MARRIAGE BY PROXY AND THE CONFLICT OF LAWS 475 these requirements did not render the marriage void.^ At the Lateran Council of 1215 Pope Innocent III extended for the whole Western Christendom the requirement of the publication of banns. A marriage with banns had certain legal advantages over a marriage without banns; but the formless, unblessed marriage was neverthe- less valid. ^'^ Innocent III accepted the Roman view that the marriage con- tract, being based upon the present consent of the parties, might be entered into by messenger." Some of the canonists, following the example of the Roman law, maintained that only the man should be permitted to marry in this manner,^^ but it was felt that the same rule should apply to both parties.^^ Others contended that a marriage contract was different from an ordinary con- sensual contract, the expression of consent being of such far reach- ing consequences that it should be expressed in person instead of by proxy. This objection was met by the technical argument that a procurator represented the person of his principal and that the latter could pronounce the words through the procurator's mouth, as it were.'^ This view triumphed and found expression in the following decretal of Boniface VIII :^^ " Procurator non aliter censetur idoneus ad matrimonium contrahendum, quam si ad hoc mandatum habuerit speciale. Et quamvis alias is, qui con- stituitur ad negotia procurator, alium dare possit: in hoc tamen casu, propter magnum quod ex facto tam arduo posset periculum imminere, non poterit deputare alium, nisi hoc eidem specialiter sit commissum. Sane si procurator, antequam contraxerit, a domino fuerit revocatus, contr actum postmodum matrimonium ah eodem, licet tam ipse quam ea, cum qua con- traxerit, revocationem huiusmodi penitus ignorarent, nullius momenti exsistit, quum illius consensus defecerit, sine quo firmitatem habere ne- quevit. ' I EsMEiN, supra, 96. 1" 2 Pollock and Maitland, supra, 369; Brouwer, De Jure Connubium, Bk. i, Chap. 24, No. 19; Friedberg, RechtderEheschliessxing, 314; Richter, Lehrbuch DES KATHOLISCHEN UND EVANGELISCHEN KiECHENRECHTS, 1 1 26, 1 194; 2 V. SCHERER, HandbUCH DES KiRCHENRECHTS, 163-64; WALTER, LehRBUCH DES KiRCHENRECHTS, 572-73- " I EsMEiN, supra, 169-70. ^ Berardus would follow the Roman law on account of the weakness of the sex. 3 Berardus, Commentaria in Jus Ecclesiasticum Universum, 156. " HOSTIENSIS, SUMMA AXJREA, LiB. Ill, DE SpONS. ET MaTRIMONIIS, CoL 1 236, No. 7. " I Esmein, supra, 171. " Sext. (Liber Sextus Decretalium), i, 19, 9.
