The goal is to annotate and expand this list as a resource for Confessional Lutherans engaged in the study and discussion of church-state issues surrounding marriage.
Cannon Law and Civil Law
Ignatius to Polycarp part V.Tertullian Ad Uxorem (To My Wife) summary, English.
1215 Fourth Lateran Council Marriage 50, 51, 52
Banns of Marriage
Martin Luther's Large Catechism, the Sixth Commandment
Augsburg Confession Art. XXIII Of the Marriage of Priests.
Apology of the Augsburg Confession Article XXIII (XI): Of the Marriage of Priests.
1549 Book of Common Prayer, Rite of Marriage
England Marriage Act 1753
United States
Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States1923 American Uniform Marriage and Marriage License Act
1970 Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1970
Common Law Marriage
States which have never permitted common-law marriages:
Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming.Louisiana, which was under French Civil code and a former Council of Trent jurisdiction has also never had common law marriage
Dates when some other states eliminated common-law marriage
- 1646 Massachusetts
- 1652 Main (Main became part of Mass in 1652, became a state in 1820)
- 1852 Kentucky
- 1860 New Mexico
- 1890 North Dakota
- 1895 California
- 1902 New York (but complex, also through 1908, and in 1933)
- 1905 Illinois
- 1913 Arizona
- 1917 Alaska, Wisconsin
- 1920 Hawaii
- 1921 Missouri
- 1923 Nebraska
- 1939 New Jersey
- 1941 Minnesota
- 1943 Nevada
- 1956 Mississippi
- 1957 Michigan
- 1958 Indiana
- 1959 South Dakota
- 1968 Florida
- 1991 Ohio
- 1996 Idaho
- 1997 Georgia
- 2005 Pennsylvania
States Still Observing Common Law Marriage
- Alabama
- Colorado
- Kansas
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Iowa
- Montana
- Utah
- Texas
Resources
Altieri, Marco Antonio. --1995 Li nuptiali. Ed. Enrico Narducci. Rome, C. Bartoli, 1873. Rome: Roma nel Rinascimento, 1995.(If you can read Italian, this seems to be one of the best primary sources on Italian Renaissance wedding rituals. Originally written around 1509, it compares classical Roman and Renaissance Roman wedding customs.)
Anton, A.E.
--1958 "‘Handfasting’ in Scotland." Scottish Historical Review 37.124 (1958): 89-102.
Belmont, Nicole.
--1982 "The Symbolic Function of the Wedding Procession in the Popular Rituals of Marriage." Ritual, Religion and the Sacred. Trans. Elborg Forster and Patricia M. Ranum. Eds. Robert Forster and Orest Ranum. Anuales Economies, Societes, Civilisations. 7. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1982. 1-7.
Bingham, J. Foote.
--1871 The Christian Marriage Ceremony: Its History, Significance And Curiosities. New York: A.D.F. Randolph and Co., 1871.
[at Internet Archive]
Brooke, Christopher N. L.
--1989 The Medieval Idea of Marriage. Oxford: Oxford UP, c1989.
Brucher, Gene.
--1986 Giovanni and Lusanna: Love and Marriage in Renaissance Florence. Berkeley: University of California P, 1986.
Brundage, James A.
1993 Sex, Law and Marriage in the Middle Ages. Aldershot, England: Variorum, 1993.
Burguiere, Andre.
--1982 "The Marriage Ritual in France: Ecclesiastical Practices and Popular Practices Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries." Ritual, Religion and the Sacred. Trans. Elborg Forster and Patricia M. Ranum. Eds. Robert Forster and Orest Ranum. Anuales Economies, Societes, Civilisations. 7. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1982. 8-23.
Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo.
--1977 Il Matrimonio Nella Societa Altomedievale: 22-28 aprile 1976. Settimane di studio del Centro italiano di studi sull'alto Medioevo 24. Spoleto : Po la sede del Centro, 1977.
Cohen, Esther and Elliot Horowitz.
--1990 "In Search of the Sacred: Jews, Christians and Rituals of Marriage in the Later Middle Ages." Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 20 (1990): 225-249.
Cressy, David.
--1997 Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997.
Duby, Georges.
--1983 The Knight, the Lady and the Priest: the Making of Modern Marriage in Medieval France. 1st American ed. New York: Pantheon Books, c1983.
--1994 Love and Marriage in the Middle Ages. Trans. Jane Dunnett. Illinois: University of Chicago P, 1994
Elowsky, Joel
-- "Luther on Marriage" Concordia Theological Journal of Concordia University Wisconsin Spring 2014, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pp.10-26. https://www.academia.edu/5441726/Luther_on_Marriage
Ennen, Edith.
--1989 The Medieval Woman. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989.
Famiglietti, R.C.
--1992 Tales of the Marriage Bed from Medieval France (1300-1500). Providence: Picardy P, 1992.
Fischer, Andreas.
--1986 Engagement, Wedding and Marriage in Old English. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, 1986.
Franklin, Michael J.
--1986 "Fyngres heo hath feir to folde: Trothplight in Some of the Love Lyrics of MS Harley 2253." Medium Aevum 55.2 (1986): 176-187
Gaudemet, Jean,
--1987 Le Mariage en Occident: les Moeurs et le Droit. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1987.
Gies, Frances and Joseph Gies.
--1987 Marriage and Family in the Middle Ages. 1st ed. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1987.
Goldberg, P.J.P.
--1992 Women, Work, and Life Cycle in a Medieval Economy: Women in York and Yorkshire c. 1300-1520. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1992.
