The Catechism of the Council of Trent/Part 2: Holy Matrimony

by the Council of Trent

ON THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY.

As it is the duty of the pastor to propose to himself the holiness and perfection of the faithful, his earnest desires must be in full accordance with those of the Apostle, when, writing to the Corinthians, he says: " I would that all men were even as myself;" ^[1] that is, that all embraced the virtue of continence. If there be any one blessing superior to every other, it surely falls to the lot of him who, unlettered by the distracting cares of the world, the turbulence of passion tranquillized, the unruly desires of the flesh extinguished, reposes in the practice of piety and the contemplation of heavenly things. But as, according to the same Apostle, " every one hath his proper gift from God, one after this manner, and another after that," ^[2] and marriage is gifted with many divine blessings, holding, as it does, a place amongst the Sacraments of the Church, and honoured, as it was, by the presence of our Lord himself, ^[3] it becomes the obvious duty of the pastor to expound its doctrine; particularly when we find that St. Paul, and the prince of the Apostles, have, in many places, minutely described to us not only the dignity but also the duties of the married state. Filled with the Spirit of God," they well understood the numerous and import ant advantages which must flow to Christian society from a knowledge of the sanctity and an inviolable observance of the obligations of marriage; whilst they saw that from an ignorance of the former, and a disregard of the latter, marriage must prove the fertile source of the greatest evils, and the heaviest calamities to the Church of God.

The nature and import of marriage are, therefore, to be explained; for as vice not unfrequently assumes the semblance of virtue, care must be taken that the faithful be not deceived by a false appearance of marriage, and thus stain their souls with the turpitude and defilement of wicked lusts. To give them competent and correct information on this important subject, we shall begin with the meaning of the word " Matrimony." It is called " Matrimony," because the principal object which a female should propose to herself in marriage is to become a mother; (matrem) or because to a mother it belongs to conceive, bring forth, and train up her offspring. It is also called " wed lock," (conjugium) from the conjugal union of man and wife; (a conjugendo) because a lawful wife is united to her husband, as it were, by a common yoke. It is called " marriage," (nuptiae) because, as St. Ambrose observes, the bride veiled her face (se obnuberent) through modesty, a reverential observance which would also seem to imply that she was to be subject to her husband. ^[4]

Matrimony, in the general opinion of divines, is defined " The conjugal and legitimate union of man and woman, which is to last during life." In order that the different parts of this definition may be better understood, the pastor will teach that, although a perfect marriage has all these conditions, viz. internal consent, external assent expressed by words, the obligation and tie which arise from the contract, and the marriage debt by which it is consummated; yet the obligation and tie expressed by the word " union," alone have the force and nature of marriage. The peculiar character of this union is marked by the word "conjugal," distinguishing it from other contracts by which persons unite to promote their common interests, engage to render some service for a stipulated time, or enter into an agreement for some other purpose, contracts all of which differ essentially from this " conjugal union." Next follows the word " legitimate;" for persons excluded by law cannot contract marriage, and if they do their marriage is invalid. Persons, for instance, within the fourth degree of kindred, a boy before his fourteenth year, and a female before her twelfth, the ages established by the laws, ^[5] cannot contract marriage. The words "which is to last during life," express the indissolubility of the tie, which binds husband and wife.

Hence, it is evident, that in that tie consists marriage. Some eminent divines, it is true, say that it consists in the consent, as when they define it: " The consent of the man and woman;" but we are to understand them to mean that the consent is the efficient cause of marriage, which is the doctrine of the Fathers of the Council of Florence; because, without the consent and contract, the obligation and tie cannot possibly exist. But it is of absolute necessity that the consent be expressed in words which designate the present time. Marriage is not a simple donation, but a mutual contract; and therefore the consent of one of the parties is insufficient, that of both necessary to its validity; and to declare this consent, words are obviously the medium to be employed. If the internal consent alone, with out any external indication, were sufficient, it would then seem to follow as a necessary consequence, that were two persons, living in the most separate and distant countries, to consent to marry, they should contract a true and indissoluble marriage, even before they had mutually signified to each other their consent by letter or messenger; a consequence as repugnant to reason as it is opposed to the decrees and established usage of the Church.

