morality, charity according to evolution

From the research I have done, formal marriage was only introduced in the 16/17th century in England. Prior to that a man and woman just exchanged private promises/vows. However, the church found that too many men were promising too many women in too many different places the same thing. The parishes were left supporting and "holding" the many babies, so to speak. Thus, the church introduced the placing of wedding bans on the church door, prior to anyone taking the plunge; and also insisted on having the marriages witnessed. The religious officiant of marriages is him/herself a witness; does not actually "marry" the couple - who marry each other. He just presides.

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Lucy

Your subtitle is good. What I have a problem with is the body of your message which seems to be about the history of marriage with reference to the twenty fourth session of the Council of Trent.I don't see reference to morality, charity or evolution. I can only assume you are replying to a specific post, but it is not clear. If that is the case, then you might find that the little blue/green reply button on the post you are replying to will clear that up.Marriage is tangentially related to the topic, so you haven't gone off the wall, I understand - just a friendly bit of advice for keeping our threads tidy and focussed. To be honest, if you are interested in the topic, it would make a fantastic discussion in its own right - you could propose a new topic on it.

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AdminModulus,I do apologise. Yes I was referring to an earlier post, who equated marriage with evolutionary morality.

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Lucy