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TAMETSI DECREE

A ruling (1563) of the Council of Trent on matrimonial law. It stipulated that any marriage that took place outside the presence of a parish priest or his representative and two witnesses wuold be null. Places where priests were not available were excepted, and it was not binding where the laws of Trent were not promulgated. It was extened almost universally in a modified form by the Ne Temer decree (1908) of Pope Pius X.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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