The marriage laws as found in the Canons of the Church of England.

Abstract

This study examines the marriage canons contained in the present canonical legislation of the Church of England. These canons, B30-B36, were promulgated in 1969 and may be found in The Canons of the Church of England: Canons Ecclesiastical Promulgated by the Convocations of Canterbury and York in 1964 and 1969. A broad sweep through English history shows that from the time of the Norman Conquest until the reign of Henry VIII, the canon law of the Western Church operated effectively in the country. Marriage was generally accepted as being of a religious nature and the temporal power left such matters to the Church. In 1533, Henry VIII gave statutory force to the universal ius commune, thereby creating a new body of national ecclesiastical law and through this act of legal fiction created a new legislator in matters canonical. The Church of England produced new codes of law for itself at different times in its history. These historical developments are traced and examined as are the various canons that applied to marriage. While the administration of canonical marriage law remained in the hands of churchmen, and Church courts alone remained competent to settle matrimonial cases, the question is posed: has the Church of England retained the canonical traditions concerning marriage which it had operated for a millenium prior to the Reformation? (Abstract shortened by UMI.)