Excellency's Intimation, I am emboldened to lay before you briefly, the Substance of what I formerly delivered to you more at large, on the present State of Law and Practice, on ye Subject of Marriage.

The Objections which I had the Honor to state to you against ye Marriage Licenses, were that it is a taking of Money out of ye people's pockets, without even ye Colour of Law, that it had been stigmatized on this Acct. by the Council of Censors; and that to my certain Knowledge, it prostitutes ye Chief Magistrates Name & invades Domestic Rights, by the Sanction it gives to clandestine Marriages.

It is true, the Abuse is considerably lessened, by ye intire Neglect which is shown the License, by ye greater number of the Clergy of all Denominations; who depend on their own Precaution against what they think the Snares of ye govennental License. But I submit to your Excellency whether it be not a great Evil to leave Matters on this Footing.

It is now so well understood that no Man takes out a License, but either thro' Ignorance or for a Cover to an illegal Transaction, that we may presume the Doing without them will more and more prevail. It must be obvious to every Man how much this subjects the Happiness of families to the sudden Determination of very young People. "Under such a Dispensation from all preparatory Measures, would it be surprising to hear, that a Girl of the Age at which Matrimony may be contracted, were induced by a Toy or by a Sugar Plumb, to put an artful Man into ye possession of a Fortune; out of which he would only have to pay £50 for ye Irregularity of ye Manner. Impositions may happen far short of this, yet very distressing to Families and ruinous to the Peace of ye Parties.

So far as ye Clergy in particular are concerned, it subjects ye conscientious to great Difficulties; It gives those of ye opposite Description unbounded License; and it subjects to ye Determination of either (and that in situations of great Delicacy) a Question involving Property and Character and Happiness.

In what Manner an evil of so great Magnitude is to be remedied, I presume not to say. But I will hint what I think ye great Outline of ye Business ; viz.: That in Favor of these who either cannot, or who, from conscientious Scruples, will not pay for a License, there should be pointed out an unequivocal Mode of Publication ; and that a License being a Dispensation from ye Notoriety of Publication, the Officers issuing it should be accountable and should receive a Fee proportioned to ye Trust and to ye Vigilance required in it.

With Sentiments of Respect &
Esteem, I have the honor to write
myself, your Excellency's
very humble Servant,
Directed, His Excellency, the Governor.* WM. WHITE.

*Pennsylvania Archive*, XII. 81, 314.

FORM OF BOND

GIVEN on obtaining a Marriage Licence for RICHARD MONTGOMERY, Esq., afterwards Major-General in the American Army.

KNOW all Men by these Presents, That Henry B. Livingston, of Dutchess County, Esquire, and John Livingston, of New York, Gentleman, are held and firmly bound unto our Sovereign Lord GEORGE the Third, by the Grace of GOD, of Great-Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. in the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds, current Money of the Province of New-York, to be paid to his said Majesty, or his Heirs and Successors: For the which Payment, well and truly to be made and done, We do bind Ourselves, and each of Us, our and each of our Heirs, Executors, and Administrators, and every of them, firmly by these Presents. Sealed with our Seals, dated the Fourth, Day of August, in the Thirteenth Year of his said Majesty's Reign. Annoqne Domini, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Three.

THE CONDITION of this OBLIGATION, is such, That whereas the above-bounden Henry B. Livingston and John Livingston have obtained a LICENCE OF MARRIAGE for Richard Montgomery, of the Outward of New- York, Gentleman, & Jennet Liningston, of Dutchess County, Spinster, of the other Party. Now if it shall not appear hereafter, that they, or either of them the said Richard Montgomery & Jennet Livingston have any lawful Let or Impediment of Pre-Contract, Affinity, or Consanguinity, to hinder their being joined in the Holy Bands of Matrimony, and afterwards their living together as Man and Wife: Then this Obligation to be void, and of none Effect; or else to stand, remain, abide, and be in full Force and Virtue.
HENRY B. LIYINGSTON, [L. S.]
JOHN LIVINGSTON. [L. S.]
Scaled and Delivered in the
Presence of
JNO. GRUMLY.

