I vow you. Till vow do we part…Ah, those sweet words whispered in exchange for wedding rings witnessed by those you cherish (or at the very least a celebrant at Town Hall). But it was not always this way. During the Roman Empire (17 B.C.- A.D. 476) the lower classes had “free” marriages. The bride’s father would deliver her to the groom, and the two agreed that they were wed, and would keep the vow of marriage by mutual consent.
The demise of romance came with the artful, wealthy Romans who would sign documents listing property rights to publicly declare that their union was legalized. Born was the official recording of marriages as we do today (and the accounting of assets).
Moment of Exchange
Published in 1549 the Book of Common Prayer contains the oldest traditional wedding vows. Upon agreement to marry, the Church of England offered couples a choice. They could promise each other to ‘love and cherish‘. Alternatively, the groom promises to ‘love, cherish and worship‘ while the bride to ‘love, cherish and obey.’
“Speak now or forever hold your peace” is proclaimed from the marriage liturgy.
“Till death do us part!!”, it rattles on.
Then a sort of democracy occurred, hundreds of years later, on September 12, 1922, (no doubt due to protest), in the Episcopal Church, which voted to removed the word “obey” from the bride’s section of wedding vows.
Cherish? Most certainly; Obey? Er, give this modern gal a moment to think about that one…
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