§ II. On Onanism in Particular

1652. - Onanism consists in this, that the man, after copula has been begun, withdraws himself before semination and pours out the seed outside, in order to impede generation. Everyone sees per se that this is to indulge lust and at the same time to be unwilling to assume the burdens of Matrimony.

It takes its name from Onan, the second son of the patriarch Judah, who after the death of his brother Her, according to custom, was compelled to take his widow Thamar, so that he might raise up seed for his brother; but going in to the wife of his brother, he poured out the seed upon the ground, lest children should be born in the name of his brother. And therefore the Lord struck him, because he did a detestable thing.¹

1653. Things to Be Established. - I say I. Voluntary onanism is always a mortal sin, as being against nature; and therefore it can never be licit for spouses. The reason is 1° because it plainly fights against the primary end of Matrimony, and per se tends toward the extinction of society, and consequently subverts the natural order; 2° because it was strictly prohibited by the supreme Legislator and Author of nature, as is drawn out from the text of Genesis just related; 3° moreover, this is established from the 49th proposition condemned by Innocent XI, which sounds thus: Mollities is not prohibited by natural law. ... Hence thus: Onanism is true and properly so-called mollities, or pollution outside the licit use of Matrimony; therefore. This is confirmed by several Decisions of the Sacred Penitentiary and of the Holy Office to be referred to below. - I said: voluntary; because the sin of Onanism is not present if in the conjugal act seed can indeed be received by the woman, but cannot be retained, or if, after the work of marriage has been begun, seed is poured out because of necessity, for example because others come upon them and the work of marriage must be interrupted.²

I say II. An onanist man can never be excused from grave sin, and therefore is never to be absolved unless he sincerely grieves over his sin and proposes to avoid it for the future. The reason is clear from what has been said.

I say III. A wife can be excused from sin if, for a grave cause, she renders the debt to an onanist husband, provided that interiorly she does not assent to his sin, and exteriorly shows her repugnance by serious admonitions or other signs of displeasure. The reason is 1° because she is occupied with a licit thing and uses her own right, of which she cannot be deprived because of the malice of the man; nor does she properly cooperate in the sin of another, since she bears herself only passively, and the intrinsically evil action consists only in the act of the man then withdrawing against the order of nature; 2° because she is not bound by charity to impede the sin of her husband with grave inconvenience to herself; 3° because it is clear from the responses by which the Sacred Penitentiary declared that a woman of this kind is not to be disquieted. - See the Decisions to be referred to below, n. 1658. ad 1um. 1659.

I said: if for a grave cause; and among grave causes Bouvier enumerates a reasonable fear of death, of grave cruelties, quarrels or blows (measuring gravity according to the condition of the person), divorce, infamy or grave scandal; likewise fear lest the husband should keep a concubine or commit adultery, or lest he should utter blasphemies against Religion, injuries against the confessor, or scandalous words before children or servants.

1654. Resolves. - 1° A woman sins gravely who induces the man to abuse Matrimony, even indirectly or tacitly, for example by complaining about the number of offspring, the labors of childbirth or the education of children, or by repeatedly saying that she will die in the next childbirth, etc. A fortiori she sins gravely if, the husband being unwilling, she withdraws herself from copula begun before semination.

2° Likewise, a woman sins gravely by interiorly consenting to the detestable action of the man, even if exteriorly she shows repugnance. For sin is always to be held in hatred. Yet distinguish consent in the very action of the man from joy over the effect thence following, or over immunity from the inconveniences and dangers which accompany generation. Yet that joy is not without danger (see what was said in n. 232). Especially, however, the woman must beware of the manifestation of joy of this kind, lest the onanist man take an occasion from it for sinning in this way.

3° The wife is held, at least ordinarily, to warn an onanist man concerning the obligation of acting rightly, and to turn him away, as much as is in her, from a perverse manner of acting. Nor does it suffice that she has warned him once; but she ought sometimes to repeat admonitions, unless she is certain that a new admonition will profit nothing. Yet even then she ought in some manner to make known her repugnance, lest she seem willingly to consent to the sin of the husband. - Thus commonly, and thus responded the Sacred Penitentiary when interrogated, n. 1659. IV.

