Article III: On the Honesty of Matrimony

S. Th., Suppl., q. 41, a. 3-4; q. 49, a. 4-5; II-II, q. 152, a. 2 and 4; q. 153, a. 2; I-II, q. 34, a. 1, ad 1; c. Gent. III, 126.

762. State of the question. - Several held matrimony and conjugal intercourse as illicit. Thus in the first centuries the Encratites, Saturninus, Marcion, the Montanists and Ascetics, and the Manichaeans, who, addicted to the tenets of the Gnostics, condemned human marriages for this reason, that they judged the human body to be from an evil principle. Likewise afterward the Albigensians.

On the contrary, in the fourth century Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius considered matrimony equal in merits to virginity and perfect continence. Thus also Luther¹ and Calvin, indeed many innovators also repeatedly said that nuptials were better than virginity.

¹ Earlier Luther had acknowledged the excellence of virginity (before 1520); afterward, having changed his opinion, he said that matrimony was necessary and asserted the impossibility of virginal continence, a miracle being excluded.

On the contrary Catholic doctrine holds that matrimony is licit and honorable, yet to be placed after virginity.

763. Thesis I. Matrimony in itself is licit and honorable, as having been instituted by God unto an honorable end. - It is of faith from the Lateran Council II, can. 23, and from the Lateran Council IV, and the profession of faith of Innocent III.

It is proved: 1. From revelation:

a) indirectly: No sin is of precept. But the matrimonial act is in precept, according to Gen. I, 28 and I Cor. VII, 3: "Let the husband render the debt to his wife..." Therefore it is not a sin.

b) directly: That is good and laudable which God instituted, Christ confirmed, and the Apostles commended. But God instituted matrimony (Gen. I, 27; II, 18, 23; Mt. XIX, 6; Council of Trent, sess. 24), Christ confirmed it (Jn. II and Mt. XIX, 4 sq.), the Apostles commended it (Heb. XIII, 4; I Cor. VII, 3, 38; I Tim. IV, 1-3; V, 14; cf. Eph. V, 22-32). Therefore.

This the Fathers expressly affirmed and defended, so that they inveighed sharply against the ancient heretics: Irenaeus passim; Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 3; Tertullian, against Marcion; Jerome, against Jovinian; Augustine, On the Good of Marriage; On Nuptials; against Eustathius the Ascetic and the Eustathians, the Synod of Gangra, fourth century; against the Priscillianists, the Synod of Braga, sixth century; finally the Lateran Council II, can. 23, holds as heretics those who condemn the covenants of lawful nuptials.

2. By reason: The conjugal act is the one means of propagating the human race. Therefore if God wills the propagation of the human race, he wills the conjugal act, which consequently is licit of itself. Hence St. Thomas, q. 41, a. 3:

"Supposing that corporeal nature has been instituted by the good God, it is impossible to say that those things which pertain to the preservation of corporeal nature, and to which nature inclines, are universally evil; and therefore, since there is an inclination of nature to the procreation of offspring, through which the nature of the species is preserved, it is impossible to say that the act by which offspring is procreated is universally illicit, and that the mean of virtue cannot be found in it. - Unless it be posited, according to the madness of certain men, that corruptible things were created by an evil god; from which perhaps that opinion is derived... and therefore it is a most wicked heresy."

To condemn the conjugal act is to condemn nature and the author of nature; but if the conjugal act is licit, so also is matrimony, which is essentially ordered to it.

764. Corollaries. - Since matrimony is legitimate, hence:

1. No one can prohibit the propagation of the human race.

2. The conjugal act is also meritorious, provided that it be done from a motive of virtue (for example, to render the debt from justice, for offspring unto the worship of God from religion), and with the due conditions being given, of which the chief is that it be done from charity.

3. The use of matrimony is not illicit because of original sin, whose true cause is not the use of matrimony but the will of Adam: per se the use of matrimony is for the procreation of children; that original sin is also transmitted at the same time is accidental. And "that turpitude of concupiscence, which always accompanies the matrimonial act, is not the turpitude of fault, but of punishment arising from the first sin" (a. 3, ad 3). But if the intensity of delight takes away the use of reason, nevertheless it does not take away the order of reason, because the matrimonial act is pre-ordained by reason (ad 6).

765. Thesis II. Matrimony is to be placed after virginity and celibacy preserved from a motive of virtue. - It is of faith against Jovinian and the Innovators from the Council of Trent, sess. 24, can. 10.

It is proved: 1. Christ, both by example, because he preserved virginity and chose a virgin mother, and by word commended virginity as a work of counsel, Mt. XIX, 10 sq.; likewise the Apostle, I Cor. VII, 1-40.

2. The Fathers, such as Tertullian against Marcion, Cyprian, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Jerome, Augustine, praise virginity. And Pope Siricius condemned Jovinian.

3. Virginity excels matrimony, "both 1) because the divine good is more excellent than human good; and 2) because the good of the soul is preferred to the good of the body; and also 3) because the good of the contemplative life is preferred to the good of the active life. But virginity is ordered 1) to the good of the soul, 2) according to the contemplative life, 3) which is to think on the things that are of God; but marriage is ordered 1) to the good of the body, which is the corporeal multiplication of the human race, and 2) pertains to the active life, 3) because a man and woman living in matrimony necessarily have to think on the things that are of the world, as is clear through the Apostle, I Cor. VII, 33-34. Whence undoubtedly virginity is to be preferred to conjugal continence," II-II, q. 152, a. 4.

It is confirmed: a) To abstain from certain lower things in order to take counsel for a higher good is good: thus from bodily delight on account of the contemplation of truth.

b) Matrimony of itself renders man less apt for serving God, because the proper act of matrimony befits man according to the lower portion by which he is similar to brute animals, and which in him does not obey reason and has the greatest shame joined to it.

c) Virginity removes one from the solicitude of the world and elevates one above earthly things, so that man can more freely be at leisure for God.

766. Observations. - 1. Ignominy is in matrimony without offspring, not in abstention from matrimony.

2. The common good is to be preferred to private good, if they are of the same order.

3. The comparison is not instituted between persons, or between their perfection, or in such adjuncts, but between states.

767. It is objected: 1. The common good is greater than private good. But marriage is ordered to the common good, virginity to private good. Therefore marriage is more excellent.

Resp. I distinguish the major: if the private good is of the same order, I concede; if of a diverse and superior order, I deny. And I distinguish the minor: Virginity is for private good, partly, I concede; solely, I deny, for it contributes to the common good. Namely, in matrimony a corporeal good is regarded, in virginity a spiritual and divine good.

2. If it is good that one person contain himself, it will be better that many and all do so.

Resp. I distinguish: according to the good of the individual, I concede; according to the good of the species, I deny. Namely, the common good requires variety of states and of goods, and also lower offices.