It has been wisely provided that the consent of the parties to the marriage contract be expressed in words which have reference to the present time. Words which signify a future time promise, but do not actually unite in marriage: it is evident that what is to be done has no present existence: what does not exist can have little or no firmness or stability: a promise of marriage, therefore, does not give a title to the rights of marriage. Such promises are, it is true, obligatory; and their violation involves the offending party in a breach of faith: but although entered into they have not been actually fulfilled, and cannot therefore constitute marriage. But he who has once entered into the matrimonial alliance, regret it as he afterwards may, cannot possibly change, or invalidate, or undo the compact. As then the marriage contract is not a mere promise, but a transfer of right, by which the man yields the dominion of his person to the woman, the woman the dominion of her person to the man, it must therefore be made in words which designate the present time, the force of which word? abides with undiminished efficacy from the moment of their utterance, and binds the husband and wife by a tie which can never be dis solved, but by death of one of the parties.

Instead of words, however, it may be sufficient for the validity of the marriage contract to substitute a nod or other unequivocal sign of tacit consent: even silence, when the result of female modesty, may be sufficient, provided the parents answer for their daughter. Hence the pastor will teach the faithful that the nature and force of marriage consists in the tie and obligation; and that, without consummation, the consent of the Consumparties, expressed in the manner already explained, is sufficient to constitute a true marriage. It is certain that our first parents before their fall, when, according to the Holy Fathers, no consummation took place, were really united in marriage. ^[6] The holy Fathers, therefore, say that marriage consists not in its consummation, but in the consent of the contracting parties; a doctrine repeated by St. Ambrose in his book on virginity. ^[7]

Having explained these matters, the pastor will proceed to teach that matrimony is to be considered in two points of view, either as a natural union, (marriage was invented not by man but by nature) or as a sacrament, the efficacy of which transcends the order of nature; and as grace perfects nature, (" That was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; after wards that which is spiritual,") ^[8] the order of our matter requires that we first treat of matrimony as a natural contract, and next as a sacrament.

The faithful, therefore, are to be taught, in the first place, that marriage was instituted by God. We read in Genesis, that " God created them male and female, and blessed them saying: Increase and multiply: " and also: "It is not good for a man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto him self. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam; and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam; and Adam said: this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man: wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh. " ^[9] These words, according to the authority of our Lord himself as we read in St. Matthew, establish the divine institution of Matrimony. ^[10]

Not only did God institute marriage; he also, as the Council of Trent declares, rendered it perpetual and indissoluble: ^[11] "what God hath joined together," says our Lord, "let not man separate." ^[12] As a natural contract, it accords with the duties of marriage that it be indissoluble; yet its indissolubility arises principally from its nature as a sacrament; and this it is that, in all its natural relations, elevates it to the highest perfection. Its dissolubility, however, is at once opposed to the proper education of children, and to the other important ends of marriage.

But the words "increase and multiply," which were uttered by Almighty God, do not impose on every individual an obligation to marry: they declare the object of the institution of marriage; and now that the human face is widely diffused, not only is there no law rendering marriage obligatory, but, on the contrary, virginity is highly exalted and strongly recommended in Scripture as superior to marriage, as a state of greater perfection and holiness. On this subject the doctrine taught by our Lord himself is contained in these words: " He that can take it, let him take it;" ^[13] and the Apostle says: " Concerning virgins I have no commandment from the Lord; but I give counsel as having obtained mercy from the Lord to be faithful." ^[14]

But why marriage was instituted is a subject which demands exposition The first reason of its institution is because nature instinctively tends to such a union; and under the vicissitudes of life and the infirmities of old age, this union is a source of mutual assistance and support. Another is the desire of family, not so much, however, with a view to leave after us heirs to inherit our property and fortune, as to bring up children in the true faith and in the service of God. That such was the principal object of the Holy Patriarchs when they engaged in the married state, we learn from the Sacred Volumes; and hence the angel, when informing Tobias of the means of repelling the violent assaults of the evil demon, says: " I will show thee who they are over whom the devil can prevail; for they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God from them selves and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mules which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power." He then adds: " thou shalt take the virgin with the fear of the Lord, moved rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed of Abraham thou mayest obtain a blessing in children." ^[15] This was also amongst Note, the reasons why God instituted marriage from the beginning; and therefore married persons who, to prevent conception or procure abortion, have recourse to medicine, are guilty of a most heinous crime nothing less than premeditated murder. The third reason is one which is to be numbered amongst the consequences of primeval transgressions: stript of original innocence, human appetite began to rise in rebellion against right treason; and man, conscious of his own frailty, and unwilling to fight the battles of the flesh, is supplied by marriage with an antidote against the licentiousness of corrupt desire. " For fear of fornication," says the Apostle, " let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband;" and a little after, having recommended to married persons a temporary abstinence from the marriage debt, " to give themselves to prayer," he adds: " Return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency." ^[16]