4° It will also be the office of the wife to move the husband by caresses, various signs of love, prayers, and exhortations to completing the act rightly, or to abstaining from it altogether. Experience establishes that very many onanist men, thus enticed by their wives, have returned themselves to better fruit.

1655. Questions. - Query 1° In what manner should a confessor conduct himself with spouses confessing, asking, or wholly silent concerning the use of Matrimony?

Resp. See n. 1425. 2). 3). 4); 1657. Resp. Ad 3um; 1658. § Ad 2um autem.

Query 2° Can a wife ask the debt from an onanist man?

Resp. Affirmatively, more probably, from a just cause; because she has a right to copula, and is excused from the sin of cooperation. - But "she will have a just cause of asking, if she herself should be in danger of incontinence, or if otherwise she would have to be deprived of her right of asking more than once or twice, with a perpetual scruple whether it is a sufficiently grave inconvenience to her or not, then to contain herself." Thus St. Alphonsus.¹ So also declared the Major Penitentiary Card. di Pietro in the admonition to the aforesaid responses of the Sacred Penitentiary, although he adds that the Sacred Penitentiary refused to give a decision concerning this matter.

Query 3° Does the wife sin by furnishing internal consent to pleasure, when she can permit the conjugal act to an onanist man?

Resp. Negatively, provided that she does not furnish assent to the sin of the man. The reason is that, since she does not sin in the least by permitting an act of this kind, neither does she sin by admitting the pleasure coming from it, although she foreknows that the man will not perfect copula; for that act is in itself honorable and licit for the woman, and it does not stand through her that it is not perfected in the due mode.

Query 4° Do spouses sin gravely who, in order to avoid offspring, have copula only at that time in which conception is not accustomed to have place, e.g., in that space of time which runs from about a fortnight after menses up to the next term of these?

Resp. The following doubts were proposed to the Sacred Penitentiary concerning this matter, which, from the French idiom into Latin to the letter, as much as I could, I have translated.

I. 1° Can this manner of acting be excused from mortal sin? - 2° Is it prohibited at least under venial sin by reason of the intention of not conceiving?

II. Is it lawful for a confessor to counsel this manner of acting: 1° to a wife who, although she detests and reproves the onanism of her husband, nevertheless tries in vain to turn him away from it? 2° To both spouses, who, lest they be burdened by a numerous family, voluntarily give themselves to onanism?

III. 1° Can this manner of acting be counseled without danger, by which the diminution of the family is caused more certainly than by onanism, since the very reason of honesty reproves this latter? - 2° Is that danger compensated, if thus mortal sin is avoided and the conscience of very many wives is pacified, who otherwise, whether by fault of the husband or by fear lest they conceive, will be alienated from the Sacraments?

To these doubts "the Sacred Penitentiary, the things set forth having been diligently weighed, responds: Spouses using Matrimony in the aforesaid manner are not to be disquieted, and the confessor can, cautiously however, insinuate the sentence of which there is question to those spouses whom he has vainly attempted to draw away from the detestable crime of onanism by another reason." Rome, in the Sacred Penitentiary, June 16, 1880.

A. Card. Bilio, P. M.
Hip. Can. Palombi, S. P. Secretarius.
L. + S.

Yet note that the spouses of whom there is question in the Query can be in a bad state: a) because of the danger of incontinence, which within the fortnight that immediately follows the menses can be present for at least one of the spouses, and which will more easily be present for those inclined toward venery, especially if they do not greatly abhor sin; b) because of the danger of refusing the debt in the case in which the consort should ask it within that fortnight, and this danger will be the greater the more solicitous the party from whom it is asked is to avoid offspring.¹

Query 5° In what manner must one proceed with a wife who is placed in a proximate occasion of sin because of a man abusing Matrimony in any way?

