Article II: Concerning the Circumstances of Conjugal Copulation

I. The use of marriage, whether consummated or begun, licit of itself, can per accidens be illicit by reason of circumstances, and indeed not only on the part of the end; but also on the part of the person, by reason of impotence, as has already been said, or of vow, or of marriage doubtfully valid; from the circumstance of mode, by reason of position; from the circumstance of place, by reason of scandal; from the circumstance of time, by reason of danger or harm.

II. From the circumstance of the person, the use of marriage is illicit:

1. From impotence:

a. The man who certainly cannot effect intromission, or does not have semen, or cannot emit it, or cannot deposit it in the female genital canal, cannot exercise copulation, nor can the wife with such a man.

b. If impotence is doubtful, they can attempt copulation, if there is hope of perfecting it.

c. But if impotence is altogether certain but temporal, they are bound to abstain during this time.

2. From vow:

a. The spouse who has made a vow of chastity is prohibited under grave sin, from religion, from seeking the debt; nevertheless he or she can and must render it to the one who has the right and justly exacts, because one person is not deprived of right because of the deed of another. Nevertheless such a spouse could also seek, if he or she were to notice that the partner is placed in danger of incontinence and does not dare to seek, which can happen especially in the wife because of shame; for thus the spouse is rather rendering to one tacitly seeking than seeking.

b. If each has vowed separately, even with the partner knowing and approving, neither can seek, because they have freely deprived themselves of the use of the debt; but if in fact one seeks, the other is bound to render from justice, because the right of seeking always remains. The one seeking does indeed seek illicitly, but seeks with right, and therefore sins against religion, not against chastity.

c. But if each has vowed together by mutual consent and by the same pact, each is prohibited both from rendering and from seeking, because by the pact each intends freely to renounce mutually his or her right of seeking, as to exercise.¹

¹ The wife can indirectly irritate the vow of the husband, insofar as it is contrary to her rights; the husband can irritate the vow of the wife, perhaps even directly. But not if they vowed by mutual pact, because then they renounced this right of irritation.

3. From doubt concerning the validity of marriage:

a. Doubt concerning the validity of marriage, if it is on each side, simply prohibits use until due inquiry has been made.

b. If doubt remains after due inquiry, use is licit, because in doubt one must stand for the validity of marriage.

c. If only one doubts, during the doubt that one is prohibited from seeking, but is bound to render, because he or she cannot expose himself or herself to the danger of injuring justice, nor is the other deprived of his or her right because of the doubt of the partner; if doubt remains after due inquiry, he or she can seek and render.²

² Thus it is certain if the marriage was entered in good faith. But whether one who in bad faith contracted marriage in doubt can seek the debt, and especially if the marriage is doubtful because of the impediment of ligamen, or the bond of a prior marriage perhaps enduring, which would be in possession, can be disputed. Practically, however, there are authors who think this licit, because they hold it probable, even in the last case, that the principle of can. 1014 can be applied: "in doubt one must stand for the validity of marriage until the contrary is proved."

III. Likewise from the circumstance of mode or position. The position is indicated by nature, according to which it is fitting that the man be lying upon, the woman lying beneath, turned face to face: for that position generally is more apt for a more intimate intromission of bodies and for the infusion of virile semen and due reception of it, and it befits human beings, who ought to exercise the act of generation not in the manner of brutes, but from rational love, by seeing and speaking to one another and by communicating themselves and their senses and affections. Hence:

1. he sins who without reason changes the natural position, because it is an inversion of the order of nature; yet in whatever mode the thing is done, standing, sitting, from the side, from behind, with the man beneath, and so forth, it is not grave, provided the conjugal act can rightly be perfected as apt for generation, because this alone is essential and the position is something accessory: the change of position of itself does not pervert the substance of the act;

2. indeed, if sufficient reason is present that another position than the natural be chosen, there is no sin. This can happen sometimes in the time of pregnancy lest there be danger of abortion; or because of frigidity, if in an unnatural position a frigid person excites himself or herself more easily; or because of some difficulty of copulating otherwise, for example from curvature or hernia of the man, fatigue of the woman, fetid breath of either; or if thus there would be greater hope of fertilization.

