§ 189. B. Conditional Impediments

Conditional impediments are called those which prevent marriage with certain particular persons. Among these impediments, some arise from the concept of kinship, and others stand outside the concept of kinship.

Kinship is a relation between two persons which arises either from the birth of one from the other, or from the birth of those persons from one common ancestor, or else from the marital bond between two or three families, or, finally, from a bond that has arisen between two persons from a relation resembling kinship. Accordingly, kinship in the general sense (συγγένεια) is divided into: 1) kinship by blood (συγγένεια ἐξ αἵματος); 2) affinity (ἀγχιστεία), which arises from the bond of two families (διγένεια) or three families (τριγένεια); 3) spiritual kinship (συγγένεια πνευματική); 4) quasi-affinity (οἱονεὶ ἀγχιστεία); and 5) adoption (υἱοθεσία).

Of relations outside kinship, the conditional impediments to marriage are difference of religion, abduction, and so forth (§ 195).