To be noted beforehand. - The case would be if, the husband exacting it, she herself directly pollutes him with her hands, or if she herself is accustomed truly to consent to onanism, sodomy, her own pollution, etc.

Berardi responds:¹ "In this case the confessor will employ every zeal, that he may turn away the miserable woman from such horrible sins. Women ordinarily are accustomed to have the greatest affection for sins of this kind, and very difficultly are they accustomed to be induced to elicit a firm purpose of ceasing from them, because, by committing the aforesaid sins, on the one hand they satisfy pleasures both their own and the husband's, and on the other hand they free themselves from numerous offspring and from the inconveniences of gestation, childbirth, lactation, etc. Hence it is necessary that the confessor have ready an efficacious admonition and very grave words, that he may deter them from so great a crime.

"But if the admonitions of the confessor produce no or little amendment, it will not rarely be useful to threaten delay of absolution, and even in fact to defer the same."

Query 6° Can the wife of whom there is question in the case be obliged to make a divorce, so that she may be freed from this occasion of sinning with her own husband?

The same Berardi responds,² distinguishing: "If the woman in the use of Matrimony commits mortal sins, without the husband tempting her to committing these same sins, then she has no right of making a divorce, and therefore she must use other means for removing the danger of sinning in this occasion, which must be judged as altogether necessary. But if the husband himself compels her, or tempts her to committing the same sins, then Canonists and Theologians very commonly teach that the woman has the right of making a divorce; whence they argue that she even ought to make the same divorce if, because of cohabitation, she is placed in grave danger of sinning. See St. Alphonsus,³ Sanchez,⁴ the Salmanticenses, etc. But this conclusion must be understood with a grain of salt: namely, inasmuch as the woman indeed ought to make a divorce if she can without grave difficulty; but not if she would have to undergo grave harms and grave difficulties; because then there would be question of a necessary occasion, as Hurtado⁵ and St. Alphonsus note."⁶

1656. - I Consultation. "The Bishop N. most humbly supplicates for the solution of this doubt: 1° whether a woman can be absolved who indeed would suffer the husband, if he acted rightly in conjugal copula, but vehemently desires that the man withdraw himself because that woman fears to have offspring. 2° Whether a woman can be absolved who in conjugal copula could by her caresses obtain from the man that he would not withdraw himself, and does not do it; because that copula displeases her."

Response. - "The Sacred Penitentiary, having weighed the doubts proposed by the Venerable Father in Christ, Bishop N., responded: Negatively. Given at Rome, in the Sacred Penitentiary, on the 27th day of May, 1847."

1657. - II Consultation. "It is asked of the Apostolic See with what theological note the three following propositions are worthy, namely: 1° for honest reasons it is licit for spouses to use Matrimony in that manner in which Onan used it. 2° It is probable that that use of Matrimony is not prohibited by natural law. 3° It is never expedient to interrogate spouses of either sex concerning this matter, even if it is prudently feared lest the spouses, whether the man or the wife, abuse Matrimony."

Response. - "Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition, on the 21st day of May, 1851. To the 1st. That the proposition is scandalous, erroneous, and contrary to the natural right of Matrimony. - To the 2nd. That the proposition is scandalous, erroneous, and otherwise implicitly condemned by Innocent XI in the 49th proposition" (p. XVII). - "To the 3rd. That the proposition, as it lies, is false, too lax, and dangerous in practice."

1658. - III Consultation. Petition of the Most Illustrious Lord Bouvier, Bishop of Le Mans, concerning the manner of acting of confessors with spouses, relatively to Onanism.

"Most Blessed Father, the Bishop of Le Mans in France, prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness with the greatest reverence, most humbly represents the things which follow.

"Nearly all younger spouses do not wish to have a more numerous offspring, and yet morally they cannot abstain from the conjugal act.

