Does the Priest Have to Be There? Contested Marriages Before Roman Tribunals. Italy, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. In: Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaften, 3, 2009, 10-30.
The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more... more The Council of Trent established the requirements that a marriage be celebrated by the parish priest and two or more witnesses be present at the marriage (1563), but neglected to specify who the parish priest was. The decrees provoked confusion among both laymen and churchmen. Traces thereof can be found in the hitherto essentially unexplored documentation of The Congregation of the Council. This institution was founded in 1564 specifically to resolve the questions that arose all over the catholic world by the application of the decrees promulgated at Trent. The related records are held in the Vatican Secret Archive. Through an examination of this documentation, complemented by files of the Holy Office the author analyzes how the new rules were understood, experienced, used, circumvented, and manipulated both by laymen and churchmen in order to end an unwanted marriage, to facilitate a union that was socially transgressive, opposed by family, or even heterodox, and to respond to pastoral concerns.
Marriage and Consent in Pretridentine Venice: Between Lay Conception and Ecclesiastical Conception, 1420-1545. In: The Sixteenth Century Journal, 39, 2008, 389-418.
The main sources of this article are 750 matrimonial trials discussed before the ecclesiastical court in Venice... more The main sources of this article are 750 matrimonial trials discussed before the ecclesiastical court in Venice (1420-1545). This article analyzes the differing conceptions of marriage held by the laity and by the ecclesiastical hierarchy as these ideas were expressed in a dialectical relationship in court. Central to this analysis is the concept of consent, since consent, with widely differing interpretations, formed the foundation and the essence of both canonical and lay customary marriage. In the pre-Tridentine ecclesiastical court, custom played a leading role in deciding matters related to the marriage bond. These sources allow access to aspects of marriage that are usually not recorded and make it possible to reevaluate social phenomena which have been defined from a post-Tridentine perspective as transgressive. Practices such as bigamy, concubinage, and stuprum appear not as deviant, but as part of socially accepted marital behavior that is much broader and more heterogeneous than historians have appreciated.
Tra violenze e giustizie. La società del mediterraneo occidentale e cattolico in antico regime
published in "il Palindromo. Storie al rovescio e di frontiera", n. 3, 2011, pages 83-110
This article try to explain why and how banditism, violence, forgiveness and peace are complementary concepts in the... more This article try to explain why and how banditism, violence, forgiveness and peace are complementary concepts in the Mediterreanean ancient regime.
The Remarkable Role of Women in 16th Century French Basque Law Codes
by Roslyn Frank
This file consists of three lightly revised versions of papers published originally in 1977, along with responses to them by Rachel Bard, Tacoma Community College, Jon Bilbao, University of Nevada, Reno, and Eugene Goyheneche, Université de Pau (France), respectively. The text includes an Appendix with a transcription of the “Doléances du sexes de st. Jean de luz et cibour au roi”, dating from 1789 and which originally appeared in print in 1922.
Paper # 1. The role of the Basque woman and Etxeko-andrea: “The mistress of the house”. Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, Vol. IV, 14-21. Santa Barbara, California, 1977.
Paper # 2. Inheritance, marriage and dowry rights in the Navarrese and French Basque law codes, Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, Vol. IV, 22-31. Santa Barbara, California;
Paper #3. Women's rights and the 'Doléances du Sexe de St. Jean de Luz et Cibour au Roi', Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, Vol. IV, 32-39. Santa Barbara, California.
900 views
Seen by: and 16 more