Law on Dowries. Massachusetts (Colony). Laws, Statues, etc.
Law Library of Congress
Territorial and State Session Laws

Law on Dowries. Massachusetts (Colony). Laws, Statues, etc. 1672. Law Library of Congress.

bibliographic record

Territorial and state session laws make up the major portion of the Rare Book Collection. They include a large number of early colonial and state marriage, property, and dower laws in their original wording. These laws date from late-seventeenth-century Massachusetts and early-eighteenth-century Virginia. An edition of The General Laws and Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony in New-England, Revised and Reprinted (London, 1675) is one of the earliest.8 A section on dowries states:

It is Ordered by this Court and the Authority thereof, that every Married Woman, (living with her Husband in this Jurisdiction, or other, where absent from him with his consent or through his meet default, or inevitable providence, or in case of Divorce, where she is the innocent party) that shall not before Marriage be estated by way of joynture, in some Houses, Lands, Tenements or other Hereditaments for term of life, shall immediately after the death of her Husband, have Right and Interest by way of Dowry, in and to one third part of all such Houses, Lands, Tenements and Hereditaments. . . .9

These session laws contain a wealth of information about the lives of men and women during the colonial period. Interestingly, the laws on marriage in Virginia in 1722 indicate that a marriage license could be paid for in shillings and pence or in tobacco:

An Act concerning Marriages.

Ministers shall not marry People without License, of thrice Publication of Banes, according to the Rubrick.

. . . . Fees for Marriage Licenses.
s. l.
To the Government 20 or 200 of tobacco
To the Clerk of the County Court 5 or 50
To the Minister if by License 20 or 100
If by Banes 5 or 50
For publishing the Banes and Certificate 1 s. 6d or 15
If these Fees be not paid in ready Money, they shall be paid at the Time of Year in Tobacco of the Growth of the Parish where the Feme shall live, and on Refusal of payment be leviable by districts as per Clerks Fees.10

Such laws, written in the script of the colonial period, reveal aspects of colonial life that were important enough to legislate and litigate.

In addition to laws relating to the original thirteen colonies, the Law Library's collection of territorial and state session laws also includes laws of the Hawaiian Islands before 1896, when they were ruled by Queen Liliuokalani, as well as laws relating to Native American Nations, including the Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee tribal codes. Some of these codes are written in the vernacular script of the tribe. The codes of several tribes show them as strongly matrilineal.

Georgia Colonial period through 1900
Georgia Colonial period through 1900

Marriage Banns
A marriage ban is a public notice stating that a man and a woman have plans to marry on a certain date. State laws, dating from 1799 through 1863, refer to the publication of marriage banns in a church for at least three weeks. Later laws do not cite a time period with regard to banns. The law authorized a Justice or Minister to marry a couple if they had been granted a marriage license or if marriage banns had been published, and after 1863, required him to certify to the Ordinary that the marriage was performed. The Ordinary, in turn, was to record this in the book with the marriage licenses. One may expect to find few, if any, references to marriage banns, either in County Marriage cooks, or Church Minute Books.

Marriage Notices
Notices of marriages are in some cases published in newspapers, usually announcing a marriage which has already taken place. One may not expect to find a marriage notice for most pre-1900 Georgia marriages. Those that do exist are found most frequently in the newspapers of major towns, and cite usually name of bride and groom, county or town of residence, and date of marriage.

Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe
Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe
James Brundage
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1987

1. "Jesus said remarkably little about sexual conduct, and sex was not a central issue in his moral teaching. But Jesus' followers during the first four or five generations after his death were far more concerned about sexual morality than Jesus himself had been." page 2
2. "Despite claims to the contrary, Christian sexual ethics have been neither uniform nor static." p. 5

3. "Three major patterns of sexual doctrine underlie the diverse beliefs about sexual morality that have been current in Western Christendom since the patristic period. One pattern centered on the reproductive function of sex and established nature and the natural as the criterion of what was licit; the second focused on the notion that sex was impure, a source of shame and defilement; the third emphasized sexual relations as a source of intimacy, as a symbol and expression of conjugal love. Medieval writers placed greater emphasis upon the first two patters, but at various times prior to the Reformation, and in many segments of Christian society since then, all three approaches and the consequences deduced from them have been held and taught in various combinations." page 5

4. "Married couples among the Roman elite lived in a social system in which the family, as modern societies think of it, did not exist. The Roman familia meant a household, not a family in the modern sense, and households came in a great variety of sizes and shapes. Among the wealthy and powerful, the household often numbered hundreds of persons and things: children, servants, slaves, livestock, and other property were all part of the familia, although his wife and children were members of it and, like the servants, and slaves, oxen and geese, and the rest of the familia, they belonged to the paterfamilia. Among the poor, however, households were apparently small, since they included no slaves or servants and little property. The familia of the humble often consisted simply of a woman and her children. Again, the male head of household was not part of his own familia." pages 22 - 23

