I.Concerning Incestuous and Adulterous Marriages in General.
II.Concerning Incestuous and Adulterous Marriages and Debauchery, either with Holy Virgins, or with Widows and other Women while doing Penance.
III.Concerning Men and Women who Illegally Assume the Tonsure and Dress of Religious Orders.
IV.Concerning the Restraint of Fraud Peculiar to Widows.
V.Concerning Pederasty.
VI.Concerning Sodomy, and the Manner in which the Law should be Enforced.
VII.Concerning Adultery committed with the Concubine of a Father, or a Brother.

FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.

I. Concerning Incestuous and Adulterous Marriages in General.

No one shall marry, or maintain incestuous relations with, any woman belonging to the family of his father, or his mother; or of his grandfather, or his grandmother; or with the betrothed of his brother, or the widow of any of his relatives. Therefore, it shall not be lawful to defile the blood of such as are related even to the sixth degree, either by marriage or otherwise; those persons only being excepted, who have been married with the permission of the king, before the making of this law, and the said persons shall, in no way, be affected by its provisions. This law shall also apply to women. If any person should violate it, the judge shall immediately order them to be separated, and shall cause them to be placed in monasteries, according to their sex, there to perform perpetual penance. The disposition of the property of these offenders has been provided for by another law.

FLAVIUS RECESVINTUS, KING.

II. Concerning Incestuous and Adulterous Marriages and Debauchery, either with Holy Virgins, or with Widows and other Women while doing Penance.

It is our royal duty to promulgate laws to be enforced throughout all the provinces of our kingdom, to the end that crime may be prevented in the future, and that justice may put an end to the deeds of the wicked. Many persons, in defiance of the admonitions of the Divine Law, and in opposition to the honorable duties of life, are accustomed, either by violence, or with consent, to contract marriage with virgins who have been devoted in the service of God, and have taken the vow of chastity with the benediction of the priest, and according to the canons of the Church; or with other women nearly related to themselves; and, in this way, have polluted with vice that chastity which was dedicated to God, or which should have been respected on account of the ties of consanguinity. Such conduct, whether it relates to men or women, is both abhorrent to good morals, and a reproach to the True Faith. Therefore, in the name of God and the Holy Catholic Church, we decree that, hereafter, as is also provided by the ecclesiastical canons, no one, either by force or consent, shall take as a wife, any virgin devoted to God, or any widow who has assumed the habit of any order; or any one who is performing penance; or any near relative of their own; or any one with whom his connection might be branded with infamy; because that cannot be a true marriage, which from good becomes evil, and which, under a false name, is nothing more than incest and fornication. And if any other persons in our kingdom should attempt to commit a crime of this kind, they shall be separated, and condemned to perpetual exile, at the instance of the judge or priest, even if no one should accuse them; nor shall any time which may have elapsed, be pleaded in their defence.

The property of such persons which has been seized for the crime, shall belong to the children of a former marriage; and if there should be no such children, to those born of this marriage; and the latter shall not be liable to reproach on this account, for those who are born out of wedlock are purified by the ceremony of baptism. But if there should be no children whatever, the inheritance shall descend to those to whom the provisions of former laws have given legitimate succession. The same regulation shall apply to persons in orders, whom the Canon Law forbids to marry.

Those women are excepted from this decree who have been forced into marriage, and have not subsequently given their consent thereto. Any judge, or priest, who is aware that such an offence has been committed, and neglects to punish it, shall be compelled to pay five pounds of gold to the royal treasury; and, in case he should not be able or willing to inflict such punishment, he shall bring the matter before the king, in order that he may impose the penalty which is not in the power of the magistrate or priest to inflict.

FLAVIUS CHINTASVINTUS, KING.