Wide Open. How to Open Our Hearts and Build a Network of LOVE by Nils Klippstein - HTML preview
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Here are some of the most significant historical figures and groups who have set the course:
Solon (about 638-558 BCE) – He created laws that regulated marriage and inheritance, pushing people to form state-controlled, paired households.
Emperor Augustus (63 BCE-14 CE) – He enforced strict marriage and adultery laws to control citizens' behaviour, establishing the one-spouse model as the official moral standard.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) – He taught that sexual desire was dangerous and should only exist within a strict monogamous marriage, shaping Christian morality for centuries.
Emperor Justinian I (482-565) – He used Roman law to regulate marriage and sexuality, punishing any alternative relationship models.
Pope Gregory I (ca. 540-604) – He reinforced the idea that any intimacy outside of marriage was sinful, using church teachings to control people's behaviour.
Charlemagne (747-814) – He promoted Christian marriage norms across his empire, spreading the monogamous model as part of his political and religious reforms.
Pope Nicholas I (about 800-867) – He declared that monogamous marriage was the only valid Christian union, dismissing older traditions that allowed for more flexible bonds.
Rabbenu Gershom (about 960-1040) – He banned plural marriage for Ashkenazi Jews, legally forcing men to have only one wife.
Pope Gregory VII (about 1015-1085) – He centralised church power over marriage, making monogamy a religious duty and limiting people's freedom to engage in other forms of LOVE.
Pope Innocent III (1161-1216) – He tightened marriage rules even further, turning monogamy into a legally binding institution that the church could enforce across Europe.
The Council of Trent (1545-1563) – This was the Church's definitive move to take control of marriage away from private contracts, making it a fully institutionalised, public, sacramental, and exclusively monogamous union under the Church's authority.
European colonial powers (16th-20th centuries) – They claimed full control over marriage in colonised societies worldwide, thereby globalising the European model. They suppressed indigenous relationship structures and prohibited any alternative models, punishing anything outside the one-couple structure.
Napoleon (1769-1821) – He replaced local customs with a unified legal system that made monogamy the only socially accepted and legally recognised form of intimacy across many countries.