Reading of the banns: how the church tried to perfect the institution of marriage

A proposal to replace the legal requirement of the reading of banns before church weddings with a civil process has been put forward at the Church of England synod. The law requiring marriage banns to be read out aloud on three consecutive Sundays prior to marriage was introduced by the Catholic Church 800 years ago (almost to the day).

But how did this tradition come about? The reading of banns were an important step forward in the development of the institution of marriage and has been an indispensable part of marriage in Western Europe since then.