CONDONATION
CONDONATION. A term used in the canon law. It is a forgiveness by the husband of his wife, or by a wife of her husband, of adultery committed, with an implied condition that the injury shall not be repeated, and that the other party shall be treated with conjugal kindness. 1 Hagg. R. 773; 3 Eccl. Rep. 310. See 5 Mass. 320 5 Mass. 69; 1 Johns. Ch. R. 488.
2. It may be express or implied, as, if a husband, knowing of his wife's infidelity, cohabit with her. 1 Hagg. Rep. 789; 3 Eccl. R. 338.
3. Condonation is not, for many rea sons, held so strictly against a wife as against a husband. 3 Eccl. R. 830 Id. 341, n.; 2 Edw. R. 207. As all condonations, by operation of law, are expressly or impliedly conditional, it follows that the effect is taken off by the repetition of misconduct; 3 Eccl. R. 329 3 Phillim. Rep. 6; 1 Eccl. R. 35; and cruelty revives condoned adultery. Worsley v. Worsley, cited in Durant v. Durant, 1 Hagg. Rep. 733; 3 Eccl. Rep. 311.
4. In New York, an act of cruelty alone, on the part of the husband, does not revive condoned adultery, to entitle the wife to a divorce. 4 Paige's R. 460. See 3 Edw. R. 207.
5. Where the parties have separate beds, there must, in order to found condonation, be something of matrimonial intercourse presumed; it does not rest merely on the wife's not. withdrawing herself. 3 Eccl. R. 341, n.; 2 Paige, R. 108.
6. Condonation is a bar to a sentence of divorce. 1 Eccl. Rep. 284; 2 Paige, R. 108. In Pennsylvania, by the Act of the 13th of March, 1815, 7, 6 Reed's Laws of Penna. 288, it is enacted that " in any suit or action for divorce for cause of adultery, if the defendant shall allege and prove that the plaintiff has admitted the defendant into conjugal society or embraces, after he or she knew of the criminal fact, or that the plaintiff (if the husband) allowed of his wife's prostitutions, or received hire, for them, or exposed his wife to lewd company, whereby she became ensnared to the crime aforesaid, it shall be a good defence, and perpetual bar against the same." The same rule may be found, perhaps, in the codes of most civilized countries. Villanova Y Manes, Materia Criminal Forense, Obs. 11, c. 20, n. 4. Vide, generally, 2 Edw. 207; Dev. Eq. R. 352 4 Paige, 432; 1 Edw. R. 14; Shelf. on M. & D. 445; 1 John. Ch. R. 488 4 N. Hamp. R. 462; 5 Mass. 320.