Ceremonial law

“ The general conclusion at which a dispassionate man must arrive is that, irrespective of specific rites or "ornaments," the ceremonial law of the Church of England—as on the one hand a body whose continuous corporate existence ranges over nearly thirteen hundred years, and on the other a Reformed Church, the principles of whose Reformation have to be gathered out of statutes, rubrics, canons, articles, proclamations, advertisements, visitation articles, &c., dating from 1547 to 1662—is far from being a simple question. ”

“ The common law adopting this, held that (1) marriage might be celebrated with the full rites of the church; or (2) that the parties might take each other for man and wife; or (3) , which obviously followed, that a priest might perform the ceremony outside the church, or without the full ceremonial—with maimed rites, so to speak. Whatever penalties were incurred by following other than the first way the marriage itself held good. ”

“ At first, nothing is seen like the interposition of law to compel the performance of a promise. That which the law arms with its sanctions is not a promise, but a promise accompanied with a solemn ceremonial. Not only are formalities of equal importance with the promise itself, but they are, if anything, of greater importance; for that delicate analysis which mature jurisprudence applies to the conditions of mind under which a particular verbal assent is given appears, in ancient law, to be transferred to the words and gestures of the accompanying performance. ”

“ There never seems to have been any deviation from the principle that required absolute physical perfection, until, within a few years, the spirit of expediency64 has induced some Grand Lodges to propose a modified construction of the law, and to admit those whose maims or deformities were not such as to prevent them from complying with the ceremonial of initiation. ”

“ Our custom should have holden the ceremonies out of Scotland, hold them in elsewhere as it may.
CHAPTER VII. THAT THE LAWFULNESS OF THE CEREMONIES CANNOT BE WARRANTED BY ANY ECCLESIASTICAL LAW, NOR BY ANY POWER WHICH THE CHURCH HATH TO PUT ORDER TO THINGS BELONGING TO DIVINE WORSHIP. Sect. 1. We have proved that the ceremonies cannot be warranted by the law of God. It followeth to examine whether any law of man, or power upon earth, can make them lawful or warrantable unto us. ”

“ Wherever the canon law has been the basis of legislation, we find laws of succession sacrificing the Merest of daughters and of wives, and a state of public opinion which has been formed and regulated by these laws ”

“ These were the law which punished the celebration of Catholic worship as felony in a foreigner, as high treason in a native, and the laws by which the estates of Popish heirs educated abroad passed to the next Protestant heir, by which a Protestant heir could take possession of his father's or other relative's estate during the lifetime of the real proprietor, and by which Papists could acquire property only by descent. ”

“ Before passing to a detailed account of ceremonial government under its various aspects, it will be well to sum up the results of this preliminary survey. They are these:
That control of conduct which we distinguish as ceremony precedes the civil and ecclesiastical controls. It begins with sub-human types of creatures; it occurs among otherwise ungoverned savages; it often becomes highly developed where the other kinds of rule are little developed; it is ever being spontaneously generated afresh between individuals in all societies ”

“ No person, secular or ecclesiastical, order or convent, religious order or community of any estate, condition, rank, and preëminence, judicially or extrajudicially, shall dare, for any cause or occasion, to meddle at all with anything touching the said our royal patronage, or to damage us in our exercise of it, or appoint to church, benefice, or ecclesiastical office, or receive such to which appointments are made throughout the state of the Indias, without our presentation, or that of the person to whom we entrust the same by law or letters-patent. ”

“ The question of the succession is settled by the Constitution Act, and no alteration is possible in justice, that does not fully reserve the rights of all living beings. I am first in the order of succession, and no law of man can take it from me excepting with my full consent. ”

“ When the heir of the crown, at the decease of the king, is under age, the council of state shall issue summons to the representatives to meet. The estates of the realm shall have the right, without regard to the will of a deceased king concerning the administration, to appoint one or several guardians, to rule in the king's name, according to this fundamental law, till the king becomes of age. ”

“ Everybody acquainted with ordinary classical literature will remember the sacra gentilicia, which exercised so important an influence on the early Roman law of adoption and of wills. And to this hour the Hindoo Customary Law, in which some of the most curious features of primitive society are stereotyped, makes almost all the rights of persons and all the rules of succession hinge on the due solemnisation of fixed ceremonies at the dead man's funeral, that is, at every point where a breach occurs in the continuity of the family. ”

“ No person shall be forced to do, or leave undone, anything whatever, except by virtue of law. § 2. Before the law all persons are equal. The Republic does not recognize privileges of birth, or titles of nobility, and abolishes all existing honorary orders, with all their prerogatives and decorations, as well as all hereditary and conciliar titles. {524} § 3. All persons and religious professions may exercise, publicly and freely, the right of worship, and may associate themselves for that purpose, acquire property, observance being had to the provisions of the common law. ”

“ But if later the heirs, neglecting the rigour of the law, shall allow him to have his heritage, the count shall hand over that same heritage to the rule of the king and shall receive it from the king under the name of a benefice.
2. If any one wound another after the proclamation of the peace, unless he prove by wager of battle that he did this while defending his life, his hand shall be amputated and he shall be sentenced as has been explained above: the judge shall most strictly prosecute him and his possessions according to the rigour of justice. ”

“ There can be little doubt, that the authority of the Roman code, combining with the religious notions of former times, coutributed in no small decree to engraft the principles of that law respecting charities into the common law. ”

“ Previous to the administration of those sacred sealing ordinances, he explained to each of the chosen ones the law, obligations and object of Celestial Marriage, and that he might be expected to take others—that the ceremony being precisely the same for each, they would all occupy the same equal position, no one having a higher claim than another. ”

