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trar, and in his presence and in that of some registrar of the district, and of two witnesses. These statutes do not extend to marriages contracted out of England, or to marriages of the royal family, which are regulated by a particular statute, 12 Geo. III., c. 11. In August, 1844, an act was passed (7 and 8 Vict., c. 81) relating to marriages in Ireland, and for registering such marriages, which came into operation April 1st, 1845. It establishes a system very nearly similar to that which exists in England and Wales under 6 and 7 William IV., c. 85." The form of the solemnization of matrimony is to be found in the Book of Common Prayer. With various prayers, address, and reading of appropriate portions of Scripture, the contract is made in the following terms:→

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¶"If no impediment be alleged, then shall the curate say unto the man,

"M., Wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love her, comfort her, honour, and keep her in sickness and in health; and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her, so long as ye both shall live? "The man shall answer, I will.

"Then shall the priest say unto the woman, N., Wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou obey him, and serve him, love, honour, and keep him in sickness and in health; and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?

venting them from so doing; and that they
should conform to the ceremonies and solemni-
ties required by law. There are two kinds of
disabilities, canonical and municipal. The ca-
nonical are, consanguinity, or relation by blood,
affinity, or relation by marriage, and corporal
infirmity. They afford grounds for avoiding the
marriage in the spiritual court; but, until sen-
tence of avoidance be pronounced, the marriage
is considered valid. The object of the sentence
in the spiritual court is pro salute animarum, to
reform the parties by a separation; as this object
cannot be gained after the death of either of
them, all hope of reformation being then lost, it
follows that the spiritual court must pronounce
its sentence during the lifetime of both, or not
at all. While Popery was the established reli-
gion of the land a great variety of degrees of
kindred were impediments to marriage, a dispen-
sation from which, however, could always be
procured for money. But now, by statute 32
Henry VIII., c. 33, confirmed by 1 Elizabeth,
c. 1, it is declared that nothing (God's law ex-
cepted) shall impeach any marriage but within
the Levitical degrees, the furthest of which is
that between uncle and niece. The municipal
disabilities differ from the canonical disabilities
in this, that the former render the marriage void
ab initio, without sentence of avoidance in any
court, while the latter merely render it liable to be
declared void. This distinction is of great impor-
tance; for the issue of a marriage void ab initio is
necessarily base-born, but the issue of a marriage
voidable only by sentence in the spiritual court
is legitimate, unless the marriage be actually
avoided, which, as we have seen, can only be
done in the lifetime of both the parents. The
municipal disabilities are, a prior marriage, want
of age, and want of consent of parents or guard-
ians. If any person shall solemnize matrimony
at any other time than between eight and twelve
o'clock in the forenoon, or in any improper place,
without special license; or shall solemnize ma-
trimony without license or due publication of
banns; or if any person falsely pretending to be
in holy orders shall solemnize matrimony accord-
ing to the rites of the Church of England, every
such person, knowingly and wilfully so offend-
ing, is declared by the same statute to be guilty
of felony, and liable to be transported for four-part,
teen years; provided he be prosecuted within
three years after the offence committed.
royal family, Jews, and Quakers are exempted
from the operation of the above statute of 4
George IV., c. 76. "The 6 and 7 William IV.,
c. 85, was passed chiefly in favour of those who
scrupled at joining in the services of the estab-
lished church; and it contains numerous provi-
sions for this purpose. Persons who object to
marry in a registered place of worship may, after
due notice and certificate issued, according to the
provisions of this act, contract and solemnize
marriage at the office of the superintendent regis-

The

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The woman shall answer, I will. "Then shall the minister say,

"Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?

"Then shall they give their troth to each other in this manner,

"The minister, receiving the woman at her father's or friend's hands, shall cause the man with his right hand to take the woman by her right hand, and to say after him as followeth :

"I M. take thee N. to my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth.

"Then shall they loose their hands; and the woman, with her right hand taking the man by his right hand, shall likewise say after the minister,

"I N. take thee M. to my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and to obey, till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I give thee my troth.

"Then shall they again loose their hands; and the man shall give unto the woman a

ring, laying the same upon the book, with the accustomed duty to the priest and clerk. And the priest, taking the ring, shall deliver it unto the man, to put it upon the fourth finger of the woman's left hand. And the man holding the ring there, and taught by the priest, shall say,

"With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. ¶ "Then the man, leaving the ring upon the fourth finger of the woman's left hand, they shall both kneel down," &c.

