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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: History of Marriage |
 | | Certain uncivilized peoples are known to have practised trial marriages, marriages that were binding only until the birth of a child, and marriages that bound the parties only for certain days of the week. |
 | | Although any general exercise of the so-called jus primae noctis has no historical basis, and is now admitted to be an invention of the encyclopedists, at times serf women were required to submit to their overlords before assuming marital relations with their husbands (Schmidt, Karl,"Jus Primae Noctis, a historical examination"). |
 | | Japanese maidens of the poorer classes frequently spend a portion of their youth as prostitutes, with the consent of their parents and the sanction of public opinion. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/09693a.htm (4704 words) |
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