Council of Trent: Spanish Reform, Tametsi, and Marriage, Annales Historiae Conciliorum, 50 (2020), 155-174

The Council of Trent’s marriage reforms became the conciliar issue that most directly affected
the lives of the laity. At the time of promulgation of the tametsi decree, the theologians
and bishops at the council remained deeply divided about whether the Church could
impose such new conditions on the marriage process. This paper traces the development of
the decree in light of the reform-minded Spaniards present at the council. Archbishop
Pedro Guerrero of Granada is the focal point of the analysis, both for his leadership of the
Spanish group as well as his theological influences. This approach relies on conciliar documents,
contemporary sources, and modern research to identify the theological underpinnings
of the decrees and present them as the fruit of a broader process of reform.