From France to the Church: The Generalization of Parish Registers in the Catholic Countries. (January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Laplante, Benoît
• Is Part Of: Journal of family history. Volume 44:Number 1(2019:Jan.)
• Page Start: 24
• Page End: 51
• Publication Date: 2019-01
• Subjects: parish registers -- public registration -- marriage solemnization -- inheritance law -- Council of Trent -- Gallicanism; Kinship -- Periodicals; Families -- Periodicals; 306.85
• DOI: 10.1177/0363199018806501
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0363-1990

Abstract

The generalization of the registration of baptism and marriage in the Catholic countries is shown to be the result of a process in which France used the authority of the Council of Trent to impose on the whole Church a system of public registration it had started to implement through temporal law at home in 1539, so that the clerics in charge of the registration be subject to canonical penalties if they failed to comply. The registration of baptism and marriage was integrated into the Decree on the Reformation of Marriage that France maneuvered to impose on the Church to curb clandestine marriages which had dire effects on estate planning in France, given the peculiarities of its inheritance and matrimonial law.