P.M.R. writes:
> If anyone is interested in rites earlier than the 12th century,
>see K. Ritzer, _Le mariage dans les eglises chretienne du Ier au XIe
>siecles_, (Les Editions du Cerfs, 1970). Originally in German.
Regarding the function of nuptial rites:
I might add that for the early M.A.s they might look at P.L. Reynolds,
_Marriage in the Western Church_ (Brill, 1994), esp. pp. 315 ff. (on the
nuptial process). The author is dependant on Ritzer but focuses more on the
(legal and theological) function of the rites rather than on their forms.
Also, for the later period, one should read Art Cosgrove's work on Ireland,
which complements the classic work of Helmholz and the fine work of Sheehan
on England: see A. Cosgrove, "Marriage in medieval Ireland," in A.
Cosgrove, ed., _Marriage in Ireland_ (Dublin: College Press, 1985), pp.
25-50. See also idem., "Consent, consummation and indissolubility: some
evidence from mediaeval ecclesiastical courts," _Downside Review_ 109
(1991), pp. 94-104. (The latter is a most entertaining paper from a
conference that Reynolds organized at Downside Abbey in England: here
Cosgrove draws on his own work and Helmholz's.) Cosgrove underlines the
extraordinary consequences of the non-necessity for any formalities.
If I remember rightly, the Council of Trent was promulgated neither in
Ireland nor in France, so that its decisive ruling against Clandestine
marriages ("Tametsi", on which there is a good literature, mainly in
French) was not effective in those places, where matters followed their own
course. "Tametsi" was done with the best of intentions but engendered
confusions about the nature of marriage qua sacrament & the Church's role
in same from which the Catholic Church is still suffering.
The correspondence on the porching of marriages in England has been really
intesting and rewarding. I remember that C.N.L. Brooke took some flak from
reviewers for his remarks about porching in _The Medieval Idea of Marriage_
(1989), but I can't remember why. I doubt that the phrase "in facie
ecclesiae" originally referred to the *location* of the troth-plighting, as
one correspondent suggested -- I think it just meant "in full view of the
Church" -- but it's a plausible suggestion and one worth exploring. This
has become tricky, because it's perhaps a term more current in modern
scholarship than in the medieval sources.
Lyndon Reynolds.
- - -
Lyndon Reynolds (Emory University), [log in to unmask]
Aquinas Center of Theology
1703 Clifton Road #F-5
Atlanta, GA 30329, U.S.A.
(404) 727-8861 FAX: (404) 727-8862.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|