medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Subject: Altars of the poor
> From: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Fri, October 17, 2003 3:43 am
> To: "medieval religion" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> I'm currently reading a novel by Zola (anti-clerical to the core but
> scrupulously "true to life") in which a couple get married at an "altar
> of the poor," the high altar being reserved for the rich and famous.
> Could anyone tell me how old this practice is and how it even began to
> square with the teachings of the Church? It may have been a practice
> that was technically forbidden but done nonetheless by wayward clerics
> here and there. Zola's priest also charges the couple for the nuptial
> mass, another no-no, and the groom and the priest haggle over the price.
> But the phrase, "altar of the poor," somehow rings true. To anyone's
> knowledge, was this a medieval practice?
> Thanks,
> MG
I was under the impression that pre-Reformation marriages didn't take place
within the church at all, but at the church door (Cf the Wife of Bath--
'Husbands at church door had I five' [spelling modernised!]) and also that
any mass said for a dedicated purpose required a payment. This is one of the
legs of the argument of John the Common Weal in Lindsay's Thrie Estaits--
the man complains that successive deaths in the family have beggared him
because the priest came and demanded the cow, then the calf, then the good
blanket off the bed, as statutory payment for burying the dead. In a
cash-poor economy, this left him with no means of feeding his children.
I too wd love to know how this squares with the teachings of the Church.
Pat
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