Chapter — Gury-Ballerini, Compendium of Moral Theology (8th ed., 1884)
Chapter IV. On the Matter and Form of Matrimony
- I. The remote matter of the Sacrament of Matrimony is the bodies of the spouses to be mutually handed over in the matrimonial contract.
The proximate matter, however, is the handing over itself of the bodies, which is perfected through words or signs expressing consent. - Thus commonly the Theologians.
There are some who constituted the proximate matter in the imposition of the hands of the Priest; but this opinion is altogether without foundation and must be rejected as obsolete 1.
1 This question has now been defined. For after it is established that there is no matrimony among Christians which is not a Sacrament, and that marriages which may be celebrated without a priest in places where the Tridentine Decree concerning the form of matrimony does not have force must be held valid, it is manifest that neither the imposition of hands nor anything else furnished by the priest pertains in any way to the matter of the Sacrament. Therefore that opinion also is altogether obsolete which placed the form of matrimony in words pronounced by the Priest. See below, no. 768.
- II. The form consists in the mutual acceptance of the contracting parties expressed in words or signs. - Thus likewise more commonly.
But in what manner does the consent, or contract, of the contracting parties expressed in words or signs constitute the form of the Sacrament, since it is also found in the matter? It must be said that the contract, or consent, of the spouses is found both in the matter and in the form of the Sacrament of Matrimony, but under a different respect. It is in the matter insofar as it expresses the mutual handing over of the power of one to the other; but it is in the form insofar as it signifies acceptance of this handing over. Or, as others explain, the words and signs of the spouses in contracting are at once matter and form: they are matter insofar as they express the handing over of the bodies; they are form insofar as they exhibit acceptance of the handing over. - Thus commonly.
Whatever may be the case, in practice no inconvenience is to be feared, provided that in celebrating the contract the form prescribed by the Church is observed. - See what is to be said in the following chapter concerning the minister of the Sacrament of Matrimony.