From the Roman Council under the Same Zacharias, A.D. 743

Canon V. That no one shall presume to couple to himself by nefarious marriage a presbytera, deaconess, nun or female monk, or also a spiritual co-mother ... But if those who have been joined in this way, after being admonished, have withdrawn and have been divided from one another, let them be subjected to penance.

Cf. Canons I, II, III, IV of the Roman Council of Gregory II, and of the same Zacharias, the epistle to Theodore, Response I, and from the epistle to Pepin, chapter XXII, above.

Canon VI. That no one shall presume to couple in marriage a female cousin, a niece, a stepmother, a brother's wife, or also one from his own kinship.

The prior degrees being openly indicated, the rest are comprehended under the general formula: "from his own kinship." See the epistle of the same to Theodore.

Canon X. If any Christian has presumed to couple his daughter in marriage to a Jew, unless the Jew has perfectly believed in Christ and been baptized, and if a Christian widow has led a Jew as husband ... let him be anathema.

A penalty is inflicted; but the marriage is not yet said by the Roman See to be invalid.

Canon XV. We have written concerning the degrees of kinships and how any persons ought from now and hereafter to be coupled in legitimate marriage ... Our predecessor of blessed memory, Gregory, the younger Pope of this Apostolic See, on account of some illicit unions which were being made throughout this Italy, or the province of the Lombards, or in other places, having gathered a college of priests and promulgated sentence, bound them with the bond of anathema ... Nor is this to be passed over in silence: that in the parts of Germany it has long been made common, which indeed we find in no way written in the archive of our holy Church, yet we have learned from the very men asserting it from the parts of Germany, that holy Pope Gregory of blessed memory, when by divine grace he enlightened them to the Christian religion, gave them license to be coupled in the fourth generation; but this was when they were rude and to be invited to the faith. Although, as was said, it is by no means written, we do not hesitate to believe it. But, God bestowing, in past years the archbishops and kings of that province sent letters, seeking apostolic precepts: how it is lawful for them to couple marriages, and how they ought to observe. To them, as much as the Lord deigned to give, we directed precepts of admonition.

But he does not signify of what sort these precepts were. This canon, as you see, is historical and not a little obscure.

It is asked who that younger Pope Gregory is. I think it is Gregory II. For to him is attributed the Roman Council enacted in A.D. 721 against illicit marriages, in which the Roman Pontiff Gregory, having begun the preface, among other things says: "Groaning, I say that I hear that some of the Christian people dwelling through the province of Italy sin rashly against the Catholic faith and the statutes of the Fathers, so that they presume to lead as wives women consecrated to God and to associate relatives in marriage." Moreover, the province of Italy is that part which the Lombards were holding, as is clear from history, and Zacharias himself interprets it. But Gregory III seems to have held no council concerning this matter. Therefore, although afterward by some, under the name of the younger Gregory, Gregory III would be understood, as Gratian is sometimes accustomed to do, nevertheless Zacharias, the immediate successor of this one, called Gregory II the younger Gregory in respect to Gregory the Great, who was the first.

It is asked who that holy Pope Gregory is from whom the Germans asserted that they had received a privilege concerning nuptials.

I say that it is the same Gregory II, now called in another way, perhaps because Zacharias recites the very words of the Germans, by which they named the author of the privilege when they asserted it. Certainly the discourse cannot be about Gregory I, who conceded a privilege not to the Germans but to the Angles, and indeed a broader one. Moreover Zacharias speaks of this privilege conceded to the Germans in such a way that he indicates a certain doubt, although he confesses that he gives faith to those affirming; but concerning the privilege conceded by Gregory to the Angles, to have force only while they were still rude and weak, Zacharias speaks in the epistle to Theodore of Pavia, above, without any signification of doubt, as of a matter known to all.

Nor is there reason why we should think that the Germans extended to themselves, as a privilege granted to them, that which had been done for the Angles; among whom, moreover, at that age it had probably already ceased.

Nor is that Gregory of holy memory Gregory III, who, on the contrary, wrote back to Boniface that down to the seventh generation they should beware of marriage for themselves. Cf. his response above.

But there is indeed extant a response of Gregory II to Boniface, which we recited above in its place, by which a privilege is conceded to the barbarous nations converted by Boniface, restricting the degrees of kinship prohibited for marriage.

The difference is only that, while the Germans said it had been permitted to them to be coupled in the fourth generation, the text of Gregory II says: "after the fourth generation," but the difficulty is not of great moment. For this certainly could have been the reason why Zacharias said that he did not find this privilege in the archive of his Church. Besides, if the very epistle of Gregory II to Boniface which now exists was absent from the Roman archive, which could have happened, either it must be said that a mistake crept into one or the other place, or that the Germans did not report the matter accurately enough, or that in good faith they thought each phrase to have the same value, just as for the Hebrews and the evangelists it was equivalent to say "after three days" and "on the third day."