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The "Marriage Crisis" in 12th Century Europe

© Rachelle Hughes

The Catholic Church's power among their growing Christian followers went through great changes from the sixth to the eleventy century. In the year 500 the leaders of the church could do little more than protest and preach proper marital practices. By the eighth century they had established their authority in deterring forbidden marriages by establishing consaguinity rules including spiritual kin (i.e. godparents), in-laws and blood relations. During the ninth through the 11th century the Church made great strides in requiring mutual consent between the bridegroom and the bride. They worked hard at preventing marriages from disentegrating. By the 11th century Excommunication had become a real threat to a growing Christian moralist civilization and the Church was not afraid to enforce its power. Yet at the beginning of the twelfth century the Church and the nobility clashed on marriage issues. The current church rules of the time and the developing social philosophies on marriage issues created confusion, discord and finally a melting pot solution.

One of the main debates was the right to divorce a spouse. The Church was in full disagreement with divorce, while society felt a husband could divorce his wife if he wanted. In order to get around the Catholic Church's anti-divorce ruling, nobility, kings and the public often used the church's seven degree law of consaguinity to their advantage; a side effect the Church was unprepared to handle. It was pretty easy to prove that an unwanted spouse was related within seven degress of relationship. It was also pretty easy to overlook when shopping for a new spouse. Other questions loomed for which the Church struggled to find answers: How to deal with concubinage, Were the incest and consaguinity laws to strict? Was mutual consent necessary to a legitimate marriage? Did sex constitute a marriage? and finally what constituted a marriage? These final two questions seemed to be the root of the problem.

For peasants, informal and clandestine marriages had long been acceptable marriage customs. Often a marriage was considered acceptable if a couple had been living together and having sexual relations even if there was no ceremony. This lack of formality was a real concern to the Church. Even abduction was considered marriage in some parts of Europe if consummation had occured.

Gratian, an intellectual illuminary, offered a simple, albeit liberal, solution. He said that consent was the one indespensable part of determining a legitimate marriage. Although the Church encouraged consent, Gratian thought that consent must be active not passive. For example a father's oath should not be able to provide assurance to his daughter's marriage if the daughter did not consent. Although this Gratian concept was accepted eventually, other aspects of his philosophies only added to the confusion. According to Gratian concubinage was an informal and imperfect, but nevertheless valid marriage because there was consent and consummation.

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