Question — Decretum of Gratian
Question II
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GRATIAN. That one cannot take another wife while his wife is living is attested by Scripture, saying: “Otherwise, if you depart from one another, and, though willing to dwell together, put one another away, and join yourselves to others, you will be adulterers, and your children who are afterward born will be unclean, that is, illegitimate.”
GRATIANUS. Quod uero uxore uiuente alteram ducere non possit, testatur scriptura, dicens: "Alioquin si disceditis ab inuicem, et uolentes cohabitare dimittitis, et aliis uos copulaueritis adulteri eritis, et filii uestri, qui postea nascentur, erunt inmundi, id est spurii."
Friedberg, col. 1089/1090
C. I. After baptism one cannot take another wife while the one who was joined to him as a virgin before baptism is living.
Likewise from the Council of Meaux, [c. 1]. If anyone had a virgin wife before baptism, while she is living he cannot have another after baptism. For crimes are dissolved in baptism, not marriages. But Gregory testifies to the contrary, saying:
C. I. Non potest aliquis post baptismum alteram ducere uiuente ea, que ante baptismum sibi fuerit uirgo copulata.
Item ex Concilio Meldensi. [c. 1.] Si quis habuerit uxorem uirginem ante baptismum, uiuente illa post baptismum alteram habere non potest. Crimina enim in baptismo soluuntur, non coniugia. Gregorius autem contra testatur, dicens:
Friedberg, col. 1089/1090
C. II. It is lawful for a believer to take another wife when an unbelieving wife puts him away out of hatred for the Christian faith.
“If the unbeliever departs out of hatred for the Christian faith, let the unbeliever depart. For a brother or sister is not subjected to servitude in such cases.” For it is no sin, when one has been put away for God’s sake, if one is joined to another. Indeed, contempt of the Creator dissolves the right of marriage with respect to the one who is abandoned. But the unbeliever who departs sins both against God and against marriage; nor is the fidelity of marriage to be preserved for one who departed for this reason, lest that person hear that Christ is the God of Christian marriages.
GRATIAN. A distinction must be made here: it is one thing to put away one who is willing to dwell together, and another not to follow one who departs. It is indeed lawful to put away one willing to dwell together, but not to bring in another while that person is living; but one ought not to follow one who departs, and it is lawful to take another while that person is living. Yet this is to be understood only of those who were joined to one another in unbelief. But if both were converted to the faith, or if both were believers when joined in marriage, and in the course of time one of them departed from the faith and abandoned the spouse out of hatred for the faith, the abandoned spouse will not accompany the one departing; nevertheless, the abandoned spouse will not be able to take another while the other is living, because there had been a ratified marriage between them, which can in no way be dissolved.
C. II. Licet fideli uxorem aliam ducere, quam Christianae fidei odio infidelis dimittit.
"Si infidelis discedit odio Christianae fidei, discedat. Non est enim frater aut soror subiectus seruituti in huiusmodi." Non est enim peccatum dimisso propter Deum, si alii se copulauerit. Contumelia quippe creatoris soluit ius matrimonii circa eum, qui relinquitur. Infidelis autem discedens et in Deum peccat, et in matrimonium, nec est ei fides seruanda coniugii, qui propterea discessit, ne audiret Christum esse Deum Christianorum coniugiorum. Gratian. Hic distinguendum est, aliud esse dimittere uolentem cohabitare, atque aliud discedentem non sequi. Volentem enim cohabitare licet quidem dimittere, sed non ea uiuente aliam superducere; discedentem uero sequi non oportet, et ea uiuente aliam ducere licet. Verum hoc non nisi de his intelligendum est, qui in infidelitate sibi copulati sunt. Ceterum si ad fidem uterque conuersus est, uel si uterque fidelis matrimonio coniunctus est, et procedente tempore alter eorum a fide discesserit, et odio fidei coniugem dereliquerit, derelictus discedentem non comitabitur; non tamen illa uiuente alteram ducere poterit, quia ratum coniugium fuerat inter eos, quod nullo modo solui potest.
Friedberg, col. 1089/1090