BANN, or BAN (from the Brit. ban, i.e. clamour), is a proclamation or public notice; any public summons or edict, whereby a thing is commanded or forbidden. It is a word ordinary among the feudists; and there is both banus and banum, which signify two several things.—The word banus is particularly used in England in publishing matrimonial contracts; which is done in the church before marriage, to the end that if any persons can speak against the intention of the parties, either in respect of kindred, precontract, or for other just cause, they may take their exception in time, before the marriage is consummated; and in the canon law, Bannus sunt proclamationes sponsi et sponsae in ecclesiis fieri solita. But there may be a faculty or license for the marriage, and then this ceremony is omitted: and ministers are not to celebrate matrimony between any persons without a license, except the banns have been first published three several times, upon pain of suspension, &c. Can. 62.
The use of matrimonial banns is said to have been first introduced in the Gallican church, though something like it obtained even in the primitive times; and it is this that Tertullian is supposed to mean by irrum-dina promulgatio. The council of Lateran first extended, and made the usage general. By the ordinance of Blois, no person could validly contract marriage, without a preceding proclamation of three banns; nor could any person whatever be dispensed with, ex-
Bann,
Banner.
cept for the two last. But the French themselves have abated much of this severity; and only minors are now under an absolute necessity of submitting to the formality of banns. For majors, or those of age, after publication of the first banns, the two latter are easily bought off.