Nevertheless, though Dutch custom undoubtedly furnished a direct precedent which should not be ignored, it seems highly probable that without the influence of Holland the early establishment of civil marriage in New England was inevitable. It was required by the spirit of Protestantism. Under favorable conditions, which New England did and old England did not afford, it was sure to arise as a consequence of rejecting the sacramental theory of wedlock.[370] There is another factor of the problem which must be reckoned with. The New England Puritans were steeped to the marrow in Hebraism; and, as we shall presently see, the growth of a sentiment in favor of lay marriage was fostered by the example of the Jewish law.[371] It is vain to apologize for them on the ground that under the influence of the Mosaic code they really regarded the officiating magistrate as the "minister of God." In his "judicial" capacity the magistrate may, indeed, have been looked upon as a divine agent.[372] That is the well-known casuistry by which Luther and the early Protestants persuaded themselves that absolute divorce through the temporal court is not forbidden by the scriptural precepts.[373] But it is a grave error to suppose that the seventeenth-century Puritan had this in mind when he rejected the priestly ceremony. Doubtless he did not forget that marriage from its social and ethical sides is something higher than a _mere_ civil contract. Yet for more than half a century after the settlement so intent was he in emphasizing its secular character that in the statutes the words "holy" or "sacred" as applied to it very seldom, if ever, appear. "Honorable" or some similar epithet is the strongest term usually employed. Even the publication of banns, as will hereafter be seen, was at first ordinarily required to be made, not on the sabbath, but at public "lecture" or on training day.[374] [Footnote 370: At a very early day the English Separatists are found advocating civil marriage: see BACON, _Genesis of the New England Churches_, 107, who states Greenwood's view (1587).] [Footnote 371: See sec. iv, below.] [Footnote 372: ELLIS, _Puritan Age_, 185.] [Footnote 373: See chap. xi, sec. ii.] [Footnote 374: But publication of banns on the sabbath was not ordinarily _prohibited_, the laws being usually silent as to that, while naming other days. Probably in some towns from the beginning sabbath publication may have been customary, as it was, apparently, at Andover: BAILEY, _Hist. Sketches of Andover_, 75. _Cf._ BACON, _Genesis of the New England Churches_, 339-41, who also seems to misapprehend the attitude of the Separatist and Puritan in his anxiety to show that early New England marriages were not "godless."]