Legitimacy and Property Issues
A series of decretals from this period claimed ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the division of marital property following divorce or separation.[1570] Kings were reÂluctant to concede this claim, since resolution of marital property disputes norÂmally fell within their jurisdiction.
Customary and royal laws on these matters were in the process of change during this period, however, and some rulers acÂcommodated the Church’s policies by incorporating principles enunciated in the decretals. Thus, for example, Glanvill stated as a rule of Common Law the principle that a wife who was separated from her husband on account of her adultery forfeited her dowry, a rule that echoed the position adopted by canÂonists and asserted by a decretal of Clement III.[1571] Ecclesiastical courts also sucÂcessfully required the parents of illegitimate children to support their offspring and protected the claims of the natural children of concubines to share in the estates of both parents.[1572]Several decretals of this period asserted the canon law’s right to judge issues concerning parentage and legitimacy, but the Church’s success in making good this claim was variable (see Pl. 9).[1573] When canonists dealt with the eccleÂsiastical consequences of legitimacy—for example with respect to a child’s eligiÂbility for ordination—secular rulers and courts were not apt to challenge their jurisdiction.[1574] When canonists claimed that their courts could regulate the legitimation of children for inheritance purposes, however, there was stout resistance.[1575] A decretal of Alexander III, as noted earlier, maintained that the children of clandestine marriages were legitimate. Secular judges found this teaching more tolerable than legitimation by subsequent marriage.[1576]
Canonists approved of the paternal feeling that moved fathers to provide for their illegitimate children—save when it was a matter of the illegitimate offÂspring of fornicating clerics.[1577] Even in these cases, thirteenth-century writers moderated the disabilities that previous generations had imposed on the illegitÂimate children of clergymen.[1578]
More on the topic Legitimacy and Property Issues:
- Brundage James A.. Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe. The University of Chicago,1990. — 716 p., 1990
- Conclusions
- INHERITANCE, PROPERTY AND MARRIAGE IN MEDIEVAL NORWAY
- Divorce and Remarriage in the Decretists
- TAPIA'S BANQUET HALL AND OTHER ‘FICTITIOUS' SALES IN THE ARCHIVE OF KAKO AND PATERMOUTHIS
- An Expansive Protection of the Law
- The first person that after having built a fence around a piece of land, declared: This is mine, and found people simple-minded enough to believe him, was the real founder of society.
- CONCLUSION
- III. Conclusions
- WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE: MARRIAGE AND THE LAW IN MEDIEVAL IRELAND