Kristi DiClemente, a doctoral candidate in history, studies marriage.
Her research takes her to Paris, where she pours over 14th and 15th century manuscripts that illuminate the development of our modern-day concept of marriage. “Marriage in the Middle Ages was complicated; it was ridiculously easy to contract and impossible to dissolve. What other scholars have found is that people often had their own forms of marriage that were accepted by the population.”
Although the Catholic Church influenced medieval concepts of marriage, court records may show that other social factors came into play, as well. DiClemente’s research examines “whether the marriage model that the Catholic Church supported and defended was the only model accepted by the laity at the time.”
In Paris to continue her research, DiClemente examines documents in one of the most important Catholic dioceses on the continent. “I'm looking at bishop's and archdeacon's court records to tease out the stories behind the cases,” she says.
Her research resonates with issues brought to the fore in the current political and social climate. “With the possible recall of judges who allowed same-sex marriage in Iowa and the debates currently raging in New York, to television shows like Big Love, it is clear that marriage is a very important issue to a lot of people,” she says.
Given this high level of interest and social investment in various ideas of marriage, DiClemente asks, “How can anyone have a conversation about a topic without knowing anything about the history of that topic? We have many different kinds of marriage in the modern world. My research asks whether the idea of a 'traditional marriage' actually existed in practice or if it was just a PR campaign or power play by the Church.”