Note 1166 — Chapter IX · THE PROTESTANT CONCEPTION OF MARRIAGE
Reading edition
"Das liess ich wohl verba de futuro heissen, wenn ein conditio, Anhang oder Auszug dabei gesetzt würde, als: Ich will dich haben, wo du mir willt zu gut, zwei oder ein Jahr harren; item: Ich will dich haben, so du mir hundert Gulden mitbringest; item: so deine oder meine Aeltern wollen; und dergleichen."—Luther, "Von Ehesachen," Bücher und Schriften (Jena, 1561), V, 241.
As an illustration of the early judicial practice see the interesting decision of the consistory court of Wittenberg, among the cases published by Schleusner, Anfänge des protest. Eherechts, 136, where a contract is dissolved for failure of the condition. The case is undated, but it probably occurred before 1550.
Conditional espousals were recognized by the canon law: for England see Swinburne, Of Spousals, 109-53, where the many intricate questions connected with conditional contracts are discussed with much learning; and in general the monograph of Riedler, Bedingte Eheschliessung (Kempten, 1892).
With Luther's views regarding conditional betrothal compare those of Melanchthon, "De conjugio," Opera omnia, I, pars ii, 232; Schneidewin, De nuptiis, tit. x, "De spons.," pars i, 32-38; Beust, De spons. et mat., secs. xviii, xix; Kling, Tr. mat. causarum, foll. 73 ff.; Brouwer, De jure con., 188-204. For discussion see Schleusner, "Zu den Anfängen des prot. Eherechts," ZKG., VI, 402-5; Scheurl, "Zur Geschichte des kirch. Eheschliessungsr.," ibid., XV, 69, 70; idem, Das gemein. deutsche Eherecht, 368-70; Richardus, De cond. sponsaliorum impossibilibus, 29 ff., passim; Richter, Lehrbuch, 1061 ff., 1200; and especially the excellent historical paper of Phillips, "Das Ehehinderniss der beigefügten Bedingung," ZKR., V, VI, 153 ff., reviewing the literature of the subject from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; Schott, Einleit. in das Eherecht, 199 ff.