§ I. On the Liceity of the Conjugal Act Considered in Itself

1641. Principles. - I. The conjugal act among legitimate spouses is, per se, honorable and licit: for it is the means established and ordained by the very Founder of nature for the legitimate propagation of the human race.

II. The ends which render an act of this kind honorable are: 1° the generation of offspring, which is numbered among the principal ends of Matrimony; 2° satisfaction of the obligation toward the other spouse; 3° the calming of concupiscence, and thence the avoidance of incontinence both in oneself and in the consort; 4° the desire of fostering or conciliating honorable love, of disclosing or promoting conjugal affection, etc. - Thus commonly with St. Alphonsus,¹ Sanchez, and others against some few, who do not admit the last two ends.

1642. Resolves. - 1° The use of marriage is illicit if it is done for pleasure alone, that is, either by expressly excluding the other ends, or by intending none of them, not even virtually. This is clear from the 9th proposition condemned by Innocent XI (p. XV). Yet per se it would be only a venial sin, just as it is venial to take food for delight alone. But the use of marriage is immune from this fault if the satisfaction of pleasure is intended as a remedy of concupiscence, whether expressly or implicitly.² Cf. n. 1548. q. 6°, Things to be Noted Beforehand, and n. 29. 31. q. 4°.

2° The use of Matrimony with an adulterous mind is gravely illicit, as if someone, approaching his own wife, represents another to himself. - St. Alphonsus,³ and others commonly.

3° The use of Matrimony is licit for the sterile, both because no law to the opposite can be shown, and because the sterile are per se suitable for completing the conjugal act; but if no generation follows, this occurs altogether per accidens; and besides generation there are other honorable ends co-honestating conjugal intercourse.

4° Also for the elderly, whose seed is no longer prolific, or for whom it is for the most part poured outside the vessel, the use of marriage is licit, provided they are able sufficiently to complete copula, or have a hope, not empty, of completing it. For the same reasons favor the elderly which we have adduced concerning the sterile. Moreover this is confirmed from the practice of the Church, which blesses the Matrimonies of the elderly.⁴