Note 1174 — Chapter IX · THE PROTESTANT CONCEPTION OF MARRIAGE

Sohm, Eheschliessung, chap. vii; Trauung und Verlobung, chap. iv, has demonstrated this against the view of Friedberg.

Nevertheless by the middle of the seventeenth century was established a dualism in effect similar to that which had existed under the later canon law. More and more stress was placed upon the nuptials as compared with the betrothal, although in theory the latter still constituted the marriage. J. H. Boehmer, Jus ecclesiasticum protestantium (Halle, 1714), whose teaching has mainly determined the modern law, attacked Luther as being responsible for this dualism, holding that a true betrothal, like the Roman sponsalia, is only a promise of future wedlock, and may therefore be dissolved; while the nuptial contract, publicly and formally made, is the true marriage. On Boehmer's doctrines see Dieckhoff, Die kirch. Trauung, 270-95; Schubert, Die evang. Trauung, 62-76; Scheurl, Kirch. Eheschliessungsrecht, 140 ff.; Phillips, "Das Ehehinderniss der beigefügten Bedingung," ZKR., VI, 154.