ty, legitimacy, rank, etc., was at war with the old
mores.

+426. Early church usage.+ In the Decretals of Gratian[1344] are
collected the earliest authorities about marriage in the Christian
church, some of which are regarded now as ungenuine. "Nevertheless it is
impossible to say that, in the early times of Christianity, there was
any church wedding. Weddings were accomplished before witnesses
independently of the church, or perhaps in the presence of a priest by
the _professiones_." Then followed the pompous home bringing of the
bride. Afterwards the spouses took part in the usual church service and
the sacrament and gave oblations.[1345] Later special prayers for the
newly wedded were introduced into the service. Later still special
masses for the newly wedded were introduced. Such existed probably
before the ninth century.[1346] The declaration of _consensus_ still
took place elsewhere than in church, and not until the rituals of the
eleventh and twelfth centuries does the priest ask for it, or is it
asked for in his presence. In the Greek ritual there has never yet been
any declaration of _consensus_.[1347]

+427. The usage as to religious ceremony.+ The more pious people were,
the more anxious they were to put all their doings under church
sanction, and they sought the advice of honored ecclesiastics as to
marriage. Such is the sense of Ignatius to Polycarp, chapter 5.
Tertullian was a rigorist and extremist, whose utterances do not
represent fact. In our own law and usage a common-law marriage is valid,
but people of dignified and serious conduct, still more people of
religious feeling, do not seek the minimum which the law will enforce.
They seek to comply with the usages in their full extent, and to satisfy
the whole law of the religious body to which they belong. In like
manner, there was a great latitude from the fourth to the sixteenth
century, while the Christian church was trying to mold the barbarian
mores to its own standards in the usages which were current, but an
ecclesiastical function was not necessary to a valid marriage until the
Council of Trent. In fact a wedding in church never was an unconditional
requirement for a valid marriage among German Roman Catholics until the
end of the eighteenth century.[1348] Somewhat parallel cases of the
addition of religious ceremonies to solemn public acts which had been
developed in the mores are the emancipation of a slave, and the making
of a knight.[1349