Dist. 36, Art. 1, Q. 3
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/36/q/bon-sent-IV-d36-a1-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the condition of the offspring follows the father or the mother.*

Third, it is asked whose condition the offspring follows, whether the father's or the mother's. And that it follows the *father* seems to be the case:

1. Because denomination ought to be made from the more principal and more worthy [principle]; but the father is a nobler and more worthy principle than the mother, and more principal: therefore, if the thing originated ought rather to be regulated according to the rules of the more worthy principle, it seems that the birth ought to follow the father.

2. Likewise, in sacred Scripture a genealogy of women is never set down, but rather of men: therefore generation principally regards men: therefore also the germ of generation.

3. Likewise, the promise concerning the blessed seed, namely Christ, was made principally to men, although he was to be born of a woman — for the promise was not made to Sarah, or Bathsheba, but to Abraham and David — therefore it seems that the offspring belongs rather to the man than to the woman: therefore, etc.

4. Likewise, everything originated that is produced according to union follows more that to which it is more assimilated; but sons are more assimilated to the father: therefore they ought rather to follow the fathers.

**On the contrary:** 1. Concerning the Marriage of slaves the decretal says: "It seems unfitting that sons begotten of a free woman should be dragged back into servitude": therefore those who are born of a free mother are free: therefore they follow the *mother.*

2. Likewise, if someone sows in another's land, the fruit belongs to the owner of the land, not to the sower; but the woman's womb, with respect to the man's seed, is as land with respect to the sowing: therefore it seems that, just as the fruit follows the land, so the birth should follow the womb.

3. Likewise, this is seen in animals, since if an animal of the male sex impregnates an animal of the female sex, as a horse [impregnates] a mare, the foal follows the mare, not the [male] horse: therefore by parity of reasoning it seems so in the matter proposed.

4. Likewise, this is seen *by a similitude* in artificial things: because, if someone builds on another's land, the building yields to the soil, not the soil to the building: therefore if someone generates in another's womb, the offspring follows the womb.

### Conclusion

> **CONCLUSION.** The condition of the offspring fittingly follows the mother, although in some regions there is a different custom.

**I respond:** It must be said that, according to the civil laws or imperial law, "the birth follows the womb." — And the reason for this is very fitting, since the offspring has a twofold principle, namely the father and the mother. The father is the *more honorable* principle, but the mother is the *more substantial* principle; and therefore in *honors* and *municipal offices* the son follows the father, since these are acquired by the father's care and in the patrimonial *inheritance*. But since the mother is the *more substantial* principle, as regards that which a thing *is,* [the offspring] follows the mother; and since liberty and servitude regard the human being according to what he *is,* not according to what he *has:* hence it is that, according to the *civil laws,* it has been very reasonably established that the birth should follow the womb; and hence it is that the union for generating offspring is called *matrimony*. — And with this the *canon law* agrees, as is clear in the decretal set down before; the *divine law* also agrees, written in the Mosaic law, where it is said in Exodus, chapter twenty-one, that if a master gives a wife to someone whom he has bought, and the man afterward goes out  free, the sons ought to remain with the master who gave him the wife, although he himself goes out free; there agrees also *manifold reasoning* and *natural likeness.* And therefore, since the civil law *dictates* this, and the canon law *approves* it, and the divine [law] *confirms* it, and the natural [law] *commends* it; therefore it must rightly be said that the birth ought to follow the womb.

Nevertheless, some regions, which are not subject to laws of this kind, do not keep this custom, but rather the birth follows the condition of the worse [parent]; whence if one [parent] is a slave, the sons are slaves, and likewise if the mother is a bondwoman; and if both belong to different masters, the sons are divided. This custom France keeps in some parts, though not everywhere; but nevertheless the legal ordinance is far nobler and more reasonable than this custom.

1. To that, then, which is first objected, that the father is the more worthy principle; it must be said that this is true, yet not *more substantial;* and therefore in dignities [the offspring] ought to follow the father, not in substance or in the liberty of its own body. And there is an example: because the more noble principle of the fruits of agriculture is the cultivator than the field; yet the fruit belongs to the field, or to the owner of the field.

2. 3. To that which is objected, that sacred Scripture attributes genealogies to men; it must be said that this is true and fitting — for we also have this manner [of speaking], that we name a son from the father, whence one is called Peter [son] of Martin, not of Bertha, as in most cases — likewise the promise is made to men; yet from this it does not follow that the offspring ought to follow the man according to the condition of *liberty* or *servitude,* but according to the condition of *dignity* and *honor,* which does not regard substance, but rather *quality.*

4. To that which is objected, that the son is assimilated to the father; it must be said that assimilation does not come from substance, but from the *formative power,* which is chiefly vigorous in the man's seed, when a male is generated; and therefore more frequently sons are assimilated to their fathers. Nevertheless, however much [a son] may be more similar to the father in *figure* and *properties,* he has drawn more from the mother as regards *substance;* and therefore from this it does not follow that in liberty he should follow the father.

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