The marriage ceremony is usually simpler and briefer in Scotland, and is rarely performed in church. Marriage is at the same time a civil contract, even parties declaring themselves before witnesses, or before a justice of peace, to be man and wife, are held bound by such a contract. But clandestine marriages are not common, even though a proved promise of marriage, followed by cohabitation, constitutes marriage by the law of Scotland. Ministers not of the established church have been always in the habit of solemnizing marriages; and they were never called in question, though legally the established clergy and licensed episcopalian ministers alone had the privilege. But by 4 and 5 William IV., c. 28, marriages may be legally solemnized by the clergy of any denomination. According to the Directory, after some admonitions, it is said, "The prayer being ended, it is convenient that the minister do briefly declare unto them, out of the Scripture, the institution, use, and ends of marriage, with the conjugal duties which, in all faithfulness, they are to perform each to other; exhorting them to study the holy Word of God, that they may learn to live by faith, and to be content in the midst of all marriage cares and troubles, sanctifying God's name, in a thankful, sober, and holy use of all conjugal comforts; praying much with and for one another; watching over and provoking each other to love and good works; and to live together as the heirs of the grace of life. After solemn charging of the persons to be married, before the great God, who searcheth all hearts, and to whom they must give a strict account at the last day, that if either of them know any cause, by pre-contract or otherwise, why they may not lawfully proceed to marriage, that they now discover it; the minister (if no impediment be acknowledged) shall cause first the man to take the woman by the right hand, saying these words:

"IN. do take thee N. to be my married wife, and do, in the presence of God, and before this congregation, promise and covenant to be a loving and faithful husband unto thee, until God shall separate us by death.'

"Then the woman shall take the man by the right hand, and say these words:

"IN. do take thee N. to be my married husband, and I do, in the presence of God, and before this congregation, promise and covenant to be a loving, faithful, and obedient wife unto thee, until God shall separate us by death.'

"Then, without any further ceremony, the minister shall, in the face of the congregation, pronounce them to be husband and wife, according to God's ordinance, and so conclude the action with prayer."

In the Church of Rome marriage is a sacrament, and the contract is indissoluble. In session xxiv. of the council of Trent it is said, "The grace which might perfect that natural love, and confirm that indissoluble union, and sanctify the wedded, Christ himself, the institutor and perfecter of the venerable sacraments, merited for us by his passion. Whereas, therefore, matrimony, in the evangelical law, excels the ancient marriages in grace, through Christ, with reason have our holy fathers, the councils, and the tradition of the universal Church, always taught, that it is to be numbered amongst the sacraments of the new law. Also canon i. If any one shall say that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the evangelic law, instituted by Christ the Lord, but that it has been invented by men in the Church, and that it does not confer grace, let him be anathema."

A peculiar social celebration of marriage called penny weddings, which was common in Scotland, came under the notice of the general assembly and the parliament. "The assembly, considering that many persons do invite to these penny weddings excessive numbers, among whom there frequently falls out drunkenness and uncleanness, for preventing whereof, by their act February 13, 1645, they ordain presbyteries to take special care for restraining the abuses ordinarily committed at these occasions, as they shall think fit, and to take a strict account of the obedience of every session to their orders thereanent, and that at their visitation of parishes within their bounds; which act is ratified March 8, 1701. And by the 12th sess. assembly, 1706, presbyteries are to apply to magistrates for executing the laws relating to penny bridals, and the commission, upon application from them, are to apply to the government for obliging the judges, who refuse to execute their office in that matter. By the 14th act, parl. 3. Car., II., it is ordained, that at marriages, besides the married persons, their parents, brothers and sisters, and the family wherein they live, there shall not be present above four friends on either side. And if there shall be any greater number of persons at penny weddings within a town, or two miles thereof, that the master of the house shall be fined in the sum of 500 merks." (Augusti, Siegel, Riddle, Bingham, &c.)

Marrow Controversy.-The Marrow of Modern Divinity was a work published, in 1646, by Edward Fisher, of the university of Oxford.

