Ways of Solving Marital “Irregular” Issues in the Ancient and Early Medieval Church

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the approach of ancient theologians to the issue of the possibility of allowing certain people who remarry to receive Holy Communion. The conclusions on this matter were discussed on the basis of The canons of the ancient Church and some later Penitential Records. We have omitted texts which, through their ambiguity, raise doubts as to whether it is a remarriage or a case of separation.
The analysis of this material leads to the conclusion that the norm of the indissolubility of marriage, rigorously observed by ancient Christians, in the Middle Ages has undergone some erosion. The penitentiaries of the Western Church tried to solve these issues by imposing severe penances against those who committed such acts, and from the eleventh century, lifelong excommunications were also applied in scandalous cases. The slow evolution of the way of evaluationg the issue of the dissolution of marriage from the soteriological-eschatological approach to the legal approach is also evident. Some resolutions of penitentiaries are repeated, which indicates that the tradition of a given local community over time has also spread in other areas.