Book — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Book Two. On the Use of Marriage.
Before you read this chapter
This chapter sets out plainly what the moral law permits and forbids to husband and wife. The authors wrote these pages for two readers only: for priests and those preparing for the confessional; and for those engaged to be married, or married, who have true need to understand the nature and obligations of marital relations. It is not reading for anyone else, and it is not reading for curiosity — the authors say so themselves, gravely and with one voice.
St. Alphonsus begged even his own students not to read this matter except for its one lawful end, “casting away every curiosity whatsoever”, and to commend themselves to God while they read, lest in learning to help other souls they harm their own (Wouters, Admonition). If you have no true need of these pages, the safe and virtuous course is to go back: what is written here is for a state of life, not for wondering about.
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64. The use of marriage consists in that action of spouses which was instituted by nature for conserving and propagating the human race, namely in carnal intercourse. By the Apostle this action of spouses is called the debt,2 because spouses, from the matrimonial contract, mutually owe it to one another. We must treat: a. of the liceity of the conjugal act in itself; b. of its liceity by reason of circumstances; c. of its obligation; d. of those things which are licit for spouses in marriage; e. of the impediments of the conjugal act.
a. Intercourse or the conjugal act, from the things said above, n. 6, on the part of the man consists in penetration of the womanly vessel and is completed by effusion of semen joined with carnal delectation; on the part of the woman it consists in reception of the virile semen and is completed by effusion of vulvo-vaginal humor likewise joined with carnal delectation. From these things it is understood what is signified by the name of insemination. Insemination on the part of the man is the emission of semen; on the part of the woman it is the emission of vulvo-vaginal humor.
b. For effecting generation in the woman neither the sense of pleasure nor insemination is necessary: for experience establishes that women have been made pregnant without these things. Nevertheless insemination helps to render fecundation easier, because the spermatozoa can move more easily and more swiftly in the vulvo-vaginal humor and proceed toward the interior organs of the woman.
1 St. Alphonsus, l. 6, De usu matrimonii, n. 900-954; Thomas Sanchez, De matrimonii sacramento, l. 9, De debito coniugali; Sporer-Bierbaum, Theologia mor. sacram. (Paderborn: Typograph. Bonifac., 1901), III, pr. 4, De peccatis coniugum in usu matrimonii, n. 467-520; Ballerini-Palmieri, Opus theolog. mor.^3 (Prati: Giachetti, 1900), VI, n. 306-416; Lehmkuhl II, n. 833-859; Jos. Aertnys, Fasciculus theol. mor.^5 (Leipzig: Kittler, 1888), tr. 2, De usu matrimonii; Antonelli II, n. 354-479.
2 1 Cor. 7, 3.