It was in the form of a dialogue, to explain the tion of the Marrow; and "the general assembly freeness of the law,-to expose, on the one hand, do hereby strictly prohibit and discharge all the Antinomian error, and also, on the other, to ministers of this church, either by preaching, refute Neonomian heresy, or the idea that Christ writing, or printing, to recommend the said book, has, by his atonement, so lowered the require- or in discourse to say anything in favour of it; ments of the law that mere endeavour is accepted but, on the contrary, they are hereby enjoined in room of perfect obedience. A copy of the and required to warn and exhort those people in book, which had been brought into Scotland by whose hands the said book is or may come, not an English puritan soldier, was accidentally to read or use the same." That book which had found by Boston, then minister of Simprin, and been so highly lauded by many of the southern was republished in 1718, under the editorial divines-such as Caryl and Burronghes-by the care of Mr. Hogg, minister of Carnock. It had men who had framed the very creed of the Scotbeen recommended long before by several divines tish Church, and who were universally acknowof the Westminster Assembly. The treatise, ledged to be as able as most men to know truth consisting of quaint and stirring dialogues, and detect error-was thus put into a presbytethrows into bold relief the peculiar doctrines of rian Index expurgatorius. Nobody can justify the grace, occasionally puts them into the form of a extreme statements of the Marrow, but their startling proposition, and is gemmed with quot-bearing and connection plainly free them from ations from eminent Protestant divines. The an Antinomian tendency. In fact, some of the publication of the Marrow threw the clergy into so-called Antinomian statements condemned by commotion; and by many of them it was vio- the assembly are in the very words of inspiralently censured. But not a few of the evangeli- tion. But the rigid decision of the assembly cal pastors gave it a cordial welcome, and among only added fuel to the controversy which it was multitudes of the people it became a favourite intended to allay, and the forbidden book became book, next in veneration to the Bible and the more and more an object of intense anxiety and Shorter Catechism. In 1719 its editor, Mr. prevalent study. The popular party in the Hogg, wrote an explanation of some of its pas-church at once concerted measures to have that sages; but in the same year Principal Haddow, of St. Andrew's, opened the synod of Fife with a sermon directed against it. The synod requested the publication of the discourse, and this step was the signal for a warfare of four years' duration. The assembly of that year, acting in the same spirit with the synod of Fife, instructed its commission to look after books and pamphlets promoting such opinions as are found in the Marrow, though they do not name the book, and to summon before them the authors and recommenders of such publications. The commission, so instructed and armed, appointed a committee, of which Principal Haddow was the soul; and before this committee, named the "committee for purity of doctrine," four ministers were immediately summoned. The same committee gave in a report at next assembly of 1720, in the shape of an overture, classifying the doc-discussions followed; the Representers were sumtrines of the Marrow, and solemnly condemning them. It selected several passages which were paradoxically expressed, while it severed others This doctrinal controversy was one from the context, and held them up as contrary principal origin of the first secession in 1734. to Scripture and to the Confession of Faith. The Martinists, a Russian sect of mystics which passages marked for reprobation were arranged rose and disappeared during the last sixty years. under distinct heads, such as the nature of Chevalier St. Martin of France was its founder, faith, the atonement, holiness, obedience and its and it was a recoil against prevalent infidelity. motive, and the position of a believer in refer- It took advantage especially of masonic lodges, ence to the law. The committee named them and spread itself from Moscow as its centre. The as errors, thus,-universal atonement and par- works of the German pietists, Arndt and Spener, don; assurance of the very essence of faith; holi- were special favourites; and many other transness not necessary to salvation; and the believer lations of excellent treatises were published. not under the law as a rule of life. Had the Catherine II., however, resolved to crush the Marrow inculcated such tenets it would have society; but it revived under Alexander I., as been objectionable indeed. The report was dis- it had the patronage of Prince Galitzin. Nichocussed, and the result was a stern condemna-las at length put it down with a strong arm;

act repealed. Consultations were repeatedly held by a section of the evangelical clergy, and at length it was agreed to hand in a representation to the court, complaining of the obnoxious decision, and of the injury which had been done by it to precious truth. This representation was signed by twelve ministers, and it briefly called the assembly's attention to the fact that it had condemned propositions which are in accordance at once with the Bible and the symbolical books. The names of the twelve were-Messrs. James Hogg, Carnock; Thomas Boston, Etterick; John Bonar, Torphichen; John Williamson, Inveresk; James Kidd, Queensferry; Gabriel Wilson, Maxton; Ebenezer Erskine, Portmoak; Ralph Erskine and James Wardlaw, Dunfermline; Henry Davidson, Galashiels; James Bathgate, Orwell; and William Hunter, Lilliesleaf. Other

moued, in 1722, to the bar of the assembly, and admonished-against which they solemnly pro

tested.

secution as a misfortune. The more the opinion that value belonged to the intercession of martyrs was established, the oftener it may have happened that persons recommended themselves to the martyrs yet living for intercession."

