In cultures where monogamy is mandated, bigamy is the act of entering
into a marriage with one person while still legally married to
another. A legal or de facto separation of the couple does not alter
their marital status as married persons. In the case of a person in
the process of divorcing their spouse, that person is taken to be
legally married until such time as the divorce becomes final or
absolute under the law of the relevant jurisdiction. Bigamy laws do
not apply to couples in a de facto or cohabitation relationship, or
that enter such relationships when one is legally married. If the
prior marriage is for any reason void, the couple is not married, and
hence each party is free to marry another without falling foul of the
bigamy laws.Bigamy is a crime in most countries that recognise only
monogamous marriages. When it occurs in this context often neither the
first nor second spouse is aware of the other. In countries that have
bigamy laws, with a few exceptions (such as Egypt and Iran), consent
from a prior spouse makes no difference to the legality of the second
marriage, which is usually considered void.Even before Christianity
became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Diocletian and
Maximian passed strict anti-polygamy laws in 285 AD that mandated
monogamy as the only form of legal marital relationship, as had
traditionally been the case in classical Greece and Rome.[citation
needed] In 393, the Roman Emperor Theodosius I issued an imperial
edict to extend the ban on polygamy to Jewish communities. In 1000,
Rabbi Gershom ben Judah ruled polygamy inadmissible within Ashkenazi
Jewish communities living in a Christian environment.Most western
countries do not recognize polygamous marriages, and consider bigamy a
crime. Several countries also prohibit people from living a polygamous
lifestyle. This is the case in some states of the United States where
the criminalization of a polygamous lifestyle originated as
anti-Mormon laws, although they are rarely enforced. Bigamy Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter