PROTESTANT ECCLESIASTICAL LAW. The Prot• estant churches of the Continent rejected the sacramental theory of marriage. They regarded divoree (q.v.) as admissible. Luther revived the theory that betrothal (q.v.) was an inchoate ma rriage, and this view was dominant until the eighteenth century. Early in that century, how ever, Riihmer, a disIiI1gIliSlled Writer on Protest ant ecelesiastieal law, reintroduced the Roman distinctions. In order to suppress secret mar riages the Protestant churches demanded the consent of parents. or the presence of Witnesses, or In eeelesiastical ceremony, or all these thing:. So long. however, as secret betrothal followed by concubitus was regarded as a legal marriage, re quirements of publicity of marriage were in effective. Ramer insisted that such a marriage was only a 'natural marriage,' and that the benediction of the Church was necessary to its legal validity. The ecclesiastical marriage, he held, was the only perfect marriage. Bffinner's ideas were generally accepted ; but in eases Where coneubilus had occurred after a promise of marriage, it was usual not only to compel the man to go through the religious ceremony. but to 'supply' his assent when he refused to give it. The impediments to marriage based on con , sanguinity and affinity were greatly reduced. Consanguinity was treated as a bar only within the third or fourth degree (civil computation), affinity only in the direct line. Spiritual kin ship was not recognized. There was manifested also a tendency to treat fraud as a ground for an nulling marriage, provided it was made clear that but fur the fraud the marriage would not have been contracted. Some of these changes were made by eivil legislation. lint until the nineteenth century legislation was for the most part guided by eeclesiastieal opinion.
Mont.:RN CONTINENTAL LEGISLATION. Even in countries marriage is governed at the present time by civil legislation. The most im portant. innovation of the nineteenth century is the civil marriage. In the eighteenth century publicity of marriage. established in Catholic count ries by t he Tridentine decrees, was secured in Protestant States in the same way, i.e. by compul sory religious marriage. In some States it was demanded that the riles of the established Church be observed; but exceptions were generally made in favor of the adherents of other confessions or of no confession, tirst, by permitting marriage to be celebrated according to the forms of any recognized eonfession, and finally by establishing civil marriage. i.e. marriage before a civil offi
cer. The civil marriage is regularly preeeded by notices, posted or otherwise published in the domicile of each of the parties, and the civil officer does not proceed to the marriage until he is satisfied that all the requirements of the law have been observed. At the outset, the civil marriage was usually i.e. the parties eoubl choose between civil and religious marriage, or the religious marriage was made compulsory only upon members of the State Church. Such a facultative civil marriage exists to-day in Austria. Spain, and Portugal. In as larger num ber of ('ontin•ntal States, however, civil mar riage is obligatory. The parties may add a re ligious ceremony, but the religious marriage has no legal effect. This system obtains in France, Ifolland. (lermany. Switzerland, and Italy.
The age of consent has generally been raised (to eighteen and fifteen in Francis. to twenty-one and sixteen in hut not in Spain. The consent of parents or guardians is required for the marriage of minors, and in ninny legislations the consent of parents is required even after majority. In some of these legislations. the only result attached to parental opposition after ma jority is to delay the marriage. In Germany, if the opposition of the parents appears unreasmi able, the necessary consent can be given by the court. The Roman rule forbidding remarriage of a woman within the tell months following the dissolution of the previous marriage is generally retained in modern legislations. The hindrances based on consanguinity and affinity vary con siderably in different States. In Germany con sanguinity is a only in the direct line and between brothers and sisters; affinity is a bar only in the direct line. In France uncle• and niece, aunt and nephew, and brother-in-law and sister-in-law• are forbidden to but dispensation may be granted by the head of the State. Even in the more conservative Catholic countries there is a tendency to limit the impedi ments of consanguinity and adinity. In Spain marriages within the fourth degree are pro hibited, Ina for nowCatholies the fourth degree is computed civilly. so that the restriction reaches no further than to first cousins. As regards lack of consent, the doctrines of the canon law are generally followed in the modern civil legislations. Fraud per se does not gener ally invalidate a marriage, but in the German Code fraud by which consent has been induced has this effect.