"Being interrogated by the confessor concerning the manner in which they use the rights of Matrimony, more commonly they are accustomed to be gravely offended; and, when admonished, they neither abstain from the conjugal act, nor can they be determined toward the excessive multiplication of offspring.

"Then, murmuring against confessors, they forsake the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist; they give a bad example to children, servants, and other faithful of Christ; a lamentable detriment to Religion arises thence.

"The number of those who approach the Sacred Tribunal of Penance in many places decreases from year to year, especially on account of this cause, as most pastors more conspicuous in piety, knowledge, and experience confess.

"How then did confessors formerly act? many say. No more children were commonly born then than today from individual Matrimonies, spouses were not more chaste, and nevertheless they did not fail in the precepts of annual Confession and Paschal Communion.

"All readily admit that infidelity toward the consort, and the attempt at abortion, is a very great sin. But scarcely, and indeed not even scarcely, can they be persuaded that they are held under mortal sin either to preserve perfect chastity in Matrimony, or to incur the danger of generating innumerable offspring.

"The aforesaid Bishop of Le Mans, foreseeing that immense evils will thence come, and troubled with anxiety, solicitously asks of Your Beatitude:

"1° Whether spouses who use Matrimony in such a manner that they guard against conception exercise an act per se morally evil?

"2° If the act is to be held as morally evil, whether spouses not accusing themselves of it can be considered as constituted in that good faith which excuses them from grave fault?

"3° Whether the manner of acting of confessors is to be approved who, lest they offend married persons, do not interrogate them concerning the manner in which they use the rights of Matrimony?"

Response. - "The Sacred Penitentiary, having maturely weighed the proposed questions, to the 1st responds: Since the whole disorder of the act proceeds from the malice of the man, who, instead of consummating, withdraws himself and pours out outside the vessel; therefore, if the woman, after due admonitions, profits nothing, but the man insists, threatening blows or death, she herself, as approved Theologians teach, can simply permit it without sin, and this from a grave cause which excuses her; since charity, by which she is held to impede that, does not oblige with so great an inconvenience.

"But to the 2nd and 3rd it responds: That the aforesaid confessor recall to mind that adage, holy things are to be treated in a holy manner; and also weigh the words of St. Alphonsus de Ligorio, a learned man and most experienced in these matters, who in the Praxis Confessariorum § 4. n. 41 says: 'But concerning the sins of spouses with respect to the conjugal debt, ordinarily speaking, the confessor is not held, nor is it becoming, to interrogate, except wives, whether they have rendered it, in the more modest manner in which he can. ... Concerning other things let him be silent, unless he has been interrogated.' Nor should he omit to consult other approved authors. Given at Rome by the Sacred Penitentiary on the 8th day of June, 1842."

1659. - IV Consultation. Question. "Bertha has a man, whom by constant experience she knows to be an onanist. In vain has she attempted every means to draw him back from so nefarious a crime. Indeed very grave or at least grave evils now probably threaten her, so that she must either incur these evils or flee from the house of the husband, unless she permits at least sometimes the abuse of Matrimony, etc."

Response. - "Since in the proposed case the woman on her part indeed does nothing against nature, and gives work to a licit thing, but the whole disorder of the act proceeds from the malice of the man, who, instead of consummating, withdraws himself and pours out outside the vessel; and therefore, if the woman, after due admonitions, profits nothing, but the man insists, threatening blows or death or other very grave evils, she herself (as approved Theologians teach) can bear herself permissively without sin; since in these circumstances of things she simply permits the sin of her husband, and this from a grave cause which excuses her; because charity, by which she is held to impede that, does not oblige with so great an inconvenience. Given at Rome in the Sacred Penitentiary on the 1st day of February, 1823."

V. Response of the Major Penitentiary. "Approved and exact moral Theologians agree in this, that ... it is lawful for a wife to render the debt, if from her denial she would be badly treated by her husband, and could fear grave inconvenience to herself thence; for, they say, in this case the wife is not judged formally to cooperate in the sin of her husband, but only to permit it from a just and reasonable cause. Yet let the Orator admonish a wife of this kind, that she not cease prudently to warn her husband, so that he desist from this turpitude.

