The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1869-06-11

comprehension of the Book of Books.
The present volume is capitally illus
trated with maps and wood cuts.
THE WEDDING DAY IN ALL AGES
AND C0UNTRI ES. BY EDWARD j.
WOoD. New York HARPER q BRoTHERs.
Cincinnati: ROBERT CLARKE q Co. Pllce
81 y.
The Good Book tells us that people
will marry and be given in marriage
up to the very last minute of time.
There seems to be no theme of such
universal interest as the subject OF
Matrimony, and the author of the
present. volume has branched out in a
direction that can hardly fail to secure
him large degree of attention. His
book is curious. and treats of matters
that are not we'll understood, nOtwith-
standing their universally. We pre-
sumo there is no subject of such gen.
eral interest of which so little is
Known. The marriage ceremony is. SO
different in different countries that a
succinet and careful narration of the
manner 10 which the ceremony has
been performed from earliest time to
the present day cannot fail to interest
the married and unmarried of both
sexes. The author, we think, has
been faithful in his investigations of
old records as well as in his delinea-
tions of the custom at the present
time among different nationalities.
We give an extract as a sample of the
whole book:
Christian marriage was developed
out of the marital customs of pagan
Greece and Italy. and also out of the
like usages Of the Jews. At first it
was not a religious ceremony, the only
necessary form of it being that the
bridegroom should go to the brides
house, and lead her to his own home
in the presence of witnesses; or, in
other words, marriage was a mere
social contract, the essence of which
was the taking Of the woman by the
man. When the Church first exer-
clsed its control over marriage is not
quite clear. Probably in early days it
recognized marriage as a civil con-
tract, even before it interfered in the
ceremony. Afterward, in order to
correct abuses, the priesthood intro
duced the custom of celebrating mar
riages before themselves, and of CIV
ing the nuptial 9benediction. The
Church forbade marriage In Lent, in
A. ID. 1854. The DEGREES of Pope
Siricius, in 385, spoke of marriage
as being regularly contracted by
The benediction of the priest. The
answers of Timothy, who
succeeded to the bishopric of Alex
andria in $50, mentioned also the
performing Of the oblation at mar
riages. st. Synesius, Bishop of
Ptolemais In the fifth century, re-
ferred to the celebration of espousal
in church, and, in the same century,
Sidonius, Bishop of Clermont, init
mated that the wedding ceremony was
not deemed to be complete until the
bride had gone home to the bride
groom's house. Marriage was first
forbidden to bishops in 692. and to
priests Ia 1918; and the latter were
obliged to take vows of celibacy In
1912. In 113S the penalty for priests
marrying was deprivation of their
benefices, and exclusion from the
celebration of divine service. Never
theless instances of married priests
are not uncommonly found in ancient
charters, at least to the end Of the
reign of Edward III. Charlemagne
enacted in the eighth century, for the
Western empire, and Leo Sapiens in
the tenth century, for the Eastern,
that marriage should be celebrated in
20 ether way than by sarcedotal bene
diction ard prayers, to be followed by
the eucharist.