The Elements of Matrimony as a Contract

The Elements of the Contract of Marriage.—(a) The subject-matter of the contract is the conjugal right or the lawful power of exercising with the other party acts suitable for generation.

(b) The ends of the contract are, primarily, the good of the race and of the children, and secondarily the good of the couple through mutual assistance and protection in spiritual and temporal matters. To these general ends may be added others which a particular person has in view, such as dignity, wealth, honor, lawful pleasure.

(c) The essence of the contract is the consent, for every pact consists in mutual agreement. But if marriage be regarded as a permanent state, its essence is the bond of union, and consent is the efficient cause productive of the bond. Marriage consent must have the qualities (internal, external, mutual, free) that are necessary in every contract, as explained in 1883.

Requirements for Valid Marriage Consent.—(a) Internal Consent.—If both or one of the parties internally and positively wills to exclude marriage, or the right to the conjugal act, or an essential property of marriage, the contract is null, since there is no purpose to contract a real marriage. Similarly, if both or one of the parties negatively (or by lack of all intention) excludes consent, there is no marriage. It should be noted that he who intends to get a divorce later on does not intend a permanent union or marriage, whereas he who intends to be unfaithful or to practise onanism may nevertheless intend to oblige himself to the duties of fidelity and of the lawful use of marriage, and therefore to a true marriage. Fictitious consent, unless a serious reason excuses (e.g., when one is forced under grave fear to marry, when one becomes aware of a diriment impediment at the altar and cannot retire without great scandal), is a mortal sin, as being a lie in a very important matter and an injustice. If the other party was deceived, the party guilty of feigned consent is bound to make reparation for the damage done, and, unless the marriage has become impossible or inadvisable, the means of reparation should be a genuine consent revalidating the marriage. This is especially true when there is a conflict between the internal and the external forums on account of the inability to establish juridically the nullity of the invalid marriage.

(b) External Consent.—Both as contract and as Sacrament, matrimony requires some sensible manifestation of the internal consent. Since the contract of marriage between Christians falls under the jurisdiction of the Church, the manner of expressing the consent is regulated by Canon Law. The solemnities required for valid and lawful marriage will be treated below in 2826, 2827.

(c) Mutual Consent.—Both parties must agree to the marriage, since no one is obliged by a contract without his consent. But mutuality does not imply simultaneity, for, if the previous consent given by one party continues, the subsequent consent given by the other is joined to it and the consent becomes mutual.

(d) Free Consent.—If every contract must be deliberate and voluntary, this is especially true in the case of marriage, since it entails very heavy duties and its obligations are lifelong (cfr. 2195). In marriage there must be full and perfect consent, though it is not necessary that one think expressly on the essentials of the contract when assenting to it.

Defects in Consent.—Consent supposes sufficient knowledge, and hence it may be vitiated by a defect as to knowledge.

(a) Mental Derangement.—Those who are not in possession of their mental faculties cannot marry, whether the derangement be habitual (e.g., idiots, the completely insane, monomaniacs on the subject of marriage) or actual (e.g., infants, those who are completely drunk or doped, the hypnotized or delirious, somnambulists). But defectives who are not unbalanced all the time or on all subjects, may be able now and then to realize the meaning of marriage and to give deliberate consent, though the presumption is against them. Those whose mentality is of a low grade, but who are able to judge and reason correctly (e.g., stupid persons, the deaf and dumb, or blind), and those who have some little fanaticism or eccentricity are not excluded; otherwise very few of either sex could marry.

(b) Ignorance.—Substantial ignorance, or the absence of knowledge about the essentials of marriage (viz., that it is a permanent association of man and woman for the purpose of raising children of their own), makes the contract null, for one does not consent to what one does not know. Accidental ignorance, on the contrary, does not nullify, for he who understands the main facts about marriage can intend to contract it as others do, even though he does not know its details or secondary features. Ignorance invalidates marriage, therefore, if one of the parties does not know that marriage is meant for the procreation of children or that children are procreated by carnal intercourse; but it does not invalidate if the parties are ignorant about physiology or scientific explanations. Substantial ignorance in persons of marriageable age (especially young women) is not uncommon even in these days, but it is not presumed after puberty (Canon 1082, Sec.2).

