§ II. Adultery with Attempted Marriage

Canon 1075, 1° states: "They cannot validly contract marriage who, while the same legitimate marriage endures, have consummated adultery between themselves and... have attempted that marriage itself, even by a merely civil act." Therefore there are required:

I. Adultery, and of the sort set forth in n. 787.

II. Attempted marriage. By this is understood here an act by which two persons, knowing that because of the impediment of ligamen they cannot enter another valid marriage, truly offer conjugal consent to each other. It is required that each be conscious of the impediment, because each must attempt marriage. For the rest, with regard to the consent to be offered, it is the same whether it is offered in the form required by law or without it, even if it is done merely civilly. Mere concubinage as such does not involve matrimonial consent, although it can give occasion for offering it, or even, with the custom of the place considered, carry it with itself.¹

III. The joining between adultery and attempted marriage must be the same as between adultery and the promise of marriage (n. 787).

Corollary. All those who, after a validly contracted marriage, seek and obtain a civil divorce, and then contract and consummate another civil marriage, incur this impediment; and therefore, although the prior marriage has been dissolved, they cannot enter marriage without a dispensation.²

¹ Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide, January 14, 1844.

² Vlaming, I, n. 318.