Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 9.djvu/596

122 us your Nobles & Commons, assembled in this present Parliament, aswell for the clere extinguishment of all ambiguities & doubts, as for a pure and perfect unitie of us your mod humble and obedient subjects, and of all our posterities, that it may bee enacted by your most gratious and royall Maiestie, by consent of us the Lords spirituall and temporall, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by authoritie of the same in maner and forme as hereafter in articles insueth.

"VII. First, forassmuch as the marrage heretofore solemnized betweene your highnesse and the said Ladie Katherine Princes Dowager deceased, which afore was lawful wife to your naturall brother Prince Arthur, and by him carnally knowen, as hath duely beene prooved by sufficient witnesses, at all times was, is, and ought to bee deemed and determined to be against the lawes of almightie God, & not dispenfable by any humaine authoritie, & so hath beene deemed and determined, aswell by the whole Clergie of this Realme, in both Conuocations, and by both the Uniuersities thereof, as by the Uniuersities of Bononie, Padua, Paris, Orleance, Tolouze, Aniou, and divers other, and also by a great number of private writings of many right excellent well learned men:" Bee it therefore enacted by authoritie of this present Parliament, according as it was ordeined and enacted in the said Act made in the last Parliament for the establilhment of your succession, that the said mariage heretofore had and solemnized betweene your highnesse and the said Ladie Katherine, which was before lawfull wife to the said Prince Arthur your elder brother, and by him carnally knowen, as doeth duely appeare by sufficient proofe in a lawfull proces had and made before the said most reverend father in God Thomas, by the sufferance of God, Archbishop of Canterbury, metropolitan and primat of all England, shall be by authoritie of this present Parlament definitively, cleerely and absolutely declared, deemed and adiudged to be against the lawes of almightie God, and also accepted, reputed and taken of no value nor effect, but vtterly voyd and adnulled: and that the separation thereof made by the said Archbishop shall be good and effectuall to all intents and purposes, any licence, dispenfation, or any other Act or Actes, going before and insuing the same, to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. And that every such licence, dispensation, Act or Acts, thing or things, had, made, done or to be done to the contrary thereof, shall be to all intents void and of none effect, and so shall be reputed and taken by and amongst all us your true subiects and inhabitants, our Heires and successours of and in your Realme and dominions for ever. And that the issue borne and procreated under the same unlawfull mariage, made and solemnized betweene your highnesse and the said Ladie Katherine, shal be taken, deemed, and accepted illegitimat to all intents and purposes, and shal be utterly foreclosed, excluded, and barred, to claime, chalenge, or demand any inheritance as lawfull heire to your highnesse by lineall descent.

"VIII. And also forasmuch as the mariage solemnized betweene your highnesse and the said late Queene Anne, upon true and just causes, was and is deemed and adiudged by the said most reverend father, to bee of no value nor effect, and a divorce and separation thereof had and made, by the due order and processe of the lawes of the Church of England before the said reverend Father:" Be it therefore enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, that the same mariage betweene your highnesse and the said late Queene Anne, shall be taken, reputed, deemed and adjudged to be of no force, strength, vertue nor effect, and that the separation and divorce thereof had by the sentence and judgement of the said most reverend father, shal be good and effectuall, and so hereafter shall be taken and reputed for ever by all your subiects, their heires and successors. And that none appeale, repeale, revocation or adnullation thereof, or any part of the same, shall hereafter be had, taken, allowed or admitted in any behalfe. And that all the issues & children borne and procreated under the same mariage, betweene your highnesse and the said late Queen Anne, shall be taken, reputed and accepted to be illegitimate to all intents and purposes, and utterly foreclosed, excluded, and barred to claime, challenge, or demand any inheritance as lawfull heire or heires to your highnes by lineall descent, the said former Act made in the last Parliament, for the establilhment of your succession, or any thing therein conteined, or any thing or things to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

"IX. And furthermore fince many inconueniences have fallen, as well within this Realme as in others, by reason of the marrying within the degrees of marriage prohibited by Gods lawes, that is to say, the sunne to marry the mother, or the stepmother carnally knowne by his father, the brother the sister, the father his sons daughter, or his daughters daughter: or the sonne to marry the daughter of his father procreat & borne by his stepmother: or the sonne to marry his aunt, being his fathers or mothers sister: or to marry his uncles wife carnally knowne by his uncle: or the father to marry his sonnes wife carnally knowne by his sonne: or the brother to marry his brothers wife carnally knowne by his brother: or any man married, and carnally knowing his wife, to marry his wifes daughter, or his wives sonnes daughter, or his wives daughters daughter, or his wives sister.

"X. And further to dilate and declare the meaning of these prohibitions, it is to be understood, that if it chance any man to know carnally any woman, that then all and singular persons, being in any degree of consanguinity or affinitie, as is above written, to any of the parties so carnally offending, shall be deemed and adjudged to be within the cases and limits of the said prohibitions of marriage. All. which marriages albeit they bee plainely prohibited and detested by the lawes of God, yet neverthelesse at sometimes they have proceeded under colours of dispenfations by mans power, which is but usurped, and of right ought not to be granted, admitted, nor allowed. For no man of what eslate, degree, or condition foever he be, hath power to dispence with Gods lawes, as all the Clergy of this Realme in the said convocations, and the most part of all the Universities of Christendome, and we also doe affirme and thinke."

XI. Be it therefore enacted by authority aforesaid, according as it is declared and conteined in the saide Act, made in the last Parliament for the establilhment of your succession, that no person or persons, subiects, or resiants of this Realme, or in any your dominions, of what estate, degree or dignity foever