Dist. 27, Divisio Textus
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/4/d/27/q/bon-sent-IV-d27-divisio
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### Commentary on Distinction XXVII.
#### *On consent as the efficient cause of matrimony.*

*After these things it must be noted what marriage is, and what is its efficient cause,* etc.

#### Division of the text.

This is the second part, in which there is treated the efficient cause of marriage, which indeed is consent. And since not every consent makes marriage, therefore the Master first determines in general that consent is the cause of matrimony. Second, he inquires of what sort that consent is, below in the twenty-eighth distinction: *Here it must be asked, whether consent concerning the future* etc.

The first part has two [subparts]. In the first he determines concerning marriage itself as to its quiddity. In the second, however, as to its causality, there: *But the efficient cause of matrimony* etc. In the first part he does two things.

In the first he briefly premises the things about which he intends to treat. In the second he briefly defines marital wedlock, and this here: *There are therefore nuptials, or matrimony* etc. And these two are as it were preambles for coming to know the causality or origin of matrimony.

*But the efficient cause of matrimony is [consent].* This is the second part of this distinction, in which he treats of the efficient cause, and this part is divided into four parts. In the first he narrates the truth. In the second he confirms [it], there: *That consent, however, makes matrimony* etc. In the third he attacks [it], there: *Yet certain persons assert* etc. In the fourth he settles the objections to the contrary, there: *But to these things we thus respond. There sometimes takes place a betrothal* etc. The subdivisions of the parts manifestly appear in these two last parts, especially [as to] whether from consent alone an insoluble bond is contracted. — And so three things are contained in this distinction, namely the quiddity of matrimony, its causality, and its insolubility.

#### Treatment of the questions.

For the understanding of the present distinction, according to the three things which the Master determines, three things are principally inquired.

First it is asked concerning the quiddity of matrimony.

Second, concerning [its] causality.

Third, concerning [its] insolubility.

Concerning the first, two things are inquired.

First it is asked, what marriage is in genus, or in reality.

Second, what it is in name.

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