from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
A VINCULO MATRIMONII, from the bond of marriage. A marriage may be
dissolved a vinculo, in many states, as in Pennsylvania, on the ground of
canonical disabilities before marriage, as that one of the parties was
legally married to a person who was then living; impotence(q.v.), and the
like adultery cruelty and malicious desertion for two years or more. In New
York a sentence of imprisonment for life is also a ground for a divorce a
vinculo. When the marriage is dissolved a vinculo, the parties may marry
again but when the cause is adultery, the guilty party cannot marry his or
her paramour.