PENNY WEDDINGS
900
PENSIERI
Sec Money. From the parable of the laborers in the vineyard it would seem that a denarius was then the ofdiiiary pay for a day's labor (Matt, xx, 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, to). 'i'lie term ilcnaritts cmrvu.t (Plin. xxxiv, 17; xxxvii. 3) is probably a corrupt designation for the aureus {nummus) ; in the New Test, the denarius prop- er is always intended. See Smith, Diet, of Class. A ntiq. s. V. Denarius. The earlier silver denarii were struck bv the authority of distinguished families, and bear portraits and designs illustrative of Koman history; tliese are called consular denarii. After the time of Julius Ciusar they present us with a series almost un- broken of the emperors, together with many of their wives, sons, daughters, and occasionally of their fathers, sisters, and brothers also. The considar denarius bore on one side a head of Kome, and X or a star, to denote the value in asses, and a chariot with either two or four horses; but afterwards the reverse bore the figures of Castor and Pollux, and sometimes a Victory in a chariot of two or four horses. At a later date the busts of dif- ferent deities were given on the obverse; and these were finally superseded by the heads of the Cajsars.
Denarius of Tibeiius.
O'jr. : TI C.€SAR DIVI AVG F AVGVSTVS. Head of Tiberius, Inurente, to the right (Mutt, xxii, 19, 20, 21). Rev. : PONTIF MAXIM. Seated female figure to the right.
The reverses varied, and some of them are very curious. The name continued to be applied to a silver piece as late as the time of the earlier Byzantines. The states that arose from the ruins of the Koman empire imitated the coinage of the imperial mints, and in general called their principal silver coin the denarius, wlience the French name denier and the Italian denaro. Tlie chief Anglo-Saxon coin, and for a long period the only one, corresponded to the denarius of the Continent. It con- tinued to be current under the Normans, Plantagenets, and Tudors, though latterly little used. It is called penny, denarius, or denier, which explains the employ- ment of the first word in the A. Y. Sec Arnold, I)e denario Petri (Alt. 17G9) ; Dorschaeus, Denarius Ves- pcrtinus (Kost. 1657). See Denarius.
Penny "Weddings (or Penny Bridals) is the name of a peculiar festive marriage ceremonial which was common in Scotland until the middle of the 17th century. At these penny weddings the invited guests made contributions in money (seldom more than one shilling each), to pay the general expenses, and leave over a small sum, which would assist the newly married pair in furnishing their dwelling. This practice, now disused, as leading to " profane minstrelsing and pro- miscuous dancing," was denounced by an Act of the <ieneral Assembly of the Kirk in IGio, as well as bj' nu- merous acts of presbyteries and kirk-sessions about the same period. Tiie act reads as follows :
"The assembly, consideiing that many persons do in- vite to these penny wcdiliiis^s excessive numbers, among whom thcie frequently falls out drunkenness and un- cleanness, for jnevcnliiij; whereof, by llieir act Feb. 13, 1645, they ordain presbyierics to take special care for re- straining the ahuses ordinarily committed at these occa- sions, as they shall ihiuk tit, and to take a strict account of the obedience of every session to their orders there- anent, and that at their visitiition of parishes within their bounds; which act is ratified March 8,1701. By the 12th sess. assembly, 1700, presbyteries are to apply to magis- trates for executing the laws relating to iieiuiy bridals, and the commissioii, upon application from them, are to apply to the government, for obliging the judires who re- fuse to execute their oflice in that matter. By the 14th act Pari. 3 Car. II, it is ordained that at marriaiies, be- sides the married persons, their parents, brothers, and sis- ters, and the family wherein they live, there sli.ill not be present above four friends on either tside. If there shall be any greater number of persons at penny weddings
within a town, or two miles thereof, that the master of the house shall be fined in the sum of 500 mcrks."
Penry (or Penri or Ap Henry), John, a Puritan divine, better known under the names of Martin Mar- Prelate and Martin Priest, was a native of Wales, and was born in 1559. He was educatctl at Peter House, Cambridge, whence he removed to Oxford, where he took his degree of master, and then entered into holy orders. In the controversy between the Puritans and the hierarchy he waged a fierce war against the Es- tablishment, and was accused and condemned for hold- ing seditious opinions and libelling the ([ueen (Eliz- abeth). He was executed like a felon in 1593, leaving a widow with four young children to bemoan tiieir loss. He was charged with the authorship of the Mar-Prelate. Tracts, but he disapproved of the project, and their spirit and their style are so unlike his that his apologists deny his having liad anything to do with them. During his trial he advocated the principles which he believed nec- essary for adoption by the English Church, viz. (1) that the Church as an institution of Christianity should be governed only by the laws of its divine founder; (2) that tlie offices derived from the Romish hierarchy were unscriptural and anticliristian. There is little doubt that PenryV conscientious hostility to prelacy and Church authority made him obnoxious to the ruling party, and brought him to a premature and violent death. He seems to have had less of that spirit of rancor and insut)ordination than the majority of his co-thinkers. Especially in his last moments did the spirit of the man rise to the solemn circumstances of his fate, and he died, if not precisely for the cause, yet with much of the de- voted spirit of a niartjT. See Waddington, John Pen- ?7/, the PiUjriin Martip- (Lond. 1854, 8vo) ; Stoughton, Spiritual Heroes, p. 52 sq. ; Coleman, The Kuglish Con- fessors after the Ref p. 117 sq., 297 sq. ; Price, Hist, of Xonconformitii, vol. i; Soames, Ellzabetlain Religious IJistory, p. 427 sq. ; Collier, Kccles. Hist. ; Neal, IHst. of the Puritans ; (Loud.) Gentlemcm's Magazine, 1854, i, 511 ; Bacon, Genesis of the Neic England Churches ; and the article as well as the references in Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and A mer. A uth. ii, s. v. (J. H. A\'.)