Matrimony between secular and spiritual powers: civil marriage and the process of secularization of the juridical sphere in Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a study of the advent of civil marriage and its relations with the secularization of law in Brazil. Secularization is understood in its macro level, as the autonomization of the social spheres in relation to religion. Attention is given to events and social compositions that took place during the process that culminated in the 1916 codification, which represented in the normative realm the secularization of marriage in Brazilian society. The relations between State and church are brought into the study, mainly through the analysis of Brazilian Parliament records from the middle of nineteenth century to the first decades of twentieth century. This approach helps to understand the peculiarity of the processes of autonomization of the juridical sphere in relation to religion in Brazil.