Article II. Age

Males under sixteen years of age and females under fourteen are presumed not to have that maturity of judgement which is requisite for entering the married state. The Church has made them incapable of marrying by requiring the age of sixteen complete in males and fourteen complete in females for the validity of marriage (Can. 1067). The age of puberty varies according to race.and climate; in northern latitudes it is not reached till the age of about fifteen in girls and seventeen or eighteen in boys. Even though the parties may not yet be capable of having children, they may marry validly if they are of the age required by the Church, though it is desirable not to marry before full maturity. Those who are not baptized are not subject to the ecclesiastical impediment of age, but in this matter English law agrees with the old canon law, which fixed the age of valid marriage at fourteen and twelve respectively,