Note 1282 — Chapter X · RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE
Reading edition
By this act the civil-marriage form was permitted, but not made obligatory. Members of the established church might solemnize their marriages before their own clergy; but the Lutherans and Catholics were not allowed a similar liberty; they must put up with the lay ceremony or accept the offices of a Reformed minister. This law remained in force until 1795, when, under the Batavian Republic, obligatory civil marriage was instituted, which is still in force in the kingdom of Holland by the statutes of 1833: see Friedberg, Geschichte der Civilehe, 10-12; and his more elaborate treatment of civil marriage in Holland, Eheschliessung, 478-99.