BIG'AMY (OF. bigamie, from Lat. bis. twice Gk. -ydeos, yamos, marriage). In ecclesiasti cal law, marrying a second time, whether the first husband or wife is living or dead. Although void by the canon law, ecclesiastical ceurts will recognize it so far as to entertain proceedings for the formal nullification of the second mar riage. In criminal law, bigamy (more properly called polygamy) is a statutory offense. The earliest English statute on this subject. that of I. .Jas. I.. e. 11 (1603). declared it a felony with the benefit of clergy. Blackstone says "the legislature thought it just to make it a felony by reason of its being so great a violation of the public economy and decency of a well-ordered State." The latest English statute (24 and 25 Viet., e. 100. 357) treats it as a wrong against the chastity of the second spouse. As the statute of James was enacted prior to the settlement of the English colonies in America. it might have been accepted as a part of the common law of the States; and it was so accepted in Mary land. Most of the States, however, and the Federal legislature have enacted statutes mod eled after the statute of James. Under these, the crime consists in going through the ceremony of marriage with another person while having a husband or wife living. A non-ceremonial or com mon-law marriage, so called, will not in general support an indictment for bigamy. The crime
is cognizable only by the courts of the State where the second marriage occurs. The present statute in England continues this rule so far as aliens are concerned, but makes punishable in England the bigamous marriage of a British sub ject, wherever it is contracted. It is provided by statutes on this subject, generally, that they do not extend to any person by reason of a former marriage whose husband or wife shall have been absent for a specified period (in England seven years, in the United States often five years), and is not known to such person to be living, but is believed by such person to he dead; nor to a per son whose former marriage shall have been dis solved or pronounced void by a valid decree of a competent court. In ISS2 Congress amended Section 5352 of the United States Revised Stat utes, so as to bring the polygamous practices of Mormons within the definition of criminal big amy. In some States a person who knowingly enters into a marriage with a bigamist. is de clared to be guilty of a criminal offense. Con sult: Stephen, Digest of the Criminal Laze (51.11 ed., London, 1S94) ; Phillimore, Ecclesiastical Law of the Church of England (2d ed., London, 1895) ; Euersley. Law of the Domestic Relations (2(1 ed., London, 1800).