Treatise X. On Matrimony

625. Preliminary note.

a) The utility and necessity of this treatise, which is touched upon under diverse respects by diverse disciplines.

Since the source and origin of the family and of all human society consists in marriage,¹ the welfare of all society depends upon marriages rightly entered and holily preserved. Hence the history of all ages and regions has always proved that peoples, when the sanctity of marriage was violated, fell into the abysses of immorality, irreligion, and social misery. Therefore Leo XIII, near the beginning of his pontificate, wishing to provide for the happiness of the Christian people, sent the celebrated Encyclical Arcanum on marriage to all the bishops of the whole world. He deservedly writes: "You readily see, venerable Brethren, that these teachings and precepts concerning Christian marriage, which through these Our letters We have judged should be communicated to you, pertain greatly no less to the preservation of civil society than to the everlasting salvation of men. May God therefore grant that, the greater the moment and weight which they possess, the more docile and ready to obey may be the minds which they everywhere find." If, however, it is of such utility and necessity that true teachings and precepts concerning marriage be observed by peoples, these precepts must first be clearly known and taught. Now the office of teaching pertains to bishops and their assistants, the priests, who consequently are bound to know very well all things which touch upon Christian marriage. Certainly every priest, whether he is a pastor or a confessor (of adult laymen), is bound under grave obligation to know the laws concerning marriage enacted by God and the Church; and the better he knows these laws, and the more efficaciously and prudently he provides that they be observed, the more abundant fruits he will gather in the vineyard of the Lord.

From all these things it plainly appears that the treatise on marriage is exceedingly useful and necessary for almost all priests, although it has always seemed sufficiently difficult, so that St. Augustine already wrote:² "I am not unaware that the question concerning marriages is most obscure and most intricate. Nor do I dare to profess that either in this work or in another I have yet unfolded all its folds, or that I can now unfold them if I am pressed." Nevertheless, this difficulty ought by no means to deter us, and all the less because in present times it has been greatly diminished by the clear laws of the Church and the abundant explanations of learned men. This difficulty indeed appears chiefly to arise from the manifold aspect under which marriage can be considered. For marriage, insofar as it is a merely natural contract, is considered by the light of reason alone in Natural Ethics; insofar as it pertains to a dogma of faith, in Dogmatic Theology; insofar as its cases are judged in the ecclesiastical forum, it is considered in Canon Law; but insofar as it induces temporal obligations, for example, concerning the natural education of children, concerning the community of goods to be established between spouses, etc., it pertains to Civil Law. Moral Theology indeed ought to presuppose the natural principles from Ethics, the revealed principles from Dogmatics, the enacted ecclesiastical laws from Canon Law, and the just laws from Civil Law, and to treat only of the special moral obligations of spouses; nevertheless, in our times an almost universal custom has prevailed that Manuals of Moral Theology treat of marriage in such a way that they hand down the whole doctrine, knowledge of which is necessary for a priest exercising the care of souls. The reason for this method (certainly not altogether scientific) is practical utility. For today a Manual of Moral Theology is considered as a faithful guide and, as it were, a Vademecum, which accompanies every priest in almost all questions occurring in priestly practice. Hence juridical questions also, for example, concerning the impediments of marriage, are customarily treated with almost the same breadth in Moral Theology as in Canon Law.

¹ Cf. Leo XIII, Constitution Arcanum, February 10, 1880.

² De coniugiis adulterinis, l. 1, c. 25, n. 32 (Migne, Patr. lat. 40, 469).

626. b) The principal authors who wrote on marriage.

Since the treatise on marriage is of such utility and necessity, it is no wonder that in all times the more excellent authors wrote or spoke on this matter. Christ Himself performed His first miracle at the wedding of Cana, elevated marriage to a sacrament of the New Law, and established several statutes concerning the obligations of spouses in the Gospel.³ Likewise the holy Apostle Paul issued most salutary precepts concerning marriage.⁴ The Holy Fathers and ancient Christian writers very often speak of marriage. There is no leisure to enumerate them all here. Among the principal are held: St. Ignatius of Antioch,⁵ Hermas,⁶ Athenagoras,⁷ Clement of Alexandria,⁸ Tertullian,⁹ Augustine.¹⁰ But after the patristic age down to the Decree of Gratian, not so many treatises on marriage are had. Among the authors of this epoch are to be named Rabanus Maurus,¹¹ Ivo of Chartres.¹² Gratian, however, was the first who not only collected the canons of the Councils concerning marriage, but also composed, as it were, a scientific treatise on marriage in his "dicta" and observations. Several others walked the way thus opened by Gratian, for example, Master Roland¹³ (later Alexander III), Bernard of Pavia,¹⁴ Tancred,¹⁵ Peter Lombard.¹⁶ But in the thirteenth century, in which not only the theological and philosophical sciences, but also the science of Canon Law flourished exceedingly, several most celebrated authors wrote on marriage. Before all, St. Raymond of Pennafort of the Order of Preachers is to be named, who by command of Gregory IX collected and arranged the whole Canon Law in the Decretals. In the fourth book of the Decretals there is contained the complete matrimonial law, which afterward was explained by almost innumerable commentaries. St. Raymond himself treated matrimonial law specially for confessors in his Summa.¹⁷

