User:Matcocco

dfd

Rough Outline

Definition
Conjugal Debt (commonly referred as "marital debt") is a term that describes spouse's sexual commitment to one another. There word stems from descriptions found in canon law in medieval Europe.

History
Origins of the term stem from early Christian's theological work on the sacraments. Biblical references alluding to marriage practices like that found in Corinthians 1:7 where spouses lose ownership of their bodies is later cited by scholars as the origins behind marital debt  More specific examples are to be found in canon law collections like those coming from the work of Irnerius and his students in 1112 and 1125 who reconstructed Justinian’s Code. Another work like Decretum Gratiani by Gratian in the 12th century further explained the institution of marriage. In it, he writes that marriage arose from wishing to prevent further sin through fornication. Gratian is also quick to point out four main reasons people may have for getting married: that is for offspring, to pay the debt, for incontinence, or to satisfy lust and for the sake of pleasure.

A pattern of reciprocal sexual obligation then emerged. Spousal consent, from interpretations of marital debt, can come in form of permission to leave a marriage for monastic setting. Another might be that spouse could not neglect one another’s “conjugal domicile.”

Impact
Ecclesiastical courts were becoming a venue for couples to resolve marital disputes. It thus became incredibly important to abide by some canon by which to procure adequate judgement. Throughout the medieval period, getting divorced or having a marriage annulment was increasingly difficult due to stricter ecclesiastical laws. One way to get a marriage annulment was if one spouse was impotent, aka they could not fulfill the marital debt. In these cases, the healthy spouse could remarry while the impotent one could not. There was some disagreement amongst the clergy as for the case where a person was capable of fulfilling the conjugal debt, but was sterile and could not procreate. In these cases, some though that you needed to be able to procreate to maintain the marriage.

Conjugal debt also had some implications in terms of gender equality. For example, a woman had just as much right as a man to demand the debt. Even further, according to James A. Brundage in his book Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe, in the case where a lord had called a man to rally, but his wife had insisted on the debt, "the wife's rights took precedence over the lord's." A similar situation applied for crusading. If a man wanted to go on crusade he needed permission from his wife, because "his departure would deprive her of the sexual solace that he owed to her."