Article II. On the Obligation of the Conjugal Act

915. Principles. - I. There is an obligation of justice, grave of itself, to render the debt to the other spouse who seriously and reasonably seeks it. The reason is that, from the very nature of the matrimonial contract, spouses transfer to one another power over their bodies in order to conjugal use. It is also deduced from the words of the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 7:3: Let the husband render the debt to the wife, and the wife likewise to the husband; the woman does not have power over her own body, but the husband; and likewise the husband does not have power over his own body, but the woman.

II. Of itself no obligation to seek the conjugal debt urges. The reason is that neither spouse is bound to use his or her right, and each can remit it. Accidentally, however, there can be an obligation of seeking from charity or another virtue, especially in the man; for example, if he judges that the other party is placed in danger of incontinence on account of modesty in seeking, or if the request is necessary for fostering or restoring conjugal love, etc. - See St. Ligorius, nos. 928, 929.

III. The obligation to render the debt ceases when the right to demand it ceases; but the right is extinguished chiefly in the following cases, namely: 1. if one of the spouses has committed adultery; 2. if the one seeking lacks the use of reason, because that person's request is not human; 3. if the one rendering can reasonably fear harm or grave danger to health, because spouses are not judged to have obligated themselves to render the debt with so great an inconvenience; 4. if the one seeking, on account of incest committed with the blood relatives of the other in the first or second degree, or for another cause, has lost the right of seeking ¹.

¹ Perhaps the loss of a right over the body of the other is here confused with an illicit use of the right on account of some circumstance. Therefore these things do not agree with those said above, no. 909, where it is established that the spouse who contracted affinity on account of incest can, indeed is bound to, render the debt to the other.

916. Resolutions. - 1. Spouses are bound to cohabitation, nor can one be absent for a long time without the consent of the other or without necessity; for this obligation follows from the obligation itself of rendering the debt. But just causes for being away for a long time are the public good, the support or protection of the family, and the avoidance of injury from enemies, etc. But a husband who must remain elsewhere for a long time ought to bring his wife there, if he conveniently can, so that she may cohabit with him. - St. Ligorius, no. 938.

2. A spouse sins gravely by denying the debt whenever there is danger of incontinence or of grave vexation in the other party. Likewise, if the spouse denies it to the other who seriously seeks it. It is otherwise, however, if the other party benevolently remits it or seeks it remissly.

3. One who denies does not sin when the other seeks immoderately, for example, after the third or fourth time in the same night; nor if the spouse delays for a short time, namely, until night, or if from night the spouse delays until the morning, always excluding, however, danger of incontinence. - St. Ligorius, no. 940.

4. Wives are to be reprehended who deny the debt to their husbands without sufficient cause, even if they seek it remissly; or who do not grant it unless compelled and harshly and contumeliously reproach the husband for his requests.

5. A wife is not excused from rendering the debt on account of the ordinary inconveniences of childbirth, pregnancy, or nursing, nor on account of pains which are indeed grave but brief in time, nor on account of prolonged but moderate pains, for example, of the head for several months after childbirth, nor on account of health somewhat weakened; because all these things are annexed to the matrimonial condition. It is otherwise, however, if danger of life or of a most grave illness would truly have to be feared according to the judgment of a prudent physician. - St. Ligorius, no. 952.

6. There is no obligation to render the debt to the other spouse laboring under a disease grave in itself and contagious, such as plague, venereal disease, or something similar. Likewise, those laboring under a strong fever or another grave illness are excused from rendering the debt on account of notable weakness of the body. - St. Ligorius, no. 950.

7. A spouse is not excused from rendering the debt on account of fear of more numerous offspring; for the procreation of offspring pertains to the principal end of matrimony, whence that inconvenience is intrinsic to matrimony itself. - St. Ligorius, no. 941.