Disputation — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Disputation I: On the Vow
BEFORE I assign the Definitions and Conditions of the Vow, I shall note something of its name; for it is taken in various ways in Sacred Scripture; for not rarely it is used for a good purpose, or pious desire, in which sense Exodus 36: Every morning the people offered their vows. So also in Proverb. 31 it is said: What, my beloved, of my vows, that is, of my desires, as Suarez notes tract. de voto in proaemio; likewise when in the Mass it is said: and to you they render their vows; for in every Mass we do not always fulfill some promise from the obligation of a vow: It is also often taken for a spontaneous promise, inducing an obligation, as num. 13. Psal. 49. Psal. 65. and Eccles. 5, in which places there is frequent mention of rendering the vow; because it obliges the one vowing; whence in the last-cited place we have: If you have vowed anything to God, you will be mindful to render it; for an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases him; this is the proper acceptance of the vow, now approved by very many writers: Sometimes also it is taken for the very thing which is either vowed or offered; as in Deuteronom. 12: You shall offer Holocausts, vows, and gifts; this too is not unusual in other words, that the matter about which the action is concerned transfers to itself the denomination of the action, and conversely, as is clear: these things having been premised, let us come to the rest.
ANTEQUAM Voti Definitiones, et Conditiones assignem, nonnihil de eius nomine praenotabo; varie enim sumitur in Sacra scriptura; nam non raro pro bono proposito, seu pio desiderio usurpatur, quo sensu Exodi 36. Quotidie mane vota populus offerebat. Sicut et Proverb. 31. dicitur: Quid dilecte votorum meorum, idest desideriorum, ut notat Suarez tract. de voto in proaemio; item dum in Missa dicitur: tibique reddunt vota sua; nam in singulis Missis non persolvimus semper promissionem aliquam ex voti obligatione: Sumitur etiam saepe pro spontanea sponsione, obligationem inducente, ut num. 13. Psal. 49. Psal. 65. et Eccles. 5. quibus locis frequens sit mentio de voto reddendo; eo quod obliget voventem; unde loco ultimo cir. habetur: Si quid voveris Deo, memor eris reddere; displicet enim ei infidelis et stulta promissio; haec est voti acceptio propria, nunc unice tot scriptoribus probata: Aliquando etiam sumitur pro ipsa re, quae vel vovetur, vel offertur; ut Deuteron. 12. Offeretis Holocausta, vota, atque donaria, hoc etiam aliis in vocibus non inusitatum est, ut materia, circa quam actio versatur, ad se actionis denominationem transferat, et e contra, ut clarum est: his ita praemissis ad caetera accedamus.
Within this disputation
- Question I: What a vow is, and what its conditions are
- Question II: What deliberation is required for a vow
- Question III: Whether one who promises something to God, knowing the obligation yet intending not to bind himself, is bound by the vow
- Question IV: Whether a votive promise is made to God alone
- Question V: How error or ignorance concerning a vow causes involuntariness
- Question VI: Whether fear inflicted on another makes a vow invalid
- Question VII: Whether a necessary thing can be the matter of a vow
- Question VIII: Whether a vow is only about some good
- Question IX: Whether a vow is only of the better good, or also of a lesser good
- Question X: Whether a vow of a thing that can have a good or an evil outcome is valid
- Question XI: Whether any obligation arises from a vow, and what it is
- Question XII: Whether those under the age of puberty are bound by vows
- Question XIII: What the power of annulling vows is, and what kind
- Question XIV: On the power of religious prelates to annul vows
- Question XV: Whether a husband can annul all the vows of his wife, beyond the vow of chastity
- Question XVI: Whether a husband can annul a vow of chastity made by his wife without his permission while the marriage stands, and to be fulfilled then
- Question XVII: Whether a husband can annul the vows of his wife, made without his permission, to be fulfilled when the marriage has been dissolved
- Question XVIII: Whether a husband can annul the vows of his wife made before the marriage
- Question XIX: Whether the vows of a wife, made without her husband's permission, revive when the marriage is dissolved
- Question XX: Whether a husband can annul the vows of his wife made with his permission, the vow of chastity excepted
- Question XXI: Whether a husband can revoke the vow of chastity of his wife, made with his permission
- Question XXII: Whether a husband can annul the vows of his wife made while she was under the authority of her father or of a first husband
- Question XXIII: Whether a wife can annul certain vows of her husband, and which
- Question XXIV: Whether parents or guardians can annul all the vows of their children under the age of puberty
- Question XXV: Whether a father and a curator can annul the personal vows of children who have reached puberty
- Question XXVI: Which real or mixed vows of children who have reached puberty can be annulled by the father
- Question XXVII: To whom belongs the faculty of annulling the vows of those who have, and those who have not, reached puberty
- Question XXVIII: Which vows of servants their masters can annul
- Question XXIX: Whether in the Church there is power to dispense from vows
- Question XXX: Whether a cause is required for a dispensation, and which
- Question XXXI: Whether, and how, the commutation of vows is to be made
- Question XXXII: Whether commutation requires a cause
- Question XXXIII: Which vows can be commuted by the ordinary power of prelates