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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Marriage, as we know it in Western civilization today, has a long history with roots in several very different ancient cultures, of which the Roman, Hebrew, and Germanic are the most important. Western marriage has further been shaped by the doctrines and policies of the medieval Christian church, the demands of the Protestant Reformation, and the social impact of the Industrial Revolution. Although many view marriage as a private expression of their love for one another, for centuries matrimony has been a very public institution established to secure an environment for the perpetuation of the species, to provide a system of rules to handle the granting of property rights, and employed to protect bloodlines. LICENSES For most of Western history, marriage was a private contract between two families. Until the sixteenth-century, Christian churches accepted the validity of a marriage on the basis of a couple’s declarations. If two people claimed that they had exchanged marital vows — even without witnesses — the Catholic Church accepted that they were validly married. Marriage licences began to be issued in the Middle Ages, to permit a marriage which would otherwise be illegal (for instance, if the necessary period of notice for the marriage had not been given). A marriage license is a document issued, either by a church or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a licence varies between countries and has changed over time. Today, they are a legal requirement in some jurisdictions and may also serve as the record of the marriage itself, if signed by the couple and witnessed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_license http://marriage.about.com/od/historyofmarriage/Learning_About_the_History_of_Marriage.htm http://marriage.about.com/cs/generalhistory/a/marriagehistory.htm http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/ATLAS_EN/html/history_of_marriage_in_western.html MARRIAGE IMAGES
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