Article II: On the Circumstances of Conjugal Copula

S. Th., Suppl., q. 53, a. 1; q. 58, a. 1 and 4; q. 59, a. 6; q. 62, a. 1; q. 64, a. 1 and a. 6-9.

942. Principle. The conjugal act is not licit in the concrete unless it is also done with due circumstances. - For a human act has morality not only from the object and the end, but also from circumstances; hence, that it be honorable, it ought to be good from every part, namely, of object, end, and circumstances. Therefore the use of marriage, whether consummated or begun, however much of itself licit, can per accidens be illicit by reason of circumstances, and indeed not only from the part of the end, but also a) from the part of the acting person by reason of impotence, or of a vow, or of a doubtfully valid matrimony; b) from the circumstance of mode by reason of position; c) from the circumstance of place by reason of scandal; d) from the circumstance of time by reason of danger or harm.

943. From the circumstance of person the use of marriage is illicit:

1° From impotence: a) A man who certainly cannot penetrate, or does not have seed, or cannot emit it, or cannot deposit it in the vagina, cannot exercise copula, nor can the wife with such a man.

b) If impotence is doubtful, they can attempt copula, if there is hope of completing it.

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

2° From a vow: a) A spouse who has made a vow of chastity is forbidden by religion, under grave obligation, to seek the debt; nevertheless he can and must render it to the one who has the right and justly demands it, because one is not deprived of a right by the deed of another. He could nevertheless also seek it if he noticed the other party placed in danger of incontinence and not daring to seek it (which can especially happen in a wife because of modesty); for thus he rather renders to one tacitly seeking than seeks.

b) If each has vowed separately, even with the other party knowing and agreeing, 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: illicitly, indeed, he seeks, but he seeks with right, and therefore sins against religion, not against chastity.

c) But if each has vowed by mutual consent and by the same pact, each is forbidden both to render and to seek, because by a pact each intends freely to renounce mutually his own right of seeking, as to its exercise.

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

3° From doubt concerning the validity of matrimony: a) Doubt concerning the validity of matrimony, if it is on each side, simply forbids the use until due inquiry has been made.

b) If, after due inquiry, true doubt remains, the use is licit, because in doubt one must stand for the value of matrimony.

c) If only one doubts, during the doubt he is forbidden to seek, but is bound to render, because he cannot expose himself to the danger of injuring justice, nor is the other deprived of his right because of the doubt of the other party; if the doubt remains after due inquiry, he can seek and render.

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

944. From the circumstance of mode or position copula can be illicit. - Position is indicated by nature according to which the man ought to be incumbent, the woman lying beneath, turned face to face; for this is generally more apt for a more intimate penetration of bodies and for the infusion of virile seed and its due reception, and it befits human beings, who ought to exercise the act of generation not after the manner of brutes but from reasonable love, by seeing and speaking to one another and by communicating 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; but in whatever mode the thing is done (standing, sitting, from the side, from behind, with the man beneath, etc.), it is not grave, provided the conjugal act can duly be completed, apt for generation, because this alone is essential, and position is something accessory: a change of position of itself does not pervert the substance of the act;

2° indeed, if a sufficient reason is present that another position be chosen than the natural, there is no sin.

This can happen sometimes in time of pregnancy lest there be danger of abortion, or on account of frigidity if in an unnatural position the frigid person is more easily excited, or on account of a certain difficulty of copulating otherwise (for example from the curvature, obesity, or hernia of the man, the fatigue of the woman, or the fetid breath of either), or if thus there would be greater hope of fecundation.

But let it be noted that, according to physicians, habitually exercising copula either with the man beneath or especially standing can induce diseases for the man.

945. From the circumstance of place copula can be illicit, even gravely, if it is done in a public or not secret place, by reason, namely, of scandal; hence, if a person unexpectedly comes upon them, copula can be interrupted even if the seed perhaps is poured outside the vagina: for this happens apart from the intention, in order to avoid a greater moral evil.

Therefore spouses are to be warned not to allow children who have the use of reason (nor even before this) to sleep with them in the bed or in the room. But if poverty compels this, let them take care that the children notice nothing; in the bed let them keep boys on the side of the father, girls on the side of the mother.

946. From the circumstance of time the use of marriage can be rendered illicit. - Per se the conjugal act is forbidden at no time by reason of the time itself, because no law excludes any time: thus it is licitly exercised on more solemn feast days, on days of fasting, before communion, etc., although by counsel it is good to 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 only 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. For since no one is master of human life, copula will be gravely illicit, so that a spouse cannot seek it nor render it without at least warning the other party of the danger; nevertheless the other party, if a just reason approaches, as incontinence to be avoided, domestic peace to be preserved, adultery of the other party to be avoided, etc., can from charity admit copula, unless death is imminent. Likewise, if there is grave danger to health, for example from phthisis, copula is illicit without a just cause, such as the avoidance of incontinence in oneself or in the other party; wherefore at least the use is to be moderated.

1. Phthisis is not so much a contagious disease, but rather a hereditary one, at least in the sense that offspring receive by heredity the greatest disposition toward contracting this disease; syphilis, and also the flow of seed, gonorrhea, is generally a certain species of contagious disease; on the contrary, leucorrhea, or the white flux with which pregnant women often suffer, is not harmful. Cf. R. Eccl. de Liege, VIII, May 1913, n. 6, p. 383.

"This is the natural order," says S. Thomas, "that first something be perfected in itself, and afterward 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 husband except as to the generative power, but not as to those things which are ordered to the preservation of the individual, the husband is bound to render the debt to the wife in those things which regard the generation of offspring, yet first with the safety of the person preserved... The wife does not have power over the body of the husband except with the consistency of the person himself preserved..., whence if she demands beyond this, it is not a petition of the debt, but an unjust exaction, and for this reason the husband is not bound to satisfy her" (q. 64, a. 1 and ad 2).

Hence a) for one who is infected with syphilitic or venereal disease, copula is illicit in those stages of the disease in which there exists morally certain danger of infecting the other party;

b) nevertheless this other party can from charity admit copula;

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

2° Copula is illicit in time of pregnancy if from it there is danger of abortion, which nevertheless rarely happens, unless perhaps copula is performed too often and too vehemently.

3° Likewise in time of puerperal purgation, especially at the beginning, if grave harm threatens the wife from it, which in the first days (2 or rather 8, or sometimes more) can easily happen; in these matters account must be taken of the condition of each person, and in doubt a physician is to be consulted.

Nevertheless it is better to abstain for 15 days. But as the time of puerperal purgation progresses or is coming to an end, likewise in time of lactation, after a copious meal, a bath, or bloodletting, copula is not illicit, whatever certain ones formerly said; nor even per se during the ordinary menstrual flux, or even the extraordinary, because only slight irritation arises from copula; unless per accidens, if some disease were greatly aggravated thereby.

1. In time of lactation conception rarely occurs. But if it occurs, the milk is not thereby infected, but it is diminished or even ceases; yet the offspring can be nourished otherwise, even by artificial lactation.

2. In the Old Testament it was forbidden in time of menstruation under penalty of death (Lev. XX, 16), but the reason can be that in the very hot regions of Asia women suffer a copious flow, and often part of the blood already altogether corrupted remains in the vagina; whence there could arise danger lest men contract a grave disease in the genitals.