The Council of Trent deserves all the credit for transcribing, during its 24th session, all of the marriage and baptismal records of the parochial books at the time. Such Council of Trent opened its doors on March 15, 1545 and closed them on December 4, 1563 and was one of the longest but above all most important church councils of its kind.

In a Europe distraught by the many wars between Francesco I and Carlo V, Pope Paolo III inducted the council in the hope of corralling the protestants back into the heart of the Catholic church as well as to reaffirm the pillars that were and still are today classic of Catholicism.

In 1614, Paolo V brought to five the number of available parochial books: the book of baptisms, confirmations, marriages, deaths and possibly that of the state of the population.

Thanks to the regulations established by the Council of Trent, and to Roman rituals and numerous synods, the parochial books had great importance not only in the ecclesiastic but also in the civic field where they held great archival value until the end of the 18th century and in some nations, such as Italy and Spain, even after the above period.

In the specific case of Torricella Peligna it is only through these very canonical records that we are able to know with exactness the state of the population, and through the notes hereby written, the most important events lived by the community.

Following is the data related to 17 baptismal, 6 confirmation, 13 marriage and 13 death records. The oldest record is surely the marriage act dating back to 08/01/1625.

Introduction to the marriage records

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