Dist. 38
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/38/q/bon-sent-IV-d38-littera
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### DISTINCTION XXXVIII.

### Chap. I. *On vows.*

Now let us examine the vow. A vow is «a certain attestation of a spontaneous promise», which ought properly to be made to God and concerning those things which are God's. Yet there are also vows of fools, which ought to be broken.

### Chap. II. *On the difference of vows.*

But it must be known that of vows one is *common*, another *singular*: *common*, as that which all make in baptism, when they promise to renounce the devil and his pomps; *singular*, as when someone spontaneously promises to keep virginity and continence, or something of this kind. Likewise a *singular* vow is of one sort *private*, of another *solemn*; *private* is that made in secret, but *solemn* that made in the sight of the Church; likewise if a *private* vow is violated, it is a mortal sin; but to violate a *solemn* one is a sin and a scandal. Those who make a *private* vow of continence ought not to contract matrimony, because in contracting they sin mortally; if however they have contracted, let them not be separated, because what has been done secretly cannot be proved. But those who vow *solemnly* can in no way enter marriage; for whom not only *to marry*, but also *to will* it is damnable. Hence Augustine: «In the conjugal bond, if chastity is preserved, damnation is not feared; but in widowed continence and virginal excellence the virtue of a greater gift is sought; and once this has been sought and chosen and offered by vow, now not only to take up marriage, but even, if one does not marry, *to will to marry* is damnable». «For to those vowing virginity or widowhood not only to marry, but even *to will* it is damnable». This the Apostle shows, writing to Timothy: *Avoid the younger widows; for when they have grown wanton, they wish to marry in Christ*, that is, when after a vow of continence they have led their life in delights, I do not say they marry, but they wish to marry in Christ, as though then it were not a sin; but *that it is* [a sin], he shows by adding: *Having damnation*; and *why*, he subjoins: *because they have made void their first faith*, even if not by marrying, yet by willing; so that the will, which has fallen away from its purpose, may appear to be damned, whether marriages follow, or not. For the fraud of the purpose is damned; such women are damned, because they have made void the first faith of continence, that is the *vow*, or, in a violated vow, the *faith* which they professed in baptism. But if they are damned for the will to marry, it is clear that, if they have surrendered the guilty [will] to its effect, it must be recalled into voidness, and that they must be driven back to return to their purpose. Hence Gregory: «Widows withdrawing from the purpose of widowhood, concerning whom you have consulted us, I believe you know from Saint Paul, unless they be converted, to have been long ago damned; whom we also by apostolic authority judge to be condemned and to be barred from the communion of the faithful and from the thresholds of the Church, until they obey their bishops and return, unwillingly or willingly, to the good which they began».

«But concerning unveiled virgins, if they have gone astray, we have from our predecessor Innocent such a decree: These who, not yet covered by the sacred veil, have nevertheless always pretended to remain in the virginal purpose, although they were not veiled, nevertheless, if they have married, for some time penance must be done by them, because their pledge was held by the Lord. For if among men a contract of good faith is wont to be dissolved by no reason; how much more will this promise, which she struck with God, not be able to be loosed without punishment»? Likewise: «If virgins not yet veiled are in such wise punished by public penance and

excluded from the assembly of the faithful until satisfaction; how much more are the widows, who are of more perfect age and more mature counsel and have taken up the habit of religion, and afterwards have apostatized and *have returned to their former vomit*, to be removed by us and by all the faithful from the thresholds of the Church and from the assembly of the faithful until satisfaction, and to be handed over to prisons»? — From these things it appears that virgins or widows bound by a vow of continence, whether they have been veiled, or not, can in no way obtain marriage. And this is likewise to be understood of all who have vowed continence. For what before was lawful, after the vow becomes unlawful.

