Unmarried Marriages of Orthodox Laymen in Hetmanshchyna in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to clarify the causes and consequences of long-term preservation in Hetmanshchyna of the 18th century, such a social institution as unmarried (civil) marriages among the Orthodox population, to show the struggle of the secular authorities and the clergy against unmarried marriages, which was one of the signs of the establishment of the monopoly of the Orthodox Church in the marital and family sphere of society.

The methodological basis of pre-development is to form the principle of history, objectivity, systematic, anthropology and inter-disciplinarily. Apparently before them, the homeland was seen as a mutually degraded socio-cultural phenomenon, as a rule of law and social norms of the Ukrainian Orthodox population of the first time was regulated. There are three groups of methods used by the presenters: special-science and specific-problem. In the context of the development of native-born families, methods of social anthropology, history of life, local social history, historical demography, quantitative methods with the method of visualization have been recognized.

Scientific novelty. The article proves that the Orthodox Church has been forced to tolerate and recognize unmarried marriages, which have become widespread, especially among the common people. The latter were a remnant of customary people’s law. However, in the 18th century, after the marital relations were subject to state regulation, unmarried marriages gradually died out. However, in real life they continued to exist because they were caused by objective circumstances. However, mentions of them in official sources are almost non-existent. In practice, such marriages were detected only when the case went to court. This can be explained by the fact that the church, not recognizing them, fought against them, and where it was powerless, simply tried not to notice. Priests committed numerous violations of marriage and family canons: they hid civil (unmarried) marriages, married brides on forbidden days (fasting) and hours (at night), in unauthorized places (chapels, at home). Therefore, the Orthodox Church first had to force the clergy to perform their duties properly. This was done through the introduction of penalties, fines, deprivation of dignity, disciplinary action (temporary ban on services). Eventually, applying various means of Orthodox education to the laity, which covered all age groups of parishioners, gradually formed the need to observe the norms of Christian ethics.