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Christian marriage is a sacrament of vocation.
Marriage exists for the sake of mutual salvation.
God created marriage before the fall in the Garden of Eden.
- Genesis 1 shows a relationship between man and woman and with all creation and that marriage is a partnership.
- Genesis 2 focuses on the equality of man and woman.
- The Book of Tobit shows husbands and wives as saviors of each other and the idea of mutual salvation in which each helps each other toward salvation.
- The Prophets speak of marriage as a covenant and a sign of God's love and fidelity.
- St. Paul sees marriage as a symbol of the Church.
Basically, before the 11 century, 1000 ad, marriage took place in the home and was seen almost exclusively as a social contract. There is no official rite of marriage for the first 1000 years of Christianity, although there are some smaller indications that the early Church had some smaller rites of marriage.
Tertullian gives the earliest indication of some smaller rites, especially when it comes to the blessing of the rings, the veil, that was placed over the bride and groom to symbolize oneness. There was also the custom of "joining the right hands." This is logical because the left hand was considered evil by most.
One of the early sacramentaries of the Church, the Leonine Sacramentary gives indication of some rites of the early Church, but it was still far from an official universal rite.
The Leonine sacramentary: Includes the first ritual mass for spouses in which a wedding mass was celebrated after the nuptials.
In the 11th century, a major shift in the theology of marriage took place. Before this, marriages were almost exclusively celebrated in the home, but in 1012, at the Synod of Rouen it was decreed by the archbishop Jean d'Avranches, that the vows had to be exchanged outside a church in the presence of a priest in order for it to be sacramental.
In 1551, the Council of Trent, in its Tametsi Decree declared wedding vows need be exchanged outside a church in the presence of a priest and two witnesses.
Over time, the shift from celebrating outside the church to inside the church in front of the altar occurs. Vatican II made "canonical form", that is, Catholics need be married in a catholic church in the presence of the priest and two witnesses, more explicit.
Additionally, Vatican II said that Marriage is a symbol of Christ's love for the Church and the ministers of the sacrament are the bride and groom themselves. The priest merely receives the vows.
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