ments of importance to the Reformed Dutch Church.
In several Ecclesiastical Councils it was decreed, "That all marriages within the prohibited degrees were incestuous and void; and that the contracting parties should be cast out of the communion of the Church." The marriage with a sister in law was expressly mentioned and included within the prohibited degrees. In this decision the Church was supported by the civil law of the Roman Empire after it became Christian, which expressly interdicted such marriages, and pointedly forbade a man to marry the wife of a deceased brother, or the sister of a deceased wife. See inter alia, "Fratris uxorem ducendi, vel duabus sororibus conjungendi penitus licentiam summovemus, &c. we absolutely withhold the liberty of marrying the wife of a brother, or joining in wedlock with two sisters." Cæsar. Cod, Lib, v. Tit. v, de Incest, nupt. Leg, 5.
Among the Fathers in the Greek Church, as they are called; Origen upon Levit. 20. Chrysostom Honmil. 71 on Mat. 22.; and Basil, unite in asserting the universal and unchangeable
