ABSTRACT
On 18 August 1855, the Concordat between the Roman Catholic Church and the Habsburg Empire was signed after long and complex negotiations. It was a decisive moment that redefined the relationship between the two institutions. With this agreement, the Habsburg Monarchy abandoned reforms going back to Joseph II in favor of a renewed alliance with the dominant Church. The Roman Catholic Church regained privileges that had been abolished in the previous century. Among the matters that returned to ecclesiastical jurisdiction was the decision on divorces from bed and board.
This chapter deals with separation and divorce proceedings during the period when jurisdiction rested with the newly established Catholic marriage courts. We are interested in the changes that occurred for couples seeking divorce. In particular, the aim is to highlight similarities and differences in the handling of separation and divorce proceedings by comparing the two Catholic marriage courts: the Marriage Court of Prague and the Marriage Court of Trent. This is done first through a comparison of the quantitative data of the proceedings kept in the Czech and Italian archives. Secondly, by asking how the orders of the Concordat were implemented in the practice of the two matrimonial courts. In order to identify similarities and differences, we will focus on individual divorce proceedings. For both courts, the latitude that judges had in reaching a verdict and the fundamental role of pastors and deans in conducting the proceedings are worth noting. The couples seeking divorce came from both urban and rural parts of the dioceses and the majority of the divorce petitions were filed by women. The article concludes with remarks on the controversial continuity of the church courts’ activities after 1867/68, when the Imperial Council again abolished the marriage jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church.
