Article — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
Article I. On The Nature Of Matrimony
627. Nominal definition. The ancient authors derive the name of matrimony from mater and munio, as though matrimonium were the same as matris munium, the duty of a mother, because a woman enters matrimony in order that she may become a mother. Now matrimony took its name from the mother, but not from the father, because the principal end of matrimony is offspring, whose generation imposes so many duties upon the mother; whence it is beautifully said: "To the mother an infant is burdensome before birth, painful in birth, and laborious after birth."35 St. Thomas gives still other explanations of this name.36 Besides the name of matrimony, other words are also employed to signify the same reality, namely:
a) Conjugium, because two spouses are bound, as it were, under one yoke.37
b) Consortium, because two spouses have a common lot and condition.38
c) Nuptiae or connubium, because according to the ancient rite (which among certain peoples is observed to this day), brides entering marriage covered themselves with a veil for the sake of modesty and subjection.39 Yet nuptiae sometimes specially signified the solemnities and festivities joined to the matrimonial contract, or even conjugal intercourse itself.40 Concina beautifully explains these diverse names.41
35 c. 2, X 3, 33. Cf. Roman Catechism, p. 2, c. 8, q. 2.
37 Cf. Roman Catechism, loc. cit.
38 l. 1, D. De ritu nuptiarum 22, 2.
39 Cf. Roman Catechism, loc. cit.
40 c. 4, X 4, 11.
41 De matrimonio, c. 1.
628. Real definition. Several authors, distinguishing two elements in marriage, namely, contract and sacrament, first give a definition of the contract and afterward add a definition of the sacrament of marriage. But because in the New Law Christ elevated the matrimonial contract itself of Christians to the dignity of a sacrament without changing the original nature of marriage, Leo XIII therefore defines that "in Christian marriage the contract is not separable from the sacrament, and consequently a true and legitimate contract cannot exist without being by that very fact a sacrament."42 Lugo already taught the same:43 "Christ did not will to alter the conditions of that contract, but to elevate it as it was, so that whenever it was valid under the aspect of a contract, among the baptized it would also possess the character of a sacrament." Therefore it appears superfluous in Moral Theology to give one definition of the contract and another of the sacrament of marriage. Thus marriage can be described by one true classical definition:44 the marital union of a man and a woman between legitimate persons, retaining an undivided manner of life. Among the baptized, a union of this kind, by the institution of Christ, is a true sacrament signifying and causing supernatural grace ex opere operato; among the non-baptized, however, such a union is indeed not a sacrament, but nevertheless, "since it has God as its author and was even from the beginning a certain foreshadowing of the Incarnation of the Word of God, there is therefore in it something sacred and religious, not adventitious but innate, not received from men but implanted by nature, ... and it is sacred by its own force, its own nature, and of its own accord."45
42 Encyclical Arcanum, February 10, 1880. Similar things follow from the propositions condemned in the Syllabus of Pius IX, prop. 66: "The sacrament of marriage is nothing but something accessory to the contract and separable from it"; prop. 73: "By force of a merely civil contract there can exist among Christians a marriage in the true sense, and it is false either that the contract of marriage between Christians is always a sacrament, or that the contract is null if the sacrament is excluded" (Denz., nn. 1766, 1773). The Code of Canon Law, c. 1012, asserts the same.
43 De iure et iustitia, disp. 32, n. 392.
44 This definition is deservedly called classical, for it is taken almost word for word from Roman law (Inst., l. 1, c. 9); from St. Augustine in Gratian (c. 3, C. 27, q. 2); from Gregory IX (c. 2, X 3, 33); from several Scholastics of the thirteenth century, among whom St. Thomas is eminent (Suppl., q. 44, a. 3); from the Roman Catechism, p. 2, c. 8, q. 3.
45 Encyclical Arcanum.
629. The definition is explained. It is called 1. a union, which word, if taken actively, that is, for the transient act itself of internal and external consent by which a man and a woman promise conjugal fidelity to each other, is marriage in fieri; but if it is taken as though passively, that is, for the effect produced or for the state of life arisen from the aforesaid manifested consent, it signifies marriage in facto esse, namely, the bond of marriage. Christian marriage in fieri has the character of a sacrament, but not marriage in facto esse.46
It is called 2. marital, in order that the proper end of that union be signified. For a man and a woman are joined to lead a legitimate marital life, but not for the sake of lust, friendship, secular business, etc. The secondary ends of those marrying will be discussed below.
It is called 3. of a man and a woman, but not of men and women, in order that monogamy be signified and both polygamy and polyandry be excluded.
It is called 4. between legitimate persons, in order to express that certain persons impeded by law (natural or positive) cannot enter a valid or licit marriage, or that impediments of marriage exist.
It is called 5. retaining an undivided manner of life, in order that the indissolubility of marriage be indicated. Certain ancient Glossators (for example, Roland, Bernard of Pavia, and Tancred)47 understood under this undivided manner or society of life, less correctly, carnal intercourse itself, although it can truly be said that this society includes a mutual right, and one that is exclusive and of itself perpetual, to the body of the other spouse in order to the generation of offspring.
By this undivided manner or society of life there are further demanded (but only as integral parts) the following three things:
a) community of domestic life, that is, of dwelling, bed, and table;
b) union of souls through charity and a common purpose in acting;
c) at least some community of temporal goods.
These will be treated more fully below.
46 Cf. Billuart, De matrimonio, diss. 1, a. 1.
47 Cf. Freisen, Geschichte des kanonischen Eherechtes, § 3.