Definition
Latin. In old English law, the third publication or proclamation of an intended marriage. The term refers specifically to the final of three successive announcements — made in a church or other public setting — required before a marriage could lawfully proceed. These announcements, known collectively as the banns of matrimony, gave community members an opportunity to raise lawful impediments to the union. Tertia denunciatio marked the completion of that notice requirement. Once the third proclamation passed without objection, the parties were generally free to marry.
Common Confusion
Tertia denunciatio is a procedural marker within the broader institution of banns, not a standalone legal instrument. Researchers encountering the term in ecclesiastical or canon law records should not conflate it with a formal legal summons or criminal denunciation. The word denunciatio carried a wider range of meanings in medieval and ecclesiastical Latin — including formal accusation, notification to a court, or inquisitorial complaint — but in the specific context of marriage law, it refers only to the act of public proclamation.
Why It Matters in Research
The term appears almost exclusively in ecclesiastical court records, canon law commentaries, and Bracton-era common law sources treating the validity of marriages. Researchers working with pre-Reformation English ecclesiastical records or with Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae will encounter tertia denunciatio as part of the procedural machinery governing marriage formation.
The key navigational point: the three-proclamation requirement was a creature of canon law, administered through the ecclesiastical courts, not the common law courts. After the English Reformation and the eventual transfer of marriage jurisdiction, the underlying institution of banns persisted in English ecclesiastical practice, but the Latin terminology largely receded. Primary sources after the mid-sixteenth century are more likely to use the vernacular phrase "third publication of banns" rather than tertia denunciatio.
Researchers tracing the history of marriage law should be alert to the distinction between the banns system (public proclamation, ecclesiastical oversight, community-based impediment) and the license system (private dispensation, episcopal authority), which coexisted in English practice for centuries. Tertia denunciatio is a concept native to the banns system only.
The Burrill citation to Bracton (fol. 307b) is a genuine anchor for this term and worth verifying directly against the Bracton text for researchers working in the medieval period.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries are in close agreement. All three identify tertia denunciatio as a Latin term from old English law meaning the third publication or proclamation of an intended marriage. Burrill adds the most substantive historical context, quoting the formula from Bracton — "Cum bannum et tertia denunciatio fiat" (when the banns and third publication are made) — which situates the term within a coherent procedural sequence and supplies a direct primary source reference. Black's (both editions) provides the definition without additional commentary.
None of the three sources elaborates on the broader canonical framework governing the banns requirement, the consequences of proceeding to marriage without completing the three publications, or the role of episcopal dispensation as an alternative. Researchers needing that context must look beyond the dictionary shelf to canon law treatises and ecclesiastical court records.
The fragment appearing in the Black's entries concerning "to the terror of the people" and riot indictments is an artifact of typographic layout in the original dictionary — it belongs to a different headword (TERROR) and has no connection to tertia denunciatio.
Jurisdictional Note
The banns requirement and the concept of tertia denunciatio operated under canon law and were administered by ecclesiastical courts throughout England until the gradual displacement of that system following the Reformation. Scotland maintained distinct ecclesiastical structures, and practice in the American colonies and later states diverged substantially — most American jurisdictions never adopted a three-proclamation requirement as a legal prerequisite to marriage.