Article XIV. Abduction

The Council of Trent¹ made the following law: ‘“‘ The Holy Synod ordains that no marriage can subsist between the abductor and her who is abducted so long as she shall remain in the power of the abductor. But if she that has been abducted, being separated from the abductor and being in a safe and free place, shall consent to have him for her husband, the abductor may have her for his wife.”” This decree made abduction a diriment impediment of marriage, and in keeping with its tenor the impediment may be defined as the violent abduction of a woman from a place of safety to another place where she is detained in the power of the abductor for the purpose of marriage. In order to constitute the impediment the abduction must be against the will of the woman, whether it be effected by open violence, or threats, or fraud; for if she freely consent both to the abduction and to marriage, we have elopement, not abduction. Consent to both abduction and marriage is required, for the Council made an abducted woman incapable of contracting a valid marriage, as long as she is in the power of the abductor. The woman, too, must be the abducted party; if a man were forcibly carried off by the orders of a woman who wished to marry him, this impediment would not arise. It is a disputed point among Doctors as to whether the impediment would arise if a man carried off his betrothed by violence in order to marry her. The better opinion is that the impediment would hinder the marriage, for although betrothal gave the man a right to marry the woman at the proper time, still it gave him no right to use violence for the purpose.

¹ Sess. xxiv, c. 6, de ref. Matr.

The words in the definition “ from a place of safety” signify a place where the woman is not.in the power of the abductor, so that to give rise to the impediment the woman must be taken from one place to another which is morally distinct, and where she is under the control of the abductor. The forcible detention of a woman in a place where she is in the man’s power but to which she came of her own accord is equivalent to abduction (Can. 1074, sec. 3). The abductor’s aim must be to contract marriage, not merely to satisfy his lust.

The impediment is of ecclesiastical law and lasts as long as the person abducted remains in the power of the abductor, for, as the Council says, if the woman be restored to her liberty and then freely chooses to have the abductor for her husband, the impediment ceases (Can. 1074, sec. 2).

The Council imposed the penalty of excommunication on the abductor and on all who aid and abet him, besides obliging him to give the woman a sufficient dower whether he marry her or not. Other penalties are assigned by Canon 2353.