Abstract

The article examines government regulations in the 18th - the first half of the 19th century, which were used by the parish clergy in order to confirm the legality of marriages and allowance for brides to the wedding ceremony. The scientific novelty of the research is in the attempt to identify, systematize and analyze the government regulations of the specified period, which regulated the preparatory stage in the conduct of the sacrament of marriage. The cited church written sources in accordance with the name, content and presented conditional classification of the legal documentation were singled out into special groups of official directions, the most significant fragments were cited, it was drawn attention to the writing forms, the differences in the presentation of information about the main personalities of the wedding ceremony were shown.