Contubernium

civ. law, As among the Romans slaves had no civil state, their marriages although valid according to natura] law, when contracted with the consent of their masters, and when there was no legal bar to them, yet such marriages were without civil effects, they having none except what arose from natural law: a marriage of thig kind was called contubernium. It was so called whether both or only one of the parties was a slave. Poth. Contr. de Mariage, prem. part. c. 2, 3. refusal or neglect of a party accused to appear and answer to a charge. preferred against him in a court of justice. This word is derived from the latin contumacta, disobedience.

1 Bro. Civ. Law, 455; Ayl. Parer. 196.