Title — Liber Sextus
Title II: On the Betrothal of Persons Below Puberty
Chapter I
The betrothals of two children, or of only one child with another, are not validated by the supervening of greater age and do not induce public honesty unless they have been ratified tacitly or expressly. This states the point as far as § “Likewise.” Dominicus. — § 1. Betrothals contracted through words of the present between one below puberty and one who has attained puberty, or between persons below puberty who are not near puberty, are valid as betrothals of the future; nor do they pass into marriage by mere continuance to the requisite age unless they are otherwise approved; they nevertheless induce public honesty. This states the point. Dominicus. — § 2. Betrothals made on behalf of absent children do not bind unless the children were present, or unless they afterward approved them tacitly or expressly. This states the point. Dominicus.
Boniface VIII.
If children contract betrothals with each other, or if one older than seven and the other younger contracts them, either by themselves or through their parents acting for them, such betrothals, which were null from the beginning, do not at all acquire validity through the lapse of the said time unless, through their mutual cohabitation or otherwise through their own word or deed, it clearly appears that, after becoming older than seven, they continued in the same will. And therefore, since they are null by reason of defect of consent, they do not induce the justice of public honesty.
§ 1. The same is true if one who has attained puberty and one below puberty, or two persons below puberty who were not near puberty and in whom malice did not supply age, contracted through words of the present. For those betrothals, which by interpretation of law were only betrothals of the future, although they contained words expressing consent in the present and those contracting intended to contract marriage, do not pass into marriage in the present through the arrival of puberty. Nor does a marriage which did not hold as a marriage because age prohibited it acquire validity through the lapse of the said time, unless through subsequent carnal union or in some other manner it is clearly established that the same contracting parties reached the time of puberty with the same will continuing; nevertheless, through the said contract, which was valid insofar as it could be, though not as it was transacted, the justice of public honesty was induced.
§ 2. Moreover, from betrothals which parents often contract on behalf of children who have or have not attained puberty, the children themselves are bound if they consented expressly or tacitly—as when they were present and did not contradict them—and from them arises the justice of public honesty. The same is true if the children, absent and even ignorant at the time of the betrothals, afterward, having learned of them, ratified the same betrothals tacitly or expressly; otherwise, from betrothals contracted by parents for their children, neither are the children themselves bound nor does the justice of public honesty arise from them.
DE DESPONSATIONE IMPUBERUM.
Sponsalia amborum infantium, vel alterius tantum, per supervenientiam maioris aetatis non validantur nec publicam honestatem inducunt, nisi fuerint ratificata tacite vel expresse. H. d. usque ad §. Idem quoque. Domin. — §. 1. Sponsalia, per verba de praesenti contracta inter impuberem et puberem, vel inter impuberes, non proximos pubertati, valent ut sponsalia de futuro; nec in matrimonium transeunt ex sola perseverantia aetatis, nisi aliter approbentur; inducunt tamen publicam honestatem. H. d. Dom. — §. 2. Sponsalia pro absentibus filiis non tenent, nisi ipsis praesentibus, vel nisi approbaverint tacite vel expresse ex postfacto, H. d. Domin.
Bonifacius VIII.
Si infantes ad invicem, vel unus maior septennio, et alter minor, sponsalia contraxerint ipsi, vel parentes pro eis, nisi per cohabitationem eorum mutuam, seu alias verbo vel facto ipsorum liquido appareat, eosdem in eadem voluntate factos maiores septennio perdurare: sponsalia huiusmodi, quae ab initio nulla erant, per lapsum dicti temporis minime convalescunt, et ideo, quum sint nulla, ratione defectus consensus publicae honestatis iustitiam non inducunt. §. 1. Idem quoque, si pubes et impubes, vel duo impuberes non proximi pubertati, et in quibus aetatem malitia non supplebat, per verba contraxerint de praesenti. Sponsalia enim illa, quae iuris interpretatione tantum fuerunt sponsalia de futuro, licet verba consensum exprimentia de praesenti haberent, et matrimonium contrahere intenderent contrahentes, per adventum pubertatis in matrimonium non transeunt de praesenti. Nec matrimonium, quod ut matrimonium aetate non tenuit prohibente, per lapsum dicti temporis convalescit, nisi per carnis copulam subsecutam, vel aliquem modum alium contrahentes eosdem cum eiusdem perseverantia voluntatis ad pubertatis tempora pervenisse constiterit evidenter; per dictum tamen contractum, qui valuit, ut potuit, non sicuti agebatur, publicae honestatis iustitia est inducta. §. 2. Porro ex sponsalibus, quae parentes pro filiis puberibus vel impuberibus plerumque contrahunt, ipsi filii, si expresse consenserint vel tacite, ut si praesentes fuerint, nec contradixerint, obligantur, et ex eis oritur iustitia publicae honestatis. Et est idem, si filii, tempore sponsaliorum absentes, et etiam ignorantes, eadem sponsalia post scientes ratificaverunt tacite vel expresse; alias ex sponsalibus, contractis a parentibus pro filiis, nec ipsi filii obligantur, nec publicae honestatis iustitia inde surgit.