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150 Chapter 3
today that is vaguely Christian but not churchgoing might go to a
carol service and join in heartily, whereas a wholly secular family
might not unless some other social obligation were involved. So the
fine print of practice can usually indicate a shift in the meanings
behind it.
Ritual changes and symbolic meaning
In the remainder of this section, therefore, I shall try to show that a
strong emphasis on a symbolic rationale correlated with change in
ritual, and that the symbolic rationale could have penetrated well
below the theological ‹elite.
We shall be looking closely at the ritual of second weddings and
at how this ritual was interpeted at a level less exalted than that of
Thomas Aquinas. The social history of this ritual seems to have
received scholarly attention only on the margins of more general
histories of marriage liturgy, and there is a need for a concentrated
study of it by a historical liturgiologist. The following reconstruction
is only sketchy and tentative. It should also be said immediately
that there was clearly a great range of practice where the rituals of
second weddings are concerned. We also need to remember that
there were parts of Europe where no church wedding ceremony
was required by the Church for a first marriage, apparently. That
would make the ritual of the second marriage less important. The
J.-B. Molin and P. Mutembe, Le Rituel du mariage en France du XIIe au XVIe
si›ecle (Th‹eologie historique, 26; Paris, 1974), 236, 243–4, is useful but very brief.
There is a useful chapter in L. Duchesne, Christian Worship, its Origin and Evolution:
A Study of the Latin Liturgy up to the Time of Charlemagne, trans.M.L.McClure,
5th edn. (London, 1919), ch. 14, but it does not cover the period that mainly concerns
us. Ritzer, Formen, Riten und religi•oses Brauchtum der Eheschlie¢ung, hassome
important pages: see index, s.v. ‘Wiederverheiratung’, but mainly pp. 160, 166, 168–
9 (Ritzer also discusses the history of second weddings in Eastern Christianity, but
these are not within the scope of this study). B. Binder, Geschichte des feierlichen
Ehesegens von der Entstehung der Ritualien bis zur Gegenwart, mit Ber•ucksichtigung
damit zusammenh•angender Riten, Sitten und Br•auche: Eine liturgiegeschichtliche Untersuchung
(Metten, 1938), 84–8, provides a good miniature history of ‘Segnung
bei zweiten Ehen’. He gives special attention to English rituals, commenting (88)
that ‘Aus diesen kurzen Berichten ist bereits ersichtlich, wie schwierig und unklar
bez•uglich dieser Frage die Verh•altnisse lagen’. See too K. Stevenson, Nuptial Blessing:
A Study of Christian Marriage Rites (Alcuin Club Collections, 64; London,
1982), 80–1, 82, and also (important background) 40–1, for the nuptial blessing in
the Gregorian Sacramentary.
Esmein, Le Mariage en droit canonique, ii. 124–5. See also Johannnes de Burgo’s
comment: ‘nisi consuetudo alicuius ecclesie aliter obtineret. Tunc enim possent sine
periculo benedici’ (Document 3. 9. 4).
D. L. d’Avray, ‘Marriage Ceremonies and the Church in Italy after 1215’, in