1. Definition
Polygamy (Latin/Greek polygamia, “often married”; double marriage or bigamy was also sometimes called polygamy) includes both the marrying of multiple wives (polygyny) and the marrying of multiple husbands (polyandry), a distinction that still persisted in early modern canon law [6. 260]. One special form of polygamy was the levirate marriage, when one of two co-habiting married brothers died with…