To Have and to Hold: Marrying and Its Documentation in Western Christendom, 400–1600 (review)

The volume studies “premodern” European marriage documents, analyzing the function of these documents and what they reveal about marriage. The collection of essays is marked by its breadth. Liturgical material, “marriage contracts,” and church court records are discussed. It takes the reader from the later Roman Empire to John Calvin’s Geneva, and from Iceland to North Africa. Scholars from a wide range of disciplines contribute, and they often interact with each other’s material. Most chapters end with translated documentary appendices that allow the reader to look at much of the material on which the individual studies are based. This will be particularly helpful to students wanting to understand the primary material.

The study opens with a clear introduction to the subject. Reynolds sketches out the process by which consent alone made a marriage and the extent to which the clergy were involved in marriages. He also gives a brief history of “dotation” and surveys the types of documents that are discussed in this anthology. The chapter on later Roman law is particularly useful, given the regular references to Roman law in the rest of the volume. Other themes that are discussed throughout the volume include degrees of separation, concubinage, consent, the role of the paterfamilias, betrothal, and dotation.

Some marriage documents had a more religious and ideological function than others. David G. Hunter’s work on Roman North Africa demonstrates that there was nothing to distinguish a Christian from a pagan marriage, but that Augustine used tabulae matrimoniales as moral indicators to advance his definition of sex and marriage. Philip Reynolds’s chapter on Frankish dotal charters focuses on their theology, which is not distinctively Augustinian. Sacramental language appears clearly in the five dower charters from Laon and Soissons, which are the focus of Laurent Morelle’s chapter; he also finds in them “a new maturity and depth in the pastoral message about marriage” (p. 177). Morelle argues that the bishop’s chancery monopolized production of these charters and used them to proclaim the Church’s teaching about marriage in opposition to antimatrimonial heresies circulating at the time. In contrast, Cynthia Johnson does not think that the documents she studies served a didactic purpose. The marriage agreements in question were concerned with properties given on the occasion of marriage.

In a very convincing chapter Richard Helmholz compares secular and spiritual marriage contracts and demonstrates the importance of the family in the choice of a marriage partner. This is a striking theme of the volume, and it stands out particularly strongly in the chapters on Florence, Geneva, and Iceland. Local variation is another significant theme. Frederik Pedersen’s study of lay and ecclesiastical court shows the laity engaging opportunistically with the courts. The chapters on Ireland and Iceland depict the slow advance of canon law in Gaelic Ireland and Iceland and the presence of local variation.

The volume ends with a study of the topic in Reformation Geneva. The chapter demonstrates continuity and change. Church weddings became essential for marriage, interestingly as they would with the Council of Trent in 1563. Given that references to Trent run throughout, it is a pity that a chapter is not devoted to it. In general, the anthology has been thoughtfully compiled, and chapters follow each other in logical progression. Authors often mention other chapters to highlight common themes, continuity, and divergence, which give the book coherence and helps readers appreciate the bigger picture.