CHAPTER III. Specific Diriment Impediments

Can. 1083 §1. A man before he has completed his sixteenth year of age and a woman before she has completed her

fourteenth year of age cannot enter into a valid marriage.

§2. The conference of bishops is free to establish a higher age for the licit celebration of marriage.

Can. 1084 §1. Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have intercourse, whether on the part of the man or the

woman, whether absolute or relative, nullifies marriage by its very nature.

§2. If the impediment of impotence is doubtful, whether by a doubt about the law or a doubt about a fact, a

marriage must not be impeded nor, while the doubt remains, declared null.

§3. Sterility neither prohibits nor nullifies marriage, without prejudice to the prescript of can. 1098.

Can. 1085 §1. A person bound by the bond of a prior marriage, even if it was not consummated, invalidly attempts

marriage.

§2. Even if the prior marriage is invalid or dissolved for any reason, it is not on that account permitted to

contract another before the nullity or dissolution of the prior marriage is established legitimately and certainly.

Can. 1086 §1. A marriage between two persons, one of whom has been baptized in the Catholic Church or received

into it and has not defected from it by a formal act and the other of whom is not baptized, is invalid.

§2. A person is not to be dispensed from this impediment unless the conditions mentioned in cann. 1125 and

1126 have been fulfilled.

§3. If at the time the marriage was contracted one party was commonly held to have been baptized or the

baptism was doubtful, the validity of the marriage must be presumed according to the norm of can. 1060 until it is

proven with certainty that one party was baptized but the other was not.

Can. 1087 Those in sacred orders invalidly attempt marriage.

Can. 1088 Those bound by a public perpetual vow of chastity in a religious institute invalidly attempt marriage.

Can. 1089 No marriage can exist between a man and a woman who has been abducted or at least detained with

a view of contracting marriage with her unless the woman chooses marriage of her own accord after she has been

separated from the captor and established in a safe and free place.

Can. 1090 §1. Anyone who with a view to entering marriage with a certain person has brought about the death of

that person’s spouse or of one’s own spouse invalidly attempts this marriage.

§2. Those who have brought about the death of a spouse by mutual physical or moral cooperation also invalidly

attempt a marriage together.

Can. 1091 §1. In the direct line of consanguinity marriage is invalid between all ancestors and descendants, both

legitimate and natural.

§2. In the collateral line marriage is invalid up to and including the fourth degree.

§3. The impediment of consanguinity is not multiplied.

§4. A marriage is never permitted if doubt exists whether the partners are related by consanguinity in any

degree of the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line.

Can. 1092 Affinity in the direct line in any degree invalidates a marriage.

Can. 1093 The impediment of public propriety arises from an invalid marriage after the establishment of common

life or from notorious or public concubinage. It nullifies marriage in the first degree of the direct line between the

man and the blood relatives of the woman, and vice versa.

Can. 1094 Those who are related in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line by a legal

relationship arising from adoption cannot contract marriage together validly.