A History of Matrimonial Institutions, Vol. 1 of 3

by George Elliott Howard

[907] Canute, II, 75: "and let no one compel either woman or maiden to him whom she herself mislikes, nor for money sell her; unless he is willing to give anything voluntarily."—Thorpe, I, 417. For the similar provisions of Gothic and Lombard law see Habicht, 23 ff.

[908] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 54. Sohm's theory of self-betrothal and self-Trauung is criticised by Friedberg, Verlobung und Trauung, 9, 11 ff. In general see Spirgatis, Verlobung und Vermählung, 6 ff.; Heusler, Institutionen, II, 286; and with Sohm's Eheschliessung, as below cited, compare his Zur Trauungsfrage, 12 ff.

[909] The ring is mentioned as arrha in Dig., xiv, tit. iii, 5, § 15; xix, tit. i, 11, § 6: Corpus juris civ., I, 189, 244. Arra appears in connection with sponsalia, Dig., xxiii, tit. ii, 38: Corpus juris civ., I, 297. Cf. Smith, Dict. Greek and Roman Ant., I, 193; Ludlow, in Dict. Christ. Ant., I, 142 ff.; Babington, ibid., II, 1807-9; Meyrick, ibid., 1105. Originally, we are told, the Roman lover presented his betrothed a plain ring of iron, in later days of gold, but did not receive one in exchange: Friedländer, Sittengeschichte, I, 456; Kulischer, in ZFE., X, 210. On the annulus pronubus and its acceptance by the Germans see Junius, De annulo romanorum; Müller, De annulo pronubo; Hofmann, Verlobungs- und Trauring, 829 ff.; Siegel, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, 451; Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, I, 343; Bingham, Orig. Ecc., VII, 311, 313-16, 337, 339; Howlett, in Andrews's Curious Church Customs, 105, 107-9; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 26 n. 3; Sohm, Eheschliessung, 54, 55.

In the marriage ceremony of the Greek church two rings are used, one of silver and one of gold; see ritual for espousals in the eastern church in Burn, Parish Registers, 141, 142; and in Bingham, The Christian Marriage Ceremony, 214 ff., 219; and cf. Zhishman, Das Eherecht der orientalischen Kirche, 691; and Meyrick, in Dict. Christ. Ant., II, 1105. The betrothal ring appears among the Slavs: Post, Familienrecht, 236. In mediæval England "a rush ring was supposed to possess some peculiar charm. Richard Poore, bishop of Salisbury, in his Constitutions, anni 1217, forbids the putting of rush rings, or any the like matter, on women's fingers, in order to the debauching them more readily," and he insists that some people thought that "what was thus done in jest was a real marriage": Burn, op. cit., 143. Cf. Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, I, 315-19; Wood, The Wedding Day, 232, 233, 241. On the various uses and symbolism of the ring among the Teutonic peoples read the lecture of Hodgetts, Older England, 125-57; and a valuable general treatise on the ring is Jones's Finger Ring Lore (London, 1890). Tegg, The Knot Tied, 309-37, has two chapters on the marriage ring; throughout Wood's The Wedding Day in all Ages and Countries much information on the subject will be found; and there is an interesting passage in Swinburne, Of Spousals, 207-9, quoted below, with other references, chap. vii, sec. 1.

The kiss at betrothal appears to have been borrowed by the Christians from older pagan custom, and it was first given legal importance by Constantine. If the kiss were given, he provided that, in case one of the parties died before the nuptials, the other party was entitled to inherit half the espousal donations: Cod. Theod., lib. iii, tit. 5, leg. 5; Cod. Just., lib. v, tit. 3, leg. 16: Corpus juris civ., II, 194. Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins, chap. 11: Ante-Nicene Faths., IV, 34, mentions the betrothal kiss as a heathen custom. Cf. Venables, in Dict. Christ. Ant., II, 905, 906; Bingham, Orig. Ecc., VII, 316; V, 75; Weinhold, Deutsche Frauen, I, 343, 344. In England the priest joined in the ceremony of kissing at the nuptials. "In the Articles of Visitation in the diocese of London in 1554 is the following, 'Item, whether there be any that refuseth to kysse the Prieste at the solempnization of matrimony, or use any such lyke ceremonies heretofore used & observed in the Churche'": Burn, op. cit., 143; cf. Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, I, 112, 403; Wood, The Wedding Day, Index.

[910] See especially the careful monograph of Hofmann, Ueber den Verlobungs- und Trauring (Vienna, 1870); and compare Friedberg, "Zur Geschichte der Eheschliessung," ZKR., I, 370 n. 34, 372 n. 41; Spirgatis, Verlobung und Vermählung, 16, 17; Thrupp, The Anglo-Saxon Home, 48 n. 50. Dogmatic writers, of course, see in the ring an alleged Christian symbolism: cf. Brissonius, De ritu nuptiarum, 3 ff.; Klee, Die Ehe, 127-29; Göschl, Darstellung der kirchlich-christlichen Ehegesetze, 183 ff.; Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 28, 29.

[911] Adams, "Primitive Rights of Women," Hist. Essays, 35.

[912] Kulischer, "Intercommunale Ehe durch Raub und Kauf," ZFE., X, 208-10.

[913] The proof consists in the interpretation of the supposed symbolism. Thus the German lover, in early times, placed upon the bride's finger a ring made of a twig plucked from a tree upon his own land, the bride thus being "symbolically bound to the new locality": Unger, Die Ehe, 106. The thread or band is interpreted as the bond of the captive; and Kulischer gives the following illustration from northern custom:

"Komm, komm Maria lieb, und reich mir deine Hand,
Hier hast du das Ringelein und um den Arm das Band,"