groom. After this consultation, followed the betrothal,
which had to take place in the presence of the rightful guardians:
amidst the circle of witnesses, both parties had solemnly to declare
that they would take each other in marriage; after which a ring was
placed on the finger of the bride by the bridegroom; they embraced and
kissed, thus showing the passing of the maiden into the family and
guardianship of the man. After this betrothal, a certain space of time
having elapsed, the termination of which was in many places legally
fixed, the solemn fetching home of the bride to the house of the
bridegroom took place. Again there was a solemn procession to the house
of the maiden, and even if the bridegroom was present he was obliged to
have a spokesman, who once more wooed her before the assembled family,
and gave her over to the bridegroom; then she was taken in procession
to the house of the latter, where the bridal feast was held. It was a
bad custom in the middle ages, that this repast was got up with an
extravagance which far surpassed the means of the bridal couple; and
there were numerous police regulations endeavouring to limit the luxury
in music, dishes, and the number of tables[52] and feast days.

Such was the marriage ceremonial of the Germans. The old custom of the
bridal wreath, which was worn by both bride and bridegroom, was
introduced into Germany from Rome. The consecration of marriage by the
Church was only required from the time of the Carlovingians, and was
seldom neglected by the nobility, but did not become general among the
people till a later period. The Church had indeed raised marriage to
the dignity of a sacrament; but a feeling remained among the people
that Christianity looked coldly and sternly on it. Even in the
fifteenth century the consecration of marriage by the Church was not
entirely established, nor does it take place to this day in many places
before the fetching home of the bride.

In this respect also, Luther and the Reformation had a great influence.
From the sixteenth century the consecration of marriage by the Church
became in the Protestant countries the essential part of the ceremony;
from that time the old customs of betrothals and of fetching home the
bride were secondary considerations. It was not till after Luther and
the Council of Trent, that marriage became intimately connected with
the Christian faith in the German mind; for then the different
confessions endeavour