“ You are not unaware, my lords and gentlemen, that I am a sovereign queen, anointed and consecrated in the church of God, and cannot, and ought not, for any reason whatever, be summoned to your courts, or called to your bar, to be judged by the law and statutes that you lay down ”

“ Thus ‘book-land’ stands, as it were, outside the realm of the folk-law. In all probability the folk-law of this early period knows no such thing as testamentary power. Testamentary power can only be created by the words of a book, by an anathema. ”

“ As far as heraldic law is concerned, she is the heiress of herself, representing only herself, and consequently her heir quarters her arms.
Marks of difference are never added to an exemplification following upon a Royal Licence after illegitimacy. Marks of difference are to indicate cadency, and there is no cadency vested in a person of illegitimate birth—their right to the arms proceeding only from the regrant of them in the exemplification. What is added in lieu is the mark of distinction to indicate the bastardy. ”

“ The Confederation shall by law enact detailed provisions upon this subject. The control of places o burial is subject to the civil authority. It shall take care that every deceased person may be decently interred. Article 54. The right of marriage is placed under the protection of the Confederation. No limitation upon marriage shall be based upon sectarian grounds, nor upon the poverty of either of the contractants, nor on their conduct, nor on any other consideration of good order. ”

“ The Marriage Act 1898 dispensed with the necessity of the attendance of a registrar at marriages celebrated at a nonconformist place of worship, substituting in place thereof a person duly authorized by the trustees of the place of worship, if the persons intending to be married so desire; but the parties may, if they wish, still require the presence of the registrar. Marriage by banns, licence or special licence cannot take place except in a church. (5) Burial.—By the Burial Laws Amendment Act 1880 burial may take place in a churchyard without the rites of the Church of England. ”

“ For, until the contrary be proved by legal demonstration, the law will rather presume the right to reside in the heir, whose ancestor died seised, than in one who has no such presumptive evidence to urge in his own behalf. ”

“ And this trust is for the most part committed to clergymen, who are presumed best to understand their own trade; and the ceremony which they use to signify that declaration, is laying on of hands, and a form of words prescribed by act of Parliament; which ceremony has obtained the name of consecration and ordination. Now suppose that the law had appointed another form to be executed only by laymen, as by flourishing a sword over his head, and by putting a cap and long gown upon him; would not the same man with the same qualifications, be just as good a pastor? ”

“ N. B. These opinions of Middleton and his more cautious followers are no part of our real Church doctrine. This passion for law Court evidence began with Grotius.
Ib. p. 246.
We conceived there needs no more to be said for justifying the imposition of the ceremonies by law established than what is contained in the beginning—of this Section.... Inasmuch as lawful authority hath already determined the ceremonies in question to be decent and orderly, and to serve to edification: and consequently to be agreeable to the general rules of the Word. ”

“ If his ancestor died before he had attained that age, his lord had by law the guardianship both of his lands and person till then, and took the profits of the lands to himself for his own use, being only obliged to educate and maintain the heir in a condition suitable to his rank and station. ”

“ But before I affirm The Art of Embalming to be a particular part of that Duty, which obliges all Mankind to take care of their Dead, |The Right of Burial and Funeral Ceremonies.| I shall give some cogent Reasons to prove the Right of Burial, what Things are necessary thereto, whether Ceremonies are needless and superstitious, or Monuments vain-glorious, &c. and this shall be as Nature dictates, the Law of GOD appoints, and the Law of Nations directs and obliges.
Sepulture a Debt to Nature. ”

“ The custody of the registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials, and of all other books and documents containing entries wholly or partly relating to the affairs of the Church or to Ecclesiastical charities, except documents directed by law to be kept with the public books, writings, and papers of the parish, remains as provided by law before the passing of the Local Government Act, i.e., in the hands of the incumbent. ”

“ As in France, visitations were made for the purpose of verifying existing titles and honors, and authorizing others; and funeral rites were so far under heraldic control that, among the nobility, no one could be buried without the assent of the herald.
Why these structures which discharged ceremonial functions once conspicuous and important dwindled, while civil and ecclesiastical structures developed, it is easy to see. Propitiation of the living has been, from the outset, necessarily more localized than propitiation of the dead. ”

“ An ecclesiastical remonstrance to the throne, representing this practice to be in direct violation of the written law, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead,” long since obtained the promulgation of a royal edict directing its discontinuance; but it is still universally practised, and throughout the kingdom there is scarcely an individual to be seen, whether male or female, who has not at some period of life been thus horribly disfigured. ”

“ Both these propositions were, with some restrictions, secured. Sacrilege was made a crime punishable by death, and the ministry were preparing a law to alter the law of equal inheritance, and thus create anew the great estates. ”

“ Faith, Burial.—Whether a person died in the faith of the Roman Catholic Church so as to be entitled to burial in its cemetery, is not a question within the jurisdiction of civil courts, but must be decided by the ecclesiastical authorities.210
114. Rules, Membership.—Every denomination has the right to prescribe by rules, its constitution, or its by-laws, the conditions of membership ”

“ To confirm this Natural Right of Regal Power, we find in the Decalogue, That the Law which enjoyns Obedience to Kings, is delivered in the terms of Honour thy Father, as if all power were originally in the Father. If Obedience to Parents be immediately due by a Natural Law, and Subjection to Princes, but by the Mediation of an Humane Ordinance; what reason is there that the Laws of Nature should give place to the Laws of Men? as we see the power of the Father over his Child, 24gives place, and is subordinate to the power of the Magistrate. ”