Conflicts over mixed-denomination marriages

A glimpse into research

During their fellowship at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg, the researchers work on a project of their own choice related to the Kolleg’s topic. Sometimes a single source is at the centre of these projects, sometimes there are hundreds, and it is not always classical historical source material. That is why we have asked our fellows to present a source that is central to their research project, that is particularly meaningful or that simply reads like a thriller – their absolute favourite source, so to speak.

We publish these continuously on the weekends during Advent, allowing us to look back on the year once again.

---

Cecilia Cristellon

Project: Negotiating Confession in Early Modern Europe: Roman Congregations, Mixed Marriages, and Administering Religious Plurality in an Entangled World (16th–18th Centuries)

Source: De matrimoniis mixtis inter catholicos et protestantes, Quinque Ecclesiis 1842, vol. 2, S. 27, Nr. 37

De matrimoniis mixtis inter catholicos et protestantes,Quinque Ecclesiis 1842, vol. 2, p. 27, no. 37 – this is a document from the collection of sources of the assistant to the papal throne, Agostón Roskovány, dealing with a central issue in denominationally mixed marriages: namely, the religious education of the children. Churches made dispensations for mixed marriages conditional on the children being brought up in their own denomination. This led to conflicts of conscience that could challenge paternal and sovereign authority. A purely dogmatic solution was impossible, so couples had to negotiate and draw up contracts, and secular authorities had to intervene. Such marriages thus contributed to an increasing diversity of norms, but also prompted the secular authorities to create a normative unity whose main aim was public order. This source concerns a decision made by Elector Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1713). It determined that, if the father was Protestant, then sons from mixed marriages would be raised in the Protestant-Lutheran faith if no prenuptial agreements to the contrary had been made; and that, if the father was Catholic and the mother was Protestant, then sons would be raised in the Catholic faith and daughters in the Lutheran. Children who were brought up Catholic and wanted to convert to Protestantism on reaching the ‘age of reason’ (12 for girls, 14 for boys) could not be prevented from doing so. Illegitimate children were always to be baptised Protestant, even if the mother was Catholic. The ruling reflects the attempt to promote both paternal authority and the Elector’s religion in his territory.

---

Zitieren als:
Cristellon, Cecilia, Conflicts over mixed-denomination marriages. A glimpse into research, EViR Blog, 05.12.2025, https://www.evir.uni-muenster.blog/en/mixed-denomination-marriages/.

Lizenz:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

---