For Better or Worse

Have you noticed how men, as in male, have a tendency to make a mouthful of what seems to the unhampered mind so simple?

Take marriage for example. There was a time, around the 1200’s or thereabouts, that couples could get married simply by stating the fact that they wished to become husband and wife.

Then men, who have such a thing about debating, especially the finer points of a word, decided that they needed a definition of what a marriage is, how one can recognize one when one sees it, and how to ensure that it is what it says it is.

Being men, they worried the problem for centuries, happy with one definition for a while, only to decide the definition needed to be amended to make it even less clear, but certainly more complex.

At one stage marriage needed four conditions to make it acceptable. The partners had to be of equal and free rank and must give their consent. This was in the day that property was involved and you didn’t want your daughter to squander her goods on a nobody.

Secondly the bride had to be given by her father. A fathers, of course, was next to God in those days and his consent to a marriage was as necessary as hers. The groom also with some say in the matter, not wanting to end up with a poor bride, insisted on a dowry to go with his bride’s charms.

Thirdly, the marriage was not to be entered into secretly. It had to be made public.

And fourthly, the union was only deemed completed when sexual consummation took place.

Interestingly enough, the first three requirements go right back to the early Romans who were ever the law givers. The fourth requirement comes from the practical people of Germany.

Over the centuries the Church, the Government, and the people themselves, would argue about what was really important in the union of a man and a woman. And over the years requirements have changed.

In most countries parental consent is no longer an issue, as neither is the dowry.

Couples are also given the right to marry as low or as high as they want to or are able to. And how public or secret they make their wedding ceremony, is wholly up to them.

I don’t think consummation has ever been much of a problem, but if it is, it only becomes an issue if one of the partners make a formal complaint. Otherwise, no one needs to know.

Wedding Ceremony Resources

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