medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I just did a quick run through the index of Powicke and Cheney's _Councils and Synods_ and came up with these samples, not exhaustive, of the general guidelines from several thirteenth-century dioceses about where marriages should be celebrated. Most of the thrust of this thirteenth-century synodal legislation seems to be to prevent clandestine marriages by having nuptials celebrated publicly and preceded by the announcement of banns. Notice that there isn't much about specific locations for the ceremony.
For what it's worth, the Sarum manual has this rubric about the location of the ceremony, which also indirectly suggests more about our recent discussion of the right and left divisions of the nave between men and women: "In primis statuantur vir et mulier ante ostium ecclesie coram deo, sacerdote, et populo, vir a dextris mulieris et mulier a sinistris viri."
Diocesan statutes: Marriage should be celebrated:
Winchester (1224): "apud ecclesiam"
Unspecified diocese (c. 1222-25): "in loco celebri et coram publicis et pluribus personis ad hoc vocatis"
Worcester (1240): "testibus autem dignis adhibitis in presentia sacerdotis"
Salisbury (c. 1238-44): "in facie ecclesie"
Chichester (c. 1245-52): "publice et coram testibus ydoneis"
Wells (1258): "in fidedignorum presentia"
London (1245-59): "Matrimonia igitur cum honore et reverentia et in locis honestis et tempore congruo sunt celebranda"
Exter (1287): "Cum autem matrimonium in facie ecclesie fuerit solennizandum, palam et in ostio ecclesie sacerdos interroget contrahentes si sibi invicem consentiant ab ipsis singillatim."
Best,
John
-------------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Office: (574) 284-4494
Fax: (574) 284-4716
----- Original Message -----
From: John Briggs <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thursday, September 29, 2005 12:16 pm
Subject: Re: [M-R] Porches (was North Door)
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
> Shannon McSheffrey wrote:
> > Kit French said:
> >
> > "I wonder if there were fewer porches in London parishes.
> Because some
> > churches were jammed in between other buildings, did they have
> > porches as often as churches outside of London? might this be
> another> reason why no references to porch weddings?
> > Kit"
> >
> > I think this is a plausible hypothesis, but don't know much about
> > church architecture in London ... maybe somebody else does?
>
> I think we are getting carried away. I don't think weddings *had*
> to be in
> church porches (rather than the nave) - unless the country was
> under
> Interdict (this is from a distant memory of "1066 And All That"!)
>
> John Briggs
>
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