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Show BANNS OF MARRIAGE. The custom of publishing the banns of marriage dates back to the primitive church; for Tertullian, who died A. D. ! 240, Ftatcs that warning of intended I marriages. Was given among early Christians. It appears that the publication of banns was habitual in many places long before there was any general law on the subject, since Gregory IV (11S3-1216) (11S3-1216) speaks of the banns (from Latin bannum, a proclamation; Anglo-Saxon I ban) being given out in the church, ac-. ac-. cording to custom. The practice was introduced, into France about the ninth j century and in 1176 was enforced in the . diocese of Paris. The earliest enactment on the subject sub-ject in England was an order made in the synod of Westminster in 1200 to the effect that no marriage should be celebrated cele-brated til the b;inns had been published in the church on three reveral Sundays or feast days. This rule was tnaclP obligatory throughout the church by ! the fourth Latvian Council, held in j Rolne in 1213. By act of parliament 1 banns must now be given out in Eng-j Eng-j land on three Sundays. |