480

HUSBAND AND WIFE. [ART. 51.

cient proof before some justice of the peace, establish the fact of having
been so married, a certificate of which shall be filed with the clerk of
the Circuit Court of the county in which said marriage was celebrated,

Evidence to be
recorded

or the Court of Common Pleas of Baltimore City, and be preserved
with the register of marriage licenses in the office of the said clerk.

1867, c 423.
License to
marry colored
persons.

10. In all marriages hereafter celebrated between colored per-
sons, the parties, or some one in their behalf, shall present to the
clergyman solemnizing the rites of a marriage, a license, as required
in other cases of marriage; and any such clergyman is hereby pro-
hibited from solemnizing such marriage without the production of
licenses.

DIVORCES.

Art 16, s 24
1841, c 262, s 1,
184S, c 330, s 1.
Applications for
divorce
17 Md 49, 30
Md 480, 33 Md.
401, 1 Bl 479,
2 Bl. 235.

Process and pro-
ceedings.

11. The courts of equity of this State shall have jurisdiction of
all applications for divorce, and any person desiring a divorce shall
file his or her bill in the court either where the party complainant or
defendant resides, or if the party against whom the bill is filed be a
non-resident, then such bill may be filed in the court where the com-
plainant resides; and upon such bill the same process by summons,
notice, or otherwise, shall be had to procure the answer and appear-
ance of a defendant as is had in other cases in chancery; and in all
cases where from the default of the defendant a bill in chancery may
be taken pro confesso, the court, on a bill for divorce, shall order a
commission to take testimony to issue ex parte, and shall decide the
case upon the proof taken under such commission.

1872, c 272.
Divorces
a vinculo
1 Md 560, 17
Md 49, 33 Md
328, 401, 38 Md
337, 529, 5 Gill
252, 1 B1 471.
Causes for
granting.

12. Upon the hearing of any bill for a divorce, the court may
decree a divorce a vinculo matrimonii for the following causes, to
wit: first, the impotence of either party at the time of the marriage;
secondly, for any cause which, by the laws of this State, render a
marriage null and void ab initio; thirdly, for adultery; fourthly,
when the court shall be satisfied by competent testimony that the
party complained against has abandoned the party complaining,
and that such abandonment has continued uninterruptedly for at
least three years, and is deliberate and final, and the separation of
the parties beyond any reasonable expectation of reconciliation;
fifthly, when the woman before marriage has been guilty of illicit
carnal intercourse with another man, the same being unknown to the
husband at the time of the marriage, and when such carnal con-
nection shall be proved to the satisfaction of the court; and in all
cases where a divorce a vinculo matrimonii is decreed for adultery

Discretion of
the court as to
guilty party not
re-marrying.

or abandonment, the court may, in its discretion, decree that the
guilty party shall not contract marriage with any other person dur-
ing the lifetime of the other party, in which case the bond of matri-
mony shall be deemed not to be dissolved as to any future marriage
of such guilty party, contracted in violation of such decree, or in
any prosecution on account thereof.

1872, e 272
Divorces a
mensa et thoro.

1 3. Divorces a mensa et thoro may be decreed for the following
causes, to wit: first, cruelty of treatment; secondly, excessively