Beiträge zur Rechtsgeschichte Österreichs 2 / 2013, pp. 374-385, 2014/01/30
recht [durch] setzen - Making Things Legal.
Gesetzgebung und prozessuale Wirklichkeit in den europäischen Rechtstraditionen
The impediment of adultery, one of the two basic kinds of the impediment of crime, is fairly unknown by today. This paper will first speak about the impediment of adultery in its medieval form as laid down in the law of the Catholic Church. Its focus will be on the reformatory circle of Wittenberg around Martin Luther. A legal picture of the protestant marriage as well as the changes connected with it is drawn, because literature and theology had to struggle with numerous subsequent problems due to the new understanding of marriage – which now also could be divorced. In doing so, Luther and the reformatory jurists were not always uniform in their respective views. Finally, the impediment of culpable divorce because of adultery, being a historic novelty, will be analyzed.