Greilsammer, Myriam.
--1990 L’envers du Tableau: Mariage et Maternite en Flandre Medievale. Paris: Armand Colin, 1990.
James, Edwin Oliver.
--1965 Marriage Customs Through the Ages. New York: Collier, 1965.
Klapisch-Zuber, Christianne.
--1982 "Zacharias; or the Ousting of the Father: the Rites of Marriage in Tuscany from Giotto to the Council of Trent." Ritual, Religion and the Sacred. Trans. Elborg Forster and Patricia M. Ranum. Eds. Robert Forster and Orest Ranum. Anuales Economies, Societes, Civilisations. 7. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1982. 24-56.
--1985 Women, Family and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Chicago: U of Chicago P 1985.
Koegel, Otto Erwin,
--1922 Common law marriage and its development in the United States, Washington, J. Byrne & company
Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/cu31924018817738
Lafon, Jacques.
--1972 Les Epoux Bordelais: 1450-1550, Regimes Matrimoniaux et Mutations Sociales. Demographie et Societes 16. Paris, S.E.V.P.E.N., 1972.
Laiou, Angeliki E., ed.
--1993 Consent and Coercion to Sex and Marriage in Ancient and Medieval Societies. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 1993.
Luther, Martin
--1519 "A Sermon on the Estate of Marriage" Luther's Works American Edition 44:7-14.
--1522 "The Estate of Marriage" Luther's Works American Edition 45
--1530 "On Marriage Matters" Luther's Works American Edition 46:265-320
-- 1535 "Commentary on Genesis" Luther's Works American Edition 1 (particularly pp. 66-69)
Mitchell, Christopher
---2004? "Ministry and Marriage in the Scriptures"
Molho, Anthony.
--1994 Marriage Alliance in Late Medieval Florence. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1994.
Muirhead, I.A.
--1953 "The Forme of Marriage: 1562 and Today." Scottish Journal of Theology 6 (Mar. 1953): 31-42
Powell, Chilton Latham.
--1917 English Domestic Relations, 1487-1653: a Study of Matrimony and Family Life in Theory and Practice as Revealed by the Literature, Law, and History of the Period. New York: Columbia UP, 1917.
Power, Patrick C.
--1976 Sex and Marriage in Ancient Ireland. Dublin: Mercier, 1976.
(reprinted in 1993?)
Roper, Lyndal.
--1985 "Going to Church and Street: Weddings in Reformation Augsburg." Past and Present: a Journal of Historical Studies 106 (1985): 62-101.
Roqueta, Joan. --1981 Lo Ritual Occitan del Maridatge: Testimoni d'una Civilisacion Originala: Edicion Sinoptica e Critica de Tres Rituals amb Formularis en Lenga Occitana (Bordeu 1466, Caors 1503, Perigus 1536), Seguida d'una Analisi de Textes Occitans Medievals e d'una Prepausicion de Ritual Moderne del Maridatge en Lenga d'Oc. Besiers: Centre Internacional de Documentacion Occitana, 1981.
Salisbury, Joyce E.
--1990 Medieval Sexuality: a Research Guide. Garland Reference Library of Social Science 565. Garland Medieval Bibliographies 5. New York: Garland, 1990.
Saslow, James M.
--1996 The Medici Wedding of 1589: Florentine Festival as Theatrum Mundi. New Haven: Yale UP, 1996.
Schmidt, Herman.
--1974 "Rituals and Sacramentality of Christian Marriage." Studia Missionalia 23 (1974): 251-284
Schott, Clausdieter.
--1969 Trauung und Jawort: Wandel einer Form. Frankfort a. M. : Alfred Metzner Verlag, 1969.
Searle, Mark, and Kenneth W. Stevenson.
--1992 Documents of the Marriage Liturgy. Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical P, 1992.
Stevenson, Kenneth W.
--1983 Nuptial Blessing: a Study of Christian Marriage Rites. New York: Oxford UP, 1983
--1986 "Marriage Liturgy: Lessons From History (Eastern and Western Rites)." Anglican Theological Review 68.3 (1986): 225-240
Stone, Lawrence.
--1977 The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, c1977.
Tegg, William. --1970 The Knot Tied: Marriage Ceremonies of All Nations. Detroit: Singing Tree P, 1970.
Urlin, Ethel L.
--1969 A Short History of Marriage, Marriage Rites, Customs and Folklore in Many Countries and All Ages. Detroit: Singing Tree P, 1969.
Van Grubbs, Judith E.
--1994 "‘Pagan’ and ‘Christian’ Marriage: the State of the Question." Journal of Early Christian Studies 2.3 (1994): 361-412.
Von Gerstfeld, Olga.
--1906 Hochzeitsfeste der Renaissance in Italien. Esslingen: P. Neff, 1906.
Van Hoecke, Willy, and Andries Welkenhuysen.
--1981 Love and Marriage in the Twelfth Century. Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, ser. 1, studia 8. Leuven: Leuven UP, 1981.
Vocelka, Karl.
--1976 Habsburgische Hochzeiten 1550-1600: kulturgeschichtlichen Studien zum manieristischen Reprasentationsfest. Veroffentlichungen der Kommission fur Neuere Geschichte Osterreichs 65. Wien: Bohlau, 1976.
Waugh, Scott L.
--1988 The Lordship of England: Royal Wardships and Marriages in English Society and Politics, 1217-1327. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1988.
Westermarck, Edward.
--1922 The History of Human Marriage. 5th ed. New York: Allerton Book Company, 1922.
