If any man can show just cause, why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.

This line is the traditional “banns” or “impediment” challenge spoken during the Christian marriage service in English, asking the congregation to declare any lawful reason the couple should not be married. It became widely familiar through the Church of England’s liturgy after the English Reformation, when the Book of Common Prayer standardized wedding rites in English. The formula reflects canon-law concerns about impediments (e.g., existing marriage, prohibited degrees of kinship, lack of consent) and the public nature of marriage as a legal and ecclesiastical act. Over time it entered popular culture as a stock phrase associated with weddings, sometimes used humorously or rhetorically outside church contexts.

The sentence dramatizes marriage as both a sacred covenant and a public legal contract. By inviting objections “now,” it frames the ceremony as the final moment for the community to surface hidden impediments, protecting the couple and the institution from invalid or unlawful unions. The concluding clause—“or else hereafter for ever hold his peace”—underscores finality: silence becomes consent, and once the rite proceeds, challenges are morally (and historically, often legally) discouraged. In a broader sense, the line captures how communal witness functions as social validation, turning a private relationship into a publicly recognized status with rights and obligations.

1) “If any man can show any just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace.”
2) “If any of you know cause, or just impediment, why these two persons should not be joined together in holy matrimony, ye are to declare it.”
3) “If anyone present knows of any lawful reason why this couple may not be joined in marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace.”