5. "Paul's treatment both of illicit sex outside of marriage (porneia) and of marital sex itself was influenced by his conviction that the end of the world was imminent." page 60

6. "The great Biblical exegete, Origen (ca. A.D. 185-253/55), and the anonymous author of the Gnostic Gospels according to the Egyptians, for example, believed that Adam and Eve had been innocent of sexual temptation or even sexual feelings in Paradise." page 62

7. "Few early patristic writers bothered to account for the dislike and revulsion that characterized their treatment of sex. They plainly felt that no explanation was required, that sex was so filthy and degrading that the reason for condemnation of it was self-evident." page 63

8. "Marriages of the clergy posed special problems for Christian authorities. Although a few early writers expressed a preference that clerics not marry at all, nearly every third-century Christian clergyman whose marital status is known seems to have been married. The first effort to prohibit clerical marriage appeared in the canons of Elvira in the early fourth century." page 69

9. "Augustine and his contemporaries among the Fathers considered sex a grave moral danger in part because they believed that sexual feelings and urges, particularly the reactions of the genital organs, were not fully under the control of the human will." page 81

10. According to Augustine, "Prior to the Fall sexual organs had been under conscious control; but just as our first parents rebelled against God, so after the Fall our genitals rebelled against our will. Humans then became incapable of controlling either their sexual desires or the physical reactions of their gonads." page 84

11. "He ["St." Jerome] also furnished generations of misogynist writers with a battery of elegant vituperation and ferocious mockery directed against the foibles and follies of women.

Patristic discussions of the place of sex in the Christian life are shot through with a fundamental ambivalence about the place of women in the scheme of salvation. Augustine agreed clearly and emphatically with other patristic writers in requiring that men observe the same norms of sexual conduct as women. At the same time, however, Augustine, like other patristic authors, considered women frankly inferior to men, both physically and morally.

. . . "I fail to see what use woman can be to man," Augustine said, "if one excludes the function of bearing children." " page 85

12. "Cassian and others elaborated schemes of discipline to ward off dangerous sexual impulses. These plans regulated diet, clothing, social contacts, sleeping habits, posture, and other aspects of daily living with the aim of eliminating physical, mental, or emotional stimuli that might trigger responses and sexual desires. . . .

The one means of fighting off sexual temptations at which practically all authorities drew the line was castration. Although one or tow extremists - Origen was the best known - had advocated and even practiced this radical method of combating sexual temptation, orthodox opinion held that this solution carried a good thing too far. Both the so-called Canons of the Apostles and the genuine canons of the Council of Nicaea (325) prohibited the practice." p. 86 -87

13. "Patristic writers assumed, as Roman law did, that consent made marriage. They rejected the notion that consummation was an essential part of marriage. It made no difference whether a couple ever went to bed together; so long as they consented to marry one another, that was what counted. If consummation was not essential, it might follow that sexual impotence constituted no reason for holding a marriage invalid, and Augustine at any rate seems to have subscribed to this view.

Christian authorities warned married couples that they should have sex only for proper reasons. Augustine pointed to the Old Testament prophets as examples for married persons of his own generation. The prophets, he claimed, made love to their wives rationally and solely for procreative purposes. Since marital sex is a favor, not a right, couples should avoid making love merely for enjoyment or because they felt like it. Only propagation of the species, Augustine warned, entitled them to make use of the marital privileges blamelessly.

But while Augustine and his contemporaries cautioned against intercourse for pleasure, they also reminded their married hearers that they were obliged to give their spouses sex on demand. The marital debt was a right that either party could claim. the partner from whom it was demanded must accede to the spouse's request, and doing so was no sin. The other partner might sin in asking payment of the sexual debt for wrongful reasons or at inappropriate times, but the spouse who complied did not share the guilt. If a couple agreed by mutual consent to cease having sexual relations and one of them later had a change of mind, however, the other party had no obligation to honor a demand for the resumption of marital intercourse. A mutual decision to forego sexual relations canceled the marital debt, and neither party could thenceforth rescind that decision.

The marital debt created a parity of rights and obligations between spouses. Each had an equal right to demand that it be paid; each had an equal obligation to comply with the other's demands. Equality of the sexes in marriage meant equality in the marriage bed, but not outside of it. Just as each spouse was entitled to sexual service from the other on demand, so each was entitled to require sexual fidelity from the other. Neither had a right to seek sexual fulfillment outside of marriage, even if the other party was, for example, absent or ill and thus sexually unavailable.

