sentences:  In 1616, the period in which marriages were banned without dispensation from the church, including Ash Wednesday and Lent, started on 23 January, Septuagesima Sunday and ended on 7 April, the Sunday after Easter.Hence the marriage required a special licence issued by the Bishop of Worcester, which the couple had failed to obtain.Presumably they had posted the required banns in church, since Walter Wright of Stratford was cited for marrying without banns or licence