Both books under review deal with medieval marriage but are written by two authors at different stages of their careers. Sara McDougall's first book, based on her Yale doctoral work, is an impressive study of bigamy, that is remarriage despite either a previous contract to marry some one else or an existing wife or husband. Although her prime subject is the episcopal court at Troyes (Champagne) McDougall displays a strong comparative knowledge of bigamist cases across medieval Europe. In the case of Ruth Mazo Karras, well-established in a most distinguished career, her latest book concerns heterosexual unions that were not formal marriages according to the letter of the law but were on the whole accepted as such by the lay people surrounding the men and women in such relationships. Her scope is bold and wide, covering medieval Europe from its post-Roman foundations to the sixteenth-century Reformation. The sweeping brush strokes encompass more detailed vignettes of well-known cases such as that of the emperor Louis and Waldrada, of Abelard and Heloise and, much later, of Katherine Swynford, plus a very fine chapter on priests ‘marriages’ in late medieval Paris. Both historians stress the extent to which, from the late twelfth century onwards, men and women knew the rules that established a valid marriage. It was a union contracted by two adults, in the present tense, freely, ideally in the presence of a priest in a church. It was meant for procreation and could not be dissolved (except in a few very specific circumstances). Yet, both medievalists explore the substantial evidence that so many medieval people flouted these rules for arrangements of living together in one way or another that suited them and their families.

McDougall's fifteenth-century research is crucial in foreshadowing, subtly and persuasively, the Council of Trent's radical change to marriage law. It ruled that clandestine marriages were no longer valid. A priest and witnesses had to be present. The central issue for the change was bigamy as the sacrament of marriage was under threat because of hidden bigamy. Men and women already married could relatively easily move away from their home and start a new life with a new partner elsewhere. It is worth noting that McDougall treats bigamy in the modern sense of illegal remarriage rather than in the medieval sense as an invalid union because there had existed a previous contract to marry even though that marriage had never taken place. McDougall's argument is that the very fact that these men and women wanted their relationship to be recognised as marriage is proof that they considered themselves to be true Christians, wishing to live according to the precepts of the Church, even thought they were fully aware that officially they could not remarry. She also stresses that at Troyes the episcopal determination in pursuing cases of bigamy was inspired by the belief that the chaos resulting from the Black Death and the Hundred Years War was divine punishment for lay sin and immorality. It is striking that the rigorous, some might argue fanatic, policing of marital rules hit men harder than women. Where women were punished with fines, men were thrown into prison or publicly exposed on the scaffold in the market place. According to McDougall, the more severe treatment of men (all husbands) was based on the notion that they were responsible for the behaviour of their wives. If the women had run away, their husbands should have prevented it; if the husbands were driven mad by nagging wives, they should have kept them under control. Either way, men were held to account for the failure of marriage.

As already indicated, Karras paints on a much larger canvas and opens herself potentially to the accusation that some of her work could be seen as too sketchy. This would be unfair. She is absolutely right in stressing the fact that before the twelfth century the rules of marriage were at best vague, and contracted mostly by members of the propertied elite. At worst it was an institution mostly irrelevant for the millions of peasants in Europe. Only after the Church, backed by kings and princes, established rigorous rules from c. 1180 onwards, had the laity more detailed guidance as to how to live their heterosexual lives. At the same time as lay marriage was formalised the rule of clerical celibacy was imposed though enforcement was notoriously hard to achieve. Karras's chapter on priest's ‘marriages’ illustrates the way in which lay society often supported such informal unions, not least as a means to prevent priests chasing the women of the parish who were wives and daughters. As in her other work Karras boldy states her opinions, vividly using a wide range of medieval sources while engaging sensibly with their problems. This reader cannot help feeling that the book contains a contemporary political message for a mostly conservative Roman Catholic audience in the USA. The publishers of these two books are to be congratulated on their flagship series that goes from strength to strength. If I am allowed one suggestion it is a plea for footnotes instead of endnotes. Surely, in this day and age, it should be very easy for a publisher to produce footnotes thereby adding extra pleasure to the experience of readers.