These are ends, some one of which, those who desire to contract marriage piously and religiously, as becomes the children of the Saints, should propose to themselves. If to these we add other concurring causes which induce to contract marriage, such as the desire of leaving an heir, wealth, beauty, illustrious descent, congeniality of disposition, such motives, because not inconsistent with the holiness of marriage, are not to be condemned: we do not find that the Sacred Scriptures condemn the patriarch Jacob for having chosen Rachel for her beauty, in preference to Lia. ^[17]

These are the instructions which the pastor will communicate to the faithful on the subject of marriage, as a natural contract: as a sacrament he will show that marriage is raised to a superior order, and referred to a more exalted end. The original institution of marriage, as a natural contract, had for object the propagation of the human race: its subsequent elevation to the dignity of a sacrament is intended for the procreation and education of a people in the religion and worship of the true God, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. When the Redeemer would exemplify the close union that subsists between him and his Church, and his boundless love towards us, he declares this divine mystery principally by alluding to the holy union of man and wife; and the aptitude of the illustration is evinced by this, that of all human relations no one is so binding as that of marriage, and those who stand in that relation are united in the closest bonds of affection and love. Hence the Sacred Scriptures, by assimilating it to marriage, frequently place before us this divine union of Christ with his Church.

That marriage is a sacrament has been at all times held by the church as a certain and well ascertained truth; and in this she is supported by the authority of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians: " Husbands," says he, " should love their wives, as their own bodies: he who loveth his wife, loveth himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ doth the Church, for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ, and in the Church." ^[18] When the Apostle says: " This is a great sacrament," he means, no doubt, to designate marriage; ^[19] as if he had said: The conjugal union between man and wife, of which God is the author, is a sacrament, that is, a sacred sign of the holy union that subsists between Christ and his Church. That this is the true meaning of his words is shown by the Holy Fathers who have interpreted the passage; and the Council of Trent has given to it the same interpretation. ^[20] The husband therefore is evidently compared by the Apostle to Christ, the wife to the Church; ^[21] "the man is head of the woman, as Christ is of the Church;" ^[22] and hence the husband should love his wife, and again, the wife should love and respect her husband, for " Christ loved his Church, and gave himself for her;" and the Church, as the same Apostle teaches, is subject to Christ.

That this sacrament signifies and confers grace, and in this the nature of a sacrament principally consists, we learn from these words of the Council of Trent: " The grace which perfects that natural love, and confirms that indissoluble union, Christ himself, the author and finisher of the sacraments, has merited for us by his passion." ^[23] The faithful are, therefore, to be taught, that, united in the bonds of mutual love, the husband and wife are enabled, by the grace of this sacrament, to repose in each other's affections; to reject every criminal attachment; to repel every inclination to unlawful intercourse; and in every thing to preserve " marriage honourable, and the bed undefiled." ^[24]

The great superiority of the sacrament of matrimony to those marriages which took place before or after the Law, we may learn from the following considerations The Gentiles, it is true, looked upon marriage as something sacred, and therefore considered promiscuous intercourse to be inconsistent with the law of nature: they also held that fornication, adultery, and other licentious excesses should be repressed by legal sanctions; but their marriages had nothing whatever of the nature of a sacrament. Amongst the Jews the laws of marriage were observed with more religious fidelity, and their marriages, no doubt, were more holy. Having received the promise that in the seed of Abraham all nations should be blessed, ^[25] it was justly deemed a matter of great piety amongst them to beget children, the off spring of a chosen people, from whom, as to his human nature, Christ our Lord and Saviour was to descend; but their marriage also wanted the true nature of a Sacrament. Of this it is a fur ther confirmation, that whether we consider the law of nature after the fall of Adam, or the law given to Moses, we at once perceive that marriage had fallen from its primitive excellence and sanctity. Under the Law of Moses we find that many of the Patriarchs had several wives at the same time, and, should a cause exist, it was subsequently permitted to dismiss one's wife, having given her a bill of divorce; ^[26] both of which abuses have been removed by the Gospel dispensation, and marriage restored to its primitive state.

