Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/451

 Ch. 15. riage and batardize the iue, the court of king's bench granted a prohibition quoad hoc; but permitted them to proceed to punih the huband for incet. Thee canonical diabilities, being entirely the province of the eccleiatical courts, our books are perfectly ilent concerning them. But there are a few tatutes, which erve as directories to thoe courts, of which it will be proper to take notice. By tatute 32 Hen. VIII. c. 38. it is declared, that all perons may lawfully marry, but uch as are prohibited by God's law; and that all marriages contracted by lawful perons in the face of the church, and conummate with bodily knowlege, and fruit of children, hall be indioluble. And (becaue 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 ame tatute, that nothing (God's law except) hall impeach any marriage, but within the Levitical degrees; the fartheft of which is that between uncle and niece. By the ame tatute all impediments, ariing from pre-contracts to other perons, were abolihed and declared of none effect, unles they had been conummated with bodily knowlege: in which cae the canon law holds uch contract to be a marriage de facto. But this branch of the tatute was repealed by tatute 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 23. How far the act of 26 Geo. II. c. 33. (which prohibits all uits in eccleiatical courts to compel a marriage, in conequence of any contract) may collaterally extend to revive this claue of Henry VIII's tatute, and abolih the impediment of pre-contract, I leave to be conidered by the canonits.

other ort of diabilities are thoe which are created, or at leat enforced, by the municipal laws. And, though ome of them may be grounded on natural law, yet they are regarded by the laws of the land, not o much in the light of any moral offence, as on account of the civil inconveniences they draw after them. Thee civil diabilities make the contract void ab initio, and not merely voidable: not that they diolve a contract already Rh