CONCUBINAGE (from OF., Fr. concubine, from Lat. concubine, concubine, from concumbere, to lie with, from corn-, together + cubare, to lie). In general, the cohabitation as husband and wife of a man and woman who are not lawfully mar ried to each other. Specifically, a form of poly gamy in which the primary matrimonial relation is supplemented by one or more secondary and inferior relations of the same kind. It was used, technically. in the former sense, in the common law action for dower. in the allegation that the woman claiming dower was not a wife lawfully married to the party in whose land she seeks to be endowed. hut his concubine. In the United States. the term has been applied, under the Ed munds acts of 1882 and 1887, to the polygamous relations of the Mormons, at which the acts were aimed. In its general sense. as denoting merely unlawful cohabitation, coneubinaLie, however abhorrent to the moral sense of the community, is not in most jurisdictions obnoxious to the crim inal law. (See CRUM. CON.) In its special sense. however, as signifying a plurality of wives, it comes under the penalties of bigamy and poly gamy (qq.v.).
The earliest Roman laws were distinguished for the strictness with which they treated marriage.
They not only upheld thoroughly the principle of monogamy, but they fettered marriage itself with many burdensome forms. Hence arose the prac tice of a free unmarried man entering into a less strict relation with a single woman—a sort of permanent cohabitation. The offspring of such a connection, called 'natural' children, had not the rights of legitimate children, but they were recog nized by the father. Augustus, with a view to promote regular marriages and check the growing licentiousness, enacted a. comprehensive marriage law (Lex Julia), which discouraged concubinage, restricting it to women of low rank or those who had lost their station. Christianity required the complete sanctity of marriage and taught that concubinage was sinful, and we find the Synod of Toledo legislating against it as far hack as A.D. 400. The ancient laws of the aer mans recog,nized, along with regular marriage, an informal connection of the sexes. In the :Middle Ages a similar connection became cus tomary, called a `left-handed; or morganatic marriage. See 3IARRIAGE, and consult the au thorities there referred to.