Catholic Dictionary
Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.
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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 would 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 extended almost universally in a modified form by the Ne Temer decree (1908) of Pope Pius X.
