IMPEDIMENTO. In Spanish Law. A pro hibition to contract marriage, established by law between certain persons.
The disabilities arising from this clause are two fold, viz.:— Impediment° Dirimente. Such disabilities as ren der the marriage null, although contracted with the usual legal solemnities. The disabilities arising from this source are enumerated in the following Latin verses (Esriche, Diet. 833): "Error, conditio, voturn, cognatto, crimen, Cultus disparitas, vis, ordo, ligamen, honestas, Si sis affinis, si forte eoire nequibis, Si parochi et duplicis desit prffisentia testis, Raptave sit mulier, Dec parti reddita tutm, Haec facienda vetant connubia, facta retractant." Among these impediments, some are absolute, other relative. The former cannot be cured, and render the marriage radically null ; otherd may be removed by previous dispensation.
In Spain, marriage is regarded in the twofold aspect of a civil and a religious contract. Hence the disabilities are of two kinds, viz.: those created by the local law and those imposed by the church. In the earlier ages of the church, the emperors prohibited certain marriages: thus, Theodosius the Great forbade marriages between cousins-german ; Justinian, between spiritual relations ; Valentinlan, Valens, Theodosius, and Arcadius, between pertons of different religions.
The Catholic church adopted and extended the disabilities thus created, and by the third canon at the twenty-fourth session of the Council of Trent, the church reserved to itself the power of dispensa tion. As the Council of Trent did not determine, • being divided, who had the power of granting dis pensation, it is accorded in Italy to the pope, and in France and Spain, with feW exceptions, to the bishops. The dispositions of the Council of Trent being in force in Spain (see Schmidt, Civ. Law of Spain, p. 6, note a), the ecclesiastical authority is alone invested with this power in Spain.
For the cases in which it may granted, see Schmidt, Civ. Law c. 2, s. 14.
Impediment°, Impediente, or Prohibitivo.—Such disabilities as impede the contracting of a marriage, but do not annul it when contracted.