Definition
Affinitatis (also: remote affinity) is a Latin term from ecclesiastical and civil law denoting a relationship by marriage that falls outside the primary categories of consanguinity (blood relation) and affinity (direct relation by marriage). It describes the more attenuated or indirect connections that arise through matrimonial links — for example, the relationship between a person and the blood relatives of a spouse's blood relatives, or between the relatives of two spouses to each other. In classical canon law usage, affinitatis referred to a degree of relational proximity that could, in certain circumstances, constitute an impediment to marriage, though it occupied a more peripheral position than direct affinity or consanguinity.
The term is best understood as a qualifier within a hierarchy of relational categories: consanguinity (blood), affinity (marriage-created), and then affinitatis — the residual, remote tier of marriage-derived connection that extends beyond the immediate in-law relationship.
Common Confusion
AFFINITATIS is easily conflated with AFFINITY. Affinity, in both canon and common law, refers to the direct relationship created between a person and the blood relatives of their spouse — the classic in-law relationship. Affinitatis goes one degree further, capturing the relationship between parties who share no blood tie and are not in a primary affinity relationship with each other, but who are nonetheless linked through a chain of marriages. Some historical sources use the terms loosely or interchangeably, which can create interpretive problems when reading ecclesiastical records or canon law materials.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in ecclesiastical law contexts — canon law treatises, church court records, and historical materials addressing marriage impediments. Researchers working with pre-Reformation ecclesiastical records, annulment proceedings, or early American colonial church records may encounter affinitatis as a stated ground for a marriage prohibition or as part of a dispensation granted by church authorities.
The term is practically absent from common law development. English common law absorbed a simplified version of affinity doctrine but did not carry the refined canonical subdivisions — including affinitatis as a distinct category — into secular jurisprudence. Researchers should not expect to find affinitatis operative in Anglo-American case law; its natural habitat is Latin-language ecclesiastical sources, canon law digests, and civil law commentaries on the continent.
One practical trap: because Black's entry is compressed and the term appears so infrequently in English-language legal materials, researchers may mistake affinitatis for a variant spelling or abbreviation of affinity. It is not. The term signals a specific, categorically distinct tier of relational distance in the canonical scheme. When it appears in a primary source, it is worth examining whether the writer is invoking it as a formal impediment category or using it loosely as a synonym for remote affinity generally.
The letters "B C D E F" appended to the Black's entry likely reference the degrees or subdivisions of the canonical impediment scheme as organized in that edition's broader treatment of affinity and consanguinity — a structure that varied across canon law traditions and editions of canonical digests.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary provides the only dictionary entry among the shelf sources, and it is sparse: "Remote relationship by marriage. That connection between parties arising from marriage which is neither consanguinity nor affinity." This is a functional definition but does not situate the term within the canon law framework that gives it meaning. Black's does not explain the doctrinal context — the gradations of impediment, the dispensation process, or the distinction between the various degrees recognized by Roman and canon law.
What the historical dictionaries miss collectively is the doctrinal weight the term carried in ecclesiastical courts. The Corpus Juris Canonici and the writings of canonists such as Gratian and later commentators developed elaborate schemes for calculating degrees of consanguinity and affinity, and affinitatis named a real category with real procedural consequences for marriage validity. No English-language legal dictionary treats this with full depth, reflecting the term's limited penetration into Anglo-American legal culture.
Jurisdictional Note
Affinitatis is not a recognized category in modern American or English secular law. Its operative significance is confined to historical canon law and, to a lesser extent, civil law jurisdictions with roots in Roman ecclesiastical tradition. Researchers working in Louisiana, Quebec, or other mixed-jurisdiction sources with strong civil law heritage may encounter the concept in historical materials, but it has no current statutory or judicial force in any common law jurisdiction.