Cessation of marital relations did not break the bond of marriage, just as the beginning of sexual relations was irrelevant to the contracting of marriage. The evident aim of patristic matrimonial theory was to separate marriage as far as possible from its sexual component, defining it as a contractual union, separate and distinct from the sexual union of the married persons." pages 92 - 93

14. "Classical Roman law, as we have seen, based the existence of marriage on affectio maritalis. Where marital affection existed between a couple, they were married; when marital affection ceased, the marriage ended. In the post-classical period this concept of marriage underwent a slight but important change. Marriage in postclassical law continued to be contracted by consent, which implied martial affection; but once created, the marriage continued until the relationship ended by death or divorce. Classical Roman marriage, accordingly, required continuing consent of the parties, while postclassical marriage needed only initial consent." page 94

15. "Ordinary people who chose not to devote their lives to ascetic observances were often advised that their best defense against the ever present urge to copulate was to marry early. For this reason St. John Chrysostom warned parents to see to it that their children married soon after they reached the age of puberty.

All sexual relations outside of marriage amounted to fornication." page 103

16. Intercourse was forbidden: (page 162)


When one's wife is menstruating, pregnant, or nursing
During Lent, Advent, Whitsun Week, or Easter week
On feast days, fast days, Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday
During daylight
If you are naked
If you are in church
Unless you are trying to produce a child

And be careful - no fondling, no lewd kisses, no oral sex, no strange positions, only once, try not to enjoy it, and wash afterwards (purify oneself from the pollution)

17. "Practical considerations, mainly economic, supported the drive for an unmarried clergy. Married clergy, the reformers declared, were expensive to maintain - married priests, after all, had to provide food, clothes, and housing for those bawling babies and slatternly wives, and the church's resources were thereby frittered away, not in the service of God, but in catering to the whims of the wives and children of married clerics. Even worse, married priests, bishops, and others would be tempted to treat their ecclesiastical offices as family property and to convert the sacred dignity into the family heritage. This last was close to the mark. Sacerdotal dynasties were common, almost the norm, in some regions of eleventh-century Europe, and had been commonplace for centuries." page 215

18. ". . . marital sex must not be "unnatural" which Gratian apparently took to mean anal copulation and perhaps oral sex as well. Unnatural sex in marriage was worse than adultery or fornication, according to sources that Gratian cited. His objection was not primarily that anal and oral sex were contraceptive; rather he reprobated these types of intercourse because they were an inappropriate use of the sex organs, and that, he believed, ran counter to natural law. Intercourse in a "natural fashion but with contraceptive intent Gratian classed as a very slight sin, a moral blemish, much like such other minuta peccata as excessive talking, eating after one's hunger was sated, registering annoyance at an importunate beggar, or oversleeping, and as a result being later for divine services." pages 240 - 241

19. "The marital debt was one area in which Gratian not only conceded but absolutely insisted that men and women enjoyed equal rights before the law. The wife had every bit as much right to demand sexual dues from her husband as he did from her. This parity in respect to the conjugal debt was Gratian's most emphatic venture in the direction of equality between the sexes." page 242

20. "Several decretists noted the irony and apparent inequity of allowing men who had kept concubines to be ordained, while denying orders to those who had contracted two legitimate and perfectly legal marriages." page 318-319

21. "The twelfth-century has been called the century of love, because of the celebration of love in the poetry of the period." page 323

22. Under Pope Alexander III's reforms: "Sexual intercourse created a bond that precluded subsequent marriage between either party and members to the other party's immediate family. Further, once married persons had consummated their union, Alexander was prepared to force them to continue sexual relations so long as either party desired them. Even if one party contracted leprosy, the sexual obligation remained in force. The pope further held that couples who had exchanged consent before reaching the minimum age for marriage were bound by their agreement if they had sexual intercourse; consummation thus outweighed the impediment of minority. Likewise a conditional marriage became binding if the parties had intercourse, whether or not the stipulated conditions had been fulfilled - again, sexual relations healed a defect in marital consent." pages 334 -335

23. "Europe in 1198 was spotted with festering patches of heresy. In the manufacturing towns of northern Italy and southern France the unordained and untrained followers of Peter Waldo were preaching and teaching an alarming brand of Christianity that denied the special authority of the clergy and cast doubt on the spiritual value of the sacraments. Elsewhere, Cathar heretics attacked the benevolence of the Creator by proclaiming that the material world was intrinsically evil; they maintained that only the spiritual realm, on which they seemed to feel they had a monopoly, had been created by an all-good deity." page 337

