''Sponsalia de futuro'' (or ''sponsalia pro futuro'', also stipulatio sponsalitia) was a Catholic

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

form of

engagement An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''f ...

used by medieval European rulers in cases where one or both future spouses were minors. It was seen as a precursor to valid

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

. In order to celebrate a ''sponsalia de futuro'', both children had to be older than seven. It was

Peter Lombard Peter Lombard (also Peter the Lombard, Pierre Lombard or Petrus Lombardus; 1096 – 21/22 August 1160) was an Italian scholasticism, scholastic theologian, Bishop of Paris, and author of ''Sentences, Four Books of Sentences'' which became the s ...

who introduced the distinction between a ''sponsalia de praesenti'' and a ''sponsalia de futuro''. While the former, a promise of an immediately effective marriage, created a marriage that could not be dissolved, the latter concerned only a future marriage and as such was seen as a betrothal dissolubleLind, 105. by the mutual consent of the involved parties. It was presumed that the consummation of marriage included the ''sponsalia de praesenti'' and thus rendered the ''sponsalia de futuro'' a valid marriage.Lind, 109.

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* Marriage in the Catholic Church Pre-wedding Child marriage {{RC-Canon-law-stub

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