Note 404 — Chapter XIV

As to Lancashire, Dr. Hibbert observes, in his History of the Collegiate Church of Manchester, i. 272:—"The greatest discontent was excited at the mode of solemnizing marriages, which was no longer before the altar, or accompanied with the pledge of the ring, which had been hitherto considered essential to the contract. This meanness of ceremony was so ill relished, that many clandestine marriages were celebrated by unauthorized persons, or ejected clergymen." The author mentions the case of a woman who refused to submit to Presbyterian rites, but asserted herself a "wife before God."