"M." AND "N." IN THE MARRIAGE SERVICE. I. The curious fact is that, as to the English Prayer Book, it is a difference of typography only. Some copies have "N.," "N." Others, of equal or greater authority and excellence, have "M.," "N.," in the publishment of the banns, and "N.," "N.," throughout the remainder of the Office. Others still, especially the later printed, have "M.," "N.," throughout precisely like our own. 2. It can be of no practical moment in the use of either, since in all public Services and Offices of the Catholic Church, Christian men and women are known by the name given in Baptism, and by that alone. 3. Of course, in the Catechism intended for young children (identical in the English and American Prayer Books) "N. or M." cannot stand for "nupta or maritus," i. c., bride or husband. 4 The Latin service (as can be seen at length by reference to the Commentary above) has “N.," "N.," only, in all these places, as it also has in all the Commemorations of the living and the dead 312 BISHOP WORDSWORTH ON "M" AND “N”. men and women, throughout the whole Missal; and this "N." is universally understood as simply an abbreviation of "nomen," "the name." 5. From this Latin use our "N.," when found alone, certainly came. Blunt, Annotated Prayer Book ad Catechism, says: "The most probable explanation of these letters is that 'N' was anciently used as the initial of Nomen, and that Nomen vel Nomina was expressed by 'N' vel 'N N,' the double 'N' being afterwards corrupted into 'M."" This is obviously untenable in the marriage ceremony, unless the man must speak out all his names, if he have more than one, while the woman must utter but one, how many soever she may have! The variation with "M." seems to me merely the convenient use of an unexceptional beauty or euphony without any rubrical, ritual, or doctrinal value whatever. In re CATECHISM-"N. OR M." I have seen a letter of Bishop Chas. Wordsworth from which I make the following extracts: DEAR write. The matter about which you is one of interest to me from associations both old and new. When I first went as a master to Winchester College, some forty years ago, and had occasion to prepare a class of boys for confirmation, I determined to make myself thoroughly acquainted at all points with the Church Catechism. . I knew something about St. Nicholas, "the Boy Bishop," the Patron Saint of Education, and I soon discovered more. No saint's name was more familiar before and at the time of the Reformation. There was good reason, therefore, why "N.," the initial of Nicholas, should be chosen to represent the name of an indefinite boy; and of course a boy's name must naturally stand first. There was equally good, or even still better, reason why "M., the initial of Mary, "our Lady," the Blessed Virgin, should be chosen to represent the name of an indefinite girl; and of course the girl's name must come second. This would account not only for the choice, but for the inverted order of the letters "N. or M.” So far I seemed to have discovered a more satisfactory solution of the matter than any I had met with. And this solution was confirmed when it further occurred to me to examine the original statutes of our own college, Winchester, founded five hundred years ago. In those statutes it is not a little remarkable that when an indefinite boy is referred to the letter "N." is used. And from this I inferred that even at that early date in catechisms and other such formulas "N." had already taken possession to denote a boy, and "M." to denote a girl. |