HISTOEICAL EACES 265 



which they might not marry, and that at many times in many 

 places the poor were prohibited from marrying. 

 , There is very Httle statistical evidence. The matter has been 

 investigated by Rubin, who worked with the Danish figures for 

 the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. ' It was the 

 universal rule ', he says, ' that as soon as the obstacles . . . were 

 surmounted, every one proceeded to get married.' ^ Apart, there- 

 fore, from religious celibacy, there was no voluntary celibacy such 

 as we find at the present day. But these obstacles in the case of 

 the dependent class were serious, and marriage was long postponed 

 by men in this class, though postponed for a shorter time by 

 women than by men. ' Even though the social and economic 

 structure of the community of old restrained one section of the 

 population — the dependent section — from marriage, the other 

 part of the population, the independent section, married far earlier 

 than nowadays. There was perhaps . . . some holding back in 

 certain circles of the best society. But for ordinary independent 

 people marriage at an early age was a matter of course. Those 

 who could marry early, then, did so. But those who were unable 

 to marry till late in life — when they no longer held the position of 

 journeymen, labourer, &c. — yet married.' ^ With regard to women 

 there was ' a state of affairs resembling that found in the case of 

 men, a compulsory condition of cehbacy for certain sections of the 

 population. ... In certain classes of the population there were 

 a good many more unmarried women at something over twenty 

 years of age than there are now.' ^ Summing up his conclusions 

 the same author says ' in spite of the fact that in the independent 

 section of the community marriage took place, as a rule, at an 

 earlier age in the eighteenth century than it does now, the average 

 age of marriage was yet higher at that time, because the more 

 numerous dependent class married later ', and adds that ' there 

 must have been a difference between the age of the bride and 

 bridegroom considerably greater than in the marriages of our 

 time '.'* 



The state of things indicated above is that typical of mediaeval 

 Europe and lasted up to the industrial revolution. It is not to be 

 supposed that there was any abrupt change from the conditions 

 prevalent before ; on the contrary the conditions described 



' Rubin, loc. cit., p. 598. • Ibid., p. 606. Mbid.,p. 608. Mbid., 



p. 609. 



