Marriage, for much of the medieval European society, was something done for diplomatic/property and wealth reasons.
Your average peasant covered in animal and human shit and dying of plague isn’t someone who’s gonna have anybneed to conduct diplomacy, nor are they gonna have much property and wealth.
Why is he making them touch his dick?
He’s a priest.
But they’re adults.
I didn’t say he was good at it.
One could even argue that sort of thing is a prerequisite for priesthood.
The implication is that he’s a bad priest for them not being children.
Looks like he wants mom and dad to know his virility. It’s either, “you’re gonna have so many grandkids,” or, “this will be great cover for us to get together and bang.”
Once again a reminder that the “experienced past”, so the way we think the past worked, only covers a very short timeframe.
I remember teaching telling me the Shakespearen audience went wtf when they heard Juliette mom married at 14. Never fact checked it though.
I remember I was surprised about that when doing my family tree. I didn’t get to middle ages but even in 1700 - 1800, the common age of my ancestors when they got married was 22 - 23 for women and 25 - 26 for men. I expected much younger ages, like 18 - 19.
Note that all my ancestors were farmers or workers from rural Slavic part of the world so don’t imagine it like 1800 London or something