24. Speaking of sexual offenses in the 14th and 15th centuries

"The popular belief that simple fornication between unmarried persons was neither a sin nor a crime persisted, although this had been classified formally as heresy since 1287." page 517

"Several authorities maintained that when a woman committed adultery, her husband was at fault and should be punished as much or more than she was, but I have yet to see a case in which that was done." page 519

25. "Dowry represented the married woman's claim to financial security, but that security might be jeopardized by her own actions or those of her husband. The married woman who committed adultery stood to lose her dowry, and the beneficiary in that case was her husband, who received part or all of it as compensation for his humiliation." page 541

26. "The sixteenth century Reformation was not entirely centered on abstract issues of theology, such as justification by faith, or on ecclesiological problems, such as the plenitude of papal power or the priesthood of all believers. Problems involving sexual conduct were also at issue in the struggles between Protestant and Catholic.

Roman Catholic and Protestant beliefs differed sharply on questions about the sacramentally of marriage, clerical celibacy, divorce and remarriage, and ultimately about the aims and purposes of human sexuality itself. The Catholic reaction, both in its reform mode and in its Counter-Reformation mode, tended to sharpen rather than blunt the difference between the two camps." page 574

27. ". . . most Protestants regarded celibacy as an oddity, graced with no special prestige or privilege. Protestant writers treated sex as a normal part of conjugal relationships, a sign of love between husband and wife, rather than a failing that required a procreative purpose to excuse it. For Protestants, marriage was a basic Christian institution, approved by Scriptures, and integral to a full human life. Reformers praised the beauty, dignity, and morality of married life as a central feature of Christian society; but at the same time, they also taught that marriages could be terminated for good cause. Since marriage for them was no sacrament, questions that troubled Roman Catholic writers when dealing with divorce and remarriage created fewer difficulties for Protestant theologians." page 575

28. "Long before the time of Jesus, philosophers and rulers had learned to be wary of sex. this fiery passion must be controlled lest it disrupt settled households and property arrangements and undermine the social harmony of communities." page 576

29. "Writers who take reproduction as the sole or primary goal of sex have virtually without exception dealt with human sexuality from an exclusively male perspective. Men are normally fertile from puberty to late old age, and male orgasm accompanies the emission of sperm. Thus the view that sex and reproduction are inextricably joined together reflects the experience of most men. Women experience sex differently. Females are fertile only for a fraction of their adult life, from puberty to menopause. The biological cycle of the human female, unlike that of most other animals, does not involve a close link between ovulation and the female sex drive. Moreover, orgasm for women is primarily a function of the clitoris, which has no reproductive function at all. thus the link between sexual satisfaction and reproduction is relatively weak from a woman's viewpoint. Reproductionist writers about sexual morality have historically rejected this point of view. Indeed, they have rarely even considered it." page 580

30. "The model of sexuality that lays primary emphasis on the impurity of sex also remains vigorous." page 581

31. "Advocates of the pollution model of sex attach only secondary importance to procreation; hence they tend not to emphasize "nature" as a criterion of sexual morality, nor are they greatly concerned about contraception. Unlike procreationists, pollutionists strongly favor limiting marital relations by restricting the times, seasons, places, and circumstances in which sex is allowed." page 581

32. "The third model of sexuality views marital sex as a source of intimacy and affection, as both a symbol and a source of conjugal love. Subscribers to this school of thought regard sexual pleasure more positively than do adherents of the other two models." page 581

33. "Writers at different periods during the Middle Ages adopted elements of each of these models of human sexuality, as we have seen, in varying combinations and with varying degrees of enthusiasm." page 582

34. "Since the Reformation, Protestant Christians have often emphasized the third model of sexuality, although some Protestant authorities (notably the Puritans) stressed the impurity view." page 582

35. "Catholic tradition has consistently opposed many varieties of sexual expression - it condemns premarital and extramarital relationships, remarriage following divorce, and all types of deviant sexual practices, including oral and anal intercourse (either homosexual or heterosexual) and masturbation - and classifies them as grievous sins." page 583

36. "These three factors - the continuity of the socioeconomic environment, the continuing identification of the erotic with the sacred, and the inertia of the law and its institutions - not only help to explain the continuity of medieval sexual teaching, but are useful in understanding the historical development of that teaching itself." page 586

37. "While the medieval church's marriage and sex policies may have helped to increase ecclesiastical wealth, it does not necessarily follow that the system was designed in order to achieve that goal, although some Protestant reformers suspected that it had been. We are more likely dealing with an unintended result of the Church's urge to protect the sanctity of sex, rather than with policy consciously created to enrich the ecclesiastical establishment.

