Medieval Marriage in the Gender Dimension: Woman and Family in Canon Law

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the essential characteristics of medieval marriage relations, the gender component of marriage law, the social and legal status of a medieval woman according to the system of canonical marriage law, which was established in Western Europe during the XII-XIV centuries. Marriage was the basis of medieval social, economic and political organization. During the Middle Ages, the secular authorities never stopped trying to control certain aspects of marriage law (primarily material ones). The recognition of marriage as a sacrament gave the church authorities the right to determine the legality of marriage, and the jurisdictional competence of the Church in marriage matters gradually expanded.

The article analyzes the prerequisites for entering into marriage, what, according to canonists, is marriage, who can participate in it, how marriage should take place, under what circumstances divorce and remarriage are possible. It has been established that church tribunals exercised jurisdiction over the conclusion and termination of marriage, the legitimacy of children, and all types of sexual behavior. It is noted that the canonical courts also had criminal jurisdiction over all types of extramarital sexual conduct. Fornication, adultery, bigamy, rape, incest, prostitution and sodomy were subject to ecclesiastical punishments and belonged to the competence of ecclesiastical tribunals.

It can be considered proven that during the Middle Ages the prohibition of incest was a strategic tool to challenge the legality of marriages, the only possible and legal means to annul and terminate marriages. The authors consider it indisputable that in sexual relations in a medieval marriage (fulfilment of the "marital debt") a woman (wife) had equal power, equal rights and duties with her husband.

It is concluded that the institution of monogamous marriage developed in Western European canons and the principle of the indissolubility of the marriage bond gradually gained enormous symbolic and real weight both in the religious and legal ideology of the Middle Ages.