With respect to this it is to be remarked that, according to the canons, the solemnity of marriage ought not to be celebrated from Septuagesima Sunday, because it is a season of sorrow, until the octave of Easter, nor in the three weeks before the Feast of S. John. [Footnote 549] But according to the custom of the Catholic Church, marriages may be solemnised in the church from the morrow of Low Sunday, namely, from the octave of Easter, until the first Rogation Day. And from the morning of the first Rogation Day this rite is prohibited until the octave of Whitsuntide inclusively: and so saith Pope Clement in his Decretal. Again, marriages ought not to be celebrated {155} from the First Sunday in Advent until the Epiphany: nor would they have been allowed until the octave of the Epiphany had not the Lord honoured a marriage with His presence, and even with a miracle. [Footnote 550] Whence they then chant, 'To-day the Church is united to her Heavenly Spouse.' Some, however, say that it is more holy to extend this prohibition unto the octave of the Epiphany. [Footnote 549: Bp. Cosins says that marriages are not to be solemnised from Advent Sunday, until eight days after (or the octave of) the Epiphany; from Septuagesima Sunday until eight days after Easter; and from Rogation Sunday until Trinity Sunday. Some of these being times of solemn fasting and abstinence, some of holy festivity and joy, both fit to be spent in such holy exercises, without other avocations. See his 'Devotions,' republished by Messrs Rivington.] [Footnote 550: We are accustomed to celebrate only the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, on the Epiphany. But S. Isidore (_De Off. Ecc._ i, 26) gives two other objects of commemoration upon this day: viz. the baptism of our Lord, and his first miracle at the marriage in Cana. And so the hymn in the Breviary: Ibant Magi, quam viderant, Lumen requirunt lumine, Lavacra puri gurgitis Peccata quae non detulit, Novum genus potentiae! Vinumque jussa fundere Stellam sequentes praeviam; Deum fatentur munere. Caelestis Agnus attigit; Nos abluendo sustulit. Aquae rubescunt hydriae, Nutavit unda originem. Our own Church, however, retains the old Gospel for the second Sunday after the Epiphany.] In the aforesaid times, therefore, marriages are not to be contracted; because these seasons are set apart for prayer.