The leaders of the medieval church, although occasionally sensitive to the problems and moral dilemmas of their flocks, were often indifferent to the social implications that their policies created. Nowhere was their indifference more marked than in matters concerning reproduction and family life. . .

. . . Virtually all restrictions that now apply to sexual behavior in Western societies stem form moral convictions enshrined in medieval canonical jurisprudence." page 587

38. 'The history of changing concepts among Christian leaders and intellectuals about the nature of human sexuality and about the kinds and varieties of sexual practices that are consistent with Christian beliefs suggests that dogmatic ascertains about the unity, consistency, and invariably of Christian sexual morality must be treated with skepticism. "Christian sexual morality" has encompassed a wide range of inconsistent views." page 594

39. "The failure of medieval efforts to eradicate fornication, concubinage, premarital cohabitation, adultery, and sodomy through legal prescriptions, even where those prescriptions were backed by serious enforcement efforts, is rather sobering. It suggests that simply enacting theological principles into law is not likely to be a rewarding exercise." page 595

The History of Handfasting
The History of Handfasting

Handfasting at one time was the only way that couples could be engaged and/or get married because the church let the civil government of the period take care of these matters. In the British Isles, Handfasting was the old pagan ritual of marriage and it remained legal in Scotland all the way up to 1939. In those times, the couple themselves performed the Handfasting before witnesses. It was also used in Scotland for the engagement period of a year and a day before a wedding was proved.

The very word Handfasting got it's origin in the wedding custom of tying the bride and groom's hands together. In some versions, this is only done for as long as the ceremony lasts, but in others, the cord is not untied until the marriage is physically consummated.

Handfasting is the marriage rite used toady by many Heathens, neo-Pagans and Wiccans. The term itself comes from the custom of shaking hands over a contract. It is a custom steeped in old tradition.

In most Pagan traditions today it may mean a non-state registered wedding or one in which a marriage license is filed. For some it is a year and a day, renewable "so long as love shall last" and for others a commitment to be together through many lives.

There are probably as many rituals for this as there are people who have joined themselves together.

The hands are generally bound with a cord as part of the ritual.

One custom is that while facing each other, the couple placed their right hands together and then their left hands together to form an infinity symbol while a cord is tied around their hands in a knot. Another custom is that the man and woman place their right hands only together while a cord is used to tie a knot around their wrists.

The ritual itself might have been led by a respected non-church affiliate such as a Chieftain, Leader, Priest, Priestess, Shaman, or Elder of the community while the couple took turns reciting their vows of promise to be engaged for a year and a day in front of witnesses. On the last day of the year and a day promise they would then make a promise for infinity repeating their promise to each again. A cord is tied in a knot around their hand while the ritual takes place. This is where the term tie the knot came from when referring to getting engaged or married today.

In day of old, records were not kept who got engaged, married, had kids, and died. Today the Sacraments of the church has the responsibility of taking care of these things. Before the church took over these duties, these things were overseen by the whole community and therefore were set in law by their witnessing what happened between the couple making the promise.

If a Handfasting was performed with the two left hands together without the tying of the knot, as was the custom of rich and influential German nobility, it meant that the woman was a mistress and would not be able to claim the name, inheritance, property, etc. of the real wife and was only in the protection of the man. But her offspring would be taken care of as legal heirs second in line to the man's legal and first wife. Having lots of children was once the only form of "Social Security" in one's old age. The previous combinations were all considered legal and binding in an engagement or marriage except for the left hand ritual.

The Handfasting gesture seems to have been derived from one of the ancient Indo-European images of male-female conjunction, the infinity sign, whose twin circles represented the sun (female) and the moon (male) or in some of the southern Mediterranean traditions it was sun (male) and moon (female).

Two-handed Handfasting still constituted a fully legal marriage throughout Europe whether the blessing of the church was sought or not. Clergymen, of course, recommended that newlyweds attend church as soon as possible after the signing of the contract and the Handfasting. Marriage is now one the Seven Sacraments that had been ignored by the church for centuries. Only the very wealthy and affluent could afford church marriages. Handfastings were under the jurisdiction of common law rather than canon law. In the 16th century in Switzerland, if couples were seen in public drinking together they could be considered married.

~Author Unknown~

The world-wide history of marriage
The world-wide history of marriage:

http://marriage.miningco.com/cs/history/

BBB--

Thanks. I'm impressed and edified.