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68 Chapter 1
genesis of thirteenth-century preachers’ attitudes to marriage matters
less than the impact of their preaching. The great di·erence
between the last three medieval centuries and the preceding period
was that positive ideas about marriage were pumped out by a
preaching system which was capable of bringing them to very large
numbers of laypeople.
The following topoi become very familiar to anyone who reads a
range of later medieval marriage sermons. Here they are illustrated
only from the sermons transcribed in the Documents section below
and those edited in Medieval Marriage Sermons,butthemotifsare
also common outside this double corpus.
God created marriage
‘For it was instituted not by any contemptible person, not by a
man, not by an angel, but by God.’ Sermons outside our corpus
compare marriage favourably in this respect with the great religious
orders.
Marriage was made in Paradise
As Konrad Holtnicker put it, marriage was instituted ‘not in a
contemptible place, not in a corner, as clandestine marriages are
made nowadays, but in Paradise’. Holtnicker goes on to complain
about people who ‘contract marriage after many lapses and acts of
fornication’ (ibid.). Nevertheless, he sees marriage itself as noble:
in sharp contrast to extramarital sex. Other sermons make the point
about Paradise more simply.
Marriage was instituted in a sinless world
This motif is obviously closely connected with the ‘Paradise’ topos.
In sermons it tends to be just another compliment to marriage, but
there was a reservoir of theological reflection in the background,
on the nature of marriage in Paradise: whether it involved pleasure
Konrad Holtnicker, Document 1. 10. 4; cf.d’Avray,Medieval Marriage Sermons:
Hugues de Saint-Cher, para. 1.
N. B‹eriou and D. L. d’Avray, ‘Henry of Provins, O.P.’s Comparison of the
Dominican and Franciscan Orders with the “Order” of Matrimony’, in B‹eriou and
d’Avray, Modern Questions about Medieval Sermons, 71–5.
Konrad Holtnicker: Document 1. 10. 4.
D’Avray, Medieval Marriage Sermons: Hugues de Saint-Cher, para. 1; Guibert
de Tournai, para. 1; Jean Halgrin: Document 1. 9. 1.