Number DOI: http://doi.org/10.33209/2519-4348-2019-7-53

VB. – № 7, 2019. – P. 123-138

Summary

The form of marriage under Roman law became the basis of the canon law of the marriage of the Orthodox Church. Roman law, according to which Christians entered into marriage in the Early Church, provided for mutual consent to marriage and a joint agreement between spouses (this agreement could take the form of a contract (oral or written) or it could be marked by a completed case – the transition of the bride into the house of the groom) and defined marriage as a voluntary union between man and woman, their reciprocity in life circumstances and the observance of human and divine laws. At the same time, Christians, marrying under the civil law of the Roman Empire, previously asked for it the blessings of their bishop, announced in advance about their intention to marry and sanctified such a marriage by accepting joint participation in the Eucharist. During the Byzantine period, the marriage was transformed into an exclusive Church order, which consisted in addressing the bride and groom or their parents in the form of an application to the bishop, and the marriage was preceded by an engagement, which was perceived as a church blessing and had the same legal consequences as marriage. Attempts to study the principles and content of the church marriage in the Early Church were taken by individual researchers, but nevertheless, this topic has been disclosed in the research literature only partially. The problem of wider coverage of the issue, especially its analysis in the historic and canonical plane, the emphasis on the importance of understanding not only the external aspect of the issue, but especially theological understanding of the internal content of church marriages are relevant today and require special scientific research, especially from the point of view of the modern researcher. The disclosure of the principles and content of the church marriage formation history in the Early Church and the characteristics of the development of these forms of church marriage is particularly relevant in our time, due to the increasing interest of contemporary Ukrainian society in the study of the historical and legal thought of the Christian Church. In spite of the inadequate study of the outline of the topic in the historical and contemporary secular and ecclesiastical literature, even despite often poorly preserved historical facts about the principles and content of the conclusion of a church marriage in the Early Church, the purpose of the article is an attempt to integrate the way of the development of an ecclesial marriage in early Christianity. Achieving this goal will promote not only the greater popularization of the concepts of church marriage, but will also help to practically implement the church postulates of marriage and family relations in modern society.

Key words: marriage law of the church, marriage, Roman law.

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