Note 995 — Chapter VII · RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE: THE CHURCH ACCEPTS THE LAY CONTRACT AND CEREMONIAL

Thus a manuscript manual of Salisbury use has this "curious addition;" the priest says: "Loo this gold and this siluer is leyd doun in signifyinge that the woman schal haue hure dower, thi goodes, zif heo abide aftur thy disces": fol. 17; ap. Maskell, Monumenta ritualia, I, 58 n. 14. Léon Gautier finds in the similar French custom a "reminiscence" of the marriage per solidum et denarium of the Salic law. "When the bridegroom pronounces these words: 'De mon bien je vous doue,' he delicately places in the little purse of the bride three pretty pieces of money, three new deniers. Not being able to put into her hands the fields, woods, and manors constituting the dower, he gives her its symbol. They went so far on account of this usage as to coin special deniers, 'deniers pour espouser'": La chevalerie, 428.