Note 1343 — Chapter X · RISE OF CIVIL MARRIAGE

It should be remembered that even in case of the secret or irregular marriages the priest often officiated. The great object was to avoid publicity. Hence churches which were or claimed to be free from the visitations or oversight of the bishop allowed marriage without banns or license. This became a lucrative source of revenue. For example, in the church of St. James, Duke's Place, between 1664 and 1691, about forty thousand marriages were thus celebrated; and many were celebrated at Trinity Minores: Burn, Fleet Marriages, 2-5; idem, Parish Registers, 146; Friedberg, Eheschliessung, 332-35. Cf. also Jeaffreson's chapter on "Prisons and 'Lawless' Churches," in Brides and Bridals, II, 115-21.