Statute of Bigamy

The Statute of Bigamy (Statutum de Bigamis, 4 Edw. I) was an English law passed in 1276. It encompassed six chapters on a variety of subjects, but took its name from the fifth chapter, which removed benefit of clergy from men found to have committed bigamy by an ecclesiastical court.[1][2]

It has sometimes been that a man from wickedness has married several women, all living at the same time; but Holy Church says that of such women none but the first is his lawful wife; wherefore, the law regards the others only as false wives ( Britton ) [3]

The legislation was passed in the fourth year of the reign of Edward I.[4] The statute was an adoption of the council of Lyon decision of omni priviligio clericali nudati et coercioni fori secularis addicti during 1274. The stratatum treated the misdemeanor as an act of capital crime.[5] At the time of the law having been brought into force, clergy considering bigamous occurrences already within their number were desiring that punishment be decided via the common law in order that those persons be treated less severely, Pope Gregory X decreed otherwise.[6] By the time of the son of king Henry the VIII in the 16th century,[7] the king of England by statute had had the prospective clerical impedement issue revoked.[8]