The Nature of the Gratian-Lombard Controversy - Coursework Example

What was the nature of the Gratian-Lombard controversy regarding marriage and how was it resolved? The nature of marriage was unclear in the Middle Ages with some people arguing that marriage required both consent and sexual intercourse while others, particularly the Christians, suggested that consent was all that was required. For those who argued that sexual consummation is a necessary part of marriage, it was a matter of making a distinction between the betrothal and the actual marriage. The reason this definition became a concern was that if sexual intercourse was required to complete a marriage, then Jesus’ parents were never truly married. The Gratian solution to this problem was to suggest that marriage occurs in two stages, the first when consent is made and the second following intercourse. Although marriage was valid and binding after consent, it was made more intimate and complete only after intercourse. While this validated Mary and Joseph’s marriage, it still indicated their marriage wasn’t totally complete because, of course, Mary was a virgin. As a result, this solution didn’t satisfy the Christian concerns. The Lombard solution relied on semantics. Rather than suggesting that simple consent was necessary, Lombard suggested that this consent had to be made in the present tense, which distinguishes it as a marriage contract, therefore making Mary and Joseph’s marriage complete. This was distinguishable from a betrothal simply because it was uttered in the present tense; betrothals were made in future tense. Because it satisfied both concerns regarding how to distinguish marriage from betrothal and validated the marriage of Jesus and Mary, this definition of marriage was accepted, but it also introduced a significant shift in family power as regional lords, the church and the parents all lost the ability to forbid marriage, retaining only the power to disapprove of it. What were the features and significance of agnatic lineage? The agnatic lineage traces family kinship ties through the father’s line only. The women were completely ejected from the equation and any sense that the matrilineal line is the only sure line of descent was lost. This caused women to lose a great deal of their worth. As mentioned, they were no longer important to the family line other than to provide the means of acquiring the next generation. This loss caused them to also lose any claims of inheritance or particular care within their childhood family unit. Once they were married, they ceased to be of any importance to their birth family at all as any of their labors and the children they bear then belong to the family of the husband. By removing half of the population from claims to inheritance, the male members of society were then able to achieve a higher degree of wealth and prosperity. Although they were expected to share this prosperity with those women somehow placed under their responsibility, through marriage, birth or oddly enough, inheritance, the way in which this was accomplished remained under the jurisdiction of the man, as did any other decisions regarding property and wealth. At the same time, daughters were now a burden to the family and dowries began to flow from the bride family to that of the groom. This was often the only wealth a woman could expect in her lifetime. Younger sons were soon excluded from inheritance rights as well as families attempted to consolidate wealth in the interests of continuing the family name, which had become a new source of pride and solidarity. What were the natures of the consortial and dynastic lineages? Why were they significant? Consortial lineages are based on the idea that all sons of the family should be able to inherit equally while dynastic lineages maintain that only the oldest surviving son should inherit , sometimes with a degree of responsibility to ensure that younger sons are provided with the tools and education to pursue their own fortunes. Consortial lineages ensure that all the sons of the family are taken care of because they are all partners in the family business, so to speak. As the family expanded, these consortia could grow quite large, eventually requiring more formal organization. This usually took the form of an inner and outer circle that collectively managed the community property while individual nuclear groups also managed their own private properties separate from the group. These gave rise to the great merchant families of Italy. This was different from the dynastic lineages. Dynastic lineages were formed in part because properties were titled and partly because large properties, such as castles, could not be divided four ways among sons. Instead, the practice was to provide the eldest son with the titles and lands while willing more liquid wealth to younger sons and, occasionally daughters. As a result, concepts of nobility passed from father to his eldest son only upon the father’s death while all others were considered common born. In keeping with the desire to reduce the number of claimants to inheritance, the dynastic lineage also discouraged younger sons from multiplying by sending them to wars or encouraging them to join the celibate orders of the church and refused to acknowledge the connection of daughters to the line unless it was as a last resort when no male heirs survived. The result of this was a general thinning out of the nobility and a concentration of wealth in the hands of a very small elite group. How were the terms of marriage, marriage ages and the internal structures of households altered in the late medieval era? About the middle of the 1100s, governments began restricting the amount of money expected to be given by the groom to the bride and requiring that the bride’s dowry equal or exceed by as much as two-thirds, the amount given by the groom. At the same time, the bride’s right to a portion of her husband’s property was taken away, leaving her with literally nothing following his death. As a result of the skyrocketing price of marriage, particularly for the woman, various forms of charity were established by states and churches who feared that this would have the effect of severely reducing the population. Along with their ability to own property of any kind or make claims against the property of their husbands, women also lost a great deal of their previous responsibilities to men. Duties such as maintaining the household accounts and producing cloth were allocated to men and to working guilds, to which women were most often barred from joining. Ages at first marriage also dropped again for women who were considered of a marriageable age when they reached age 12, but most girls were not married until around 16 or 17. These ages gradually began to increase again moving into the 15th century, creeping even into the 20s. Men’s ages are more difficult to determine and seem to have fluctuated depending upon external factors such as a need for population growth or other conditions. Generally, their ages seem to have fluctuated between age 24 at the early end and sometimes as late as 45. The average age of men at marriage seems to have hovered around age 30. This large difference in age from the husband to the bride created a situation in which many brides, bored with lack of fulfilling work to perform and repulsed by the age and maturity of their much older husbands, frequently spurned their husband’s attentions in favor of a younger lover. What was the nature of domestic affection in the medieval period? Why is so little known about the subject? There is not much written about the nature of domestic affection in the ancient manuscripts. Most of what is available is only available in the lives of the saints, most of whom had to work against their families in order to follow their religious ideals. There seems to have been very little actual affection shared between family members as parents failed to recognize that children were anything less than fully formed adults in their emotional and mental states and husbands and wives were of such widely different ages. Judging from today’s knowledge, it is known that teenage girls do not share the same concerns and mental abilities as middle aged men. They were also unattracted to the men’s aging bodies and frequently found lovers closer to their own ages. This practice could not have helped improve family relations. Texts mention the degree to which mother-in-laws hated their daughter-in-laws and parents would sometimes throw their own children out in the street at the wishes of a new spouse rather than risk losing the spouse. There is also plenty of evidence of husbands beating their wives and a strong element of misogynism, or hatred of women, in the available literature from the period. These attitudes began to change toward the end of the middle ages, but it is important to recognize that people did not necessarily enjoy, or expect to enjoy, the close family ties thought of today. What were motherhood, fatherhood and childhood like in the later medieval era? Motherhood was characterized by the nurturing of small children while fatherhood was a duty and responsibility. Male children and their fathers are often seen in conflict, particularly over what is expected of the son as the father either prevents marriage or dedication to the church and the son struggles to find a life of his own. While this may sound like the typical teenage rebellion, it went a bit further than that because the father’s power over his children was much greater than it is today. The mother, as she often does today, served as the intermediary between the father and the children. This was not only because she stood at a point that was intermediary to the two age groups, but also because her primary concern was often for the welfare of the children she had embraced as infants, nursed from her own body and would need to depend upon following her husband’s death. The mother was also the one responsible by default for instructing their children in the academic, cultural and religious beliefs of their community. While childhood is often characterized as being a time of ‘beneficient neglect’, there is ample evidence that children were cherished and cared for within the community, particularly when they are very young. It is suggested that this was the result of the cult of baby Jesus in which the tender feelings of the mother were continually recognized. Fatherhood is similarly modeled on the holy family, namely on the figure of Joseph. Joseph is largely ignored through much of the early middle ages, but is brought forward in the fifteenth century as the protector of the family, the guide and the affectionate provider. Read More