medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Postles, Dr D.A. wrote:
> Katherine French wrote:
>>
>> This sounds very interesting, you might also want to look at Shannon
>> McSheffrey's work on London material, because she has lots of cases where
>> marriages don't take place in the church or porch, but in houses,
>> taverns, and other places.
>
> Kit is right, of course, because these were marriages by verba de
> presenti and verba de futuro. What I should have said was 'when
> marriage took place in facie ecclesie, it was performed...' As
> usual, my phrasing was slovenly and imprecise. I must reform myself.
My understanding (which, I hasten to add, derives from Shakespeare's "As You
Like It" - 'I take thee Rosalind for wife') is that sponsalia per verba de
futuro were betrothals, but sponsalia per verba de presenti were valid
marriages. Until the Council of Trent, of course, but its writ didn't run
to England, so they continued to be valid until they were abolished somewhat
retrospectively in 1843 by a court ruling that they had never existed!
John Briggs
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