[956] Tertullian, loc. cit.; idem, On the Veiling of Virgins, xi: Ante-Nicene Fathers, III, 71; IV, 34. On the ring see Dict. Christ. Antiq., I, 248, 249, 202; II, 1105, 1807, 1808; for the kiss see ibid., II, 905, 906. By the Theodosian Code, lib. v, tit. 3, leg. 16, one-half of the bridegroom's gifts, after his death, were delivered to his betrothed in case the betrothal were sealed by a kiss; otherwise all was given to his relatives: ibid., II, 1110. In England, and elsewhere, the kiss was a characteristic of public spousals; and when these were recognized by the church the kiss was sanctified by the priest: Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, I, 65-67; Brand, Pop. Antiq., II, 139-41. Cf. also Méril, Des formes et des usages, 37, 38; Spirgatis, Verlobung und Vermählung, 16, 17. The veil was originally used at the betrothal, from the time of which ceremony onward in early days it was worn habitually by the betrothed as well as by the married woman: Meyrick, in Dict. Christ. Antiq., II, 1108, 1109.
[957] Ludlow, on "Arrhae," in Dict. Christ. Antiq., I, 142-44: Meyrick, ibid., II, 1105.
[958] For the crowning in the eastern church see Zhishman, Das Eherecht der orient. Kirche, 135, 156, 692 ff.; cf. Martene, De ritibus, I, 125. The crown was made of flowers, often of olive or myrtle, and sometimes of silver or gold. The custom appears in the West, but it became at length so important in the East that the "whole marriage was called the crowning, as in the West it was called the veiling": Meyrick, in Dict. Christ. Antiq., II, 1108, 1109; cf. ibid., I, 511. The pomp is, of course, the Greek pompa: Fustel de Coulanges, Ancient City (Boston, 1896), 55 ff., corresponding to the Roman traductio and the German Brautlauf.
[959] Pope Nicholas (A. D. 860), in his replies to the Bulgarians, who had asked his counsel concerning marriage rites, says concerning the nuptials: "First of all they are placed in the church with oblations, which they have to make to God by the hands of the priest, and so at last they receive the benediction and the heavenly veil." On this letter see Selden, Uxor ebraica, Lib. II, c. xxv, 179; Martene, De ritibus, I, 124, 125; Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 47 ff.; Beauchet, Étude, 34. From this letter and the statements of the Fathers concerning the benediction, already mentioned, Meyrick, in Dict. Christ. Antiq., II, 1106, 1107, concludes, "There is no reasonable doubt that the place in which Christians were ordinarily married was a church, so soon as it became safe and customary for them to meet in churches for religious purposes, and that the way in which they were ordinarily married was by a religious ceremony," though especially in the East (Chrysostom, Hom. xlviii, in Gen., c. 24) the religious ceremony often took place in houses. But so far as western Christendom is concerned, the sources show that marriage in church was of slow growth. Jeaffreson, Brides and Bridals, I, 48, 49, doubts whether the Anglo-Saxons always celebrated marriage in their homes.
[960] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 153 ff., insists that the priestly benediction, unless here and there by local custom, was connected with the nuptials (Trauung) and not with the betrothal, which he regards as the essential element in marriage. But Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 20 ff., 30 ff., 47 ff., 65 ff., claims that from the earliest period among the Christians it was customary for the priest to bless the betrothal; and that at least from the fourth century the same is true of the nuptials. In his Zur Trauungsfrage, 17, note, Sohm seems to accept Dieckhoff's view, while denying anything but religious meaning to the benediction in either case.
Siricius, Epist. ad Himer., § 4, mentions a "benediction of the priest at betrothal, of so solemn a nature as to make it sacrilege in the betrothed woman to marry another man;" but this epistle may be spurious: Meyrick, in Dict. Christ. Antiq., II, 1106. Cf. Scheurl, Entwicklung, 24, 25; Sehling, Unterscheidung, 25, notes, 110; Loening, op. cit., II, 573; and, for the eastern church, Zhishman, Das Eherecht der orient. Kirche, 126, 135, 156, 672, 289 ff., passim.
[961] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 157. This stage of the bride-mass is disclosed by the oldest sacramentaria, of about the fifth century; and the same ritual was in use in the Frankish church in the ninth century.
[962] Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 78-93, where numerous proofs from the mediæval poets and other sources are given; but sometimes marriage in church appears. Cf. Sohm, op. cit., 159 n. 16.
[963] In all the early rituals the benediction is not allowed in case of a second marriage, at any rate unless the first marriage of one or both of the parties had not been blessed by the priest; and long paragraphs of the service are devoted to explaining the alleged reasons for this, and to the still harder task of showing how a second marriage can be a sacrament and yet less holy than a first marriage. This dilemma led to curious compromises, as in the service used at the marriage of King Ethelwulf with Judith, his father's widow, in the year 856; see the service in Pertz, Monumenta, leg., I, 420; and Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 73, 74. On this topic compare the York, Sarum, and Hereford rituals in Surtees Society Publications, LXIII, 35-37, Appendix, 23, 24, 117, 118; and the Sarum (Salisbury) ritual in Maskell, Monumenta ritualia, I, 71-74; also Rituale romanum Pauli Quinti, 198; Martene, De ritibus, II, 121, 122; Excerp. Ecgberti, 91: in Thorpe, II, 110; Aelfric's Canons, 9; ibid., II, 347; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 36; Schmid, Gesetze, 562; Bohn, Pol. Cyc., III, 319. Selden, Uxor ebraica, II, c. 30, maintains that the practice of celebrating nuptials before a priest was not general among primitive Christians. This is declared an error by Bingham, Origines, VII, 328 ff., who, like Dieckhoff and most ecclesiastical writers, holds that the custom was general and obligatory.
[964] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 107 ff., 153 ff.; idem, Zur Trauungsfrage, 10 ff.; idem, Obligat. Civilehe, 25 ff. In substantial agreement with Sohm are Loening, Gesch. des deutsch. Kirchenrechts, II, 569-606: Friedberg, "Zur Geschichte," ZKR., I, 374 ff.; Biener, "Beiträge," ibid., XX, 119-47; Scheurl, Entwicklung, 110 ff. Cf. Beauchet, Étude, 30 ff.; Spirgatis, Verlobung und Trauung, 4 ff.; Schubert, Die evangel. Trauung, 14 ff.; Kliefoth, Liturgische Abhandlungen (2d ed., 1869), I, 136 ff.