Appendix: Conspectus of the Decrees and Ecclesiastical Canons in the Matter of Marriage from the First Centuries of the Church Down to the Year 1215

When I was writing this treatise on Marriage, it was necessary for me to search out the decrees and canons of the Church concerning this matter, and to prepare for my studies a not inconsiderable collection of them. But when the treatise had been completed, the thought occurred to me that I would do something not unwelcome to readers if I communicated to them the collection of the same decrees and canons, also enlarged and, so far as it could be done for my part, made complete. For through it the very history both of the dogma and of the discipline is almost placed before the eyes and is contained in a few things. But the decrees which are contained concerning this same matter in the divinely inspired books, although they also especially pertain here, nevertheless, because they are both known to all and had been treated at length in the Treatise, and claim for themselves a certain special order, I did not wish to review here, but to set forth only canons proceeding from the Church. Yet while I was considering this, I perceived at the same time that some limits had to be fixed, beyond which this series would not run, lest I should force things not very useful upon unwilling readers and create weariness for them. Therefore I judged that a stop should be made at the ecumenical Council of Innocent III; for thenceforth the Decretals of Gregory IX and the other subsequent collections of canons or decrees will easily teach you what the Church has established concerning marriages. In collecting the canons I kept this before my eyes: that I should pass over none which had any relation with doctrine or discipline concerning Marriage. Wherefore I have also copied canons which exclude bigamists from the priesthood and which interdict the use of marriage to those who have been constituted in sacred order. But when canons of this sort had been enumerated down to a certain age, I judged that thereafter one must abstain from them, unless when the law of the Church invalidating nuptials because of sacred order appeared more manifest. Nor did I judge that one should act in an unlike manner concerning the canons which reprove the nuptials of virgins dedicated to God or of monks.

But because this conspectus pertains to this, that the right of the Church in this matter may be set before the eyes, not only the canons of Councils but especially the decrees of the Roman See had to be recalled by me; for it is the fount and origin of every right in the Church, just as it is the infallible teacher of truth. Surely the decrees of this Holy See are to be received with such pious faith by the children of Mother Church and venerated "that they are admitted by them without any scruple as the rule of the canons," as Alexander II wrote to Philip, King of the Franks. Yet everyone understands that there was no need for us to collect all the responses of the Roman Pontiffs, which frequently are nothing but the application of a law already known.

The canons which are copied almost all pertain to particular Synods. Wherefore it is necessary above all to note that these are fallible, and that individual Synods, according to the diversity of things, persons, and places, could deservedly have made diverse laws in those matters which had not yet been defined by force of supreme authority. Yet since the Spirit who governs the Church is one, you will finally see all things, sweetly and little by little, the Roman See above all putting forward the norm, recalled to harmony and unity. Besides the canons of provincial synods I have also published the canons of certain diocesan synods, or the decrees of some Bishop, because I judged that they were of value for bringing light to the others. For the same reason I have recited certain Capitularies of the Franks, which represent the mind and practice of that age. I have also, from time to time, appended notes, generally very brief, beneath the canons or decrees, by which I might make their interpretation clearer for students of theology, and might indicate the comparison to be instituted with other things. For I profess that I have written this work, such as it is, not for learned men, but for those young men who give their labor to theology; if it is going to bring them any utility, I shall congratulate myself not a little for the labor spent.