Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article One. On Its Nature Itself.
501. Notion. Institution. 1. Matrimony (conjugium, connubium, nuptials), if it is considered as a natural and social institution, is the union of a man and a woman, legitimately entered, for generating and educating offspring.
a. The union of life for preserving and propagating the human race is perfect conjugal life, which carries with it the right and duty of coming together, and community of bed, table, and dwelling; for these things are plainly necessary, so that the end of matrimony intended by nature can suitably be obtained.
b. For establishing this union, which is the means of preserving and propagating the human race and at the same time the foundation of civil society, the author of nature established the diversity of the sexes; for promoting the same he inserted fitting appetites (Triebe) in human nature.
c. By this union of persons of different sex, in some measure they mutually complete and perfect one another, insofar as male and female constitute the adequate and complete principle of generation, education, and domestic life; but it can in no way be affirmed that male and female through matrimony mutually complete one another in the order of personality, as though an unmarried human being were imperfect and needed a complement in order to be a perfect human being.
- God instituted matrimony in the earthly paradise, as is clear from the words which Adam pronounced from divine inspiration: This now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. Wherefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.2 From the beginning God instituted matrimony in such a way that it would be an image and representation both of the union of the divine Word with human nature and of the union of Christ and the Church,3 and from the beginning he marked it with the property of unity and indissolubility, which by right it retained at least until the flood. Afterward, however, matrimony fell away from its primitive institution; for besides the fact that after the fall of the first parents it began also to be a remedy for concupiscence, it lost besides the prerogative of unity and indissolubility, since polygamy was granted to the patriarchs and even to gentiles by dispensation, and the bill of repudiation to the Israelite people.4 But Christ, after removing for all men the dispensation concerning polygamy and the bill of repudiation, restored matrimony to the dignity and purity of its first institution and elevated it to the rank of a sacrament, where, referring to the words of Genesis, he added: What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.5
a. The words by which matrimony is instituted, Wherefore he shall leave, etc., are indeed attributed by the author of Genesis to Adam; but Adam could utter them only with the Lord inspiring him. Therefore Christ attributes these words to God himself.6 The unity and indissolubility of matrimony are contained in the words, And they shall be two in one flesh, from which Christ the Lord infers: Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
b. In fact unity was already violated earlier in particular cases, e.g., by Lamech;7 nevertheless, by right, as regards polygamy, a divine dispensation was made, according to some, to Noah and his sons, so that the human race might be multiplied more quickly;8 according to others, it was first granted to Abraham. Polygamy was also granted by God to gentiles, but the bill of repudiation seems to have been permitted to the Jews alone.
c. It is indeed disputed whether the bill of repudiation effected the dissolution of the bond of matrimony, or only this, that the spouses could separate with impunity; but the opinion which holds that through the bill of repudiation matrimony was dissolved is to be preferred, so that each party could pass validly and licitly to other nuptials.9
- Matrimony can be considered in two ways, according as it is a contract and according as it is a sacrament. Although matrimony has the nature of a contract, nevertheless it differs from other contracts chiefly in these things: a. other contracts are not founded in nature in the same special way, nor are they ordered to the natural good of the whole human race; b. in other contracts the contracting parties can determine the conditions of the contract according to their choice, but in the matrimonial contract the object, conditions, and also duties are so determined by natural or ecclesiastical law that they cannot be changed by the choice of the contracting parties; c. other contracts can be dissolved by the mutual consent of the contracting parties, but the matrimonial contract cannot be dissolved by the consent of the contracting parties, so that the obligations and burdens once assumed by force of the contract cannot be cast off as long as both contracting parties are alive; d. other contracts are merely profane, but the matrimonial contract, considered in its nature alone, is a sacred thing.
That matrimony, considered only in the nature of the thing, abstracting from the character of sacrament, is a sacred and religious thing is clear, because it was instituted immediately by God; because it is a sketch of the union of the Word and human nature, of Christ and the Church; because by reason of its end it is ordered to God, since it was established for perpetuating the human race, which is destined to worship and glorify God. Therefore the more cultivated peoples of antiquity considered matrimony as a thing joined with religion and sanctity.10
1 St. Alphonsus, bk. 6, nn. 831-1147. Thomas Sanchez, De sancto matrimonii sacramento (Antwerp, 1626). Basilius Pontius, De sacramento matrimonii (Lyons, 1640). Mich. Rosset, De sacramento matrimonii (Paris: Roger et Chernoviz, 1895-1896). Jos. Carriere, De matrimonio (Paris, 1877). Petrus Gasparri, Tractatus canonicus de matrimonio4 (Paris, 1904). H. J. Feije, De impedimentis et dispensationibus matrimonialibus4 (Louvain: Peeters, 1885). Julius de Becker, De sponsalibus et matrimonio2 (Brussels, 1904). Ballerini-Palmieri, Opus theologicum morale3 (Prato: Giachetti, 1900), vol. VI, De matrimonio. Lehmkuhl, Theologia mor. (Freiburg: Herder), II, tract. VIII, De matrimonio. M. Matharan, Casus de matrimonio (Paris: Victor Retaux, 1893). Fr. Heiner, Grundriss des katholischen Eherechtes4 (Munster: Schoningh, 1892). Joseph Schnitzer, Katholisches Eherecht2 (Freiburg: Herder, 1898). Rud. v. Scherer, Handbuch des Kirchenrechtes (Moser, Graz, 1898), II, pp. 84-593. M. Leitner, Lehrbuch des katholischen Eherechtes (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1902). Fr. Wernz, Ius decretalium IV (Prato: Giachetti, 1912). Freisen, Geschichte des kanonischen Eherechtes (Tubingen, 1888). Van de Burgt-Schaepmann, Tractatus de matrimonio3 (Utrecht: Van Rossum, 1908). Encyclical letter of Leo XIII, Arcanum (On the Sacrament of Matrimony), February 10, 1880. The Code of Canon Law treats matrimony in Cn. 1012-1143. J. Chelodi, Ius matrimoniale iuxta Codicem iur. can. (Trent: Comitato diocesano, 1918). Tim. Schafer, Das Eherecht nach dem Codex iur. can. (Munster: Aschendorff, 1918). H. Goller, Das Eherecht im neuen kirchlichen Gesetzbuch (Freiburg: Herder, 1918). Linneborn, Grundriss des Eherechts nach dem Codex iur. can. (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1919).
