About the Author
Jacques de Vitry (1180 – 1240) was a French clergyman. Rising through the hierarchy of the Church, he was involved with the Albigensian crusade, which resulted in stamping out the heresy of the Albigensians in France. The Albigensians, or Cathars, adopted a view similar to that of the Manichees of Saint Augustine’s time, that there are really two gods, a good one and a bad one. After the destruction of this new-old heresy, Jacques de Vitry become Bishop of Acre, modern Akko in the Holy Land. After some time back in Europe, he was supposed to become Patriarch of Jerusalem, but something went wrong and the appointment seems not to have happened. Here we find the cleric sniffing at a folk custom of throwing grain, which has come down to us in the form of throwing rice or confetti at the married couple.
Cardinal Jacques de Vitry on Superstitious Wedding Customs
In some parts I have seen how, when women came home from the church after a wedding, others threw corn in their faces as they entered their house, crying in the French tongue, plenté, plenté, (which being interpreted means abundance), yet for all this, before the year was past, they remained poor and needy for the most part, and had no abundance of any goods whatsoever.
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