Marriage as defined in law

1. Marriage. Holy matrimony is the estate into which a man and a woman enter when they consent and contract to cohabit with each other and each other only. The solemnisation of matrimony in church is on their part the attestation in the presence of God and of the Church of their consent and contract so to do, and on the Church's part its blessing on their union. According to the doctrine of the Church of England marriage is in its nature a union permanent and life-long, for better for worse, till death them do part, of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others on either side, for the procreation and nurture of children, for the hallowing and right direction of the natural instincts and affections, and for the mutual society, help and comfort which the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.

It has been said that the only kind of marriage which English law recognises is one which is essentially the voluntary union for life of one man with one woman to the exclusion of all others. If two persons of the same sex contrive to go through the formalities of a ceremony of marriage, the ceremony is not a marriage ceremony at all, but it has been held that the court in such circumstances is precluded from granting purely declaratory relief but must grant a nullity decree. A marriage celebrated after 31 July 1971 is void where the carries are not respectively male and female.

To be recognised by English law a marriage must at its inception be for life and must not be illusory.

English law does not acknowledge the concept of a trial or temporary marriage.

-- Halsbury's Laws of England, Vol. 72: Matrimonial and Civil Partnership Law, para 1.

Note that, despite the references to the doctrine of the Church of England, this is not a paragraph relating to ecclesiastical law. It is that, under current English law, marriage *is* "holy matrimony" as understood by the doctrines of the Church of England.