That polygamy is opposed to the nature of marriage is shown by our Lord in these words: " For this cause a man shall leave father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore," continues the Redeemer, " now they are not two but one flesh." ^[27] The Patriarchs, who, by the permission of God, had a plurality of wives, are not on that account to be condemned: the words of the Redeemer, however, clearly show that marriage was instituted by God as the union of two only; and this he again expressly declares when he says: " Whoever shall dismiss his wife, and shall marry another, doth commit adultery, and he that shall marry her that is dismissed, committeth adultery." ^[28] If a plurality of wives be lawful, we can discover no more reason why he who marries a second wife whilst he retains the first should be said to be guilty of adultery, than he who, having dismissed the first, takes to himself a second. Hence, if an infidel, in accordance with the laws and customs of his country, has married several wives, the Church commands him, when converted to the faith, to look upon the first alone as his lawful wife, and to separate from the others

That marriage cannot be dissolved by divorce is easily proved from the same testimony of our Lord: if by a bill of divorce the matrimonial link were dissolved, the wife might lawfully, and without the guilt of adultery, take another husband; yet our Lord expressly declares, that " whoever shall dismiss his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery." ^[29] The bond of marriage, therefore, can be dissolved by death alone, and this the Apostle confirms when he says: " A woman is bound by the law, as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die, she is at liberty: let her marry whom she will, only in the Lord." and again: " To them that are married, not I, but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband, and if she depart, that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband." ^[30] Thus to her who has separated from her husband, even for a just cause, the only alternative left by the Apostle is to remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband: the Church, unless influenced by very weighty causes, does not sanction the separation of husband and wife.

That this the law of marriage may not appear too rigorous, its beneficial consequences are to be presented to the consideration of the faithful. In the first place, they should know that the choice of a companion for life should be influenced by virtue and congeniality of disposition, rather than by wealth or beauty; a consideration which confessedly is of the highest practical importance to the interests of society. Besides, if marriage were dissoluble by divorce, married persons could scarcely ever want causes of dissension, which the inveterate enemy of peace and virtue would never fail to supply; whereas, when the faithful reflect that, although separated as to bed and board, they are still bound by the tie of marriage, and that all hope of a second marriage is cut off, they are more slow to anger and more averse to dissension; and if sometimes separated, feeling the many inconveniencies that attend their separation, their reconciliation is easily accomplished through the intervention of friends. Here, the salutary admonition of St. Augustine is also not to be omit ted by the pastor: to convince the faithful that they should not deem it a hardship to be reconciled to their penitent wives, whom they may have put away for adultery. " Why," says he, " should not the Christian husband receive his wife, whom the Church receives? Why should not the wife pardon her adulterous but penitent husband, whom Christ has pardoned? When the Scriptures call him who keeps an adultress a fool, ^[31] it means an adultress who after her delinquency refuses to repent, and perseveres in the career of turpitude which she had commenced." ^[32] In perfection and dignity, it is clear there fore, from what has been said, that marriage amongst the Jews and Gentiles is far inferior to Christian marriage.

The faithful are also to be informed that there are three advantages which arise from marriage, offspring, faith, and the sacrament; advantages which alleviate those evils which the Apostle points out when he says: " Such shall have tribulation of the flesh;" ^[33] and which render that intercourse, which with out marriage should be deservedly reprobated, an honourable union. ^[34] The first advantage, then, is that of legitimate offspring; an advantage so highly appreciated by the Apostle, that he says: " The woman shall be saved through child-bearing." ^[35] These words of the Apostle are not, however, to be understood to refer solely to the procreation of children: they also refer to the discipline and education by which children are reared to piety; for the Apostle immediately adds: " If she continue in faith." " Hast thou children," says Ecclesiasticus, " instruct them and bow down their neck from their childhood:" ^[36] the same important lesson is inculcated by the Apostle; and of such an education the Scripture affords the most beautiful illustrations in the persons of Tobias, Job, and of other characters eminent for sanctity. But the further development of the duties of parents and children we reserve for the exposition of the Fourth Commandment.

The next advantage is faith, not the habitual faith infused in baptism, but the fidelity which the husband plights to the wife and the wife to the husband, to deliver to each other the mutual dominion of their persons, and to preserve inviolate the sacred engagements of marriage. This is an obvious inference from the words of Adam on receiving his consort Eve, which, as the Gospel informs us, the Redeemer has sanctioned by his approbation: "Wherefore," says our protoparent, "a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh." ^[37] Nor are the words of the Apostle less explicit: " The wife," says he, " hath not power of her own body; but the husband." ^[38] Hence against adultery, be cause it violates this conjugal faith, the Almighty justly decreed in the Old Law the heaviest chastisements. ^[39] This matrimonial faith also demands, on the part of husband and wife, a singular, holy, and pure love, a love not such as that of adulterers, but such as that which Christ cherishes towards his Church. This is the model of conjugal love proposed by the Apostle when he says: " Men, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church." ^[40] The love of Christ for his church was great, not an interested love, but a love which proposed to itself the sole happiness of his spouse.

