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Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215–1517

Wolfgang P Müller author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:2nd Nov '23

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Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215–1517 cover

Examines how late medieval church courts were used for marriage cases, and how this varied dramatically across Europe.

From the establishment of a coherent doctrine on sacramental marriage to the eve of the Reformation, late medieval church courts were used for marriage cases in a variety of ways. This study explores the stark discrepancies in practice between the North and South of Europe, and what this reveals about the institutions of marriage and the Church.From the establishment of a coherent doctrine on sacramental marriage to the eve of the Reformation, late medieval church courts were used for marriage cases in a variety of ways. Ranging widely across Western Europe, including the Upper and Lower Rhine regions, England, Italy, Catalonia, and Castile, this study explores the stark discrepancies in practice between the North of Europe and the South. Wolfgang P. Müller draws attention to the existence of public penitential proceedings in the North and their absence in the South, and explains the difference in demand, as well as highlighting variations in how individuals obtained written documentation of their marital status. Integrating legal and theological perspectives on marriage with late medieval social history, Müller addresses critical questions around the relationship between the church and medieval marriage, and what this reveals about both institutions.

'An ambitious and successful demonstration of the markedly different ways the medieval canon law of marriage was put into practice. Based on a command of archival evidence, it makes an important contribution to European legal and social history.' R. H. Helmholz, University of Chicago
'Müller would have written a more coherent and tightly argued book if he had confined himself to his abundantly documented Northern European case studies. By pushing his analysis southward, however, he wrote a more captivating and stimulating one. The result of his ambition is a sprawling and learned overview of the varied experiences, judicial and penitential, of sacramental marriage in Western Europe over a period of three centuries.' André Vitória, Speculum

ISBN: 9781108958189

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 15mm

Weight: 409g

278 pages