=noblewomen+married+early&source=web&ots=q6KGHQigf a&sig=0Pv9 5S0Z7
pBtjVz9GZHbuWc53ho#PPP1,M1)
We read further:
Thus even for very young partners, the act of intercourse bound the two of them
together for life. As one Catholic scholar has written, “carnal relations between
the parties seemed to indicate sufficient maturity and made up for the defect of
years.” [4] Sexual intercourse below the age of discretion (seven) was not a crime,
but merely “invalid,” and thus, inconsequential, as under Jewish law. [5]
Parents arranged marriages for their pre-pubescent children during the Middle
Ages for a variety of dynastic, economic, and cultural reasons. [6] Such marriages
were usually consummated at the age of twelve. Although physicians warned of
the dangers of impregnating very young girls and implored husbands to wait until
the wife reached the age of at least fourteen, such warnings usually went
unheeded, and the Catholic Church continued to bless marital bonds with twelveyear-
old girls. [7]
Although technically the consent of the child was necessary for a marriage to take
place, the child was usually not in a position to challenge his or her parents and
resist an unwanted union. This led to a number of abuses which went
unchallenged by the Church. In 1526, the Dutch scholar Erasmus complained,
“It is no uncommon case, especially in France, for a girl of scarce ten
years to be married and a mother next year. . . . It seems portentous, and
yet we sometimes see it, especially in Britain and Italy, that a tender child
is married to a septuagenarian [i.e. a man in his seventies]. . . . Yet Church
laws do not rescind such nuptials” [8]
In later centuries, some Christian commentators would denounce sexual relations
with young girls as being equivalent to rape. In the sixteenth century, canonist
Egidio Bossi argued for this interpretation on the grounds that a child could
hardly be considered as being in a position to give consent. However, he
recommended that the age of consent be fixed at only six or seven years of age.
[9]
At the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, there was some discussion
among the Church leadership about possibly raising the age for marriage.
Cardinal Charles De Guise of Lorraine, France, advocated raising the age of
marriage for women to twenty and for men to twenty-five. The bishop of Cordia,
Spain, argued for the ages of twenty for women and twenty-two for men.
However, the majority of those on the Council were opposed to raising the age for
marriage on the grounds that adolescents would be tempted to commit fornication
unless they were permitted to marry. The conservatives prevailed: the age limit
remained at twelve for females and fourteen for males. [10]
(Mark E. Pietrzyk, http://www.internationalorder.org/scandal_response.html)
In a paper published at a symposium on Byzantine Studies, we read:
Baptism, usually at birth, was the fundamental rite of incorporation into the body
of Christ and the Church…Betrothal, sometimes as early as the age of five,
marked another stage in the child’s social incorporation.
(Byzantine Studies: 2006 Spring Symposium,
http://www.doaks.org/byz_2006_symposium_abstracts.html )
Aisha (peace be upon her) was around the age of puberty when she married. Christians
criticize the Prophet’s marriage to her on the grounds that she was too young. Yet,
Christian Law not only allowed girls to marry at the age of puberty, but rather it was
encouraged by the Church to marry at this young age. In an article entitled “The Practice
and Theory of Marriage in Roman North Africa”, we read:
Other canons require that lectors, upon reaching puberty, should either marry or
take vows of celibacy.
(The Practice and Theory of Marriage in Roman North Africa,
http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~james....huntermar.html)
In the article entitled “Marriage: Laws and Customs”, we read:
Legal Age for Marriage
Roman law gave the minimum age for marriage as that of puberty which was 14
for boys and 12 for girls; these remained the legal age for marriage until the late
19th Century in Britain…There is however evidence that child marriages were
reasonably common in North West England in the 16th century…
(Marriage: Laws and Customs, http://www.isle-ofman.
com/manxnotebook/famhist/genealgy/marr.htm)
In an article entitled “Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe”, we read:
Ordinary people who chose not to devote their lives to ascetic observances were
often advised that their best defense against the ever present urge to copulate was
to marry early. For this reason, St. Chrysostom warned parents to see to it that
their children married soon after they reached the age of puberty.
(Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe,
http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/medevl1.html)
When girls neared the approximate age of puberty, they were considered marriage
material. These pre-pubescent and pubescent girls were routinely married off to men
who were the same age as their grandfathers. We read:
Christian canon law followed Roman law in setting the minimum age of marriage
at twelve for females and fourteen for males. The logic behind these marital age
limits was that these were the approximate ages of puberty for both genders,
indicating readiness for procreation. In ancient Rome, among both pagans and
Christians, marriage at an early age was frequent. Betrothals often occurred even
before puberty, although the consummation of marriage through intercourse
usually did not take place until after the girl’s first menstruation. Very often, the
age of discrepancy of marriage partners was great. According to one historian,
“the matching of a man with a woman young enough to be his daughter or even
granddaughter was generally accepted.” [11]
(Mark E. Pietrzyk, http://www.internationalorder.org/scandal_response.html)
[