The regulations concerning marriage and divorce fall within the province of the clergy and the ecclesiastical courts, except that the civil tribunals have jurisdiction over annulment and divorce for the Raskolniken, or “Old Believers,” and for the Baptists and some other dissenters from the State Church of Russia.
With the exceptions noted, the regulations of each form of religious belief, including Mohammedanism and other non-Christian beliefs, are endorsed by the State as the law for the adherents of that belief. The civil courts, however, have jurisdiction over the civil effects of marriage and divorce, and the State law contains certain provisions binding on the adherents of all religious confessions.
The regulations governing the Roman Catholics are, in general, those of the canon law and those governing the German Lutherans are those of the old Protestant common law of Germany.
We shall consider the special regulations affecting the Jews in a separate division of this chapter.
Marriage.—A man reaches marriageable age upon the completion of his eighteenth year and a woman upon the completion of her sixteenth year; natives of Transcaucasia, however, may marry at the completion of the fifteenth and thirteenth years, respectively.
A marriage cannot take place without the free and mutual consent of the principals. The exercise of any kind of compulsion is forbidden to parents or guardians.
Without regard to their age children require the consent of their parents. In most parts of Russia there is no appeal in case a parent withholds consent. Marriage without parental consent is not invalid, but the guilty person is liable to a penalty of from four to eight months’ imprisonment, on petition of the parent, and to the loss of his right of inheritance in the property of the parent.
Persons who are under guardianship or curatorship require the consent of their guardian or curator.
Consanguinity and Affinity.—The prohibited degrees of consanguinity are determined according to the principles of the religious body to which the parties belong. Marriage is, however, universally prohibited between persons who are related in the first or second degree.
Difference of Religion.—Marriage between Christians and non-Christians is prohibited, except between Lutherans, adherents of the Reformed Church, and other Protestants on the one hand, and Jews and Mohammedans on the other.