§ 190. 1) Kinship

Kinship, natural or by blood (φυσική συγγένεια, cognatio naturalis vel carnalis) is the bond arising from the birth of one person from another, or from the birth of two persons from a third, who is called the common ancestor. Persons standing in such a relation are called blood relatives (συγγενεῖς, consanguinei).

Strictly speaking, all people stand in such a kinship relation to one another, since all descend from the same first parents. But the law, both church and civil, does not regard them all as such, but only up to certain limits. In order to mark these limits and precisely determine relational bonds, Roman law already established certain fixed formulas and terms; it divided kinship, namely, into lines and degrees. A degree (βαθμός, gradus) is the distance of one person from another by means of generation,[1] and the connection of these degrees, continuing without interruption, is called a line (τάξις, γραμμή, ordo, linea). With regard to the fact that in a kinship bond there appear a) persons from whom a given person descends, b) persons who descend from that person, and c) persons who do not stand to that person in a direct kinship bond, that is, from whom the given person does not directly descend, nor do they descend from the given person, but who have with him only a common ancestor—lines are accordingly divided into: 1) the direct line (εὐθεῖα, recta), namely: a) the ascending line (ἀνιοῦσα, ascendentalis), which goes from a given person to his forebears in an unbroken sequence of degrees, that is, to his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on; and b) the descending line (κατιοῦσα, descendentalis), which goes in a direct line from a given person to his descendants, that is, from him to his son, grandson, great-grandson, and so on; and 2) the collateral or lateral lines (πλαγίαι, κατὰ πλάτος, obliquae, transversales, collaterales), which go from a given person to those persons who share a common ancestor with that person, but who are not joined with him directly in a straight line, but laterally; such lateral lines, namely, extend from a given person to his brothers, uncles, nephews, and so on.[2]

The distance of kinship is measured by the generations between two persons; each generation counts as one degree, so that however many generations there are between two persons, so many degrees there are.[3] Accordingly, if the generations show the distance between given persons, it follows of itself that the fewer the generations, and hence degrees, between them, the closer the kinship, and the more generations, and hence degrees, the more distant the kinship.

In order to determine the degrees of kinship between two given persons, the Roman jurists established a certain special στέμμα τῆς συγγενείας (stemma cognationis), which was usually issued together with their legal collections.[4] Today, in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, a specially compiled table (διάγραμμα τῆς συγγενείας) is used for this purpose, which we here reproduce:

Genealogical table. Ascending line: 4. great-great-grandfather, great-great-grandmother—3. great-grandfather, great-grandmother—2. grandfather, grandmother—1. father, mother—Me. Descending line: 1. son, daughter—2. grandson, granddaughter—3. great-grandson, great-granddaughter—4. great-great-grandson (granddaughter). Collateral line: 5. great-grandfather’s brother, great-grandmother’s sister—4. grandfather’s brother, grandmother’s sister; 6. grandfather’s and grandmother’s first cousin—3. uncle, aunt; 5. uncle or aunt not by birth; 7. second-degree uncle or aunt not by birth—2. brother, sister; 4. first cousin; 6. second cousin; 8. third cousin. Collateral line: 3. nephew, niece; 5. nephew or niece not by birth; 7. second-degree nephew or niece not by birth—4. nephew’s son, daughter; 6. nephew’s son not by birth, son, daughter—5. nephew’s son’s son, daughter—6. nephew’s son’s grandson (granddaughter).

By this table the corresponding degree of kinship is easily found; and to indicate the persons between whom the degree of kinship is sought, the following signs are used: □ marks the common ancestor in the given kinship diagram, the sign ○ marks a male person, △ a female person, ⊗ a deceased male person, △̽ a deceased female person, the vertical line │ descent or generation, and ○–△ husband and wife.

