Before 1835, marriages within the prohibited degrees of consan guinity and affinity were valid until annulled by a declaratory sentence of the ecclesiastical court, after which they became void eb initio, and the issue of such marriages were, by much sentence, rendered illegiti mate; cud the law is still so with respect to personal incapacity exist ing at the time of the contract. But as the ecclesiastical court could professedly, only proceed pro salute aninur, and its authority to autiul an incestuous merrIage was founded upon the duty of putting a stop to the Incestuous intercourse, the power of annulling the marriage ceased upon the death of either of the parties. The validity of ouch mar range, and the legitimacy of the Issue, depended therefore upon the contingency of a suit being Instituted and a senteece pronounced, during time joint lives of the and wife. lint iicnv, by 5 & 0 Will. IV., c. 54, all marriages thereafter celebrated between persons within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or affinity are abso lutely void to all Intents and piirpoaes. eten at common law, a marring° contracted while there iii a former wife or husband alive is ipso facto void, without any declaratory sentence.
Generally speaking, a marriage, valid according to the law of the In which it was contracted, is valid in every other country.
This rule is however subject to some exceptions, as where marriages, contracted according to the law of the country (lex loci), are considered, in the courts in which their validity happens to be contested as con tracted in violation of some principle of natural religion or morality, or as where, in Persia or Turkey, a man marries a second wife in the life time of the first.
A constitution of the emperor Constantine, restored in 476 by the emperor Zeno (Cod., lib. 5, tit. 27, L, 5), enabled the husband of a concubine who had children by her, without having had any child ex justis nuptiis, to raise the concubine to the dignity of juste =or, and to confer on those children the privilege of children born ex justis nuptiis, though actually born ex concubinatu.
This was carried still further when marriage was invested with a religious character. Its efficacy as is sacrament was regarded as so powerful, as to have a retrospective operation upon children born et the time when there was no semblance or intention of marriage of any kind, provided that at the time of the birth there existed no impedi ment to the marriage of the parents. Alexander III., who filled the papal chair from 1159 to 1181, pronounces that " Tanta est vis matri menii, ut qui antes aunt geniti, post contractum matrimonium, legitimi habeantur." Extrarag., cap. 6, " Qui filii aunt legit." (Pothier, Trail du Contra:(de Mariage.) This modification of the law of legitimacy, though frequently recommended by the clergy, was never adopted in England by the laity. It is however the law of Scotland as well as of France, and of most other Roman Catholic countries.