287 equality, the possession of several wives was only within the reach of the rich and powerful. The consequences of wife capture and wife purchase were the supremacy of man and the slavery of woman. The effect of monoga mous marriage was to elevate the sociaj level of the wife. It "has drawn women from the severest and most humiliating servitude, has distributed the mass of the community into distinct families, has created a domestic mag istracy, has formed citizens, has extended the views of men to the future through affection for the rising generation, has multiplied social sympathies." The wife acquired indi vidual and proprietary rights, and the Roman Law accorded to married women privileges of which later legal systems have deprived her, and which she has never regained. The religious condition of the age also tended greatly to the organization of a settled family; but the Christian religion, while it elevated the ethical aspect of mar riage, reduced woman to a condition of tute lage from which the higher civilization of a modern age has but partially succeeded in rescuing her. In contemplation of law, marriage is in the nature of a civil contract, and viewed from the legal standpoint, no formalities of any kind are necessary to constitute a binding marriage; 1 but man, looking upon the matri1 Definitions of marriage are numerous. By some it is defined as "a contract made in due form of law, by which a man and women reciprocally engage to live with each other during their joint lives, and to discharge towards each other the duties imposed by law on the relation of husband and wife; " Modestinus defines it as " Coniunctio maris et feminae et consortium omnis vita?, divini et hu mani iuris communicatio; " and Kant says that it is "die Verbindung zweier personen verschiedenen Geschlechts mm lebenswierigen wechselseitigen Besitz ihrer Geschlechtscigenschaften." I would suggest the definition of. marriage to be descriptive like Bispham's definition of equity as the system of jurisprudence administered by the Court of Chancery. A definition of marriage can only be descriptive, as the institution has varied with different forms of civilizations. In my opinion Holland's view, that "the modern form of marriage, possible only when the individuality of the woman has received recognition, is that of a mutual and voluntary conveyance, or dedica tion, of the one to the other" (Jurisprudence, 4th ed. P- 148), is the best one in keeping with modern thought.
monial status from a religious point of view, and influenced by tradition and custom, has followed a diversity of usages and ceremonies in the celebration of marriage. Many of these ceremonies have their origin in the ancient forms of marriage by capture and purchase. At the time of the Sachsenspiegel the maxim Consensus facit matrimonimn was generally recognized and followed; but local custom prescribed various forms of celebra tion. The Sachsenspiegel does not mention any particular ceremony; it merely states that by cohabitation the wife acquires her rights : — "She is his companion and steps into his right when she enters his bed." Among the many ceremonies in use among the Germans were the gift of a ring, for ages the recognized mode of betrothal; the belting mentioned by Tacitus; and the Anglo-Saxon custom of tying the hands of the parties with cords or ribbons, — a proceeding known as "maeden fettan." It was also customary to place a shoe on the bridal bed, and for the bride to step into the groom's shoes, — a usage still observed. The custom of buying wives in its various forms prevailed in the older period of the German law. The price was generally equal to the weregeld of the woman, the amount paid being, among the Anglo-Saxons, sixty shillings; the Alamanni paid forty shillings; the Salic Franks placed the amount at sixtytwo and a half shillings; the Ripuarians at fifty shillings, and the Saxons assessed the value of a wife at three hundred shillings. The name given to the purchase money was "arrha," " pretium puella;; " the AngloSaxons calling it " witeme," "scat," "meta," "messio." The Sachsenspiegel has no reference to the old custom of buying wives. The buying has given way to a settlement, on the wife her self, of personal property (fahrende Habe). Such a settlement was known as the " Morgengabc," " Morgengifu," taking its name
