MR. J. CARVELL WILLIAMS (Notts, Mansfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is aware that the rector of Clifton, Beds, after having proclaimed the banns of marriage between Mr. Thomas and Miss Alcock, and after the date of the marriage had been fixed and the other arrangements made, declined to allow the marriage to proceed on the ground that the lady had not been baptized, with the result that the marriage had to be celebrated at a Nonconformist place of worship in another parish; whether the rector had any legal warrant for such procedure; and whether any steps can be taken to prevent its repetition?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. H. H. ASQUITH, Fife, E.)The facts appear to be as stated in the question. As far as I am aware, a clergyman is not authorised, either by the common law or by the canons of the Church, to refuse to perform the ceremony of marriage on the ground that one or both of the parties have not been baptized. If this be so, it follows the action of the rector was without any legal warrant. I have no jurisdiction in such a matter, but I do not doubt that the law provides adequate remedies.