Greetings!
>From a secular standpoint, marriage by the church door became the
standard way of having the community witness the marriage and (in England)
for the husband to publicly state his wife's dower (e.g. what properties
were included in it). While the Church continued to recognize that the
vow and the consummation were the two basic components of marriage--
and that clandestine marriages could be valid--from the standpoint of
inheritance law, clandestine marriage wasn't very tidy, and so both
secular and sacred authorities tried their best to promote public marriage,
and the church door became the expected place it would happen. The couple
usually went inside afterwards for a special Mass.
For a little proof of how important this was, I've looked at legal records
in England, specifically those involving dower. Dower was a contentious
issue--it was intended to support a widow after her husband's death, but
often the children or other heirs contested the assignment of the dower
(hence some of the passages concerning it in Magna Carta) out of concern
that the property they would inherit would be diminished, or worse yet,
pass out of their control if the woman remarried. It was very, very important
that there be witnesses to both the marriage and the assignment of dower,
particularly if particular properties were mentioned.
We shouldn't discount the role of the parish church as a sort of "town hall"
before there were any town halls as well. In smaller towns, the church
formed sort of a locus for civic life, which is why so many guilds started
off meeting there--and spending money to beautify it.
Cheers--
Susan Carroll-Clark
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