Marriage as a Means to Salvation. In the course of the ninth century the Church struggled to develop a view of marriage based on the role it played in the order of salvation. From the outset there was an inherent tension between ecclesiastical and secular views of marriage. The Church considered marriage inextricable from the individual soul's quest for God and was less concerned than secular society in the importance of marriage to the wider family. As far as the Church was concerned, marriage was "the union of two in one flesh" (Gen. 2.24); it joined two souls, not two families, and it should be undertaken, not for political or economic advantage, but for spiritual reasons.

The Marriage Sacrament. From its early days the Church had attributed a mystical element to marriage, drawing an analogy between the marriage of a man...