Article Three. On the Divisions of Matrimony.

512. Matrimony is divided: 1. Into legitimate, ratified, and consummated matrimony.¹

a. Legitimate is matrimony validly entered between non-baptized persons, such as now is contracted among Jews, Turks, and gentiles.

Formerly this reason of distinction was referred by canonists even to the marriages of the faithful, since legitimate matrimony, by force of the name, signifies matrimony entered according to laws, and therefore valid matrimony whether of the faithful or of infidels; but today it is commonly restricted to marriages of infidels alone.²

b. Ratified is valid matrimony entered between baptized persons, which therefore has the character of sacrament, but has not yet been consummated by carnal copula. It is called ratified because the Church holds and approves it as ratified; ratified only, because it is not consummated.

c. Consummated is valid matrimony which has been completed by carnal copula and effects that the spouses become one flesh.

It is clear that both the legitimate matrimony of infidels and the ratified matrimony of the faithful can become consummated. In order that matrimony can be called truly consummated, it is required: that the carnal copula be perfect, that is, of itself apt for generation; that before the copula true matrimony was present; hence if two have copula before matrimony and then contract matrimony, this is not called consummated before a new copula carried out in the matrimony itself.

2. Into true, putative, attempted, and presumed matrimony.

a. True is matrimony validly entered, and such as such is proved from those arguments, e.g., the testimony of the parish priest, by which also other affairs are customarily proved.

Valid matrimony to which no prohibiting impediment stands opposed is called licit; that to which a prohibiting impediment stands opposed, illicit.

b. Putative is called invalid matrimony which has been celebrated duly before the Church in good faith by at least one party, until each party becomes certain of its nullity.

a. Putative matrimony has the appearance of true matrimony and produces the juridic effects of the same; but in order that it may in reality produce effects of law, and especially that offspring born in it be considered legitimate, it is required that it be contracted in good faith by at least one of the spouses, who was ignorant of the impediment; that it be contracted publicly and in the face of the Church, that is, before the parish priest and two witnesses and with proclamations sent beforehand, unless there has been dispensation upon these.

b. Because the new Code says that putative matrimony is that which has been celebrated in good faith by at least one party, but is silent concerning the condition that it must also have been celebrated duly before the Church, even if heretical or schismatic,³ some think that this condition is no longer required, so that even civil marriage could be putative matrimony and obtain the effects of the same.

c. Attempted is called that which has been entered invalidly, and indeed with knowledge by both parties or by at least one of them that a diriment impediment of vow, order, or bond stands opposed to the matrimony.

Although every act which knowingly is placed invalidly against an invalidating law is called attempted, nevertheless in a special way this term is applied to matrimony.

Note. Presumed matrimony used to be called that matrimony which perhaps did not exist, but which, once copula had been had by betrothed persons, was nevertheless presumed by law to exist.

Before the Council of Trent, the mutual consent of the contracting parties was sufficient for valid matrimony, which after Trent held in places where the Tridentine decree concerning clandestine marriages did not have force. Now if, after betrothals had been entered, carnal copula was had between the betrothed, this was presumed to have been performed from a marital rather than a fornicarious affection; and since consent alone was sufficient for contracting valid matrimony in those circumstances, the spouses were presumed to have given consent to matrimony before the copula was had; hence the matrimony contracted through subsequent copula is called presumed. But in the new law, as in Tridentine law, presumed matrimony has been done away with.

¹ Cn. 1015.

² Cf. Benedict XIV, De synodo, l. 8, c. 12, n. 5.

³ Cf. Cn. 1015, 4.