clerical marriage

Marriage and the medieval Cistercian monk….

Mar 3, 2022

law, religion

bigamy, Cambridge, Cistercians, clerical marriage, ecclesiastical courts, Edward IV, Elizabeth Wydeville, Lady Eleanor Talbot, monks, pre-contract, precedent, Richard III, Robert C Palmer

To us the curious intricacies of medieval marriage seem endlessly complicated…and often cost a lot to those who disagreed with a certain situation. Contexts of Marriage in Medieval England: Evidence from the King’s Court circa 1300 by Robert C Palmer contains a fascinating instance with a twist. After all, we usually hear of women…
Thou canst marry; er, sorry, thou canst not….

Jul 19, 2018

anniversaries, law, religion

Bishops, clerical celibacy, clerical marriage, Counter-Reformation, Edward VI, Henry VIII, John Ponet, Mary I, Reformation

I confess I had never considered this before. When Henry VIII made himself the head of the church in England, it became possible for hitherto celibate priests to marry. This situation continued under Henry’s son, Edward VI. But then, Catholic Queen Mary ascended the throne. . .and promptly sacked all those priests who had married.…
A strange Reformation relic

Jul 5, 2018

humour, law, religion, Science

Act of Supremacy, Archbishop Cranmer, clerical celibacy, clerical marriage, cold weather, Edward VI, Henry VIII, Lewis Carroll, Mary I, mathematics, metaphors, novelists, Oxford University, priesthood, Reformation, thawing

Think of a cold week in this or your own country, with snow. On the last day, it thaws. You look out during the late afternoon and there remains a small patch of snow, in a seemingly random location. In a way, the English Reformation was like this. It began, arguably, in 1534. By the…

clerical marriage

Marriage and the medieval Cistercian monk….

Thou canst marry; er, sorry, thou canst not….

A strange Reformation relic