characterize not the relationship between wife and husband but that between a knight and a “lady fair” between whom marriage was out of the question. It is obvious that even in our world romantic love does not characterize all marriage and is not always the motivation for entering a marriage. In fact, love of any kind need not be a factor in every marriage or in every concept of marriage. In some cultures the parentchild relationship is more important than the husband-wife relationship, and wives are valued more as mothers than as lovers. Yunxiang Yan111 states that in the traditional Chinese family the parent-son relationship is more important than the relationship between husband and wife. Murstein112 remarks that: “Love has never been the focal point of traditional African marriage.” Nock113 notes however that even when love is not decisive in the selection of a mate it may develop later and indeed may be expected to develop later. In summary, romantic love is not a recent phenomenon but has been present in many cultures and in many ages. In some cultures of the past, as in ours today, it has been an important factor in the choice of a mate. In some cultures, however, even love more broadly defined may not play as large a role in entrance into marriage as do economic factors and the desire to have children. Certainly love cannot be considered to be part of the definition of marriage. II. DEFINING MARRIAGE LEGALLY IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Something like a legal Roman Catholic definition of marriage can be found in the Code of Canon Law published in 1918.114 The first part of the definition comes in Canon 1081, which states that matrimonial consent is an act of the will by which each party gives and 111
Yunxiang Yan, “The triumph of conjugality: structural transformation of family relations in a Chinese village” Ethnology 36(1997) 191-212. 112 Op. cit., p. 503. 113 Nock, Steven, Sociology of the Family, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1987, pp. 40-41. 114 This legal definition gives only what are seen to be the essential characteristics that must be present for a valid marriage to exist. It does not attempt to state the full meaning of marriage or what characteristics are present in marriage at its best.
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