Dist. 39, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/39/q/bon-sent-IV-d39-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On disparity of worship as regards the contracting of marriage.*
### Question I. *Whether marriage can be contracted between a believer and an infidel.*

As to the first, then, one proceeds thus, and it is shown that marriage can be contracted between a believer and an infidel:

1. And first by *example*: for Joseph contracted with an Egyptian woman and is not reproved, as is said in Genesis forty-one; likewise Moses with an Ethiopian woman, as is intimated in Numbers twelve, nor is he himself reproved.

2. Likewise, this is seen by *authority*, Deuteronomy twenty-one: *If, going out to battle, you see among the captives a beautiful woman and desire her, you shall go in to her and sleep with her, and she shall be your wife*; it is evident that it speaks of infidels.

3. Likewise, First Corinthians seven: *The unbelieving woman is sanctified through the believing husband*, and conversely: therefore between believers and infidels there is a holy union: therefore also a licit one.

4. Likewise, it is seen by *reason*: because diversity or disparity of morals does not impede marriage from being contracted: therefore by parity of reasoning neither does diversity of faith or of divine worship impede marriage.

5. Likewise, marriage is a Sacrament common to believers and infidels: therefore if it extends to all, disparity or such repugnance does not take it away.

6. Likewise, every impediment of marriage impedes for this reason, that it stands against some good of marriage; but disparity of worship neither harms the *good of offspring*, since [the child] can be brought up to the worship of God, nor [that] of *faith* nor of the *Sacrament*: therefore in no way does it impede.

**On the contrary:**

1. It is proved by *example*: in the last [chapter] of First Esdras it is said that Esdras separated husbands from foreign wives: therefore there was no marriage among them.

2. Likewise, by the *authority* of the Law, Deuteronomy seven: *You shall not join marriages with them*; it speaks of infidels and foreigners.

3. Likewise, Ambrose in the book On the Patriarchs: «Beware, Christian, of giving your daughter to a gentile or a Jew».

4. Likewise, the greatest distance is between believers and infidels, as of Christ to Belial, and of light to darkness: if therefore in marriage there is a great union, no marriage can exist between them.

> **Conclusion.** *Disparity which is in faith only impedes marriage, but that which is in the Sacrament of faith or in baptism dissolves it.*

**I respond:** It must be said that in the Old Testament a distinction had to be made among infidels: for certain women were infidels and were from the land of Canaan, which the Lord had promised to the sons of Israel — on account of the obstinacy of that nation in infidelity He had commanded that they be slain — and concerning such [women marriage] was forbidden. Hence if anyone of the people of Israel contracted with them, since it was against the Lord's command, it was no marriage. — Certain [women] were infidels of other nations; and concerning such it was not forbidden,

but permitted and conceded, where a lapse into idolatry was not feared, as in Joseph and Moses.

Now the reason why He forbade those nations and not others was twofold: one, because He had judged them all guilty of death; the other, because they were obstinate in evil.

In the New Testament it is otherwise, because an infidel is [such] in two ways: either because he lacks *faith*, or because he lacks the *Sacrament of faith*. If [it be] by *faith* only, then such disparity, where it is known, impedes marriage, but does not dissolve one already contracted, as if a Catholic contracts with a baptized heretic. But if he be an infidel because he lacks the *Sacrament of faith*, namely baptism — since the door and foundation of the ecclesiastical Sacraments and of the faithful is baptism — the believer, who must contract according to the Sacraments of the Church, if he contracts with such a one, does nothing, even if he be *a believer*, provided that [the other] does not have *baptism*; whence it dissolves one already contracted.

Therefore disparity of worship furnished an impediment in the Old Law not *simply*, but where danger was feared, and divine judgment was present, and upon this a command had been added. So too in the New it impedes not *simply* or of itself, but *for the avoidance of danger* and [because of] the *diversity* of the Sacrament of baptism and the *prohibition* of ecclesiastical statute, which takes its origin from the two aforesaid.

*1, 2.* And thus the first two objections are clear.

*3.* To that which is objected, that the woman is sanctified; it must be said that the Apostle speaks of a marriage contracted before the disparity of worship, which he says *remains*, because the faith of the husband for the most part saves occasionally or sanctifies the wife, as faith brings forth children.

*4.* To that which is objected concerning disparity of morals, etc.; it must be said that it is not alike, because disparity of faith produces disparity of the Sacraments, not so disparity of morals, since good and evil agree in the Sacraments. Yet disparity of faith does not always produce disparity in the Sacraments, but only to the extent that it does, does it impede. Moreover it is more dangerous.

*5.* To that which is objected, that it is common to both; it must be said that it is common to the extent that it is of the law of nature, but not insofar as [it is] of the Church; and because, if a believer contracts, his Sacrament is now of the Church: therefore in this he does not communicate with the infidel, nay he differs greatly.

*6.* To that which is objected, that it is not against any good of marriage; it must be said that this is false, nay it is against the good of *offspring*, since one of the spouses can easily impede the offspring from being dedicated to the Lord; it is also against the good of *faith* on account of danger to faith; it is also against the good of the *Sacrament*, because on the part of the believer the marriage is born to be *ratified* and indissoluble, since it is founded upon the Sacrament of faith; on the other part it is *broken*, because it does not have a foundation. And thus that is clear.