![]() | Unfit For Marriage Subjects: Ecclesiastical courts; Impotence (Canon law); Impediments to marriage (Canon law); Impediments to marriage; Divorce; Marriage; Marriage; The Catholic Church of early modern Europe intended the sacrament of matrimony to represent a lifelong commitment, and it allowed few grounds for the dissolution of an unhappy marriage. One was nonconsummation owing to the sexual impotency of one of the partners. Even then, an annulment was granted only after a church court had conducted a lengthy investigation of the case, soliciting testimony from numerous witnesses as well as from the aggrieved couple, and had subjected the allegedly impotent spouse (and sometimes both spouses) to an intimate physical examination. Edward J. Behrend-Martínez is an assistant professor of history at Appalachian State University. He has published several articles on gender and the social history of early modern Spain. He received his PhD in History from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Spain in 2000-2001. |
![hidden image for function call](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/1x1.png)