It appears certain, then, that in the two older colonies the lay ceremony was invariably required from the beginning.[378] But in neither case does there seem to have been any direct legislation on the subject for many years. Indeed, were there no prudential reason,[379] a positive legal sanction may well have been deemed superfluous while public opinion was so sensitive and so united. The first extant order of the general court of Plymouth requiring celebration before a civil officer was passed, it is said,[380] in 1671. But in this jurisdiction, as in Massachusetts, the assistants or "magistrates" had always exercised this function; and it had long been the custom for the general court to appoint commissioners in the particular towns to join persons in marriage.[381] The earliest statute of Massachusetts relating to the celebration is the act of 1646, providing "that no person whatsoever in this Jurisdiction, shall joyne any persons together in Marriage, but the Magistrate, or such other as the General Court, or Court of Assistants shal Authorize in such place, where no Magistrate is neer."[382] In practice the last provision of this act was carried out in various ways. Thus, for example, any citizen might be appointed for a particular town during the pleasure of the court.[383] Or, in absence of the regular officer, a commission might be issued to perform the ceremony in specified cases; as when Henry Chickering was given authority to marry "two or three couples, legally published at Dedham."[384] In one instance we find a curious optional commission in which are inserted the names of three persons, either one of whom is empowered to join "M^{r.} John Apleton and M^{rs.} Priscilla Glover" in marriage.[385] But, as a rule, one or more of the three commissioners, chosen for the ending of small causes in towns where no assistant resided, was authorized by the county court to perform this duty.[386] [Footnote 378: WEEDEN, _Ecc. and Soc. Hist. of New England_, I, 217 ff., has some interesting gleanings on the civil contract.] [Footnote 379: "To make a law that marriage should not be solemnized by ministers is repugnant to the laws of England; but to bring it a custom by practice for the magistrate to perform it is by no law made repugnant."--WINTHROP, _Hist. of New England_, II, 313, 314 (382). _Cf._ COOK, in _Atlantic Monthly_, LXI, 351.]