ts.

See J. E. Shearer, _Fact and Fiction in the Story of Bannockburn_ (1909).

BANNS OF MARRIAGE (formerly _bannes_, from A.S. _gebann_, proclamation, Fr.
_ban_, Med. Lat. _bannum_), the public legal notice of an impending
marriage. The church in earliest days was forewarned of marriages
(Tertullian, _Ad Uxorem, De Pudicitia_, c. 4). The first canonical
enactment on the subject in the English church is that contained in the
11th canon of the synod of Westminster in London (A.D. 1200), which orders
that "no marriage shall be contracted without banns thrice published in the
church, unless by special authority of the bishop." It is, however,
believed that the practice was in France as old as the 9th century, and
certainly Odo, bishop of Paris, ordered it in 1176. Some have thought that
the custom originated in the ancient rule that all "good knights and true,"
who elected to take part in the tournaments, should hang up their shields
in the nearest church for some weeks before the opening of the lists, so
that, if any "impediment" existed, they might be "warned off." By the
Lateran Council of 1215 the publication of banns was made compulsory on all
Christendom. In early times it was usual for the priest to betroth the pair
formally in the name of the Blessed Trinity; and sometimes the banns were
published at vespers, sometimes during mass. In the United Kingdom, under
the canon law and by statute, banns are the normal preliminary to marriage;
but a marriage may also be solemnized without the publication of banns, by
obtaining a licence or a registrar's certificate. In America there is no
statutory requirement; and the practice of banns (though general in the
colonial period) is practically confined to the Roman Catholics.

BANNU, a town and district of British India, in the Derajat division of the
North-West Frontier Province. The town (also called Edwardesabad and
Dhulipnagar) lies in the north-west corner of the district, in the valley
of the Kurram river. Pop. (1901) 14,300. It forms the base for all punitive
expeditions to the Tochi Valley and Waziri frontier.

The district of Bannu, which only consists of the Bannu and Marwat tahsils
since the constitution of the North-West Frontier Province in 1901,
contains an area of 1680 sq. m. lying north of the Indus. The cis-Indus
portions of Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan now comprises the new Punjab
district of Mianwali. In addition to the Indus the other streams flowing
throug