Laws passed regulate marriage with anyone closer than third cousins, as well as celibacy for the priesthood, incest, and more. This marks a change in traditional kinship structures across Europe that were previously more tightly woven, moving to privilege relationships across “strangers.” Incest will be perceived as one of the causes of the plague. The rulings serve to weaken clan structure and reduce the closeness of family lines, opening room for the Church to assert primacy in managing relationships over the people in the relationships themselves.