Article II. On the Obligation of the Conjugal Act

I say. There is indeed never given an obligation of asking for the conjugal debt, except sometimes by accident from charity or another virtue; but there is given a strict obligation from justice, of itself grave, of rendering it to the other spouse asking seriously, reasonably, and with right. The reason for the first is that no one is bound to use his own right. - Nevertheless I said that by accident an obligation of asking can be given; thus, for example, a man is bound from charity to ask, if he judges that the co-party is placed in danger of incontinence and, on account of modesty, does not ask. But the reason for the second is that from the very nature of the matrimonial contract the spouses mutually transfer to themselves the power of their bodies in order to conjugal use. It is also deduced from the words of the Apostle, I Cor. vii, 3: "Let the husband render the debt to the wife, and likewise also the wife to the husband; the woman does not have power of her body, but the man; and likewise also the man does not have power of his body, but the woman." - I said asking reasonably and with right, for the obligation of rendering the debt ceases in one spouse when the right of exacting it ceases in the other; but the right ceases especially in the following cases, namely: 1°. if one of the spouses has committed adultery; 2°. if the one asking lacks the use of reason, for example, if the man were overwhelmed by liquors, for then his petition would not be human; 3°. if the one rendering can reasonably fear grave harm or danger to health, because the spouses are not judged to have obligated themselves to rendering the debt with so great an inconvenience. - Cf. S. Alphonsus, nn. 943 and 946.

You Will Resolve. 1°. Spouses are bound to cohabitation, nor can one be absent for a longer time without the consent of the other or without necessity; for this obligation follows from the very obligation of rendering the debt. But just causes of going away for a long time are: the public good, the family to be fed or protected, harm from enemies to be avoided, etc. - Cf. S. Alphonsus, n. 939.

2°. The spouse denying the debt sins gravely as often as there is danger of incontinence or of grave annoyance in the other party. Likewise if he denies it to the other seriously asking. But otherwise, if the co-party benevolently remits it or asks weakly.

3°. One denying does not sin when the other asks immoderately, for example, after the third or fourth time in the same night; nor if he defers for a brief time, namely to the night, or if from the night he defers to the morning time, with nevertheless always the danger of incontinence excluded. - Cf. S. Alphonsus, n. 940.

4°. Wives are to be reprehended who deny the debt to their husbands, even when they ask weakly, without sufficient cause; or who do not concede except compelled, and harshly and contumeliously reproach the man for his petitions.

5°. A wife is not excused from rendering the debt on account of ordinary inconveniences of childbirth, pregnancy, or nursing, nor indeed on account of pains that are grave but brief in time, nor on account of long-lasting but moderate pains, for example, of the head for several months after childbirth, nor on account of health somewhat weakened; because all these things are annexed to the matrimonial condition. But it is otherwise if danger of life or of very grave disease would truly have to be feared from the judgment of a truly prudent physician. - Cf. S. Alphonsus, n. 952.

6°. There is no obligation of rendering the debt to the other laboring under a contagious disease grave in itself, such as plague, venereal disease, or something similar. Likewise, on account of notable weakness of body, those laboring under fever or another grave disease are excused from rendering the debt. - Cf. S. Alphonsus, n. 950.

7°. A spouse is not excused from rendering the debt on account of fear of more numerous offspring; for procreation of offspring pertains to the principal end of Marriage; whence that inconvenience is intrinsic to Marriage itself. Cf. S. Alphonsus, n. 941.

8°. Especially Catholic physicians are bound under grave obligation not to exaggerate the dangers of childbirth but rather to indicate the means by which they may be lessened.