Question Five: On the Properties of Matrimony

809. There are two essential properties of matrimony: unity and indissolubility (can. 1013, § 2). - They are properties, because they follow naturally from the nature of marriage, and indeed essential properties, because they necessarily belong to perfect matrimony as it exists in the evangelical law; nevertheless they do not pertain to the very essence of the thing in such a way that without them any character whatever of marriage could no longer be conceived, which character is placed in the stable and permanent union of man and woman in order to the procreation and education of offspring: for a permanent union can exist, although it be toward several or can sometimes be dissolved.