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Bigamy 157
at parish level rather than in cathedral or monastic churches, are
among the genres of book that would have been vulnerable. Since
the Pupilla oculi, at least, nevertheless survives in a large number of
manuscripts, we can be fairly sure that its impact in late medieval
England was massive.
The other criterion for detecting a change in social meaning from
within—an external change symptomatic of the symbolic meaning
of the ritual practice—was satisfied above: the narrowing down
of the prohibition, in England at least, to a few words about the
marriage of Christ and the Church. So whatever the origins of
the liturgical rules about second marriages, symbolism was part
of their social meaning in late medieval England. Other parts of
Europe deserve fuller investigation, but we must now turn to a
di·erent strand of marriage symbolism’s social meaning and to
married clerics in minor orders.
(c) Clerics in Minor Orders
Clerics in minor orders as a status group
The first part of this chapter looked at men who wanted to become
priests or at least to be elevated to the higher orders of subdeacon or
deacon. The second part dealt with the ceremonies for second marriages
of laypeople. We may now turn to a third category, a status
group somewhat neglected by historians: the legimately married
clerics in minor orders. Of the rungs on the ladder up to holy orders
the top three were for subdeacons, deacons, and priests, in
ascending order. Perched on the lower rungs were large numbers of
legitimately married clerics. We have little idea how many. It may
have been a substantial class.
Marriage barred them from ecclesiastical benefices but not from
the considerable privileges of a separate status group. One important
privilege was immunitiy from prosecution in secular courts.
Ecclesiastical courts did not use the death penalty, so this privilege
could literally be a life-saver. Another advantage was heavy spiritual
protection against physical assault: anyone who laid violent hands
on a cleric was under an anathema until he sought absolution from
the pope; a bishop could not absolve him; only at the point of death
‘Decretals of Gregory IX’, X. 3. 3. 2 seems to say that a married cleric who
vowed perpetual chastity might perhaps be eligible for benefices. Such a vow would
require the wife’s consent, though this decretal does not discuss the matter.