SOURCE: “The Discourse on Marriage in the Middle Ages,” in Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, Vol. 73, No. 3, July 1998, pp. 771-86.

In the essay below, Schnell explores how marriage sermons shaped standards of conduct for men and women.

Even when they address the same issues, different situations do not elicit the same kind of language use. Just as theological summas are not like sermons, and commentaries on the Books of Sentences are not like summas for confessors, medieval texts about marriage vary greatly according to the situations for which they were written. The function of each text and the purpose of its speaker or writer affect the perspective taken on marriage as a social, religious, and sexual phenomenon. This essay will focus on marriage sermons: because of their use in pastoral settings and their lay audience, these sermons address the theme of marriage in a pragmatic way, which...