Does anyone know when and where the first marraige performed by OTHER than a religiously empowered individual occured? I presume that this ceremony, in which the “I now pronouce you” is NOT preceeded by “pursuant to the authority of God”.
That said, was the state conferring the authority one of the colonies? I don’t think there was non-clerical marriage in Europe before the French Revolution.
I think the present conundrum is essentially a trademark beef. Marriage was, after all, a sacrament. But when the church lost the monopoly on the use of the trademark, they may have gone the way of aspirin. Anyway, when and where did this happen first?
You’re forgetting that marriage existed before Christianity. Pretty well all societies, so far as I know, have a socially-recognised relationship which looks like marriage in one form or another. Pretty well all societies also have religious beliefs. There’s no reason to assume, however, that pretty well all societies regard marriage as only, or primarily, a religious institution.
Many societies, I would guess, wouldn’t recognise the clear distinction between civil and religious that we observe, so the question of whether marriage was a civil or relgious institution might not mean anything to them. But I’m willing to be that in, say, classical Rome marriage had a strong civil and legal dimension and, while there *may[/ui] have been relgious ceremonies held to mark a marriage - I don’t know - the participants might well have recognised marriage as a social and legal reality to which religious figures were lending their support, rather than the other way around.
Are you looking for an example of a marriage which has no religious element whatsoever? Or merely of a marriage which the parties involved, and their wider society, do not consider to be an essentially religious relationship?
both comments helpful, thanx. (after a period of zone…)
I thought Pennsylvania was a good candidate.
To give a broader context to my question, it relates to the overal “secularization of jurisprudence”, which I am choosing to denote as among several signature paradigm shifts which together are necessary and sufficient to produce progress towards greater freedom. At one time ecclesiastical courts had exclusive jurisdiction over marriage and thus legitimacy and thus inheritability of property (and sovereignty, not parenthetically). A few modern criminal laws still attempt to vindicate some of the old canon laws (see, for instance, the preposterous enunciation of a criminal sanction for succeeding at the “crime” of suicide, or the strange proposition that an act of sex, legal when done voluntarily by consenting adults is rendered illegal if there is consideration for that consent, (unless the consideration is jewelry, in which case it ok)
So it was in that context that I was looking for the initial instance of the power to marry being exercised in the total absence of any assertion of divine delegation.
Thus, the license is indicative, since certainly there was a time when the church was keeping any license money ( thank you very much) and even the willingness of the church to require a state issued license before admitting people to a sacrament is a big step towards secularization.
What I’m looking for, however, and in that repect the old roman customs may in fact have relevance (altho the emperor claimed divine right and thus conflate the underlying authority of state and church) So, anyway, I’m seeking the first marriage in a European or successor colonial state where the guy says
Therefor, by the authority vested in me by the state of (pennsylvania for instance)
I now pronounce you man and wife.
as opposed to:
by the authority vested in my by God and the State of Pa. etc.