The Book of Common Prayer on Marriage

I was recently reading The Book of Common Prayer. In doing so, I came to appreciate how this book established a common culture in English-speaking countries.

Why did I read that long ecclesiastical book? It’s because a friend of mine gave me a copy of Julie McDonalt Zander’s The Reluctant Pioneer, a novel about crossing the Oregon Trail. The main character has room in their wagon for only two books. They bring a medical guide and The Book of Common Prayer. I have this personal rule about reading. When a book mentions another book, I stop to read that other book before going on so that I first understand the full context.

Written in 1549, this publication was as monumental politically, socially, and culturally as the translation of the Bible under the commission of King James I six decades later. Because it predates the King James Bible, the Book of Common Prayer quotes scripture with anachronistic phrasing. For example, the Greek word ζάω is translated as “quick” rather than “living.” So The Book of Common Prayer repeatedly says “the quick and the dead” which otherwise only lives on today as the title of a western. Yet that nicely captures the legacy influence this old book has imprinted into our culture, whether we are aware of it or not.

A bigger observation to note is the influence on marriage. How is it that, in a culture where the authority of the Church has been so far removed from the act of getting married, we all seem to be able to recollect a stereotype of what is ceremonially said? Those common phrases and ritual utterings, like “take thee” have survived centuries to the point where the accidental utterance of “Rachel” became a major plot turn in the sitcom Friends?

These phrases come from the chapter titled “THE FORM OF SOLEMNIZATION OF MATRIMONY.”

Yet it is still interesting to read that chapter to see what has also been lost. Take, for instance, the line where the minister pauses and asks if anyone objects to the marriage. That seems like a silly formality today. It was serious business before. In addition to that ceremonial script, The Book of Common Prayer goes further, stating at the outset of the marriage chapter:

First, the Banns of all that are to be married together must be published in the Church three several Sundays, during the time of Morning Service, or of Evening Service, (if there be no Morning Service,) immediately after the second Lesson; the Curate saying after the accustomed manner, I publish the Banns of Marriage between M. of — and N. of —. If any of you know cause, or just impediment, why these two persons should not be joined together in holy Matrimony, ye are to declare it. This is the first [second, or third] time of asking.

And if the persons that are to be married dwell in divers Parishes, the Banns must be asked in both Parishes; and the Curate of the one Parish shall not solemnize Matrimony betwixt them, without a Certificate of the Banns being thrice asked, from the Curate of the other Parish.

Only after this prior vetting does it then go on to say “At the day and time appointed for solemnization of Matrimony, the persons to be married shall come into the Body of the Church with their friends and neighbours: and there standing together, the Man on the right hand, and the Woman on the left, the Priest shall say…” Wow, they really took marriage seriously in the sixteenth century. There are many things our society has improved five centuries later, but this is not one of them.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.