At 11:41 AM 2/22/99 -0600, you wrote:
>The time period between the birth of the child and the churching of the
>mother was, as far as I have found, a flexible matter perhaps governed as
>much by local custom as by any Scriptural precedent. I've based that
>conclusion on material from synodal statutes and records from episcopal
>courts. (I'm looking at northern France, between 1100 and 1500.) The
>waiting period between birth and purification was often stated as "about a
>month" or "one month, according to custom." (I'm paraphrasing here.)
> I'm not sure if this was also true for other regions outside of northern
>France. Perhaps Becky Lee is still on-line and can offer information about
>medieval England?
Take a look at distinction 5 in Gratian's Decretum (ca. 1140), where he
discussed the law on this matter in some detail. This, incidentally, is
one of the relatively few passages of Gratian's work where you can find not
only the text, but also the Ordinary Gloss available in English, and in
paperback, at that: Gratian, _The Treatise on Laws_, trans. Augustine
Thompson, with the _Ordinary Gloss_ trans. James Gordley (Washington, D.C.:
Catholic University of America Press, 1993).
JAB
>
>Paula Rieder
>University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
>
>
James A. Brundage
History & Law
University of Kansas
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