Deregulating Marriage

It might surprise you to know that, in the beginning, the church took relatively little interest in marriage. Early in church history, celibacy was the preferred state. It was practically sacred. The Apostle Paul said as much in 1 Corinthians, 7:1. And marriage? Well, it was all but ignored.

As one writer puts it, "When asked, some priests might say a blessing as a favor, just as they'd say a blessing over a child's first haircut." Roman law spelled out the requirements for marriage and most early Christians were content to "render unto Caesar" in matters pertaining to marriage.

Marriage was typically announced rather than pronounced. I'll come back to this distinction later, but for now it's important simply to recognize the difference between announced and pronounced marriages. Early on, families would simply

there was going to be a marriage, and the church took little notice.

Centuries rolled by with virtually no change to this arrangement. But then something began to happen. Historians don't agree on the details, but what seems clear is that power became an issue. Slowly and unevenly, the church exerted its control over Europe's social and political life, writing laws pertaining to marriage, family, and sex. In 774, the pope gave Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor, a set of writings that defined marriage and condemned all deviations from it.

But it wasn't until 1215 that the Roman Catholic Church formally decreed marriage a sacrament. Equally important, the church established a systematic canon law for marriage--with a system of ecclesiastical courts to enforce it.

These actions profoundly shaped our understanding of marriage. In 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door in Wittenberg, among his concerns were the Catholic Church's rules about marriage. In 1520, Luther publicly burned the canon law. The battle had begun.

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