Chapter 38 – Marital Law in the 18th Century

At this advanced stage of her investigation, Archduchess Marianne urgently needs to learn about canon marriage law — and Father Franz, her trusted confessor, is precisely the right person to brief her on the subject.

Temporarily blind and deaf to the rest of the world, the two engage in a long, focused conversation, eagerly examining the nuances and contrasts between the positions of the Church and the State. Were the parties underage or of full age? Legally competent or under the authority of their fathers or appointed guardians? Equal or unequal in social rank? Was their mutual consent given with or without the approval of their families? What were the consequences if one family contested the agreement — or if one party broke it? What was the proper procedure when the renunciation was brought before the archiepiscopal consistory or the Imperial court? Which compromises and exceptions were accepted by canon or secular law? And so on and so forth.

To find my own way through this thicket of eighteenth-century legislation, I relied on the authority of Professor Wilhelm Ogris, the distinguished scholar of Austrian legal history.