[7] It is maintained that no pope has ever given a dispensation for such a marriage. Such a case seems, however, to be narrated by Ordericus Vitalis (Hist. eccles. viii. 23; ed. A. le Prévost, Paris, 1838-1855, t. iii. p. 408; ed. A. Duchesne, 1619, 704 B). Robert Mowbray, earl of Northumberland, had only been married to Maud de Laigle three months when he was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for rebellion against King William Rufus. After describing her forlorn state Orderic continues: “Nec ipsa eo vivente, secundum legem Dei, alteri nubere legitime valebat. Tandum, permissu Paschalis Papae (II.), cui res, a curiosis enucleata, patuit, post multos dies Nigellus de Albineo ipsam uxorem accepit.” This may mean no more, of course, than that the curiosi “untied the knot” by discovering an impediment—the usual expedient in such cases. In any case the fact that Nigel de Albini, in his turn, soon afterwards obtained a “divorce” from her on the ground that her first husband was his relative by consanguinity, hardly points to a strict view of the sanctity of the marriage tie.
[8] The customary rule for more than three centuries after the Council of Trent was that male children followed the religion of the father, female children that of the mother. On the general subject of the attitude of the Church towards mixed marriages see O. D. Watkins, Holy Matrimony, pp. 468 et seq. For the Roman Catholic view see “An Instruction on Mixed Marriages” in Bishop Ullathorne’s Eccl. Discourses (London, 1876).
[9] Among the “errors” denounced by Pope Pius IX. in the Syllabus of 1864 is lxvi.: “Matrimonii sacramentum non est, nisi quid contractui accessorium ab eoque separabile, ipsumque sacramentum in una tantum nuptiali benedictione situm est.” This condemns the attempts of certain canonists (e.g. Melchior Cano) to distinguish between the contractus naturalis and sacramentalis. This view, which was first advanced by the jurist and theologian Johann Gropper (1502-1559) at the council of Cologne (1536), and gained support especially in France, makes the “matter” of the sacrament the consent of the parties, the “form” the prayers and benedictions, the “minister” the priests (see e.g. “Du sacrament de mariage” in vol. v. of the Dissertationes selectae of Petrus de Marca, d. 1662, archbishop of Paris, Bamberg, 1789, p. 148).
[10] See the list of quotations from the early fathers given by Watkins, Holy Matrimony, p. 93.
[11] The later teaching of the Eastern Church is laid down in the Orthodox Confession of Peter Mogilas, patriarch of Kiev (1640). There are three essentials for a Christian marriage: (1) suitable matter (ὔλη ἁρμόδιος), i.e. a man and woman whose union no impediment bars, (2) a duly ordained bishop or priest, (3) the invocation of the Holy Ghost, and the solemnity of the formularies (τὸ εἶδος τῶν λογίων).
[12] A divorce nisi does not enable the parties to marry until it is made absolute.
[13] A marriage in which either of the parties is below the age of consent is, however, said to be not absolutely void; if the parties agree to continue together at the age of consent no new marriage is necessary, but either of them may disagree and avoid the marriage.
[14] A complete list of the acts regulating the solemnization of marriage or confirming marriages, which through some defect might be void, will be found in Phillimore’s Ecclesiastical Law (2nd ed. 1895).
MARRUCINI, an ancient tribe which occupied a small strip of territory round about Teate (mod. Chieti), on the east coast of Italy. It is first mentioned in history as a member of a confederacy with which the Romans came into conflict in the second Samnite War, 325 B.C., and it entered the Roman Alliance as a separate unit at the end of that war (see further [Paeligni]). We know something of the language of the Marrucini from an inscription known as the “Bronze of Rapino,” which belongs to about the middle of the 3rd century B.C. It is written in Latin alphabet, but in a dialect which belongs to the North Oscan group (see [Paeligni]). The name of the city or tribe which it gives us is touta marouca, and it mentions also a citadel with the epithet tarincris. Several of its linguistic features, both in vocabulary and in syntax, are of considerable interest to the student of Latin or Italic grammar (e.g. the use of the subjunctive, without any conjunction, to express purpose, a clause prescribing a sacrifice to Ceres being followed immediately by pacr si ut propitia sit). The earliest Latin inscriptions are of Ciceronian date.