Wedding

In the Teutonic races, more importance was attached to the betrothal than to the subsequent wedding. The former seems to have been the sale of a woman by her guardian for a price. This came to be represented by a handsel, which was not paid over until the wedding. Later, the betrothal was the woman’s own act, and the handsel was payable to herself. In Roman law there was a distinction between sponsalia and mat rimonium, which was obscured by another which divided marriages into clandestine and regular — the former resting merely in the agreement of the parties. The Christian church upheld “clandestine” marriage as valid until the Council of Trent declared all marriages 'to be void unless made in the presence of a priest and witnesses. In England, where that decree was not received, either of the parties to a clandestine marriage could compel the other, In an ecclesiastical court, to solemnize it in due form. It has been held (10 Cl. & F. 655) that the English common law never recognized such' a contract per verba de pra’senti as valid, although it recognized It, as well as a contract “per ver ba dc futiiro,” down to the middle of the eighteenth century as giving either of the parties a right to sue for a celebration and as impeding the marriage of either party with a stranger. Holland, Jurispr. 240. In the later Anglo-Saxon period the husband gave the parent or guardian security (wed) that “he will keep her according to God’s law as a man should his wife*’; he arranged with her friends and with herself what settlement he would make ui>oii her, and what should be her rights after his death, and for this promise he gave her a wed. The actual nuptials were performed in the presence of a priest. The marriage service of the English church reproduces these old Ideas. The wed appears in the ring; the settlement is found in the endowment of the bride by the bridegroom with “all his worldly goods.” There is the giving away of the bride by her guardians, and the presence of the priest. 2 Iloldsw. Hist. E. L. 76. The Church of England marriage service is said to be a cabinet of antiquities. 2 Poll. & Maitl. 365. As to wedding presents, see Paraphernalia.