BIGAMY, in the canon law, signified either a second marriage with a virgin after the death of the first wife, or s marriage with a widow. It incapacitated men for holy orders ; and until the 1 VI. c. 12, § 16, it was a good counterplet to the claim of benefit of clergy. (Wood lesson's Vinerian Lectures, i. 425.) The word bigamy, which simply signifies " a second marriage," is an irregular compound, formed of the Latin word bi (two), and the Greek yaµ (gam), " mar riage." The genuine Greek word is digdmia (Sera,ula).
Bigamy, by the English law, consists in contracting a second marriage during the life of a former husband or wife, and the statute 1 James I. c. 11, enacts that the person so offending shall suffer death, as in cases of felony. (Hale's Pleas of the Crown, i. 692, fol. ed. 1736.) This statute makes certain exceptions, which it is not necessary to refer to, as it has been repealed by 9 George IV. c. 31, § 22, for England, and 10 Geo. IV. c. 34, § 26, for Ireland, and operates only with respect to offences committed on or before the 30th of June, 1828. The statute last cited enacts, " That if any person being married shall marry any other person during the life of the former husband or wife, whether the second mar riage shall have taken place in Eng land or elsewhere, such offender and any person aiding him shall be guilty of felony and be punished by transportation for seven years, or by imprisonment (with or without hard labour) for a term not exceeding two years." The statute excepts, first, any second marriage con tracted out of England by any other than a subject of his Majesty ; second, any per son whose husband or wife shall have been continually absent during seven years, and shall not have been known by such person to have been living within that time ; third, a person divorced from the bond of the first marriage ; fourth, one whose former marriage shall have been declared void by the sentence of any court of competent jurisdiction.
With respect to the third exception, it was determined in a case tried under the stat 1 James I. c. II, where a Scotch di vorce a vinculo was pleaded, that no sen tence of any foreign court can dissolve an English marriage a vinculo, unless for grounds on which it was liable to be so dissolved in England ; and that the words " divorced by any sentence in the eccle siastical court " (the words of the statuis of James) applied to the sentence of a spiritual court within the limits to which the statute extended. The fourth
exception cannot be taken advantage of, if the first marriage has been declared void only collaterally and not directly ; or if admitting it to be conclusive, it can be. shown to have been obtained fraudu lently or collusively. See MARRIAGE and DIVORCE; and the trial of the Duchess of Kingston before the peers in parliament, in 1776, for bigamy. (Bacon's Abridg ment 'by Dodd, titles, " Bigamy " and " Marriage.") The offence of bigamy consists in going through the form of a second marriage while the first subsists, for the second marriage is only a marriage in form, be cause a man cannot have two wives or a woman two husbands at once. The main ground for punishing a person who con tracts such second marriage, ought to be the injury that is thereby done to the party who is deceived. Yet the Iaw, with the absurd disregard of distinctions which is so common in the penal code of Eng land, punishes in the same way all par ties who knowingly contract such second marriage. For instance, if two married persons contract such marriage, they are both liable to the same penalty which is inflicted on a married man who contracts a second marriage with an unmarried woman who believes him to be unmar ried. In the former case the two parties sustain no damage by the form ; and, with respect to society, they stand pretty nearly on the same footing as two mar ried persons who agree to commit adul tery. The only difference is, that they also agree to pass for man and wife by virtue of the marriage ceremony. In the second case the man, by a base fraud, obtains the enjoyment of the woman's person, without running the risk of the penalty attached to the employment of force. As the offence of bigamy may then either be no damage to either of the par ties, or a very great injury to one of them, this consideration should affect the amount of punishment.