she had put her foot in the bed." The German saying was,
"When the coverlet is drawn over their heads the spouses are equally
rich," that is, they have all property of either in common.[1353] Hence,
in German law and custom, _consensus_ followed by _concubitus_ made
marriage. Hence also arose the custom that the witnesses accompanied the
spouses to their bedchamber and saw them covered, or visited them later.
Important symbolic acts were connected with this visit. The spouses ate
and drank together. The guests drove them to bed with blows.[1354] The
witnesses were not to witness a promise, but a fact. In the Carolingian
period, except in forged capitularies, there is very little testimony to
the function of priests in weddings.

The custom of the Jews has been mentioned above (sec. 417).
Selected witnesses were thought necessary to testify at any time
to the consummation of the marriage. In the third century B.C.
this custom was modified to a ceremony.[1355] In ancient India
and at Rome newly wedded spouses were attended by the guests when
they retired.[1356] The Germans had this custom from the earliest
times and they kept it up through the Middle Ages. The jural
consequences of marriage began from the moment that both were
covered by the coverlet. This was what the witnesses were to
testify to. Evidently the higher classes had the most reason to
establish the jural consequences. Therefore kings kept up this
custom longest, although it degenerated more and more into a mere
ceremony.[1357] The German Emperor Frederick III met his bride, a
Portuguese princess, at Naples. The pair lay down on the bed and
were covered by the coverlet for a moment, in the presence of the
court. They were fully dressed and rose again. The Portuguese
ladies were shocked at the custom.[1358] The custom can be
traced, in Brandenburg, as late as the beginning of the
eighteenth century.[1359] English customs of the eighteenth
century to seize articles of the bride's dress were more
objectionable.

The church ceremony, however, won its way in popular usage. It consisted
in blessing the ring and the gifts, and the interest of ecclesiastics
began to be centered on the question whether the persons to be married
were within the forbidden degrees of relationship.[1360] In the _Petri
Exceptiones_ (between 1050 and 1075)[1361] it is expressly stated,
amongst other statements of what does _n