Western Civilization

Germanic, and Christian practices. The last in particu-

lar seem to have exercised an ever-increasing influence.

THE FAMILY AND MARRIAGE By Carolingian times, the

Catholic Church had begun to influence Frankish fam-

ily life and marital and sexual attitudes. Fathers or

uncles arranged marriages in Frankish society to meet

the needs of the extended family. Although wives were

expected to be faithful to their husbands, Frankish

aristocrats often kept concubines, either slave girls or

free women from their estates. Even the “most Chris-

tian king” Charlemagne had a number of concubines.

To limit such sexual license, the church increasingly

emphasized its role in marriage and attempted to

Christianize it. Although marriage was a civil arrange-

ment, priests tried to add their blessings and

strengthen the concept of a special marriage cere-

mony. To stabilize marriages, the church also began to

emphasizemonogamyand permanence. A Frankish

church council in 789 stipulated that marriage was

“indissoluble” and condemned the practice of concubi-

nage and easy divorce, and during the reign of Em-

peror Louis the Pious (814–840), the church formally

prohibited divorce. Now a man who married was

expected to remain with hiswife“eventhoughshe

were sterile, deformed, old, dirty, drunken, a fre-

quenter of bad company, lascivious, vain, greedy,

unfaithful, quarrelsome, abusive... , for when that

man was free, he freely engaged himself.”^5

The acceptance and spread of the Catholic Church’s

views on the indissolubility of marriage encouraged the

development of thenuclear familyat the expense of

the extended family. Although kinship was still an influ-

ential social and political force, the conjugal unit came

to be seen as the basic unit of society. The new practice

of young couples establishing their own households

brought a dynamic element to European society. It also

had a significant impact on women. In the extended

family, the eldest woman controlled all the other female

members; in the nuclear family, the wife was still domi-

nated by her husband, but at least she now had control

of her own household and children. In aristocratic fami-

lies, women had even more opportunity to play inde-

pendent roles. The wives of Carolingian aristocrats were

often entrusted with the management of the household

and even the administration of extensive landed estates

while their husbands were absent in the royal service or

on a military campaign.

CHRISTIANITY AND SEXUALITY The early church fathers

had stressed that celibacy and complete abstinence

from sexual activity constituted an ideal state superior

to marriage. Subsequently, the early church gradually

developed a case for clerical celibacy, although it proved

impossible to enforce in the early Middle Ages. The

early fathers had also emphasized, however, that not

all people had the self-discipline to remain celibate. It

was thus permissible to marry, as Paul had indicated in

his first epistle to the Corinthians: “It is good for a

man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid for-

nication, let every man have his own wife, and let every

woman have her own husband.... I say therefore to

the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they

abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them

marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.”^6 The

church thus viewed marriage as the lesser of two evils;

it was a concession to human weakness and fulfilled

the need for companionship, sex, and children. The

early medieval church generally accepted that marriage

gave the right to indulge in sexual intercourse. Sex,

then, was permissible within marriage, but only so long

as it was used for the sole purpose of procreation and

not for pleasure. The church condemned all forms of

contraception and also strongly condemned abortion,

although this prohibition failed to stop either practice.

Various herbal potions were available to prevent

conception or cause abortion. The Catholic Church

accepted only one way to limit children: periodic or

total abstinence from intercourse.

The Catholic Church’s condemnation of sexual activ-

ity outside marriage also included homosexuality. Nei-

ther Roman religion nor Roman law had recognized any

real difference between homosexual and heterosexual

eroticism, and the Roman Empire had taken no legal

measures against homosexual relations between adults.

Later, in the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian in

538 condemned homosexuality, emphasizing that such

practices brought down the wrath of God (“we have

provoked Him to anger”) and endangered the welfare

of the state. Justinian recommended that the guilty

parties be punished by castration. Although the early

medieval church similarly condemned homosexuality, it

also pursued a flexible policy in its treatment of homo-

sexuals. In the early Middle Ages, homosexuals were

treated less harshly than married couples who prac-

ticed contraception.

DIET For both rich and poor, the fundamental staple of

the Carolingian diet was bread. The aristocratic classes,

as well as monks and peasants, consumed it in large

quantities. Ovens at the monastery of Saint Gall were

able to bake a thousand loaves of bread.

The World of the Carolingians 179

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

`ˆÌi`Ê܈̅Ê̅iÊ`i“œÊÛiÀȜ˜ÊœvÊ

˜vˆÝÊ*ÀœÊ*Ê

`ˆÌœÀÊ

/œÊÀi“œÛiÊ̅ˆÃʘœÌˆVi]ÊۈÈÌ\Ê