riage and baſtardize the iſſue, the court of king's bench granted a prohibition quoad hoc; but permitted them to proceed to puniſh the huſband for inceſt[1]. Theſe canonical diſabilities, being entirely the province of the eccleſiaſtical courts, our books are perfectly ſilent concerning them. But there are a few ſtatutes, which ſerve as directories to thoſe courts, of which it will be proper to take notice. By ſtatute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 38. it is declared, that all perſons may lawfully marry, but ſuch as are prohibited by God's law; and that all marriages contracted by lawful perſons in the face of the church, and conſummate with bodily knowlege, and fruit of children, ſhall be indiſſoluble. And (becauſe in the times of popery a great variety of degrees of kindred were made impediments to marriage, which impediments might however be bought off for money) it is declared by the ſame ſtatute, that nothing (God's law except) ſhall impeach any marriage, but within the Levitical degrees; the fartheft of which is that between uncle and niece[2]. By the ſame ſtatute all impediments, ariſing from pre-contracts to other perſons, were aboliſhed and declared of none effect, unleſs they had been conſummated with bodily knowlege: in which caſe the canon law holds ſuch contract to be a marriage de facto. But this branch of the ſtatute was repealed by ſtatute 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 23. How far the act of 26 Geo. II. c. 33. (which prohibits all ſuits in eccleſiaſtical courts to compel a marriage, in conſequence of any contract) may collaterally extend to revive this clauſe of Henry VIII's ſtatute, and aboliſh the impediment of pre-contract, I leave to be conſidered by the canoniſts.
The other ſort of diſabilities are thoſe which are created, or at leaſt enforced, by the municipal laws. And, though ſome of them may be grounded on natural law, yet they are regarded by the laws of the land, not ſo much in the light of any moral offence, as on account of the civil inconveniences they draw after them. Theſe civil diſabilities make the contract void ab initio, and not merely voidable: not that they diſſolve a contract already