It should be noted, however, according to physicians, that to exercise copulation habitually either lying beneath or especially standing can induce diseases for the man.

IV. From the circumstance of place: copulation can be illicit, even gravely, if it is done in a public or not secret place, namely by reason of scandal. Hence, when a person unexpectedly arrives, copulation can be broken off even if perhaps semen is poured out outside the female genital canal; for this happens beyond the intention in order to avoid a greater moral evil.³

³ For this reason spouses are to be warned not to allow children who have the use of reason, nor even before, to lie with them in bed or in the bedroom. But if poverty compels this, let them beware lest the children discover anything; in bed let them keep boys at the father's side, girls at the mother's side.

V. From the circumstance of time. Per se the conjugal act is prohibited at no time by reason of time itself, because no law excludes any time. Thus it is licitly exercised on more solemn feast days, on fast days, before Communion, and so forth, although by counsel one should abstain at these times. Nevertheless, per accidens, if in some determined time there exists a cause of some sufficiently grave danger, it can be illicit, but as long as that cause exists. Thus:

1. In time of illness, if there is a grave and proximate danger of life, for example from contagion: since no one is master of human life, copulation will be gravely illicit, so that the spouse cannot seek it nor render it without at least warning the partner concerning the danger. Yet this partner, a just reason acceding, such as avoiding incontinence, preserving domestic peace, avoiding the adultery of the partner, and so forth, could admit copulation from charity, unless death is imminent. Likewise, if there is grave danger to health, for example from phthisis, copulation is illicit without a just cause, such as avoiding incontinence in oneself or in the partner; wherefore at least the use is to be moderated.⁴

⁴ Phthisis is not so much a contagious disease, but rather hereditary, at least in the sense that offspring receives by heredity the greatest disposition for contracting this disease.

"This is the natural order," says Saint Thomas, "that first something be perfected in itself, and afterwards communicate to another from its perfection; and this is also the order of charity, which perfects nature. And therefore since the wife does not have power over the man except as to the generative power, but not as to those things which are ordered to the conservation of the individual, the man is bound to render the debt to the wife in those things which look to the generation of offspring, yet with the safety of the person first preserved.... The wife does not have power over the body of the man except with the consistency of the person himself preserved.... Hence if she exacts beyond this, it is not a petition of the debt but an unjust exaction, and on this account the man is not bound to satisfy her."⁵

⁵ Supplement, q. 64, a. 1 in corpus and ad 2.

Hence:

a. for the one who is infected with syphilitic or venereal disease, copulation is illicit in those stages of disease in which there exists a morally certain danger of infecting the partner;

b. nevertheless, the partner can from charity admit copulation;

c. it is not illicit because of danger of infecting offspring or leaving offspring in want, because "it is better to be thus than not to be" (Saint Thomas, Supplement, q. 64, a. 1, ad 4), especially on account of the beatific vision for which the soul is destined.

2. It is illicit in the time of pregnancy if there is danger of abortion from copulation, which nevertheless rarely happens, unless perhaps copulation is carried out rather often and rather vehemently.

3. Likewise in the time of puerperal purification, especially at its beginning, if grave harm threatens the wife from it, which in the first days, two or eight or sometimes more, can easily happen;⁶ in these matters account must be had of the condition of each person, and in doubt a physician is to be consulted.

⁶ Nevertheless it is better to abstain for fifteen days.

4. On the contrary, in the time of puerperal purification as it advances or approaches the end, likewise in the time of lactation,⁷ after a copious meal, bath, or bloodletting, it is not illicit, whatever some once said; nor even per se during the ordinary menstrual flow, or even extraordinary flow, unless per accidens if some disease were thereby greatly aggravated.⁸

⁷ In the time of lactation conception rarely occurs. But if it occurs, the milk is diminished or even ceases, but the offspring can be nourished otherwise, or even by artificial lactation.

⁸ In the Old Testament it was prohibited in the time of menstruation under penalty of death (Lev. XX, 16), but the reason can be that in the hottest regions of Asia women suffer a copious flow, and often part of the blood already altogether corrupted remains in the female genital canal; whence there could arise danger lest men contract a grave disease in the genitals. Eschbach, o. c., p. 122.

