The Second Lateran Council seems to have enacted the first written law making sacred orders a diriment impediment to marriage for the universal Church. |
The reason for this is that a prior marriage is only a diriment impediment to marriage, when it is truly valid. |
However, if after a marriage, a couple divorces and they can prove that a diriment impediment existed at the moment of consent, the marriage is declared null. |
On its completion the novice makes the usual vows of religion, the simple vow of chastity in the Society having the force of a diriment impediment to matrimony. |
The simple vow of chastity made by the scholastics is a diriment impediment of matrimony. |
Of course this is notwithstanding that failure to receive dispensation from form invalidates marriages where diriment impediments are not present. |