Catholicism declared poly illegal

[NewBeginning]

Found something very interesting for all of us.
I don’t know of you knew this or not, be this has been an eye opener for me!

CANON II of the 24th session of the Council of Trent in 1563. (See link)

The Twenty-Fourth Session Catholic Fathers - Papal Encyclicals

The first parent of the human race, under the influence of the divine Spirit, pronounced the bond of matrimony perpetual and indissoluble.

www.papalencyclicals.net

 

[frederick]

Hi, yes, this is well known and has been discussed on the forum in the past. But thank you for pointing it out again as there are probably others who have joined the forum who are not aware of this.

 

[Mark C]

It's much harder to find, and Lew White has written of it, but the RCC 'outlawed' polygyny about the 9th century. (And it worked so well for control that they instituted 'priestly' celibacy about 50 years later.)

Thereafter, Rabbi Gershom famous issued a "t'kanah" making what they call 'halachah' that no Sephardic Jew could take multiple wives, saying, "when christians and jews disagree, jews die."

It was said to be in effect for either 500 or 1000 years (and has now expired either way.) I know Jews who proclaim both durations...

 

[FollowingHim]

@NewBeginning, you may not realize that this decree was specifically designed to counter the reformation. The biggest change it made was to say that although marriage had in the past been contracted informally, and that was ok, from now on marriage must be conducted by a priest, as it was now declared a sacrament of the church. The intent of this appears to have been to scare the population into thinking that they had to stay in the church in order to get married or they would be sinning by taking a wife. The decree is very clear that this is new, and has the arrogance to say that it means marriage conducted through the Catholic church is more holy than the marriages of anyone in the Bible: "Whereas therefore matrimony, in the evangelical law, excels in grace, through Christ, the ancient marriages". The polygamy prohibition was an aside, formalizing what the church already taught. But the turning of marriage into a sacrament under the control of the church was shockingly new.