In calculating the degrees themselves, in the direct line the generations are counted between a given person and the one with whom the degree of kinship is sought, and however many such generations there are, so many degrees there are. For example, from me, A, to my great-grandfather G, in the direct ascending line there are three generations: G begot V, V begot B, B begot A—and accordingly I, A, stand to my great-grandfather G in the third degree of kinship, and he likewise stands to me in that same degree. Between me and my father in the direct line there is no intermediate degree, for a son or daughter is the immediate offspring of his or her father, and thus I, A, the son, stand in the first degree of kinship with my father B. In this connection it should be known that in the general reckoning of kinship, although the given persons who stand in various degrees of kinship to a given person may have different kinship names and different kinship relations to that person, the bond of kinship of each person, taken by itself, with the person nearest to him, always appears in the immediate generation of the one from the other, that is, always ascending in the direct line from son to father, or descending from father to son; and it is only through such an immediate bond of generation that one arrives at the precise determination of the degree of kinship between given persons. For example, seeking the degrees of kinship in the ascending line, we ascend directly from a given person to his father, from the father to the father’s father, who is grandfather to that person and stands to him in the second degree of kinship; further, from the grandfather to the grandfather’s father, who is great-grandfather to that same person, and stands to him in the third degree of kinship. The same holds in the descending line, only there we descend from father to son.

In the collateral lines, the same rule holds in Orthodox church law: however many generations there are among the persons between whom the degrees of kinship are sought, so many degrees there are.[5] When it is necessary to find the degree of kinship between such persons of whom one is in the direct line and the other in a collateral line, that is, who do not descend one from the other and have no immediate bond of generation, then from each of those persons one must ascend by degrees of kinship to the nearest common ancestor, or to the person in whom the two lines that proceeded from the persons between whom the degree of kinship is sought are joined; or, what is the same, from one given person one ascends to the common ancestor or meeting-point of the lines, and from that ancestor one descends to the other given person, and the total number of generations found on those lines shows the degree of kinship between the given persons. Accordingly, a brother and sister born of the same parents, B and V, stand between themselves in the second degree of kinship, for, ascending from the brother B to their common starting point, the father A, we find one generation, that is, one degree, and descending from that father to the sister V, we again find one generation, or one degree; altogether, then, two generations, and accordingly two degrees. Reckoning in this way, the other degrees of kinship in the collateral line are likewise found: nephew D and uncle B will be in the third degree; first cousins G and D in the fourth degree; second cousins E and Zh in the sixth; third cousins Z and I in the eighth degree.

Diagram: A Jovan; Miloš B, Marija V; Danica G, Petar D; Stevan E, Ljubica Zh; Đorđe Z, Dušan I.

In the reckoning of degrees of kinship the following general legal norms are established, which moreover are also grounded in natural law: 1) husband and wife do not constitute among themselves a different degree, since they are regarded as one flesh, and accordingly husband and wife are always in the same one degree with regard to other kin; 2) sons, and likewise daughters, however many there may be, are always all in the first degree with regard to their father and mother; 3) brothers or sisters born of the same parents, however many there may be, are all among themselves in the second degree; 4) children of one father and different mothers, or of one mother and different fathers, are regarded exactly as though they were brothers and sisters born of the same parents; 5) female relatives are reckoned in the same order and in the same degrees as male relatives are reckoned; 6) the circle of kinship is generally limited to seven degrees: in the direct line this is explained by the fact that, by the laws of nature, it is not possible for anyone to survive to the seventh degree of kinship, and there is therefore no reason to determine kinship relations beyond that degree; and in the collateral line, the determination of these relations, besides being very difficult, would also exceed the limits of the natural rights of kinship, for the mutual relations of kinship after the seventh degree are in themselves too remote for there to be fear of unnatural mixing of blood (αἱμομιξία), or for any rights to be founded on those relations.

Kinship was regarded as a marital impediment both in the Mosaic and in the ancient Roman legislation.[6] Greco-Roman legislation adopted in this regard the prescriptions of the ancient legislation, and under the influence of the Church issued suitable legal ordinances, which corresponded both to the ethical and to the physiological conditions of marriage, and the Church, as such, then canonized them, receiving them into her canonical collections.[7]

In kinship by blood, a distinction is made between marital impediments in the ascending and descending lines in the direct line, and impediments among the collateral lines. In the direct line, all marriages between persons in that line are absolutely forbidden.[8] This holds today in all the local Orthodox Churches.[9] In the collateral line, by general church law, marriage is forbidden up to and including the seventh degree, and is permitted only between persons who are in the eighth degree in that line.[10] And this holds today everywhere,[11] except in the Kingdom of Greece and in Russia. In Greece, by the synodal circular of 6 March 1873, marriage in the collateral line is forbidden only up to the sixth degree, and in the seventh degree it is already permitted, so that I may freely take to wife the daughter of my second cousin.[12] In Russia, by the synodal ukase of 19 January 1810, marriage is forbidden only up to the fourth degree of this kinship, so that I cannot take to wife my first cousin, but I may already take her daughter.[13]