“[A] promise to marry in the future (sponsalia per verba de futuro) gave rise only to an executory contract of marriage. The regular way of executing the contract was to solemnise the marriage, using present words. But the Canon law acknowledged that it could also be turned into the indissoluble bond of present matrimony by physical consummation …. Thus, in the absence of carnal copulation, the validity of a marriage had come to depend on whether the contract was by words de praesenti or de futuro…. It is hardly surprising that it gave rise to so much wrangling and fraud, and that the commonest species of matrimonial suit in the medieval consistory courts was to interpret and enforce ‘espousals’.” J.H. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History 546 (3d ed. 1990).
sponsalia per verba de futuro
sponsalia per verba de futuro (spon-say-lee-[schwa] p[schwa]r v[schwa]r-b[schwa] dee f[y]oo-t[y]oor-oh). [Latin “espousals by words about the future”] Hist. A promise to marry in the future.
