AMONG THE ANCIENT GERMANS. 109 



betrothal or espousal, for tlie sacred marriage-ritual of the church. Yet, 

 at first, the latter was only regarded as the full and final consummation 

 of the former.* The necessarily concomitant result of this long con- 

 flict between ancient right or usage, and new law, was the progressive 

 abridgment of those non-ecclesiastical formalities, by which, according 

 to old-German custom, the betrothal was confirmed : and the gradual 

 lapse of these ancient formalities, to the lower and lowest classes of the 

 people, was but the prelude to their entire disappearance. Favorable 

 circumstances have preserved a considerable number of records and lit- 

 erary monuments, which plainly exhibit this gradual process, at least 

 from the 12th to the 15th century. 



To the 12th century belongs the formulary, first published by Mass- 

 mann, of the betrothment of free (distinguished from serfs) Suabians. 

 On this interesting document I shall here say no more, merely observ- 

 ing that it makes no mention of the consent and blessing of the church. 



In the 13th century, the poets who flourished at courts, and in the 

 mansions of the nobles, whenever they give an account of a wedding, 

 never forget to record, at the same time, the solemnization of the mar- 

 riage through the priest, or, at least, the profession publicly made be- 

 fore the congregation : yet not as though this benedictio, and this pro- 

 fessio, had been indispensable conditions, but merely because they were 

 regarded as becoming and auspicious. The popular poets, on the other 

 hand, speak only of betrothals in the presence of lay-witnesses, and, in 

 this age also, of the consent of the hride^ who, in the preceding, appears 

 altogether passive. The custom, which then already prevailed, for the 

 parties, shortly after their nuptials, to attend church together, appears to 

 have had no reference to the church's blessing.| This distinction, then, 

 presents to us the non-ecclesiastical betrothal as an ancient usage, now 

 already becoming limited to the lower classes, and among them, even, 

 suffering abridgment through the concession implied in their post-nup- 

 tial visit to the church ; and the solemnization of matrimony by the 

 church, as a new, and strange requisition, to which the higher classes 

 of society begin to accommodate themselves. The marriage-ritual, in 

 use, at that period, among the lower classes, is most vividly exhib- 



* It is well known that, even at tlie present day, it is the custom in Germany, 

 that, when two young persons have agreed together to become companions for life, 

 their betrothal, in the presence of tlieir two families, precedes their actual mar- 

 riage-union, sometimec a few days, often several weeks or months, and not unfre- 

 quently even several years. 



t This custom is still strictly observed in many parts of this country, by de- 

 scendants of Germans. 