(c) Error.—Error which excludes consent to the essential object of the contract nullifies, and hence a substantial error about the person with whom one is contracting makes marriage of no effect (e.g., if Titus thinks he is marrying Claudia, but is really marrying her twin sister, Sempronia; if Balbus intends to marry Caia only on condition that she is a virgin and she is not a virgin; if Julius intends to marry the woman who is present solely as differentiated by a personal or individual characteristic which he mistakenly believes her to have, such as seniority among her sisters). Error which does not prevent essential consent does not nullify the contract. Hence, a mere accidental error about the other party (e.g., Titus marries Claudia, thinking she is rich, whereas she is poor, and he would never have married her had he known her poverty) does not make marriage null, though the Church makes the marriage of no effect when a slave is married in the belief that he or she is free (Canon 1083, Sec.2, n, 2). A mere speculative error about the properties of marriage (e.g., if one believes that marriage may be lawfully dissolved for adultery) or about the validity of one’s own marriage (e.g., if the bride erroneously believes that the marriage she is contracting is null) does not deprive the contract of its force, if there is really a purpose to marry as best one may; for such an error does not act upon the will or take away consent.

Forced Consent.—Consent also supposes self-determination, and hence in certain cases force or fear makes a marriage null and unlawful.

(a) Effect on Validity.—Coercion nullifies marriage from natural law, when overpowering physical might extorts an external assent, or when moral violence so terrifies as to unsettle the reason; from church law at least, when being grave, external and unjustly caused, it compels one to marry in order to escape the evil it inflicts or threatens. In other cases fear does not void marriage, even though it be the cause of the contract, as when the fear is slight, or when it is induced by shipwreck or by the fear of sin, or when a seducer marries only because he is threatened with prosecution unless he marries the girl whom he seduced.

(b) Effect on Lawfulness.—He who by intimidation impels another to marry, sins gravely if the fear is unjust and grave, or unjust and productive of serious evils; he sins venially if the fear, though unjust, is light and not productive of serious evils; he sins not at all; if the fear is justly caused, unless he offends charity by his manner of acting; revengeful spirit, etc. He who marries knowing that the other party is forced into the contract, is guilty of serious injustice; and he who marries unwillingly, but with the purpose to live as if he were validly married, sins gravely by his will to live in impurity.

Conditional Consent.—Conditional consent is that in which the agreement to marriage is made dependent on some fact or event.

(a) A condition makes marriage invalid if it neutralizes consent (e.g., if the condition is de praesenti but unfulfilled; if it is de futuro and against the substance of marriage; if it is impossible but seriously added); it suspends marriage if it is de futuro, possible, and not against the substance of marriage; it neither nullifies nor suspends if it is de praesenti or de praeterito and fulfilled. In law the presumption is that de futuro necessary or impossible conditions and shameful conditions are not serious, or are modes rather than conditions (see 1886), and of course in the external forum invalidity on account of a condition has to be proved. Conditions against the substance of marriage are such as deny essential conjugal rights or duties (i.e., the right to have conjugal intercourse, the duty of fidelity to the consort, of loyalty to the bond); but they should not be confused with the purpose to violate marriage engagements, or with a resolution, or a vow, or a pact in the form of a mode, not to make use of the right to conjugal intercourse.

(b) A condition added to marriage consent is gravely sinful, unless there is a very urgent reason for it; otherwise most serious evils would result. Moreover, there is responsibility in justice for culpable damages, as when one party gives consent conditionally without the knowledge or against the will of the other party. A suspensive condition (e.g., “if my parents will consent”) is regularly unlawful without the bishop’s permission, and marriage rights may not be used in a marriage dependent on a condition whose fulfillment is not known to the parties. It is unlawful to make a vow or promise of chastity in the married life unless there is moral certainty that it will be kept.