Show Summary Details
Overview
prohibited degrees
Quick Reference
The relationships by blood or marriage which render it unlawful for two persons to marry. Blood relationships are called ‘consanguinity’; relationships by marriage ‘affinity’. Ecclesiastical legislation forbidding marriage between related persons is based on Lev. 18, sometimes somewhat extended. According to the 1983 ‘Codex Iuris Canonici’, in the RC Church all marriages with direct descendants are invalid, as are those between first cousins (though dispensations may be given in the latter case). In the C of E the prohibited degrees are listed in the Table of Kindred and Affinity in the 1969 Canons (B 31).
Subjects: Law
