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At 19:15 19/02/99 +0000, you wrote: >Dear friends, > >Could anyone please tell me when the sacrament of marriage was >instituted in the Catholic Church? Would you have any advice as >to what reference works to recommend to a student in this regard? >Thanks in advance for your help! > Kathryn Karczewska >Harvard University > > It was instituted in the Garden of Eden, as you will find stated in the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer: " . . . instituted of God in the time of man's innoceny." In Canon 1055 of the Catholic Church you will find, "The marriage covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of their whole life, and which of its own very nature is ordered to the well-being of the spouses and the procreation and upbringing of children, has, between the baptised, been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament". The last phrase, "has been raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament" says two important things about sacramental theology: First, it is of the nature of a sacrament that it is instituted by Christ. If it was not instituted by Christ, then it is not a sacrament. All seven of the sacraments can be traced to the institution of Christ. If a particular rite - e.g. the imposition of ashes - does not go back to the time of Christ, then it is, ipso facto, not a sacrament. In this sense your question answers itself. Second, it talks about Christ "raising" an already existing custom "to the dignity of a sacrament." Similar language could be used about all the sacraments. Christ did not actually institute any of them, in the sense that he invented a new rite. In each case he invested an already-existing rite with a new meaning and a new dignity. Thus, baptism existed before the time of Christ; it was practised by John the Baptist; but the command of Jesus, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . . ." (Matthew 28) gave it a new meaning and dignity. The Passover meal existed before the time of Christ; but by taking bread at the meal and declaring it to be his body, and wine, declaring it to be his blood, he gave a new meaning to the feast. People were anointed before the time of Christ; there are many examples in the Old Testament; but by sending out his disciples to perform this ministry (cf. Mark 6:13) Jesus raised it to the dignity of a sacrament. Forgiveness of sins existed before the time of Christ; but Jesus claimed to have a particular authority to forgive them (Mark 2:10) and he passed this authority on to his Church at John 20:21, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." Marriage likewise existed long before the time of Jesus; it is said in Genesis to have been instituted in the Garden of Eden; but Jesus conferred a special dignity on it at Matthew 19:3 ff. He says to the Pharisees, citing Genesis, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.?' So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." Marriage is the only one of the sacraments which is actually called a sacrament in the New Testament. Cf Ephesians 5:31-2. First Paul quotes the same Genesis text as Jesus: propter hoc reliquet homo patrem et matrem suam et adherebit uxori suae et erunt duo in carne una Then he goes on: sacramentum hoc magnum est "This is a great sacrament" - or, as it is usually translated, a great mystery (the Greek word is "mysterion"). Marriage was therefore regarded as a sacrament from New Testament times onwards. However, until the twelfth century, and indeed into the thirteenth, the word "sacrament" was rather a weak word, signifying no more than "symbol". You need to be reading books on the development of sacramental theology in the twelfth century. the key figure is Peter Lombard, who in his "Sentences" is the first to enumerate clearly the seven sacraments, distinguishing them from "sacramentals" - other rites, such as the imposition of ashes, which, although they have an outward and visible sign,were not instituted by Christ and do not therefore necessarily effect what they signify. He describes sacraments as "effectual signs". What does that mean? If you are baptised, your sins are forgiven. We have Christ's own assurance of this (cf. Mark 16:16, "He who believes and is baptised will be saved"). So baptism effects the washing-away of sins which it signifies. On the other hand, putting ashes on your head may signify repentance, but it does not necessarily bring about repentance. Matrimony is an effectual sign, in that it does not merely signify the joining of two people, but actually joins them. The Supple Doctor. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%