After Peter Lombard and St. Raymond, almost all the great theologians and canonists wrote on marriage, for example, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventure, Johannes Andreae, etc. Both the Council of Trent and the Code of Canon Law introduced great changes in matrimonial law, for example, concerning clandestine marriages, concerning impediments of natural, spiritual, and legal relationship, of public propriety, of affinity, etc. Among authors who wrote on marriage after the Council of Trent, Thomas Sanchez is eminent, extolled with great praises by some and vehemently censured by others, as though he had spoken too immodestly concerning certain matrimonial matters. In our times the following have written on marriage in an excellent manner: Feije,¹⁸ Gasparri,¹⁹ van de Burgt-Schaepman,²⁰ Wernz-Vidal,²¹ Leitner,²² Vlaming,²³ Vogt,²⁴ De Smet,²⁵ Linneborn (Grundriss des Eherechts), and others. Since in matrimonial cases certain questions occur which ought rather to be resolved by those skilled in the medical art, several authors have treated marriage also under this respect, for example, Eschbach,²⁶ Capellmann,²⁷ Surbled,²⁸ Antonelli,²⁹ and certain others. Several writers have also considered the civil laws concerning marriage in force in diverse regions in relation to Moral Theology, for example, in England: Stewart;³⁰ in North America: Bishop;³¹ in Germany: Vogt in the work already cited; in Austria: Rittner;³² in Italy: Ceraolo-Pisani;³³ in Spain: Abella.³⁴

c) Division of the treatise.

Since marriage can be considered under a manifold respect (as was stated above), it is no wonder that diverse divisions are employed by diverse authors in this treatise, according as they prefer one consideration or another. But wishing to provide both for scientific method and for practical utility, we shall treat marriage under the respect a) theological (cc. 1-5); b) canonical (cc. 6-8). At the end a dissertation on civil marriage will be appended. Therefore the whole treatise contains the following chapters:

1. On the nature and division of marriage.

2. On marriage, insofar as it is a sacrament.

3. On the properties of marriage.

4. On the goods of marriage.

5. On the obligations of marriage.

6. On preparation for marriage, namely, on betrothals, the examination of the betrothed, and banns.

7. On matrimonial consent.

8. On the form of the celebration of marriage.

9. On the impediments of marriage, and indeed a) impeding; b) diriment; c) on the dispensation from impediments.

10. On civil marriage.

³ Cf. Matt. 5:31 ff.; Mark 10:11; Luke 16:18.

⁴ 1 Cor. 7:12 ff.

⁵ Ep. ad Polyc., c. 5 (Migne, Patr. graec. 1, 723).

⁶ Pastor, mand. 4, 1 (Migne, loc. cit. 2, 918).

⁷ Legatio pro christianis, c. 33 (Migne, loc. cit. 6, 966).

⁸ Strom., l. 2, c. 23 (Migne, loc. cit. 8, 1086).

⁹ In several places, for example, De monogamia (Migne, Patr. lat. 2, 92).

¹⁰ In several books, for example, De bono coniugali (Migne, loc. cit. 40, 372).

¹¹ Tract. de consang. nuptiis (Migne, loc. cit. 110, 1085).

¹² Decretum, p. 8; Panormia, p. 6 (Migne, loc. cit. 161, 583 and 1243).

¹³ Summa Magistri Rolandi, ed. Thaner, and Die Sentenzen Rolands, ed. Gietl.

¹⁴ Summa de matrimonio, in Laspeyres.

¹⁵ Summa de matrimonio, ed. Wunderlich.

¹⁶ Sent., book IV.

¹⁷ Summa S. Raymundi, de poenitentia et matrimonio, with the commentaries of John of Freiburg, O.P., Rome 1603.

¹⁸ De impedimentis et dispensationibus matrimonialibus, 4th ed., Louvain 1893.

¹⁹ Tractatus de matrimonio. A new edition was prepared by Schaepman.

²⁰ Tractatus canonicus de matrimonio, Utrecht 1908.

²¹ Ius canonicum, vol. V, Rome 1925. Peter Vidal prepared this new edition.

²² Lehrbuch des kirchlichen Eherechts.

²³ Praelectiones de iure matrimoniali, 1921, 2nd ed.

²⁴ Das kirchliche Eherecht, 3rd ed., 1910.

²⁵ De sponsalibus et matrimonio, 2nd ed., Bruges 1921.

²⁶ Disputationes physiologico-theologicae, 2nd ed., 1901.

²⁷ Pastoralmedizin, new ed. prepared by Bergmann, 1922. It is an excellent work.

²⁸ La morale dans ses rapports avec la médecine et l'hygiène, 10th ed., Paris 1905.

²⁹ Medicina pastoralis in usum confessariorum, 3rd ed., Rome 1906.

³⁰ The Law of Marriage.

³¹ New Commentaries on Marriage.

³² Österreichisches Eherecht.

³³ Del matrimonio.

³⁴ Manual del matrimonio civil y canónico.