Note 1018 — Chapter VII · RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL MARRIAGE: THE CHURCH ACCEPTS THE LAY CONTRACT AND CEREMONIAL

This epistle sustained a marriage by private consent as against one subsequently contracted and consummated. The opposing view is thus set forth by Pemberton in The Queen v. Millis: "In 1160 Pope Alexander issued edicts in which marriages without the presence of a priest were declared good; but almost immediately afterwards came the canons already cited [those of 1175 and 1200 mentioned in the text], to guard against the abuse of the permission thus given by the pope. But from what follows it is clear that the law which admitted the canon law in other countries, as part of the law of the land, was never adopted in England. In 1253 the attempt was made to introduce the canon law of marriage recognized by the popes, against the ecclesiastical law of England and the answer was the well-known answer that the barons would not consent to have the laws of England changed": 10 Clark and Finnelly, 617. This is a strange perversion of the truth: see Pollock and Maitland, op. cit., II, 370 n. 1.