FORBIDDEN TIME. — Can. 1108 § 1 of the CIC lays down the principle of freedom to contract marriage at any time, abolishing the local prohibitions still existing here and there that prevented weddings on days of penance. This does not mean that particular law may not be regarded, or even established, as directive and exhortatory in character, so that the faithful may also observe the spirit of the fifth precept of the Church: Do not celebrate weddings solemnly during the f. t. The letter of the precept, in the light of can. 1108, is satisfied if the faithful, when contracting marriage during the f. t., abstain from excessive pomp and solemnity that would disturb the spirit of penance and distract from Christian recollection.
F. t. currently means the time of Advent and Lent, and possibly the period of a local interdict, general or particular, including the days during which the effects of the interdict are suspended (cann. 2270–72).
In marriages contracted during this period, the Church, with a limitation of a predominantly liturgical character, denies the bride the solemn nuptial blessing (can. 1108 § 2). But, with a keen sense of adaptation, it understands external solemnity with a certain latitude and does not absolutely prohibit the ringing of bells, the organ, decorations on the altar and adornments in the church, the nuptial procession, the wedding meal, and the like; it merely exhorts the faithful to abstain from excessive splendor. It also allows local Ordinaries, in particular cases, to establish temporary prohibitions, likewise of a penal and preventive character, and, on the other hand, to dispense by granting, even outside Mass, the solemn nuptial blessing during the f. t. (can. 1108 § 3).
A Council of Laodicea in the fourth century was the first to establish the prohibition against celebrating weddings during Lent. In 866 Pope Nicholas I recalled this prohibition to the Bulgarians. In the eleventh century the prohibition, observed rigorously, extended from Septuagesima to Low Sunday, for the three weeks preceding the feast of s. Giovanni Battista (24 June), and from Advent to the octave of Epiphany. This practice became universal law under Clement III (1187–91), whose provisions were received into the Decretals of Gregory IX. This discipline, which in ancient times had also included the prohibition against consummating a marriage contracted during the f. t., remained substantially in force until the publication of the CIC.