Note 996 — Chapter VII · RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE: THE CHURCH ACCEPTS THE LAY CONTRACT AND CEREMONIAL

"I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father," etc.: Ritual of the English church, in Bingham, Christian Marriage Ceremony, 166. "I join you together in marriage," etc.: Roman ritual, ibid., 178. The presence of similar phrases in all our modern ceremonies, civil or religious, is a striking proof of the essential difference between the function of the magistrate or priest now and that of his mediæval predecessor.