and many kindred institutions shared a similar with the older custom of restoring to church fate under that despot's repressive policy. communion the lapsed who had been again reMartinmas, a feast kept on the 11th of No-ceived by the martyrs, that the martyrs could vember in honour of St. Martin of Tours. The also be serviceable in obtaining the forgiveness feast was often a merry one. At that period, of sins. In doing so they set out in part with too, in England and Scotland, the winter's pro- the idea, which is very natural, that the dead vision was cured and stored up, and was called prayed for the living, as the living prayed for a mart. Luther derived his first name from the dead; but that the intercession of martyrs being born on the eve of this festival. abiding in the captivity of the Lord would be of Martyr. The word sometimes, in later times, peculiar efficacy on behalf of their brethren; signified a sponsor in baptism; but specially it while they partly thought that the martyrs, as means one who has died rather than renounce his assessors in the last decisive judgment, were parChristian faith. As was most natural, martyrs ticularly active (1 Cor. vi. 2, 3). Origen attriwere held in high esteem by the early Church; but buted very great value to that intercession, in the esteem soon grew into veneration, and deep- expecting from it great help towards sanctificaened at length into superstitious homage.- tion; but he went beyond the ideas hitherto See RELICS. Their festivals or birthdays were entertained in attributing to martyrdom an observed often at their graves; and on such occa-importance and efficacy similar to the death of sions their acts were read in the churches.-See Christ. Hence he feared the cessation of perLEGEND. Churches which were often built over their graves were called martyria, and their keepers martyrarii. Every church soon wished to possess a saint's tomb for an altar. Mere cenotaphs did not suffice. Thus, according to Augustine, Ambrose was delayed in the consecration of a new church at Milan, till a seasonable dream helped him to the bones of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius. The second council of Nice subjected bishops to deprivation if they consecrated churches without relics. The consequence was that a supply was produced by such a demand, and frauds of every kind were perpetrated and overlooked. Each church also had its own Fasti, or calendar of martyrs.-See CHURCH, CALENDAR. Public notaries took down the accounts of their martyrdom: these accounts were carefully preserved, and out of them were compiled the Martyrologies of subsequent periods. The martyrs, when in prison, sometimes interceded for offenders, and the penance was, on their request, mitigated—a practice which, as Cyprian complains, soon grew into an abuse. See LIBELLI PACIS. The estates of martyrs who died without heirs were, by a law of Constantine, to be given to the Church.-See DIPTYCHS. Gieseler has well said," The respect paid to martyrs still maintains the same character as in the second century, differing only in degree, not in kind, from the honour shown to other esteemed dead. As the churches held the yearly festivals of their martyrs at the graves of the latter, so they willingly assembled frequently in the burial places of their deceased friends, for which they used in many places even caves (crypte catacumba). At the celebration of the Lord's Supper, both the living who brought oblations, as well as the dead, and the martyrs for whom offerings were presented, especially on the anniversary of their death, were included by name in the prayer of the church. Inasmuch as the re-admission of a sinner into the church was thought to stand in close connection with the forgiveness of sin, an opinion was associated

Mary, Mother of our Lord.-See Biblical Cyclopædia.-That she was " Blessed among women" is the testimony of Scripture. But undue honours began in the fourth century to be given to her. She was called Mother of God,— Deipara, soróxos—an appellation which really can have no meaning; for in no possible sense can any creature bear a maternal relation to God. The acknowledgment of Christ's supreme divinity is an objection to such a title, and not an argument for it. In the vindications of the phrase by some of the fathers the inconsistency of the epithet is apparent; and they strove in many ways to neutralize it. It would be no difficult matter to show that none but a Monophysite could use the title with any propriety. Divine honours were at an early period paid to the Virgin.-See ANTIDICOMARIANITES, COLLYRIDIANS. In the fifth century images of the Virgin, with the infant Jesus in her arms, began to prevail.-See IMAGE, In course of time Mariolatry was fully established; and it is now the characteristic worship or idolatry of the Church of Rome. The Oriental Church salutes her as "Panagia"-all holy. There is in the Latin Church the daily office of Mary; and the rosary contains one hundred salutations to her. The Ave Maria and Salve Regina are of perpetual occurrence. In Bonaventura's psalter is the following:-"O thou, our governor, and most benignant lady, in right of being his mother, command your most beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that he deign to raise our minds from longing after earthly things to the contemplation of heavenly things. We praise thee, Mother of God; we acknowledge thee to be a virgin. All the earth doth worship thee, the spouse of the eternal Father. All the angels and archangels, all thrones and powers, do faithfully serve thee.

...

....

