Definition of "civil marriage" []

• A marriage ceremony performed by a civil official. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He alleged that the civil marriage of Napoleon and Josephine had been annulled by the decree of the Senate, that by the concordatory laws (lois concordataires) the religious marriage ought to follow the civil, and that the Church could not now ask two parties who were no longer civilly married to repair the defects of form in their religious marriage."
• "Almost everywhere the ecclesiastical immunities (see IMMUNITY) disappeared, legislation became purely secular, civil marriage was established, and the Church, except in the case of Divine worship, excluded from public service, or participating in it only by the favor of the sovereign State."
• "Since the last crisis on the civil marriage bill, which wrecked D'Azeglio's ministry, Cavour, who all his life was not theoretically opposed to coming to an understanding with Rome, had made several advances to the Vatican, but with no effect: Rome refused any modification of the Concordat or any reduction of the privileges possessed by the clergy in the kingdom of Sardinia."