Series 1 > Register of the minister, elders and deacons of the Christian congregation of St. Andrews comprising the proceedings of the Kirk Session and of the Court of the Superintendent of Fife Fothrik and Strathearn, 1559-1600 > Volume 4, 1559-1582

PREFACE.
xliii
answer was, £ Promise of marriage per verba de future sail be
made, according to the ordour of the reformed Kirk, to the
minister, exhorter or reidar; takeand caution for abstinence
till the marriage be solemnizit.’1 In August 1575 the following
(question was put in the General Assembly, ‘ Whether the
contract of marriage used to be made before the proclama¬
tion of banns betwixt man and woman, should be made be
words of the present tyme, the man saying to the woman,
I take thee to be my wife, and the woman saying to her
husband, I take thee to be my husband; or should there
no contract or promise be made while the instant time of
solemnization of the marriage?’ To this it was answered,
‘ Let the order observed within the reformed Kirk of Scotland
be keeped. Parties to be maried sould come before the
Assemblie, and give in thair names, that thair bands may be
proclaimit, and no farther ceremonies usit.’ 2 If, when espousals
were made before witnesses, the man used the words ‘ I take
thee to be my wife,’ and the woman, ‘ I take thee to be my
husband,’ it is not surprising that many of the people, with
their old notions of hand-fasting, should think themselves
already married. In February 1576-7, the question came up
in the session, as if it had not been already decided by the
General Assembly, and it was ‘ thocht gude that the parteis
that ar to mak promis of mareage cum befoir the seat,
and gyf up thair names in wryte, quhilk salbe deliverit to
the redar, and the promis to be maid per verba de future
in tyme cuming.’3 And in July 1578, Henry Scot, alias Kil-
moun, in presence of the seat, made ‘promis of mariage to
Agnes Meffen, be deliverance of his hand to the said Agnes,
and to solempnizat the band and promis of mareage maid be
hym to hir in face and visage of the kirk.’4 This case however
was exceptional, as the parties already had a child to baptize;
and no ceremony is mentioned in connection with the two
1 Booke of the Universall Kirk, i. 195, 196.
2 Ibid. i. 343. 2 ppi 42Ii 422i
4 Pp. 429, 430.