III.5.2
II. KING FLAVIUS RECCARED.
Concerning incestuous and adulterous marriages and debauchery, either with holy virgins, or with widows and other women while doing penance.
[...] Many persons, in defiance of the admonitions of the Divine Law, and in opposition to the honorable duties of life, are accustomed, either by violence, or with consent, to contract marriage with virgins who have been devoted to the service of God, and have taken the vow of chastity with the benediction of a priest, and according to the canons of the Church; or with other women closely related to themselves. In this way, they have polluted with vice that chastity which was dedicated to God, or which
should have been respected on account of the ties of consanguinity. [...] And if any other persons in our kingdom should attempt to commit a crime of this kind, they shall be separated, and condemned to perpetual exile, at the instance of the judge or priest, even if no one should accuse them; nor shall any time which may have elapsed, be pleaded in their defence. [...] Any judge, or priest, who is aware that such an offence has been committed, and neglects to punish it, shall be compelled to pay five pounds of gold to the royal treasury; and, in the case that he should not be able or willing to inflict such punishment, he shall bring the matter before the king, in order that he may impose the penalty which is not in the power of the magistrate or priest to inflict.
(trans. S.P. Scott 1910: 107-108)