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Medieval marriages were forbidden by the church if couples were related within the fourth degree of consanguinity. Marriages also created forbidden degrees of affinity, as seen here where a partner's first spouse was related to her second spouse. These restrictions could be overcome by getting a marriage dispensaton from the church. Children could be legitimated retrospectively if the marriage had already taken place. The marriage dispensation was recorded by a notary and given to the couple and entered in his register

14 April 1510 done in choir of GlasgoI

Instrument on the dispensation granted by James, archbishop of Glasgow, and by letters of Ludovic, cardinal of St Marcellus, great penitentiary of Pope Julius II,, dispensing with the impediments to the marriage of Robert Arkil, and Catharine Wilson, who were related to each other in the fourth and third degrees of affinity – the first husband of the said Catharine and Robert Arkil having been related in the third and fourth degrees of consanguinity – and declaring their issue legitimate.

Liber Protocollorum M.  Cuthberti Simoni ed Joseph Bain and Charles Rogers vol 1 (London: Grampian Club, 1875) no. 426