Close Kin Marriage & "The Church"

[Kitsune]

I am listening to a lecture about the early middle ages.

In the Roman period, the preferred marriage was within the family, first cousins and second cousins from what the lecturer states

In later periods, when the Catholic took power, these were discouraged to the point where they did not even want sixth cousins, marriage to family related by god-parents, and marriage to the family by a family member to someone who another in the family is already married to. An example of this might be that two sisters could not marry two brothers.

Obviously, this is no longer the case. generally, society is only concerned today with marriage to first cousins or closer in genetic / family terms. When were these rules by the Catholic church broken?

[Zixinus]

Most likely when marriages stopped being social contracts.

[Zixinus]

Most likely when marriages stopped being social contracts.

I accidentally pressed post instead of preview, could a mod please merge this and that?

My bet is some time during the romanticism period started kicking in and the appearence in middle class (around 1800's, but it may vary from country to country). When the nobility started losing its power and land, giving a caste of landless nobles that tried their best to adopt to the changing society that stopped needing them.

The people most obseessed with who marries who was the nobility, which is why I am talking about them.

As for when did the Catholic church's power stopped waning, from the renesence period it has been on a decline. Probably because people were fucking tired of thinking that their current life is merely a small, tearful parade before the afterlife.

[Broomstick]

I am listening to a lecture about the early middle ages.

In the Roman period, the preferred marriage was within the family, first cousins and second cousins from what the lecturer states

Did the lecturer mention the odd tendency among high-ranking Roman families to have one, maybe two, daughters and multiple sons? There weren't enough high-ranking women to go around, so younger sons had to marry outside the family which substantially decreased the inbreeding.

In later periods, when the Catholic took power, these were discouraged to the point where they did not even want sixth cousins, marriage to family related by god-parents, and marriage to the family by a family member to someone who another in the family is already married to. An example of this might be that two sisters could not marry two brothers.

Of course, only the nobility were really able to accommodate this because only they were able to travel significant distances. Peasants who lived their entire lives in small villages wound up related to everyone else in that village. Even if they often "traded" mates between two neighboring villages it wouldn't take many generations for everyone to be related again.

When were these rules by the Catholic church broken?

Well, the rules were never universally followed, but I'd suspect they became less adhered to starting with the rise of the Protestants.

[Kanastrous]

Did the lecturer mention the odd tendency among high-ranking Roman families to have one, maybe two, daughters and multiple sons?

Infanticide?

[Broomstick]

Yes.

[Kitsune]

Did the lecturer mention the odd tendency among high-ranking Roman families to have one, maybe two, daughters and multiple sons? There weren't enough high-ranking women to go around, so younger sons had to marry outside the family which substantially decreased the inbreeding.

There was also concubinage which lead to another way to cerate a family and allowed men to in effect "Marry" people of a lower or different social status.

The part of marriage conventions was not exhaustive being only part of a lecture between how basic society changed when going into the early middle ages.