Lat. In Roman law. A legal marriage, contracted in strict ac- cordance with the forms of the older Roman iaw, i. e., either with the farreum, the co- emptio, or by us us. This was allowed only to Roman citizens and to those neighboring peoples to whom the right of connubium had been conceded. The effect of such a mar- riage was to bring the wife into the manus, or marital power, of the husband, and to create the patria potestas over the children. Matrimonium subsequens tollit pec- catum prsccedens. Subsequent marriage cures preceding criminality.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
