Informal Unions. Since the only requirement for a valid indissoluble union was the freely given consent of the man and woman, marriage could be contracted at anytime and anywhere. The possibilities and dangers presented by this consensual doctrine were recognized almost immediately. An avalanche of legislation aimed to minimize the impact followed in the wake of Pope Alexander Ill's adoption of the consensual theory. The problem of clandestinity continued to preoccupy legal commentators and Church councils through the Middle Ages, ending only in the mid sixteenth century when the Council of Trent (1545-1563) prohibited such unions completely.

Legal and Religious Problems. Clandestine unions posed several problems. Secular society needed to know who was married in order to oversee property transfers and inheritance provisions for legal spouses and legitimate children. The Church, concerned with enforcing sexual morality, needed to...