medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Hopefully someone else here can be more help, but I thought I would
start things off.

For canon law:

The relevant portion of Gratian's Decretum is Case 30, question 3,
especially canon 3.  Gratian quotes Zacharius and Deusdedit there: "No
one should give a daughter he has received from the Sacred Font to his
own son in matrimony, because, by divine judgment, they are brother
and sister.  If someone has been involved in such a crime and failed
to control his lechery, let him be abominated by the Catholic Church"
(tr. John T. Noonan, Jr.).

There's plenty of controversy over things like degrees of affinity
(e.g. could the convert's son marry Charlemagne's granddaughter) and
siblings (e.g. could the convert's brother marry Charlemagne's
daughter) in the legal texts (see the Decretals of Gregory IX of 1234
(Liber Extra), Book 4, Title 11).  As far as I can tell, the simple
case you have presented would always be considered a problem by the
canon lawyers.

On the other hand, I'm guessing that customs in some places (I'm
thinking of rural areas) probably overlooked the impediment due to
necessity.

For councils:

Hopefully someone can recommend something like Sheehey's article about
French sources.  There is plenty of material in the 18th-century
edition of Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum (vol. 22 covers the years 1166
to 1225), which is available online.  However, I don't know of
anything like an index for it.  I would love to know of either an
index or a searchable version of Mansi if it exists.

Jonathan Hall

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 7:36 AM, MJ Ailes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Dear Colleagues
>
> I am working on an Old French text in which a baptised Saracen convert
> then marries the daughter of his baptismal sponsor (Charlemagne).  I
> understood this to be spiritual incest, but the text gives no indications
> of this being problematic. Investigating this I have only been able to
> find references to the spiritual relationship as an impediment to marriage
> in English sources: Sheehey  Marriage Theory and Practice in the Conciliar
> Legislation and Diocese Statutes of Medieval England , in Marriage, Family
> and Law in Medieval Europe refers to Canon II of the Council of
> Westminster setting as an impediment to marriage the spiritual affinity
> rising between a person baptised and all the children of those who
> baptised and sponsored him. Statutes for the dioceses of Exeter and
> Salisbry also present this as an impediment to marriage.  On the continent
> the only reference to this seems to be much earlier, in the Law of the
> Lombards (Lynch Godparents and kinship in Early Medieval Europe).  My text
> probably dates from the early 13th-c. so the Statutes of the Fourth
> Lateran Council would be an obvious place to look but seem to contain no
> reference to spiritual affinity in the decrees which decrease the
> impediments to marriage. I would be grateful for any suggestions about
> where to look for this
>
> Marianne (Ailes)
>
> --
> Dr Marianne Ailes
> Senior Lecturer in French
> School of Modern Languages
> Bristol

>

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