Title XV: On a Vow and the Redemption of a Vow

A vow solemnized by reception of sacred order or by profession made in one of the religious orders approved by the Apostolic See renders void a marriage subsequently contracted; otherwise, a vow only impedes and does not render it void. This states the point according to Zenzel.

Boniface VIII, to the Bishop of Béziers.

You wished to consult us concerning what vow ought to be called solemn and effectual for rendering marriage void. We therefore, observing that the solemnity of a vow was devised solely by a constitution of the Church, but that the bond of marriage received its union and indissolubility from the very head of the Church, the creator of all things, when he instituted it in paradise and in the state of innocence, have decided to declare by the pronouncement of the present enactment that, with regard to rendering void a marriage contracted afterward, only that vow ought to be called solemn which was solemnized by the reception of sacred order or by express or tacit profession made in one of the religious orders approved by the Apostolic See. Other vows, even if they sometimes impede a marriage to be contracted—and the more manifestly they were made, the harsher the penance owed to transgressors because of the scandal and example of many—nevertheless cannot dissolve marriages contracted afterward.