clandestine marriages

The Oxford Companion to Irish History | 2007 | 700+ words | Copyright

clandestine marriages performed without licence or the publication of banns had an obvious appeal to couples anxious to marry in secret, to escape family disapproval, or simply to avoid the trouble and expense of the legal formalities. They were most commonly performed by suspended or unemployed clergy known as ‘couple beggars’. An act of 1726 made it a capital offence for any priest or suspended Protestant clergyman to perform a marriage in which one or both parties was a Protestant, and declared all such unions invalid. The Council of Trent declared invalid marriages not performed by the parish priest of one of the parties, or a clergyman authorized by him. This, however, took effect only when the decree had been formally published in each diocese, something not achieved in all parts of Ireland until 1827.

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"clandestine marriages." The Oxford Companion to Irish History. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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