1 - A Legal Marriage?

Summary

Chapter 1 describes the considerable confusion that existed in relation to marriage law in Ireland. In Ireland there were not only differing views between the state and individual churches but also within religious denominations. For instance, until 1827, the Catholic church was divided into areas where the marriage definition of the Council of Trent of a valid marriage was implemented and others where it was not. Within Presbyterianism, there were groups who placed more emphasis on the scriptural definition of marriage as essentially the private vows between a man and a woman than the church leadership approved. Prior to the second half of the nineteenth century, the laity can be documented frequently defying clerical censure to marry in a manner that conformed more to social rather than religious requirements.Throughout the eighteenth century all of the main churches struggled to implement their regulations in relation to marriage. Men and women planning to marry in Ireland in the period from 1660 through to 1844 could choose from a complex array of formal and informal services.By the last decades of the eighteenth century, there are indications that all the church authorities were beginning to supervise the implementation of their respective regulations concerning marriage more stringently.