To thee all angels cry aloud, with a never-ceas-, was, by their scrupulous exactness, to preserve ing voice, Holy, holy, holy, Mary, mother of the integrity of the Hebrew text. (See Buxtorf's God. The whole court of heaven doth Tiberias and the "Introductions" of Horne, honour thee as queen. The holy church through- Jahn, De Wette, &c.) out all the world doth invoke and praise thee, Mass may be satisfactorily derived either the mother of divine majesty. Thou sittest from missa catechumenorum-the dismission of with thy Son on the right hand of the Father. the catechumen penitents and energumens, which In thee, sweet Mary, is our hope; defend in the primitive Church took place before the us for evermore. Praise becometh thee; empire celebration of the communion, by the words ite, becometh thee; virtue and glory be unto thee missa est; or from missa fidelium-the similar for ever and ever." St. Alphonsus Liguori, dismission of the communicants themselves after canonized but a very few years ago, wrote a that service. But the Romanists, perhaps, bebook called the Glories of Mary, in which, lieved that their doctrine of the mass being a among other extravagant blasphemies, it is said sacrifice would be strengthened by tracing the that even God himself is subject to Mary. He name to the Hebrew, oblatio, tributum. says again,—"The King of heaven has resigned Be this as it may, the word itself is of great into the hands of our Mother his omnipotence in antiquity, and it means the office at the celethe sphere of grace." St. Peter Damian declares, bration of the Eucharist. The order almost "When St. Mary appears before Jesus she seems universally adopted among Roman Catholics is to dictate, rather than supplicate, and has more that of the Roman missal; to this, however, the air of a queen than of a subject." So pre- there are a few exceptions: the Church of Milan valent has Mariolatry become, so full of it are prefers that of St. Ambrose; the Spanish diothe encyclicals of popes and bishops, that the ceses of Toledo and Salamanca, the Mozarabic religion of Papists may be said to be rather that or Gothic; and most national churches introduce of Mary than that of Christ.—See IMMACULATE certain variations peculiarly adapted to their CONCEPTION. Seymour says, in reference to own spiritual condition.-See LITURGY. one absurdity,-"I then called his attention to There are masses of various kinds, "Missa a large number of pictures, to be seen in almost alta"-high mass, is offered up with the greatest every church. They are designed to represent solemnities by a bishop or priest, attended by a the Virgin Mary in heaven, enthroned above the deacon, sub-deacon, and other ministers, each clouds, and encircled by angels and cherubs, and officiating in his respective part, and it is always even there she is represented with the infant sung. Masses bear also names from the holy Jesus in her arms! It could not possibly be personages through whose intercession they are that either the artists who paint, or the priests offered, as a Mass of the Beata or our Lady, a who suspend those pictures over the altar, sup- Mass of the Holy Ghost, a mass of any partipose that Jesus Christ is now an infant still, in cular saint, &c. Each day also has some pecuthe arms of Mary in heaven-that he is still an liar prayers introduced into its own mass. infant in heaven; and therefore it is apparent missa sicca, or dry mass, is without consecrathat he is introduced, thus absurdly and impro- tion or any administration of the holy elements. perly, as a mere accessory, to distinguish the This is said to have been authorized by St. figure of Mary from the figure of any other Louis while voyaging to Palestine, and hence is saint! I added that there were few things in the called also missa nautica: the reason assigned Church of Rome that so offended us, as dishon- for the omission of the Eucharist is, that on acouring to Christ, as this system of making Mary count of the motion of the sea it could scarcely the principal person, and Christ only the secon- be offered without hazard of effusion. In the dary person in their pictures. It seemed an Mass of the Presanctified-" Missa Præsanctifiindex of the state of Italian religion, in which catorum"-elements before consecrated are adMary seemed first, and Christ second in promi-ministered. A solitary mass, low mass-" missa nence, as if it was the religion of Mary rather than the religion of Christ. I added yet further, that it was singular that in the Church of Gesu e Maria in the Corso, where the sermons are preached in English, for the conversion of the English, there are no less than three large altarpieces,-pictures larger than life, representing the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus in heaven!" Masora (tradition), the critical digest of the Rabbins of the school of Tiberias on the text of Scripture-called by its authors Pirke Avoth, or fence of the law. Letters, vowel-points, accents, and words, are annotated by them with extraordinary minuteness. The common Hebrew Bible has many of their notes. Their object

The

solitaria, bassa, privata"-is that said by the priest alone, without a congregation, for the benefit of a departed soul; and when those masses became a source of great lucre, an abuse crept in which some of the Romish divines have bitterly condemned. In order to save time, and because they were forbidden for the most part to say more than one mass in a day, the priests contrived to throw a great many masses into one, first saying the mass of the day so far as the offertory, and then repeating to the same resting place as many special masses as they pleased, for all of which one consecration (or canon, as it is termed) sufficed. These masses were opprobriously called bifaciatæ or trifaciate, because they were double

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