Marriage Practices/Customs

[imkingdad]

I have been trying to gather some information about specific Marriage Practices within the Catholic Church over the centuries. Given the Relative Isolation of many Catholic/Christian Communities and the shortage of Priests and their only occasional visits to these types of rural communities, how was marriage, and the living together arrangements of man and woman accommodated during the Dark ages through the Middle Ages when priests and Churches became more common. Seems that human lust being what it is, that some instances of what is today a common practice of living together/in sin before marriage might have also existed then, only to be rectified later by the arrival of a Priest to perform a marriage. Given that it was only in 1547 at the Council of Trent that today’s marriage norms became Official I was wondering about the “Before” period. The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia addressed the general subject well but not this subset. Any Catholic Historians out there that can help me?

Thank you in advance.

 

[1ke]

Given the Relative Isolation of many Catholic/Christian Communities and the shortage of Priests and their only occasional visits to these types of rural communities, how was marriage, and the living together arrangements of man and woman accommodated during the Dark ages through the Middle Ages when priests and Churches became more common.

That’s not a “given” at all. So let’s start with your premise, please substantiate this supposed shortage of priests and only occasional visits to communities and that communities lacked priests and churches until some specific time period.

Also define Dark and Middle Ages with more precise time periods, please.

 

[ClearWater]

I have been trying to gather some information about specific Marriage Practices within the Catholic Church over the centuries. Given the Relative Isolation of many Catholic/Christian Communities and the shortage of Priests and their only occasional visits to these types of rural communities, how was marriage, and the living together arrangements of man and woman accommodated during the Dark ages through the Middle Ages when priests and Churches became more common. Seems that human lust being what it is, that some instances of what is today a common practice of living together/in sin before marriage might have also existed then, only to be rectified later by the arrival of a Priest to perform a marriage. Given that it was only in 1547 at the Council of Trent that today’s marriage norms became Official I was wondering about the “Before” period. The New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia addressed the general subject well but not this subset. Any Catholic Historians out there that can help me?

Thank you in advance.

 

[imkingdad]

Let’s use the Wiki Def. for lack of a better a source and since I’m time consumed and travelling. It is a fact that rural Believers had less access to Priests and Mass than those within the Metro areas of this era. Certainly there were People that due to their Agricultural work would, could and did miss Mass from time to time and even over extended periods. Even in the Wild West the ability to get to Mass every Sunday was not an assured thing. Nor was it easy for a lot of particular denominations of Protestants to get to “their” Church and many would have gone to another denomination’s Church or just stayed home. So why not get back to the point of the discussion which is what were the Practices across those eras Dark and Middle ages until the Church Formally declared the sacrament of Marriage and the required practices to prepare for it and to become Married.

The Dark Ages is a historical periodization used originally for the Middle Ages, which emphasizes the cultural and economic deterioration that supposedly occurred in Western Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire.[1][2] The label employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the “darkness” of the period with earlier and later periods of “light”.[3] The period is characterized by a relative scarcity of historical and other written records at least for some areas of Europe, rendering it obscure to historians. The term “Dark Age” derives from the Latin saeculum obscurum, originally applied by Caesar Baronius in 1602 to a tumultuous period in the 10th and 11th centuries.[4]

Originally the term characterized the bulk of the Middle Ages, or roughly the 6th to 13th centuries, as a period of intellectual darkness between extinguishing the “light of Rome” after the end of Late Antiquity, and the rise of the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century.[3][5] This definition is still found in popular use,[1][2][6] but increased recognition of the accomplishments of the Middle Ages has led to the label being restricted in application. Since the 20th century, it is frequently applied to the earlier part of the era, the Early Middle Ages (c. 5th–10th century).[7][8] However, many modern scholars who study the era tend to avoid the term altogether for its negative connotations, finding it misleading and inaccurate for any part of the Middle Ages.

 

[DarkLight]

Canon law even today provides rules for this.

Can. 1112 §1. Where there is a lack of priests and deacons, the diocesan bishop can delegate lay persons to assist at marriages, with the previous favorable vote of the conference of bishops and after he has obtained the permission of the Holy See.

Can. 1116 §1. If a person competent to assist according to the norm of law cannot be present or approached without grave inconvenience, those who intend to enter into a true marriage can contract it validly and licitly before witnesses only:

1/ in danger of death;

2/ outside the danger of death provided that it is prudently foreseen that the situation will continue for a month.