Transition of Power
Patricia Seed’s in-depth account of the transformation of the laws governing marriage in colonial Mexico elucidates the mechanism by which the transformation occurred. By analyzing several actual cases, Seed is able to create a collage of events that led to this change in the status quo.
In the first part of this historical account, Seed outlines the reasons why the Church was so powerful as well as why and how the Church protected the rights of couples instead of the parents’. Because the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were separate kingdoms brought together through a marriage, the common bond between them was their religion: Catholicism. Seed states, “the crown turned to religion in its search for unity” (29). The crown also depended on the Church to reinforce loyalty to the crown; thus the power afforded to the Church allowed them to act independently of royal authority. The Church, therefore, had the right to exercise municipal power. The Catholic Church focused on two main reasons for supporting the rights of couples to marry despite parental disapproval: the first revolves around the idea of the sacred character of marriage, and the second involves the importance of personal will in creating the marriage bond. Because marriage was sacred, it had to be protected; interference from family members was viewed as an interference with God’s design. The Church was also firm to protect the honor of both young men and women wishing to marry. From a social standpoint, women needed to have their honor protected so that men would follow through with intentions for marriage. For men, the issue of honor was intertwined with virtue — marriage was a means of saving a man’s soul from eternal damnation because intercourse outside of marriage was a moral sin. Three techniques were utilized by the Church to protect couples: 1) temporary custody — taking a threatened party into hiding 2) use of the secular arm — meaning, their ability to call upon the royal police to help the Church in their efforts and 3) secret marriage. Thus, the Church was afforded great power in establishing the social norm of marrying for love. However, their power would slowly erode over the next century.
The slow process of the parental opinion being given credence over that of the children revolves not solely around the changing ideals of marriage but also the transition of authority from Church to State. The earliest evidence for this social change was shown through documentation of direct opinions from the parents voicing their reasons for preventing their children’s marriages which was something that had not been documented in earlier years. This was a sign of the changing times. The first real step in the transition process was the loss of enforcement of marriage promises and protection of female honor, leading to the overall loss of society’s interest in providing support for the rights of couples. Seed also places a lot of the blame for this change in society’s attitude toward marriage on New Spain’s involvement with capitalism. Once the New World entered the world market, money and status became important factors for familial ties. The New World based on capitalism thus had distinct statuses which were openly based on wealth. Parents were able to make more logical arguments about status and money as opposed to marrying for something as abstract as love.
The transition of power from Church to State was solidified by the slow waning of power for the Church. Because of their decrease in power, the Church was unable to protect young couples from interference because they were denied access to the royal police as well as other privileges.
I found this book incredibly intriguing, yet I wonder how accurate some of the points Seed makes can be if she is constantly having to make inferences from factual records. Regardless of the accuracy of the material, it still makes for an intriguing story of the struggles for power.