The third advantage is called the sacrament, that is the indissoluble tie of marriage: " The Lord," says the Apostle, " hath commanded that the wife depart not from her husband, and if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband; and that the husband dismiss not his wife." ^[41] If, as a sacrament, marriage is significant of the union of Christ with his Church, it follows that as Christ never separates himself from his Church, so a wife, as far as regards the tie of marriage, can never be separated from her husband.

The more easily to preserve the happiness of this holy union undisturbed by domestic broils, the pastor will instruct the faithful in the duties of husband and wife, as inculcated by St. Paul and by the prince of the Apostles. ^[42] It is then the duty of the husband to treat his wife liberally and honourably: it should not be forgotten that Eve was called by Adam " his companion:" " The woman," says he, " whom thou gavest me as a companion." Hence it was, according to the opinion of some of the Holy Fathers, that she was formed not from the feet but from the side of man; as, on the other hand, she was not formed from his head, in order to give her to under stand that it was not hers to command but to obey her husband. The husband should also be constantly occupied in some honest pursuit, with a view as well to provide necessaries for his family, as to avoid the languor of idleness, the root of almost every vice. He is also to keep all his family in order, to correct their morals, fix their respective employments, and see that they Duties of a discharge them with fidelity. On the other hand, the duties of a wife are thus summed up by the prince of the Apostles: " Let wives be subject to their husbands; that if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word, by the conversation of the wives; considering your chaste conversation with fear: whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet and meek spirit, which is rich in the sight of God. For after this manner, heretofore, the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord." 3 To train up their children in the practice of virtue, and to pay particular at tention to their domestic concerns, should also be especial objects of their attention and study. Unless compelled by necessity to go abroad, they should also cheerfully remain at home; and should never leave home without the permission of their husbands. Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let them never forget that, next to God, they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them, in all things not inconsistent with Christian piety, a willing and obsequious obedience.

Having explained these matters, the pastor will next proceed to instruct his people in the rites to be observed in the administration of marriage. Here, however, it is not to be supposed that we give in detail the laws that regulate marriage: these have been accurately fixed, and are detailed at large in the decree of the Council of Trent on marriage, a decree with which the pastor cannot be unacquainted. Here, therefore, it will suffice to admonish him to study to make himself acquainted, from the doctrine of the Council, with what regards this subject, and to make it a matter of assiduous exposition to the faithful. ^[43]

But above all, lest young persons, and youth is a period of life marked by extreme weakness and indiscretion, deceived by the specious but misapplied name of marriage, may rush into hasty engagements, the result of criminal passion; the pastor cannot too frequently remind them that, without the presence of the parish-priest, or of some other priest commissioned by him or by the ordinary, and that of two or three witnesses, there can be no marriage.

The impediments of marriage are also to be explained, a subject so minutely and accurately treated by many writers on morality, of grave authority and profound erudition, as to render it an easy task to the pastor to draw upon their labours, particularly as he has occasion to have such works continually in his hands. The instructions, therefore, which they contain, and also the decrees of the Council with regard to the impediments arising from "spiritual affinity," from "the justice of public honesty," and from " fornication," the pastor will peruse with attention and expound with care and accuracy.

The faithful may hence learn the dispositions with which they should approach the sacrament of marriage: they should consider themselves as about to engage, not in a human work, but in a divine ordinance; and the example of the Fathers of the Old Law, by whom marriage, although not raised to the dignity of a sacrament, was deemed a most holy and religious rite, evinces the singular purity of soul and sentiments of piety, with which Christians should approach so holy a sacrament.

