purposes; and the parties might be
compelled in the spiritual courts to celebrate it _in facie
ecclesiae_. But these verbal contracts are now of no force, to compel
a future marriage[y]. Neither is any marriage at present valid, that
is not celebrated in some parish church or public chapel, unless by
dispensation from the arch-bishop of Canterbury. It must also be
preceded by publication of banns, or by licence from the spiritual
judge. Many other formalities are likewise prescribed by the act; the
neglect of which, though penal, does not invalidate the marriage. It
is held to be also essential to a marriage, that it be performed by a
person in orders[z]; though the intervention of a priest to solemnize
this contract is merely _juris positivi_, and not _juris naturalis aut
divini_: it being said that pope Innocent the third was the first who
ordained the celebration of marriage in the church[a]; before which it
was totally a civil contract. And, in the times of the grand
rebellion, all marriages were performed by the justices of the peace;
and these marriages were declared valid, without any fresh
solemnization, by statute 12 Car. II. c. 33. But, as the law now
stands, we may upon the whole collect, that no marriage by the
temporal law is _ipso facto_ void, that is celebrated by a person in
orders,--in a parish church or public chapel (or elsewhere, by special
dispensation)--in pursuance of banns or a licence,--between single
persons,--consenting,--of sound mind,--and of the age of twenty one
years;--or of the age of fourteen in males and twelve in females, with
consent of parents or guardians, or without it, in case of widowhood.
And no marriage is _voidable_ by the ecclesiastical law, after the
death of either of the parties; nor during their lives, unless for the
canonical impediments of pre-contract, if that indeed still exists; of
consanguinity; and of affinity, or corporal imbecillity, subsisting
previous to the marriage.

[Footnote y: Stat. 26 Geo. II. c. 33.]

[Footnote z: Salk. 119.]

[Footnote a: Moor 170.]

II. I AM next to consider the manner in which marriages may be
dissolved; and this is either by death, or divorce. There are two
kinds of divorce, the one total, the other partial; the one _a vinculo
matrimonii_, the other merely _a mensa et thoro_. The total divorce,
_a vinculo matrimonii_, must be for some of the canonical causes of
impediment before-mentioned; and those, existing _before_ the
marr