Pars 6, Cap. 13
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/6/q/bon-brev-p6-c13
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### Chapter XIII. *On the integrity of marriage.*

Concerning the Sacrament of *marriage* this must be held in summary: that « marriage is the lawful conjunction of a male and a female, retaining an undivided common manner of life ». Now this conjunction was not only after sin, but also before sin; but formerly the Sacrament of marriage was instituted unto an *office*, whereas now it is instituted not only unto an *office*, but also unto a *remedy* against the disease of lust; formerly it signified the conjunction of God and the soul, whereas now, besides this, it signifies the conjunction of Christ and the Church and of the two natures in the unity of a person. — Now this conjunction *is introduced* into *being* through the free consent of minds on the part of each person, outwardly expressed in some sensible sign, but it has *to be consummated* in carnal union. For through words concerning the future marriage is said *to be initiated*, through words concerning the present *to be ratified*, but through carnal union it has *to be consummated*. — Now of this Sacrament there are three *goods*, « namely faith, offspring and Sacrament »; and twelve *impediments*, which impede the contracting and dissolve what is already contracted, which are contained in these verses:

*Error, condition, vow, kinship, crime,*  
*Disparity of worship, force, [holy] order, [prior] bond, [public] decency;*  
*If you be a kinsman by affinity, if perchance you be unable to have intercourse:*  
*These things forbid marriages that are to be allied, and undo them when joined.*

Now the reason for the understanding of the aforesaid is this: since our reparative principle, the Word namely incarnate, by this very fact that he is the *Word of God*, is the *fount of wisdom on high*; by this very fact that he is *incarnate*, is the fount of *clemency* on earth; and therefore, by this very fact that he is the *uncreated Word*, he is the *formative* [principle] of the human race out of the highest *wisdom*; by this very fact that he is *incarnate*, he is its *reformative* [principle] out of the highest *clemency*. For he repairs the human race through clemency for this reason, that he first made it reparable out of wisdom, which for its own highest order required that he should make the human race able *to stand*, able *to fall*, able also *to be repaired*, as was shown in the preceding. Since therefore the Word of God in his wisdom made man — as also it was fitting — able *to stand*, *to fall* and *to rise*; hence it is that he ordained the human race to be propagated in that mode by which, from the very mode of propagating, it should have that which might lead it by the hand *to standing*; it should have also that which might lead it by the hand *to a remedy*, just as also in that propagation there is something through sin, namely lust, which transmits the disease. And because the *state* of man was from the conjunction of his soul to God through a unitive love in a mode most chaste, single and undivided; the *remedy* came from the conjunction of the divine nature and the human into the unity of hypostasis and of person — a unity, I say, introduced by divine grace as *single* and *undivided*: hence it is that God from the beginning instituted that propagation should come about through an *undivided* and *single* conjunction of male and female, which should 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 there is a *Sacrament*, namely *before* and *after*, although in one mode and another, as regards *signification* and *use*. For since it was a *Sacrament* before the disease supervened, lust, which supervened through sin, is rather to be excused through marriage than able to vitiate it; because the disease does not corrupt the medicine, but the medicine has to cure the disease. — From which it manifestly appears what marriage *is*, and how it *was introduced* divinely into *being*.

Again, since each of the aforesaid spiritual unions signified in the Sacrament of marriage is a union of the one as of the *agent* and of that which flows in, of the o-

ther as of the *patient* and of that which receives; and this, by the bond of love effecting it, which proceeds from the mere *will*: hence it is that marriage ought to be a conjunction of a twofold person, differing according to the account of the *agent* and of the *patient*, namely of the male sex and of the female, and this from the mere *consent of the will*. — And because the will does not outwardly appear save through signs expressing it; hence it is that it is necessary that the mutual consent *be outwardly expressed*. — But because consent as concerning the *future* is not properly consent, but a promise of it; and consent before the mingling does not make a full union, because they are not yet *one flesh*: hence it is that through words concerning the future marriage is said to be *initiated*, through words concerning 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 the one is fully transferred into the body of the other according to the power of one's own consort for the procreating of offspring.

And therefore of marriage itself there are three *goods*, namely the *Sacrament* on account of the indissoluble bond, *faith* on account of the rendering of the debt, and *offspring* as an effect following upon both.

Lastly, since the said matrimonial conjunction ought to be one proceeding from free consent to the coupling of persons standing apart into one law of marriage; and this can be impeded in twelve modes: hence it is that there are twelve impediments of marriage, which appears thus. — For to matrimonial consent there is required *liberty in the consent*, *liberty in the one consenting*, and *fitness for the conjunction*. But *liberty in the consent* is taken away through two things according to the two parts of the involuntary, namely through *ignorance* and through *violence*. And thus there are two impediments, namely *error* and *violence*. — But *liberty in the one consenting* is taken away through this, that someone is bound to another, and this either to *God* or to *man*. If to *God*, this is either through an *express vow* or through something which has a *vow annexed*. The first is in the *vow*, the second in *order*. But if to *man*, this in two ways: either through an *existing bond* or through a *preceding* one. The first is in the *bond* by which someone is bound to a wife; the second is in *crime*, when an adulterer or an adulteress has machinated the death of the spouse, or, while that one is living, has given a pledge concerning contracting. And thus there are four impediments, namely *vow*, *order*, *bond* and *crime*. — But *fitness for the union* is a fitting distance of persons, which is taken away through too great *nearness* or through too great *remoteness*. Now too great *nearness* comes through *generation*, or through something *like generation*, as is *legal* and *spiritual kinship*; or it comes through the *mingling of the sexes*, or through the *contracting of betrothals*. And thus there are three impediments, namely *kinship*, *affinity* and *the decency of public justice*. — But too great *distance* is attended to either as regards those things which are of *nature*, as when they cannot be mingled carnally; or as regards those things which are of *fortune*, which are not in our power, as is plain when the one is a slave and the other free; or as regards those things which are of the *Christian religion*, as when one is baptized but the other not at all. And thus there are three impediments, namely *impotence for intercourse*, *error of condition* and *disparity of religion*. — And through this there are in all twelve impediments, which, the Holy Spirit dictating, have been introduced in the Church, to which, although all the Sacraments are committed, most especially the Sacrament of marriage has been committed to be regulated, on account of the *varieties* which can befall concerning this Sacrament, and on account of the annexed *disease*, which is most of all infective and least of all keeps measure; and therefore it belongs to the Church herself to limit the *degrees of kinship*, as she sees to be expedient for the time, and to judge persons *legitimate* or *illegitimate* and to *make divorces*. But never ought she, nor is she able, to annul a marriage which has been legitimately introduced, because *those whom God has joined man cannot*, however great his power may be, *separate*, since all men remain to be judged by the judgment of God himself.

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