GOODAY-O.Michael

In the reading by Jack Goody "The development of family and marriage in Europe", I was interested to see how the Church had a large part to do with marriage patterns of northwest France. The Church had very strict laws within kinship. Good states that during the tenth and eleventh centuries there was a great struggle and conflict between the Church and State when dealing with marriages. It appeared to me that the Church had very strict rules when dealing with the line of kinship and marriage. To my understanding the State had more relaxed views and rules. An interesting approach that i noticed was that the Church forbade marriage to the brothers and sisters of the dead spouse. Also they frowned upon the remarriage of widows and widowers. After reading this article I have raised a question in that, what would marriage be like today if these rules were still intact?