But, amongst many other matters there is one which demands the zealous exhortation of the pastor, it is, that children pay it as a tribute of respect due to their parents, or to those under whose guardianship and authority they are placed, not to engage in marriage without their knowledge, still less in defiance of their express wishes. In the Old Law children were uniformly given in marriage by their parents; and that the will of the parent is always to have very great influence on the choice of the child, is clear from these words of the Apostle: " He that giveth his virgin in marriage doth well; and he that giveth her not, doth better." ^[44]

Finally, with regard to the use of marriage, this is a subject which the pastor will approach with becoming delicacy, avoiding the use of any expression that may be unfit to meet the ears of the faithful, that may be calculated to offend the piety of some, or excite the laughter of others. "The words of the Lord are chaste words;" ^[45] and the teachers of a Christian people should make use of no language that is not characterized by gravity, and that does not breathe purity of soul. Two lessons of instruction are, then, to be specially pressed upon the attention of the faithful: the first, that marriage is not to be sought from motives of sensuality, but that its use is to be restrained within those limits, which, as we have already shown, are fixed by God. They should be mindful of the exhortation of the Apostle: " They," says he, " that have wives, let them be as though they had them not." ^[46] The words of St. Jerome are also worthy of attention: " the love," says he, " which a wise man cherishes towards his wife, is the result of judgment, not the impulse of passion: he governs the impetuosity of desire, and is not hurried into indulgence. What greater turpitude than that a husband should love his wife, as the seducer loves the adulteress." ^[47] But as every blessing is to be obtained from God by holy prayer, the faithful are also to be taught sometimes to abstain from the marriage debt, in order to devote themselves to prayer. This religion continence, according to the proper and pious injunction of our predecessors in the faith, is particularly to be observed for at least three days previous to communion, and for a longer time during the solemn and penitential season of Lent. Thus will the faithful experience the blessings of the holy state of marriage by a constantly increasing accumulation of divine grace; and living in the pursuit and practice of piety, they will not only spend this mortal life in peace and tranquillity, but will also repose in the true and firm hope, " which confoundeth not," ^[48] of arriving one day, through the divine goodness, at the fruition of that life which is eternal. ^[49]

1. 1 Cor. vii. 7.
2. 1 Cor. vii. 7
3. John ii. 2.
4. De his nomin. vid. Aug. lib. 19. contr. Faust, c. 26. Ambr. lib. 1. de Abraham c. 9. in fine, item vid. 30. q. 5. c. foemina, et 33. q. 5. c. Mulier. Isidor. lib. de Eccl officiis c. 19.
5. Such laws, the reader will perceiv?, are of a local nature, and vary in different countries. T.
6. Gen. ii. 22.
7. De iristit. virgin, cap. 6.
8. 1 Cor. xv 46.
9. Gen. i. 27, 28. Gen ii. 18. 21, 22, 23, 24.
10. Matt. xix. 6.
11. Sess. 24. init.
12. Matt. xix. 6.
13. Matt xix. 12.
14. 1 Cor. vii. 25.
15. Tob. vi. 16, 17, 18. 22.
16. i Cor. vii. 2.
17. Gen. xxix.
18. Eph. v. 28.
19. Tertull. lib. de Monog. Aug. de fide et oper. c. 7. lib. de nupt. et concup. c. 10. et 12.'s
20. Sess . 34.
21. Ambr. in epist. ad Ephes.
22. Eph. v. 23.
23. Sess. 24. de matrim.
24. Heb. xiii. 4.
25. Gen. xxii. 18,
26. Deut. xxiv. 1. Matt. xix. 7.
27. Matt. xix. 9.
28. Matt. xix. 9.
29. Matt xix. 8. Luke xiv. 18.
30. 1 Cor. vii. 39.
31. Prov. rviii. 21
32. Lib. de adult, conjug. c. 6. et 9.
33. 1 Cor. yii. 28.
34. Vid. Aug. lib. 5. contr. Tul. cap. 5.
35. 1 Tim. ii. 15.
36. Eccl. vii. 25.
37. Gen. ii. 24. Matt. xix. 5.
38. i Cor. vii. 4.
39. Num. v. 12.
40. Ephes. v. 25.
41. 1 Cor vii 10
42. Vid. Aug. lib. 1. de adult conjug. c. 21 et 22. et de bono conjug. car. 7. et concupis. lib. 1. c. 10.
43. Sess. 24. decret de reformat, matrimon.
44. 1 Cor. vii. 38.
45. Ps. xi. 7.
46. Cor. vii. 29.
47. S. Hier. lib. 1. contra. lovian. in fine.
48. Rom. v. 5.
49. Vid. 33. q. 4. per totan et de consecr. dist. 2. cap. omnis homo. Hier. in apol. pro lihris contra lovian. post medium inter epist. num. 50. et in c. 12. Zach. super, iliud: " In die planctus magnus erit fructus thori immaculati."