AMOXG THE ANCIENT GERMANS. Ill 



above extract is given, is in Austria. Of the 14th century we have a 

 poem celebrating the marriage of Metzen and Betzen, who abode in 

 Suabia. Respecting this, I have only space to say that the poet repre- 

 sents the officiating person as winding up the ceremony with saying : 



"Thus have ye been transferred into wedlock, 

 Without scholars, and without priests." 



Every thing else is perfectly regular, and the whole affair is a highly 

 respectable one. But the point here most important to us is, that, on 

 the morning after the nuptials, the parties wend their way amidst a joy- 

 ous throng of guests, to the church, where, after the close of the public 

 worship, they are once more solemnly joined in wedlock by the priest. 

 Thus in the same country, in which, in the 12th century, the right and 

 custom of betrothal was still in full, unquestioned, force, in the four- 

 teenth century, the solemnization of matrimony by a clergyman, is, 

 even among the lower classes, regarded as legally better, nay apparently 

 considered necessary, in addition to the ordinary betrothal. 



Similar accounts respecting other parts of Germany, I must omit for 

 want of space. 



I reluctantly omit, also, for the same reason, a very interesting doc- 

 ument belonging to the same period, and extracted from the statutes of 

 the city of Cologne. This document presents, in very antiquated lan- 

 guage, a complete formulary for the solemnization of matrimony, con- 

 cerning which, I have only space to remark, that it does not at all spe- 

 cify to what class or profession the officiating person must belong; but 

 merely prescribes, that whosoever shall join together two persons in 

 wedlock, shall use the following formulary. 



Thus, then, the 13th century is, in this respect, as in so many oth- 

 ers, the critical poiut of decision, the period of transition — from things 

 old to things new ; in the 15th, the victory of the church's right is 

 complete, and the solemnization of matrimony (now even viewed as a 

 sacrament,) entirely given up to the clergy. The manner in which the 

 ceremony was performed by the clergy, and the fact, that they occupied 

 merely canonical ground, we learn from a rule or direction Ad copulan- 

 dum, designed for priests, which has been preserved in a MS. at Bres- 

 lau. I prefer retaining the monk-latin of the rubric, merely translating 

 the questions, which are in old German, and would probably be unin- 

 telligible to most of your readers. 



'^Postquam veneris ad locum copulandi, primo interroga nomina 

 eorum, die primo ad virum, ' Petir, hast thou come hitlier that thou wilt 

 take Catherine for thy wedded wife ?' post responsionem sui, scilicet 

 viri, Reverte te ad virgincm, et conclude eadem verba dicens, 'Cathe- 