It is not here to be passed over, what Innocent decreed concerning widows and maidens: «They who spiritually marry Christ, if afterwards they publicly marry, are not to be admitted to penance, unless those to whom they had joined themselves have departed from the world. For if of all this rule is kept, that whoever, while her husband lives, marries another be held an adulteress, nor be granted her license to do penance, unless one of them has died; how much more is it to be maintained of her, who had joined herself before to the immortal Spouse and after this migrated to human marriage». — Note, that not only does he seem to deny *marriage* to such women, but also *the place of penance*. But it is not so to be understood, that those who wish worthily to do penance should ever be excluded from penance; but those are not to be admitted to penance, who have been unwilling to depart from the incestuous union; because after the purpose of religion she cannot be reconciled to God through penance who has neglected to return to the habit of her profession. Then he to whom she had joined herself will be dead to her, when she has utterly withdrawn from his unlawful embraces. When therefore it is said that they are not to be admitted to penance, unless those to whom they had joined themselves have departed from the world; *to them* is to be understood. For then the husbands depart from the world to them and die, when these withdraw themselves from their concupiscence; which sense the appended likeness declares and confirms.

When a man and a woman are lawfully joined, it is agreed that the one, while the other lives, cannot pass to another union, otherwise he commits adultery; concerning which Pope Clement says: «What in all sins is graver than adultery? For it holds the second place in punishments, which first place those hold who stray from God». Most gravely therefore do adulterers sin, gravely fornicators, but more gravely than all these the incestuous, all of whom those transgressing against nature surpass. Hence Augustine: «The evil of adultery surpasses fornication, but is surpassed by incest. For it is worse to sleep with a mother than with another's wife; but the worst of all these is what is done against nature, as if a man should use a member of a woman not granted for this; this is done execrably with a harlot, but more execrably with a wife».

### Chap. III. *On those who return after a long captivity.*

Here it is asked concerning those women who, thinking their husbands slain, or that they would never be freed, whether in captivity or from an unjust domination, have passed into the marriages of others; if those who were thought to have perished return, whether they ought to be restored to them, and whether the second [husbands] have fornicated, and the women themselves are guilty of adultery. Concerning this Pope Leo thus says: «It is necessary that we believe the covenants of lawful marriages must be restored, and, those things removed which hostility brought in, that to each be lawfully restored what it brought in; and it must be procured that each receive what is his own. Nor yet let him be judged culpable and held as an invader of another's right, who assumed the person of that husband who was thought no longer to be. For thus many things which pertained to those who were led into captivity could pass into another's right; and yet it belongs to full justice that, when these have returned, they be restored. And therefore, if the husbands, returned after a long captivity, so persevere in love of their wives, that they desire them to return into their fellowship; that which necessity brought in must be dismissed and judged inculpable, and what faith demands must be restored. But if some women are so captivated by love of the later husbands, that they prefer to cleave to these rather than to pass over to the lawful fellowship, they are deservedly to be censured, so that they be deprived of ecclesiastical communion, who out of an excusable matter have chosen the contamination of a crime. Let them therefore return into the state of their [own] marriages, because, just as women who have been unwilling to return to their husbands are to be held impious, so those who return are deservedly to be praised». — From these things it is shown that those who are so joined, as to believe the husband slain, have through ignorance some excuse from sin; and that only the first union is lawful, not the second; yet that they have pardon, if it lack the reproach of an evil will. — But if someone, having left his wife in his own country, going away into a far region, marries another wife, then, led by penance, wishes to dismiss her, asserting that he had had another who lives, and the Church does not permit it, being ignorant of what he asserts; it is asked whether in this second union there is a marriage. It can indeed be said that there is no marriage, and that the woman is excused from the crime through ignorance, but that the man committed adultery. But from the fact that, wishing to return to the first and not being able, he is compelled by the discipline of the Church to keep this one, he begins to be excused through obedience and fear in this, that he renders the debt to the woman demanding it, from whom he himself ought never to demand it. And thus concerning other things of this kind it must be judged.

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