[974] Léon Gautier, La chevalerie, 424 n. 3: ap. Martene, De ritibus, who says: "Nuptiae communiter solent celebrari ad valvas ecclesiae;" and places before us abundant proof in the sixteen ordines which he publishes, ibid., II, 127-44. Gautier cites also Étienne de Bourbon, ed. of Lecoy de la Marche, 366: "Cum duceretur ... ad parrochiam ... et esset sub porticu ecclesiae ut sponsa sua ei consentiret et matrimonium ratificaretur per verba de praesenti, ut moris est, et sic in ecclesia matrimonium solempnizaretur in misse celebratione et aliis." The same writer makes a thorough examination of the "Pontifical ou rituel de lire" (published by Martene, II, coll. 356-59, who assigns it to the twelfth century), comparing it with other rituals, with illustrations and proofs from many sources. In chaps. ix to xi inclusive, entitled "Le mariage du chevalier" (op. cit., 341-450), Gautier gives a learned and most interesting discussion of mediæval marriage rites and customs. Compare Daniel, Codex liturgicus; and the summaries in Palmer, Origines liturgicae, I, 106 ff.
[975] See Sohm, Eheschliessung, 153-63; and Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 37, 38, who reach this conclusion from an examination of the various English and continental rituals; especially the ritual of Rennes, ca. eleventh century, in Martene, II, 127; also Sohm, op. cit., 159, 160; Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 77, 78.
[976] "Manual ad usum Sarum," in Surtees Society Publications, LXIII, Appendix, 17-20; also in Maskell, Monumenta ritualia, I, 50-77. Compare the rituals of York, Hereford, and the others contained in Surtees Society Publications, LXIII, 24 ff., 115 ff., 160 ff.; also the "Rituel de lire" in Léon Gautier, La chevalerie, 424-31, as summarized in capitals in the margin; and the ritual of Rennes in Martene, De ritibus, II, 127; or in Sohm, Eheschliessung, 159, 160: "In primis veniat sacerdos ante ostium ecclesiae indutus alba atque stola cum benedicta aqua; qua aspersa, interroget eos sapienter, utrum legaliter copulari velint, et quaerat quomodo parentes non sint, et doceat quomodo simul in lege Domini vivere debeant. Deinde faciat parentes secuti mos est dare eam, atque sponsum dotalitium dividere, cunctisque audientibus legere, ipsumque suae sponsae libenter dare.... Qua finita, intrando in ecclesiam, missam incipiat," etc.
[977] Liturgy of Edward VI. (Parker Society), 127; Liturgy of Elizabeth (Parker Society), 217. Compare Whitgift, Defence of the Answer, II, 462, where he defends the requirement of the "book," that "persons to be married shall come into the body of the church, with their friends and neighbours, there to be married," against Thomas Cartwright in his Reply to the Answer, 105, sec. 2, who ridicules the prescribed ceremonial. "Likewise for marriage," says Cartwright, "he (the priest) cometh back again into the body of the church, and for baptism unto the church-door: what comeliness, what decency, what edifying in this? Decency (I say) in running and trudging from place to place: edifying in standing in that place, and after that sort, where he can worst be heard and understanded."
[978] This is next to the oldest mention, after the Germanic conquest, of the priestly benediction; the first is the marriage of Judith to the Saxon king Æthelwulf, 856, elsewhere mentioned.
[979] Schmid, Anhang VI, 392, 393: Thorpe, I, 255, 257.
[980] Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 35; compare Lingard, History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, II, 7-11, who gives the form of benediction.
[981] Sohm, Eheschliessung, 100 n. 60. This view is of course opposed by Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 69 ff.
[982] Lingard, op. cit., II, 10, note; ap. Wilkins, Conc., I, 582.
[983] Surtees Society Publications, LXIII, Appendix, 160, 161. See also the "Benedictio annuli, sponsi et sponsae" from the Ely Pontifical, Cambridge University library, of the twelfth century, ibid., 161, 162, in which the priest leads in blessing the ring, assigning the dower, and directing the "giving" of the woman. It is probably a part of a very early ritual.