Chapter XIII.
On the integrity of matrimony.
Concerning the Sacrament of matrimony, this must be held in summary: that "matrimony is the legitimate union of man and woman, retaining an undivided manner of life." This union, moreover, existed not only after sin, but even before sin; but previously the Sacrament of marriage was instituted as a duty, whereas now it exists not only as a duty, but also as a remedy against the disease of concupiscence; previously it signified the union of God and the soul, but now beyond this it signifies the union of Christ and the Church and of the two natures in the unity of the Person. - This union, moreover, is brought into existence through the free consent of wills on the part of each person, expressed outwardly in some sensible sign, but it is consummated in carnal union. For through words concerning the future, matrimony is said to be initiated; through words concerning the present it is ratified; but through carnal union it is consummated.
Of this Sacrament there are three goods, "namely fidelity, offspring, and the Sacrament"; and twelve impediments, which impede marriage from being contracted and dissolve one already contracted, which are contained in these verses:
Error, condition, vow, consanguinity, crime, disparity of worship, force, holy orders, prior bond, public propriety; if you are related by affinity, if perchance you are unable to consummate: these forbid unions to be joined, and dissolve those already united.
Now the reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because our restorative principle, namely the incarnate Word, by the very fact that it is the Word of God, is the fountain of wisdom on high ; by the very fact that it is incarnate, it is the fountain of mercy on earth: and therefore, by the very fact that it is the uncreated Word, it is the formative principle of the human race from the highest wisdom ; by the very fact that it is incarnate, it is its reformative principle from the highest mercy. For it restores the human race through mercy because it first made it restorable through wisdom, which according to its supreme order required that it make the human race able to stand, able to fall, and also able to be restored, as was shown in the preceding. Since therefore the Word of God in its wisdom made man, as was fitting, able to stand, to fall, and to rise again: hence it is that it ordained the human race to be propagated in such a way that from the very mode of propagation it would have that which would lead it by the hand to standing; it would also have that which would lead it by the hand to remedy, just as also in that propagation there is something through sin, namely concupiscence, which transmits the disease. And because the standing of man was from the conjunction of his soul to God through unitive love in a most chaste, singular, and undivided manner, the remedy came from the conjunction of the divine nature and the human in the unity of hypostasis and person—a unity, I say, introduced by divine grace as singular and undivided: hence it is that God from the beginning instituted that propagation should take place through a conjunction of male and female that is undivided and singular, which would signify before sin the conjunction of God and the soul, or of God and the subcelestial hierarchy, but after sin the conjunction of God and human nature, or of Christ and the Church; and therefore in both cases it is a Sacrament, namely before and after, although in different ways, with respect to signification and use. For since it was a Sacrament before the disease supervened, the concupiscence which supervened through sin is rather to be excused through matrimony than it is able to vitiate it: because the disease does not corrupt the medicine, but the medicine has the power to cure the disease.
From which it manifestly appears what matrimony is, and how it was divinely introduced into being.
Again, because each of the aforesaid spiritual unions signified in the Sacrament of matrimony is a union of one as agent and infuser, and of the other as patient and receiver; and this by the bond of love, which proceeds from pure will: hence it is that matrimony must be a joining of two persons, differing according to the relation of agent and patient, namely of the male sex and the female, and this from the pure consent of the will. - And because the will does not appear outwardly except through signs expressing it: hence it is necessary that mutual consent be outwardly expressed. - But because consent regarding the future is not properly consent, but a promise thereof; and consent before commingling does not make a full union, because they are not yet one flesh: hence it is that by words regarding the future, matrimony is said to be initiated, by words regarding the present confirmed, but in carnal union consummated, because then they are one flesh and become one body: and through this it fully signifies that union which is between us and Christ. For then the body of one is fully transferred to the body of the other according to the power of one's spouse for the procreation of offspring.
And therefore there are three goods of matrimony itself, namely the Sacramental good on account of the indissoluble bond, fidelity on account of the payment of the debt, and offspring as the consequent effect of both.
Finally, because the said matrimonial union must proceed from free consent toward the joining of distinct persons into one law of matrimony: and this can be impeded in twelve ways: hence there are twelve impediments to matrimony, which is evident as follows.
For matrimonial consent requires freedom in the consent, freedom in the one consenting, and fitness for the union. But freedom in the consent is taken away by two things according to the two parts of the involuntary, namely by ignorance and by violence. And thus there are two impediments, namely error and violence.
But freedom in the one consenting is taken away by the fact that one is bound to another, and this either to God or to a human being. If to God, this is either through an express vow, or through something that has a vow annexed to it. The first is in the vow, the second in holy orders.
But if [the impediment pertains] to a person, this is in two ways: either through a bond existing, or through one preceding. The first is in the bond by which one is bound to a wife; the second is in crime, when an adulterer or adulteress has plotted the death of a spouse, or, while the spouse was still living, gave a pledge to contract marriage. And thus there are four impediments, namely vow, holy orders, bond, and crime. — Suitability, however, for union is a fitting distance of persons, which is removed by excessive proximity or by excessive remoteness. But excessive proximity comes through generation, or through something similar to generation, such as legal and spiritual kinship: or it comes through the commingling of the sexes, or through the contracting of espousals. And thus there are three impediments, namely kinship, affinity, and the propriety of public justice.
But excessive distance is considered either with respect to those things which pertain to nature, as when they cannot commingle carnally; or with respect to those things which pertain to fortune, which are not in our power, as is evident when one is a slave and the other free; or with respect to those things which pertain to the Christian religion, as when one is baptized and the other is not at all. And thus there are three impediments, namely impotence of coition, error of condition, and disparity of religion.
And accordingly there are in all twelve impediments, which, at the dictation of the Holy Spirit, have been introduced in the Church, to which, although all the Sacraments have been entrusted, the Sacrament of matrimony has been especially entrusted for regulation on account of the varieties that can arise concerning this Sacrament, and on account of the disease annexed to it, which is most infectious and least observant of measure: and therefore it belongs to the Church herself to limit the degrees of kinship, as she sees expedient for the time, and to judge persons legitimate or illegitimate, and to grant divorces. But she neither ought nor is able to annul a marriage that has been legitimately contracted, because those whom God has joined together no man, however great his power, can separate , since all remain to be judged by the judgment of God himself.