Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/312

 CONSANGUINITY

266

CONSANGUINITY

relation to divorce and certain forbidden degrees", London, 1894; Esmein, "Le mariage en droit canoni- que", Paris, 1S91, 1, 337, sqq. ; see also Wernz, op. cit. IV, 636-37, and the Encyclical of Gregory XVI, 22 Nov., 1836).

Mode of Calculation. — In calculating the degree of consanguinity special attention must be paid to three things, the line, the degree, and the stock or root. The stock, or root, is the common ancestor, or the per- son, male or female, from whom descend as from the nearest common bond the persons whose blood-rela- tionship is to be determined. The degree is the dis- tance of one person from the other in regard to blood- relationship. The line is the classified .series of per- sons descending from the common stock through one or more generations. The line is dn-cci when the series of persons descend one from the other, as father and son, grandfather and grandchild. The line is trans- verse, or collateral, when the blood-relations spring from a common stock, yet do not descend one from the other but form different branches side by side, as two brothers, two nephews. This collateral line is equal or unequal according as these persons derive equally or unequally from the same stock or root. The blood-relationship is computed according to the dis- tance from the stock whence it is derived, and this is the rule by which the degrees or steps of consanguinity are determined.

In the direct line the Roman civil and the canon law agree on the principle that there are as many degrees as generations; hence as many degrees as there are persons, omitting the stock or root. A son is one degree from his father, a, grandchild two degrees from the grandfather. In the computation of the degrees of the transverse or collateral line there is a serious difference between the Roman civil and the canon law. The civil law founded its degrees upon the number of generations, the number of degrees being equal to the number of generations; thus between brothers there are two degrees as there are two generations ; between first cousins four degrees, corresponding to the four generations. The degrees are calculated easily in the civil law by summing up the number of persons in each line, omitting the common ancestor. Except for marriage, the canon law follows regularly the computation of the civil law, c. g. in the question of inheritance. But the canon law, in the collateral hne of consanguinity, computes for marriage one series only of generations, and if the series are imequal, only the longer one. Hence the principle of canon law that in the transverse or col- lateral line there are as many degrees of consanguinity as there are persons in the longer series, omitting the common stock or root. If the two series are equal, the distance is the number of degrees of either from the common stock. Thus brother and sister are in the first degree, first cousins in the second degree; uncle and niece in the second degree because the niece is two degrees from the grandfather who is the common stock. Thus if Caius has two sons, Titius and Sem- pronius, and Sempronius has a son and grandchild, the relationship of the grandchild of Sempronius to Titius is in the third degree, because this grandchild is dis- tant three degrees from the common stock, Caius. This rule holds if the common stock should only be one person ; thus half-brothers and half-sisters, that is from either father or mother, are in the first degree. Children of the same father and mother are called ger- man, as from the common germ; those of the same mother and not of the same father are called uterine, as from the same womb; and children of the same father and dilTerent mother are called blood-children. The legitimacy or illegitimacy of .any member of the series docs not modify the relationsliip as a bar to marriage.

For civil effects the civil law's computation of de- grees must be known. In most European countries

the law follows mainly the computation of the Roman civil law. In England, since the Reformation, the Lcvitical law has been recognized as the standard by which to determine the prohibitions of marriage. For Catholics everj-where, as Alexander II decreed (c. 2, C. 3.5, q. 5), the ecclesiastical calculation (com- putatio cdnovicd) must be followed for the direct ques- tion of the lawfulness of marriage. Clement V, in the Council of Vienne (1311), decreed that any one who knowingly contracted marriage within the forbidden degrees should by the fact incur excommunication, though not reserved ; this penalty has ceased since the Bull "Apostolicse Sedis" of Pius IX (1869). The Council of Trent (1563) required the absolute separa- tion of those who knowingly contracted marriage within the prohibited degrees, and denied all hope of obtaining a dispensation, especially if the attempted marriage had been consummated. But in this regard the practice of the Clnu"ch, probably on accoimt of the recognition of such marriages by the State, and the conseciuent difficulty of enforcing the dissolution of illicit unions, has tended towards greater leniency. The Coimcil of Trent, it is true (Sess. XXIV, c. v, De ref., matr.), made no changes in tiie existing legisla- tion, despite the wi.shcs of many for a reduction of the limits of the impediment (Theiner, Acta Cone. Trid., Leipzig, 1874, 336, 342). Such reduction would in all probability have been discussed at the Vatican Coim- cil (1870), had it not been interrupted (Liimmer, Zui Codification des can. Rechts, Freiburg, 1899, 137 sqq., and Martin, Coll. docum. Cone. Vat., p. 162 sqq.) In the Uniat Eastern Churches, the marriage o! blood-relations is forbidden in the collateral line to th( seventh civil degree, i. e. second cousins touching third but in th.at degree is only preventive, not dirimen' (Wernz, IV, 627). Among the Italo-Greeks, however the Maronites, and the Syrians the legislation of thi Roman Church obtains (Benedict XIV, Etsi Pastor alls, 26 May, 1742; Synod of Mount Lebanon, 173( Synod. Sciarf. Syror., 1888). In the schismati churches of the East all marriages of relations in th direct line are prohibited; in the collateral line th seventh (civil) degree is the limit of prohibition ; th remotest degree, however, is only a preventive im pediment. In the National Greek Church, sine 1873, marriage is forbidden within the sixth (civil) d« gree, i. e. second cousins; in Russia, since 1870, withi the fourth (civil) degree, i. e. first cousins (cf. Zhisb man, Eherecht d. oriental. Kirche, Vienna, 1864, an Milas, Das Kirchenrecht der morgenland. Ivirchi Mostar, 1897).

DISPENS.4.TION FROM THE IMPEDIMENT. What o VI

dispensing power is available resides principally in tli supreme authority of the Church, namely the Apostol: See. The pope generally exercises his power of tli> pensing through the Roman Congregations. For pul lie dispensations {in joro eiterno) the Dainrin (sc Roman Curia) is the ordinary medium for so-callc Catholic countries; the Sacra Pcnilcntiaria for casf. of conscience (occult impediments) and of late for tl!| cases of the poor. The Congregation of Propaganclj is the medium for countries dependent on it, e. !| Great Britain and its dependencies and the Cnit<i| States. This power of dispensation with the right | subdelegate is often delegated to bishops, vica'l Apostolic, and others having pastoral aiithority oVi souls. In whatever is forbidden by the law of natuif there is no disnensation. In the direct line of consai guinity Nicholas I supposes that there is no room ft dispensation. However, in c.i.ses of infiilcls when O'j or both .are converted, while it is to be held that m:- riages within the first degree of the dinyt line are i- valid, in all others the Holy See has to be consulti. The Holy See ha.^ the supreme right in doubtful ca,-! to detennine what may or may not be forbidden I the law of nature or by the Divine jiositive law. Heit diet XIV, as already said, emphasized the f:vct that tt