Familiar and Foreign. Early Modern Catholic Theologians and Jurists Faced with Jewish Marriage

The Council of Trent’s canons and decrees on marriage, as well as the moral-theological discourse produced in the following decades, viewed Reformed marriage as the negative other in contrast to which Catholic marriage was to be redefined. Indeed, it was Reformation theorists who were anathematized. However, additional forms of union between a man and a woman were scrutinized. The essay focuses on how some of the greatest Catholic authorities regarded Jewish marriage, such as Martín Azpilcueta, alias Navarrus, Tomás Sánchez, and Giovanni Battista De Luca. In their eyes Jewish marriage seems to represent an inevitable archetype, but also one that has been surpassed as a matter of course, something at once familiar and foreign.