Note 1421 — Chapter X · RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE

Oppenheim, op. cit., 13-17: "Bills, Public," 1826-27, II. Cf. also Walpole, Hist. of Eng., IV, 70, 71. Griffin-Stonestreet, Nuptiae Sacrae: Objections to the Amended Unitarian Marriage Bill (London, 1828), is especially bigoted in his opposition, holding that the sanctity of matrimony will be violated; that the magistrate will have religious functions thrust upon him; and concludes with the remark (38) that "it is no recommendation of this measure, that it is in many parts a mere transcript of Oliver Cromwell's method of putting down the offices of the Church by the Act of 1656." On the other hand, "A Presbyter of the Church of England," who objects to allowing "Socinian ministers" a share in the solemnization of marriages, admits that there is a real grievance and recommends the "alternative of a marriage before a civil magistrate, according to certain civil forms." To provide a model (31-37), he reprints the whole of Cromwell's ordinance of 1653. The measure is opposed in a spirit of intolerance by Le Geyt, Observations on the Bill (London, 1827).