2 Gen. 2, 23, 24.
4 Cf. Gen. 16, 1 ff.; 25, 4; 29, 27. Deut. 24, 1 ff.
5 Matt. 19, 6.
6 Matt. 19, 4.
7 Gen. 4, 19.
8 Benedict XIV, De synodo, l. 13, c. 21, n. 8.
9 Cf. Pesch, Praelectiones dogmaticae, VII, n. 772 ff.
10 Cf. the encyclical Arcanum, around the middle.
502. On the Necessity of Matrimony.1 a. Matrimony instituted by the author of nature must be called necessary for the human race, since only through matrimony can the human race suitably be preserved and propagated. Therefore by the same author of nature both the right to matrimony and also, generally, an inclination toward it have been inserted in all and each. Nevertheless it cannot be affirmed that a divine law, whether natural or positive, of contracting matrimony has been imposed per se and directly either on all and each human being, or on the human race as a community.
For a true precept which obliges the human race, but no determinate persons, can scarcely be understood. Moreover, for obtaining the end of propagation of the human race, the general inclination of men to entering matrimony is sufficient; for by it it happens that most contract and consummate matrimony. Finally, the Church teaches from sacred Scripture that celibacy is licit, indeed more perfect than the matrimonial state.2
b. Nevertheless it can happen that indirectly and per accidens, for some singular man from a special reason, there exists an obligation of entering matrimony, namely for avoiding incontinence, for repairing harm inflicted, for fulfilling a promise; besides, from the beginning of the world there existed for the first parents a positive obligation toward matrimony and its use, which God signified by these words: Increase and multiply, and fill the earth;3 for the end of propagation of the human race, which had necessarily to be obtained, in that order could not be obtained by another means.
1 Wernz IV, n. 34; Gasparri I, 212 ff.; Leitner, section 4.
2 Council of Trent, sess. 24, can. 10.
3 Gen. 1, 28.
503. The Ends of Matrimony. Some ends of matrimony are essential and internal, which God intended in the institution of matrimony; others are accidental and external, which the contracting parties can intend besides the essential ends; the essential ends again are primary or secondary.
a. The essential primary end is the procreation and education of offspring: Increase and multiply and fill the earth;1 the essential secondary ends are mutual help in life, both in caring for domestic affairs, in educating offspring, and in giving holy love: Let us make him a helper like unto himself;2 then the quieting of concupiscence, which does not incite to illicit things if satisfaction is licitly given to it through the conjugal act, which the words imply: But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.3
b. Many accidental ends can be conceived, e.g., to reconcile peace between families, to preserve the honor of a family, to compose peace among blood-relatives, to obtain honors, riches, licit pleasures, etc.
Before the sin of the first parents matrimony was ordered to the office of nature, that is, to procreating and educating children and therefore to preserving and propagating the human race; after their fall it was also ordered to a remedy of concupiscence, that is, to avoiding sins of the flesh through the use of matrimony according to the laws of reason.
The principal end of matrimony, considered as it is instituted unto the office of nature, is not profane but sacred; for the primary end of matrimony is the procreation and education of offspring; but the adequate end of offspring is not temporal happiness, but God, to be worshiped by religion and afterward possessed in eternal beatitude and thereby glorified; therefore the direct end of matrimony is the generation and education of offspring for glorifying God. But this end is sacred and religious. Therefore matrimony is subject to that power to which the care of the last end of human life has been entrusted, that is, to the religious power.
1 Gen. 1, 28.
2 Gen. 2, 18.
3 1 Cor. 7, 9.
504. The Goods of Matrimony. Following St. Augustine,1 theologians distinguish a threefold good of matrimony: a. the good of offspring, which consists in the generation and education of offspring; b. the good of fidelity, which consists in the mutual fidelity which each spouse must preserve for the other, both because one grants to the other the use of the body, and because one concedes that use to no other; c. the good of sacrament, which consists in the inseparability of the spouses. Matrimony indeed has indissolubility by its nature; but because through the sacrament it is confirmed, it is commonly called the good of sacrament.
These three goods of matrimony are essential, namely such as pertain to the essence of matrimony, so that without them matrimony cannot be had. But they are essential in this way: a. the good of offspring, insofar as it consists both in the obligation of using matrimony in such a way that offspring can be generated, and in the obligation of preserving and educating offspring once received; b. the good of fidelity, insofar as it consists in the obligation of admitting one's own spouse, but excluding every other from use of the body; c. the good of sacrament, insofar as it consists in the indissoluble matrimonial bond.
1 De bono coniugali, I, 32.