The unequal promises in the Marriage Service
certain phrases in the Epistles or the Marriage Service
The likely liturgical reference is the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer marriage office, in its 1662 form. The inspected witness is the Church's current online transcription of that historical rite, rather than a 1908 printing. The question to the bride adds obedience and service to the duties of love, honour and fidelity; the corresponding question to the bridegroom does not require obedience. Her spoken vow likewise adds obedience. Later scriptural instruction includes 1 Peter's description of the wife as the weaker vessel, alongside the requirement that husbands honour their wives as joint heirs of grace. These are identifiable grounds for an objection to hierarchy, though the paragraph does not specify which phrase or epistle it means. Marriage office, declarations, vows and concluding instruction.
The distinction matters for Chesterton's countercharge. Proving that some critics dismissed female worshippers would expose those critics' prejudice; it would not by itself answer an objection to unequal marital obligations. Nor does the rite explicitly declare women intellectually inferior. Chesterton moves from complaints about the texts to a claim about the consistency of their opponents, while leaving both the particular textual objection and the particular continental critic unnamed.
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