Matricularii, subordinate servants of the clergy, who were intrusted with the care of the church in which they were accustomed to sleep : they had also offices to perform in public processions, — Farrar, Eccles. Diet. s. v. ; Eadie, Eccles. Diet, s, v. See Sacristan.
Matrimony or Marriage as a Sacrajient. The Church of Kome regards the act of matrimony not only as a religious contract, but also as a sacrament. We need hardly step aside to explain the meaning of the word sacrament, but it may be proper here to say that the Komanists hold seven sacraments as established by the Council of Trent, teaching also that " each sac- rament confers grace peculiar to itself, so that it has the special effect of conferring grace subservient to that end." This distinction is called by the divines " sacramental grace." See Sacrajient. The clergy of the Church of England of High-Church tendency incline to hold a like view on this point, but there is certainly nothing in the XXXIX Articles to warrant any such interjireta- tion of the marriage-contract. The Roman view of mar- riage is based by the schoolmen on the expression of Paul in writing to the Ephesians (v, 32), to fivcrrt'iptov rovro fdya tarii; or, as it runs in the Yulgate, " Sacramen- tum hoc magnum est." "Thus viewed, the external part or sign, the * pars sensibilis,' is the expression of a mutual consent involving, as is necessary m all sacra- mental ordinances, a real present intention ; and the in- ward part or gift is the grace which unites the hearts, or, according to another view, the grace to resist concu- piscence, sometimes entirely, judging by St. Thomas Aquinas's remark that carnal intercourse is not a neces- sary part of marriage, because there was none in Para- dise," The following more general considerations are also urged from Scripture in favor of the sacramental theory : " The union between the husband and wife is spoken of as analogous to the union between Christ and the Church, The husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the Church ; therefore, as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everj'thing (Eph, v, 23, 24), Now if this figure has any meaning it must be this, that the external sign of alliance between bride and bride- groom signify that there should henceforth exist be- tween them a union as holy, as close, and as indissoluble as that between Christ and the Church, a union which could not be maintained without a special gift from God, Tliat sucli a gift exists is made evident by Paul, who says, while drawing a comparison between mar- riage and celibacy, ' Every man hath his proper gift of (iod, one after this manner and another alter that' (1 Cor. vii, 7) ; and what would the gift be which is alluded to in the case of married persons but the grace which unites their hearts, and enables them to be fitting em- blems of Christ and the Church? Again, the presence of our Lord at the marriage in Cana of Galilee (John ii, 1-11) is sometimes referred to as having elevated the ceremony into the dignity of a sacrament" (Blunt, Diet. ofTheol.s.Y.).
Those who regard marriage as a sacrament are not themselves agreed as to what is the essential part of matrimoH)' constituting it a sacrament. The prevailing opinion we take to be that the essential part, as Avell as the efficient cause, is the consent of the two parties, which must be expressed in words as the " pars sensi- bilis" of the sacrament, and must imply a real present,
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and not a future consent. There are others who would make the words of the priest the essential element whereby the marriage union is created, "Ego vos in matrimoniura conjungo," etc.; in the English otfice, " Those whom God has joined together let no man put asunder," followed by the declaration of complete union, " I pronounce that they be man and wife together, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy (Jhost." If the previous consent had made the two per- sons man and wife, these words on the priest's lips would seem to be, strictly speaking, superfluous. From primi- tive times it has been the custom to acquaint the Church beforehand with an intended marriage, which is evident from the passages above quoted. The object was to prevent unlawful marriage; not that the Church claimed anv absolute power to grant or refuse leave to marrj-, but that in case a person was about to marry a Jew, or a heathen, or a heretic, or one within the forbidden de- grees of consanguinity, etc., the marriage might be pre- vented, or at least not obtain the sanction of the Church. The earliest allusion to the necessity of such notice in England is contained in the eleventh canon of the Synod of Westminster (A.D. 1200), which enacts that no mar- riage shall be contracted without banns thrice published in church (Johnson, Canons, ii, 91). See Bann. The existing law of the Church of England is expressed in the sixty-second canon: "No minister, upon pain of suspension ' per triennium ipso facto,' shall celebrate matrimony between any persons without a faculty or license granted by some of the persons in these our con- stitutions expressed, except the banns of matrimony have been first published three several Sundays or holy- days in the time of divine service in the parish churches and chapels where the said parties dwell, according to the book of Common Prayer." The only substitute for banns recognised by the Church of England is an ordi- nary or special license. The power of granting the for- mer has belonged to English bishops from a verj' early date, being confirmed to them by 25 Henry VHI, c. 21. The right to grant special licenses, which are free from all restrictions as to time or place, was originally a priv- ilege of the archbishop of Canterbury, as " legatus na- tus." The ritual of the Church of Eome teaches that " the end of the sacrament of marriage is that man and wife may mutually help and comfort each other, in or- der that they may spend this life in a holy manner, and thereby gain a blessed immortality ; and to contribute to the edification of the Church by the lawfid procrea- tion of children, and by the care of procuring them a spiritual regeneration, and an education suitable to it. Every person, before entering into wedlock, is required to beseech God to join him with such a person as he may work out his salvation with, and examine whether or no the person he has fixed his affections on has the fear of God before her eyes ; is prudent, discreet, and able to take care of a family."