VI. Observation concerning venereal diseases, from which danger can threaten.

1. Syphilis, also the so-called French disease, because it raged among the troops of France under Charles VIII besieging Naples (1490), is a venereal disease most properly so called. At the beginning, circumscribed in a definite place, it then pervades the whole body and corrupts it in many ways. It has its origin from a certain microbe, which is called treponema pallidum (spirille pale). A threefold stage will be observed in its process, preceded by the time of incubation, through ten to forty days, after the microbe has been deposited in an ulceration of the glans or skin; sometimes, however, there is malignant syphilis (galoppante) when from the beginning it manifests itself. In the first stage, a certain hard ulcer is formed in the place where the microbe lay hidden, which is easily broken because of frictions and is gradually extended, and invades the blood of the whole body, ten to eleven weeks. In the second stage, after infection of the blood, external signs of corruption appear, namely fever, insomnia, anemia, cutaneous eruptions, red and round spots which grow more in number and bring pain, and sometimes concomitant diseases. In the third stage, the palate is perforated by an ulcer, the face and mouth are deformed, sometimes caries of the bones accedes, atrophy of the testicles and impotence. The third phase is not always had; many are made strong before it. In the first and second stage syphilis is contagious and brings great danger of infection for others, which can last for three or four years; in the third stage, almost none. Syphilis is transmitted from a diseased mother to a healthy fetus, from an infected fetus to the mother, very often by coitus had with a syphilitic person, also by kisses, lactation, use of things employed by the syphilitic, and by heredity. It is curable, although cure is not always altogether certain; practically, however, it can be called morally certain, so that almost no danger of infection remains. It is treated by remedies made from mercury and arsenic; the best known are those designated by numbers 606, 914, and 1116. Cure lasts from fifteen to eighteen up to twenty-four months; more, however, when the disease is graver. Preservative means have also been discovered, namely ointments with which the virile member is anointed soon before or after coitus.

2. Blennorrhagia, or gonorrhea from the microbe called gonococcus, is a disease by which the urethra is inflamed in a purulent manner because of the microbe; if it is long-lasting or chronic, it is called the military drop. It easily passes to nearer organs. After withdrawal it sometimes lies hidden secretly and is seriously contagious. In a woman it easily invades the peritoneum, whence contagion of the genitals and sterility. It is easily cured in a shorter time, but not without pain, by an electrolytic method. Copulation is the means of contagion; the disease is not hereditary, but infection is easily handed on in birth: namely, the offspring is afflicted with ophthalmia to the detriment of the faculty of sight.

3. A soft ulcer is less pernicious and less frequent. It is a great ulcer in the genital organs, but it does not extend to other things. Once it has been brought to a scar, it heals.

On the contrary, leucorrhea or white flux, with which pregnant women often labor, is not harmful.

1. It cannot be tolerated that confessors of their own accord teach the practice of half-completed copulation and advise it indiscriminately to all penitents who fear lest more numerous offspring be born;

2. The confessor is to be censured who, after all remedies for turning the penitent abusing marriage away from this evil have been tried in vain, teaches him to exercise half-completed copulation for preventing mortal sins;

3. Likewise the confessor is to be censured who in the said circumstances advises half-completed copulation already known to the penitent, or to a penitent asking whether this mode is licit, responds simply that it is licit without any restriction or explanation.

Concerning these things Father Damen, Th. M., II, n. 896, observes: "The reason of the first response is because it is licit for no one, and much less for a confessor, to advise sin, whether mortal or even venial. The reason of the second response is because such a mode of acting involves scandal, since half-completed copulation easily paves the way to worse things and so in fact, as to the diminution of offspring, produces the same effect as neo-Malthusianism and therefore cannot be advised as a lesser evil. The reason of the third response is because the advice is scandalous and the response of the confessor would be false, since it declares that which is illicit to be licit."

But half-completed copulation is not if semen is deposited at the orifice or between the lips, because thus there is no copulation, not even half-completed, but if semen is poured out at the entrance of the female genital canal and entering it, although a little.