"Michael, Card. di Pietro,
Major Penitentiary.

"Given at Rome in the Sacred Penitentiary, on the 19th day of November, 1816.

"There exist also other responses of the Sacred Penitentiary, which are wholly consonant with the preceding; Gousset reports these in the work, Justification de Saint Liguori."¹

I. For asking a dispensation in a public impediment, concerning which, according to the faculties (p. LXX. sq.), the Bishop can dispense.

"Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord."

"John N." (the family name is put) "and Anna N. ... of the parish (mission) N. ... of this diocese N." ... (if the persons about to marry belong to different dioceses, this is more correctly² expressed, and indeed immediately after the family name of each. Moreover, the dispensation is more conveniently petitioned through the pastor of the bride, if the impediment is common to both contracting parties, as, e.g., the impediment of kinship) "being blood-relatives in the fourth degree equally in the transverse line, as appears from the appended chart" (see an example of this, n. 1583. q. 2°. p. 252) "they desire to enter Matrimony with each other" (the impediment of blood-relationship is set forth here; but, as is clear, in this place that very impediment by which the persons about to marry are bound is to be set forth), "and therefore they suppliantly beg from Your Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lordship the dispensation necessary for themselves. - The reasons are" ... (Here are set forth the causes which exist for obtaining the dispensation, e.g. 1° the age of the girl, who, having now completed 25 years, probably would not find another man whom she could conveniently marry; 2° e.g. danger of heresy, since the Orators live in a place mixed with non-Catholics, etc.). There follow, if any are present, the circumstances which must necessarily be expressed.

"With the greatest reverence and devotion with which it is proper, I remain,

"Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord,

"Of Your Most Illustrious Lordship,

"Most submissive,

"N. N.,

"Pastor or Missionary Priest.

"Baltimore, day ... Dec. 1874."

Note. - On the back of the sheet, or below the text of the supplicatory petition, let the chart of blood-relationship or affinity be put.

II. For asking a dispensation in an occult impediment, concerning which, according to the faculties or by law, the Bishop can dispense, and whose dispensation can be asked from him without danger of injuring the seal.

"Most Illustrious," etc., as above I.

"Titius and Caja, while the first spouse of Titius was still living, knew each other carnally, and gave faith mutually to each other concerning Matrimony to be contracted between themselves if the wife of Titius should die before him; she now being dead, however, neither of the Orators having plotted against her death, they desire to contract Matrimony between themselves. But since the impediment of crime arising from adultery and promise is occult, and unless Matrimony is contracted between them there threatens danger of scandals or of perseverance in sin, therefore, to avoid these things, and for the quiet of their conscience, they most humbly supplicate that Your Most Illustrious Lordship may deign most graciously to impart to them the grace of dispensation."

"With the greatest," etc., as I.

III. For asking a dispensation from the Bishop, after Matrimony has already been contracted in good faith with an impediment in itself public, and concerning which, by force of the faculties, the Bishop can dispense.

"Most Illustrious," etc.

"It is humbly set forth to Your Most Illustrious Lordship on the part of the devout Orators John N. ... and Anna N. (see above I.) of the parish (mission) ... of this diocese" ... (see above I.), "that they, otherwise ignorant that some impediment existed between them by which they could not be joined matrimonially to each other, contracted Matrimony between themselves by words of the present, public proclamations having been made in their parochial church, and no impediment having been detected or denounced, and solemnized it in the face of the Church, and consummated it by carnal copula. But afterward it came to their knowledge that they (as appears from the appended chart), proceeding in the third and fourth degrees of blood-relationship from a common stock, are joined to each other, on account of which they abstained from carnal copula" (or "and nevertheless persevered in the same carnal copula"). "But since the aforesaid Orators cannot remain in this Matrimony of this kind without dispensation, and, if separation were made between them, grave scandals could thence arise, they supplicate that, the pardon of ecclesiastical law being most graciously given to them, they may be able to enter Matrimony in the face of the Church, and afterward live in it freely and licitly."

