THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
canon law it was greatly extended. According to the decrees of the Council of Trent (sess. xxiv., can. 2), spiritual kinship is an impediment only to marriage between the one who baptizes or confirms and the sponsors on the one hand, and the person baptized or confirmed and his parents on the other hand. Evangelical agenda have sometimes prohibited marriages between sponsor and godchild; but in later Protestant Church law a spiritual relationship is no longer a marriage impediment. Difference of religion (cultus disparitas) did not become a public diriment impediment through a church law, but through a general ecclesiastical right prescriptive, and as such was acknowledged in the Protestant Church, although Luther repeatedly disapproved of it, in part overlooking the difference between contracting and continuing a marriage between Christians and non-Christians, and in part one-sidedly emphasizing the secularity of marriage. While the law of the State nowhere recognizes difference of religion as a marriage impediment, it is always to be considered an impediment to a religious wedding. The Church can not bless and consecrate a marriage in which one of her members regards it as quite immaterial for the closest union of life whether the other professes Christ or not. The mere difference of Christian confession, on the other hand, is considered even by the Roman Catholic Church merely as an obstructing impediment (see below on mixed marriages).
Physical incapacity to consummate the marriage by sexual union (impotentia cceundi) is a diriment private impediment according to canon law since, in case it exists and is incurable at the beginning of the marriage (or can be cured only by an operation which would imperil life), it entitles the other party to have the marriage annulled. Sixtus V. (1587) prescribed a public impediment only for eunuchs. In the Roman Catholic Church the prevailing opinion, at present at least, is that the effect of this impediment is the same whether it was 7. Impo- known to the other party at contracttence and ing the marriage, or not. Protestant Adultery, doctrine and practise, on the other hand, have always held that annulment of marriage on the ground of impotence (or sterility) can be demanded by the healthy party only on condition that he (or she) contracted the marriage without knowing of the defect of the other party. Adultery (impedimentum criminis) is, according to the latest canon law, a public diriment impediment as regards marriage with the person accessory to adultery, in case either that the adulterers have promised to marry one another, or have actually contracted a marriage, or that one of the adulterers has successfully attempted the life of the injured party. In case one of a married pair is killed by the other with the assistance of a third person to render possible the marriage of the latter two, such an act, as a matter of course, is an impediment to marriage, even though only one party intended to make it possible when perpetrating the deed. The latest canon law on this point became the law of the Protestant Church, although Luther had objected: " Vice and sin are to be punished by other punishments than by prohibiting marriage."
The impediment of error is recognized by canon law only as regards the person of the other part, but not as regards quality or condition (with the single exception of freedom). Here error as regards the
person arises especially when the party 8. Error, believed to be the party of the second
part is known to the party of the first part, who here makes the error, only by virtue of quality or condition, provided this is distinctly characteristic of the party of the second part (error qualitatis in personam redundans). Some Evangelical agenda of the sixteenth century consider the absence of virginity, the actual pregnancy of the bride by a third person (with reference to the Mosaic law), and incurable contagious diseases as conditions justifying a claim for an annulment of marriage on the plea of error. Later Protestant doctrine and practise are inclined to attribute that effect to every physical or moral defect which in a similar degree affects the nature of the marital relation. So far as the fact of error is considered impedimental, it makes no difference whether it was caused or used through fraud or not. The canon law does not recognize fraud as an absolute impediment. In the Evangelical Church the opposite opinion has never become the general consensus, though it has often been stated with very different bases and limitations, and has occasionally been enforced and made the subject of special legislation.
Canon law allows marriage to be contracted under postponing conditions. The contracting parties are lawfully, but not conjugally, united. As soon as the conditions are complied with, the marriage
takes place. The deficient condition 9. Obstruct- forms an impedimentum deficientis coning Impedi- ditionis appositce. Impossible or imments. moral conditions are not considered
binding, but a secondary stipulation nullifying one of the tria bona matrimonii {fides, proles, sacramentum) makes the marriage illegal. The permission of the bishop and notice to the officiating priest are necessary. Lack of parental consent is considered an impedimentum impediens in canon law, since the conjugal sacrament is brought about by the contracting parties themselves, and since a third party should not be allowed to decide on the validity of the sacrament. Protestant law, however, referring to the Fifth Commandment, and civil law differ here from canon law, although both provide temporary limitations and afford protection against arbitrariness on the part of the parents. A simple obstructing impediment is raised by the tempus clausum, or the seasons of Advent and Lent, in which, according to ancient ecclesiastical custom, marriages were considered inadmissible, though the Council of Trent (sess. xxiv., canon x.) restricted this prohibition to marriage festivals. The custom was retained among Protestants, but with modifications in detail. An obstructing impediment is given by the vetitum or interdictum ecclesice, by which the provisional prohibition of marriage issued by ecclesiastical authority because of the suspected presence of a diriment impediment or objection does not militate against the validity of a marriage legal in itself, yet contracted in spite of the prohibition; although, until this prohibition is