Spiritual Kinship Between Formal Norms and Actual Practice: A Comparative Analysis in the Long Run (from the Early Middle Ages Until Today)

Abstract

In Christian societies during the late Middle Ages, baptism did not merely represent a solemn and public recognition of the "natural" birth of a child. Rather, it was considered a second birth, a "spiritual birth" within a group of relatives normally different from that based on blood relations: the spiritual family, composed of godfathers and godmothers. Both for the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, the baptismal ceremony established a tie of kinship between the people involved in the ceremony. This kind of kinship was called "spiritual" (in Latin, cognatio spiritualis) to distinguish it from others and in particular from the "natural" kinship (cognatio naturalis) connecting the baptized to his or her parents and blood relations.