"With the greatest," etc., as above.

IV. For asking a dispensation from the Bishop, after Matrimony has already been contracted in bad faith with a public impediment.

"Most Illustrious," etc.

"It is humbly set forth to Your Most Illustrious Lordship, in the name of the Orators John N. and Anna N., of the parish N. of this diocese N., that they, otherwise knowing that they (as appears from the appended chart), in the second degree of blood-relationship proceeding equally from a common stock, are joined to each other, petitioned a dispensation from Your Most Illustrious Lordship" (or "from the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord N.") "for validly contracting Matrimony between themselves, the said impediment notwithstanding; but, having suffered refusal, blinded by mad passion and circumvented by diabolical fraud, they contracted an incestuous Matrimony before the civil magistrate" (or "a heretical preacher") "and consummated it, from which already three children have in the meantime been received by them. But now, from the superabundant mercy of God, greatly fearing concerning the danger of eternal salvation, they have been moved with great sorrow on account of their past life. But since, if separation were made between them, grave scandals would thence arise, and also great harm would come forth for their children; yet in Matrimony they cannot remain without dispensation, they supplicate that Your Most Illustrious Lordship may deign to dispense with them, so that, in the face of the Church, but with public denunciations omitted, they may contract Matrimony with one another, consent having been renewed, and may remain in it freely and licitly; this motive also being added on the part of the undersigned, that unless the dispensation is granted, it is greatly to be feared lest the Orators be entirely perverted in the Faith, and fall away from it, together with the children received, since they live among non-Catholics and infidels."

"With the greatest," etc.

V. For asking a dispensation from the Bishop in an occult impediment, and indeed with sanation of the Matrimony in the root.

"Most Illustrious," etc.

"Sempronia, of the diocese N. N., ignorant of the impediment, in the face of the Church and with denunciations having preceded, contracted Matrimony in good faith with a man by whose brother" (or "son") "she had previously been known carnally. Wherefore, since they cannot be separated without scandal, and danger of incontinence or of grave defamation is present, the putative husband being plainly ignorant of the impediment, and therefore the matrimonial consent cannot be renewed without grave danger of quarrels, hence she humbly supplicates for a speedy remedy of dispensation concerning an impediment of this kind, entirely occult, and indeed in the root of the Matrimony, so that, without renewal of consent, the Matrimony can be healed."

"With the greatest," etc.

VI. For asking a dispensation in a public impediment concerning which the Bishop cannot dispense.

Let Formula I be taken; but:

1° In place of: "Most Illustrious," etc., let this be written: "Most Blessed Father."

2° In place of: "from the Most Illustrious," etc., write: "from Your Holiness."

3° In place of: "With the greatest," etc., write:

"If Your Holiness deigns benignly to grant this grace to the Orators, they will render the greatest thanks for it with the greatest reverence and devotion with which it is proper,"

"To Your Holiness,

"Most submissive,

"N. N., etc.

"Given at N. N."

Note. - 1° If they are poor, after the reasons have been set forth it is said: "They are poor and miserable, and live only from their labor and industry." See n. 1627.

2° Let the supplication prepared by the Pastor of the Orators be sent to the Bishop; but the Bishop, or in his place the Vicar General, sends it to Rome fortified with testimony, seal, and episcopal handwriting.

3° If a dispensation is to be asked from the Holy See in a Matrimony contracted with a public impediment, whether in good or in bad faith, let Formula III or IV be taken, with the things changed which must be changed according to those things which were changed in this Formula VI.

VII. For asking a dispensation from the Sacred Penitentiary in Matrimony to be contracted.

"Most Eminent Prince."

