Professing Religion: From Liturgy to Law

"Professing Religion: From Liturgy to Law“. This paper traces the "juridification" of an act that was paradigmatic for medieval society, the professing of religion. From the beginnings into the twelfth century, joining a religious house was primarily a ritual act of quasi-sacramental importance. It was irrevocable, even when, as often, parents arranged it for their children, offered up to a saint as oblates. Canon lawyers became involved in the twelfth century on essentially two fronts: sewing contested cases of profession (usually when individuals wished to leave), and determining the binding quality of child oblation. Without openly disparaging the ritual acts, the lawyers insisted upon an act of willed and present consent by an adult who chose to join a house or a child upon reaching the age of majority (initially twelve for girls and fourteen for boys). The decisive legal language, effectively hollowing out the received ritual traditions, came from a decretal letter addressed by Pope Innocent III to Joachim of Fiore. In working out this legal paradigm the lawyers took over their understanding that marriage was constituted by willed and present consent. Thus the legal paradigm worked out for the "married" estate in this case shaped that applied to the estate of the religious.