WEDDING. In' the Teutonic races, more importance was attached to the betrothal than to the subsequent wedding.. The former seems to have been the sale of a woman by her guardian for a price. This came to be represented by a handsel, which was not paid over until the wedding. Later, the betrothal was the woman's own act, and the handsel was payable to herself. In Roman law there was a distinction between sponsalia and mat rimonfum, which was obscured by another which divided marriages into clandestine and regular—the former resting merely in the agreement of the parties. The Christian church upheld "clandestine" marriage as valid until the Council of Trent declared all marriages to be void unless made in the presence of a priest and witnesses. In Eng land, where that decree was not received, either of the parties to a clandestine mar riage could compel the other, in an ecclesias tical court, to solemnize it in due form. It has been held (10 Cl. & F. 655) that the Eng lish common law never recognized such a contract per verba de prcesenti as valid, al though it recognized it, as well as a contract "per verba de future," down to the middle of the eighteenth century as giving either of the parties a right to sue for a celebration and as impeding the marriage of either party with a stranger. Holland, Jurispr. 240.
In the later Anglo-Saxon period the hus band gave the parent or guardian security (wed) that "he will keep her according to God's law as a man should his wife" ; he ar ranged with her friends and with herself what settlenient he would make upon her, and what should be her rights after his death, and for this promise he gave her a wed. The actual nuptials were performed in the presence of a priest. The marriage serv ice of the English church reproduces these old ideas. The wed appears in the ring; the settlement is found in the endowment of the bride by the bridegroom with "all his world ly goods." There is the giving away of the bride by her guardians, and the presence of the priest. 2 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 76. The Church of England marriage service is said to be a cabinet, of antiquities. 2 Poll. & Maitl. 365.
As to wedding presents, see PARAPHERNA LIA.