"It is most humbly set forth to Your Eminence, on the part of the Orators Titius and Caja, that they intend to contract Matrimony, but that Titius, a married man, carnally knew Caja by perfect copula while his own wife Sempronia was still living, and they gave faith mutually to each other concerning Matrimony to be contracted between themselves if Sempronia, the wife of Titius, should die before him; and she indeed died before him by poison administered by Titius. But since from the premises the impediment of crime has arisen, and thence they can contract Matrimony neither licitly nor validly, the Orators supplicate for the grace of dispensation concerning this impediment of crime, so that they may publicly contract Matrimony between themselves, and afterward remain in it licitly and freely, and the offspring may be decreed legitimate. The impediment is altogether occult, and the danger of perseverance in sin is pressing, indeed also of grave scandal, if they cannot be joined in lawful Matrimony. Wherefore, for the quiet of their conscience, grieving greatly over the premises, they humbly supplicate Your Eminence, that concerning these things you may deign to provide by Apostolic authority with an opportune remedy.

"Kissing the purple, with the greatest," etc., as I.

"May Your Eminence deign to direct the response to New York (n. 173 Third Street, New York, U.S. of America) to me, the undersigned."

On the outside let him form the inscription thus: "To the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord N., Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, Major Penitentiary" (from our Provinces: "Prefect of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide"), "Rome."

VIII. For asking a dispensation from the Sacred Penitentiary in Matrimony already contracted.

"Most Eminent Prince."

"Titius, a married man, carnally knew Caja by perfect copula while his own wife Sempronia was still living, and they gave faith mutually to each other concerning Matrimony to be contracted between themselves if Sempronia, the wife of Titius, should die before him; and, after Sempronia had died before him by poison administered by Titius, aware" (or "ignorant" [or "Titius aware" or "ignorant" or "Caja aware" or "ignorant"]) "of the impediment, in the face of the Church, with proclamations having preceded" (or "having been dispensed") "they contracted Matrimony" (or "with no proclamations having preceded, before the civil Magistrate," or "a heretical preacher") "and consummated it by carnal copula." (If each party or one or the other party still perseveres in good faith, let this be expressed; likewise whether each party or one or the other party, aware of the impediment, now abstains from copula, or nevertheless has persevered in the same.) "Wherefore, since the impediment is altogether occult, and separation cannot be made without scandal, I most humbly ask Your Eminence that you benignly indulge dispensation for them, inasmuch as they may be able to contract validly.

"Kissing the purple," etc., as Form VII.

Note. - The formulae by which the Bishop grants dispensations, Prelates will find in Heiss, de Matrim. p. 406 sq.

1. Formula of supplication for dispensation concerning the banns.

"Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord."

"It is humbly set forth that" (the names and surnames of the Orators are written, as above Form I., if the cause is honest or public; fictitious names, if the cause is occult and dishonorable; then the cause itself or causes). "Wherefore the Orators, whom, after diligent inquiry, I have found bound by no impediment, earnestly ask that a dispensation be granted to them concerning two (three) proclamations.

"Commending the prayers I remain," etc.

2. Formula of supplication for dispensation concerning the impediment of mixed religion.

"Most Illustrious," etc.

"Constantia N., Catholic, my parishioner, desires to enter Matrimony with Frederick N. from N., attached to the sect ..." (or "a baptized non-Catholic").

"The non-Catholic party before me, as appears from the declaration annexed to this supplication, promised under the faith of an oath that all infants of either sex to be born from that Matrimony are to be baptized and educated in the Catholic Faith, and that to them, equally as to the consort, the exercise of the Catholic Religion will be entirely free. Moreover, the Catholic party promised that she would take care according to her strength that, as much as is in her, the man be converted to the true Faith. Wherefore she most humbly supplicates Your Most Illustrious Lordship that you deign to grant to her by Apostolic authority a dispensation concerning that impediment. The causes are" (the cause or causes are set forth, e.g. vain attempts that the Oratrix renounce such a Matrimony; founded hope of the conversion of the non-Catholic party, etc.).