Ecclesiastical Court could not declare the marriage void after the death of either party, but it could punish the survivor for incest. And so it could in the case of parties whose marriages were prohibited from being declared void by Lord Lyndhurst's Act. When it is recollected that the Act would apply to marriage with a man's own sister, it will be seen to be right to leave the parties punishable.
Such then is our law, and such has it been at all times, the only modification being that which I have last mentioned.
Before the Reformation the Ecclesiastical Courts alone, and without restraint, determined what was a valid, and what was an invalid marriage. The Civil Courts adopted their decision as conclusive. This is wholly irrespective of the merits of such a state of law. I deal only with the facts at present. The Ecclesiastical Courts always held the marriage with the wife's sister to be invalid from the time when Christianity commenced in this island. True it is that when the corruptions of the Romish system prevailed, you could buy a papal dispensation from the law. But even this corrupt course never existed in practice here; and, indeed, the first known grant, any where, of a papal dispensation to marry a wife's sister was made, very shortly before the Reformation, to King John of Portugal by Alexander Borgia, who himself lay under the imputation of most disgraceful incest. The Church of Rome had indeed adopted a course which led to
