Amicitia extenditur ad extraneos, marriage law and the concept of citizenship (1563-1789)

Abstract

This paper analyses marriage as a means by which strangers were accepted within the family. The primary sources consulted are works generally written by post-Tridentine Jesuit theologians. In medieval times, marriage represented a tellurian union whose primary objective was the procreation of offspring. A set of consanguinity regulations had been devised by the Church to prevent the consummation of marriage between in groups and safeguard the health of infants Medieval society allowed divorce to husbands whose wives were believed unable to produce an heir. The adamant stand taken by the Catholic Church at the Council of Trent in support of marital union and against divorce undermined the importance of fertility in marriage. This stance jeopardised the Church's position vis-a-vis Lutheran and other protestant beliefs. This newly emerging concept of marriage did not hinder the Catholic Church from continuing to sustain its belief in this union as· friendship extended to strangers. The universality given to the marriage 'ritual by the Catholic Church contrasted with political developments in Europe. What appeared to be contradictory philosophical positions (the search for autonomy by emerging European states against the universality of the Church) would enjoy a short-lived peaceful co-existence in eighteenth-century Malta, where the principles of 'citizenship' would find a privileged' place in Church marriage acts .