Statute of Bigamy

The Statute of Bigamy (Statutum de Bigamis, 4 Edw. I) was an English law passed in 1276. It encompassed six chapters on a variety of subjects, but took its name from the fifth chapter, which removed benefit of clergy from men found to have committed bigamy by an ecclesiastical court.[1][2]

“ It has sometimes been that a man from wickedness has married several women, all living at the same time; but Holy Church says that of such women none but the first is his lawful wife; wherefore, the law regards the others only as false wives ( Britton ) [3] ”

The legislation was passed in the fourth year of the reign of Edward I.[4] The statute was an adoption of the council of Lyon decision of omni priviligio clericali nudati et coercioni fori secularis addicti during 1274. The stratatum treated the misdemeanor as an act of capital crime.[5] At the time of the law having been brought into force, clergy considering bigamous occurences already within their number were desiring that punishment be decided via the common law in order that those persons be treated less severly, Pope Gregory X decreed otherwise.[6] By the time of the son of king Henry the VIII in the 16th century, [7] the then king of England by statute had had the prospective clerical impedement issue revoked.[8]

References

  1. ^ Sir Edward Coke - books.google.co.uk (Google eBook) pages 265 - 275 of The second part of the Institutes of the laws of England: Containing the exposition of many ancient and other statutes ... (746 pages) Printed for E. and R. Brooke, 1797 [Retrieved 2011-12-17]
  2. ^ John M. Scheb books.google.co.uk Criminal Law and Procedure (758 pages) Cengage Learning, 1 Jan 2010 ISBN 0495809810[Retrieved 2011-12-17]
  3. ^ Britton; an English translation and notes (1901), (translated. Francis Morgan Nichols - Washington, 1901 Washington, D.C. : J. Byrne & Co) Sloane, C. (1907). Bigamy (in Civil Jurisprudence). In The Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company.from New Advent: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02564a.htm see also: archive.org [Retrieved 2011-12-17]
  4. ^ Great Britain (Sir George Kettilby Rickards Editor) (Google eBook) page 191 The statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland [1807-1865] His Majesty's statute and law printers, 1828
  5. ^ Sir William Oldnall Russell (Oxford University)& books.google.co.uk (Google eBook) A treatise on crimes and indictable misdemeanors, Volume 1 Butterworth, 1826 [Retrieved 2011-12-17]
  6. ^ T. Bayly Howell, T. Jones Howell, W. Cobbett, D. Jardine books.google.co.uk (Google eBook) Cobbett's state trials Volume 20 of Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Present Time ...: From the Ninth Year of the Reign of King Henry, the Second, A. D. 1163, to, Thomas Jones Howell R. Bagshaw, 1814 [Retrieved 2011-12-17]
  7. ^ British Broadcasting Corporation 2011 bbc.co.uk [Retrieved 2011-12-24]
  8. ^ Sir William Blackstone - books.google.co.uk Commentaries on the laws of England , Volume 4 [Retrieved 2011-12-24]

External links

Donald J. Kiser (the New York Public Library)books.google.co.uk Corpus juris: being a complete and systematic statement of the whole body of the law as embodied in and developed by all reported decisions Volume 7, American Law Book Co., 1916