Dist. 39, Art. 2, Q. 2
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-a2-q2
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### Question II. *Whether, when only one of the infidels comes to the faith, the marriage is dissolved with respect to the infidel.*

Secondly it is asked whether the marriage is dissolved with respect to the infidel. And that it is [dissolved], seems [to be so]:

1. Because marriage is a bond of two and stands as a relation; but when the tying is destroyed with respect to one extreme, it is destroyed with respect to the other: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, this woman, after she has departed, is either a wife or not. If *yes*: then the husband cannot contract [marriage]; if *no*: then she herself can, since she is not a wife.

3. Likewise, suppose that the faithful [husband] contracts [marriage] after the departure, and that she afterward is converted to the faith; it is certain that the husband is not restored to her: therefore, if she is not bound to continence, she can marry: therefore, if she has no right acquired for this, she could [marry] even before.

**On the contrary:** 1. Ambrose says that «the infidel departing on his part sins against God and against the marriage»: therefore, if she is to be punished in the good of the marriage, she cannot marry.

2. Likewise, «no one ought to reap advantage from his own malice»; but she would reap [it], if by deserting her faithful husband she could marry: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, if the woman, who was previously bound to a husband, is absolved, I ask: by whom? Not by the *Church*, since it does not intromit itself; not by *God*, since she acts against God; not by the *husband*, since she deserts him against his will; nor can she [be absolved] by *herself*: therefore the bond remains: therefore etc.

> **Conclusion.** The marriage, although it is dissolved with respect to the faithful [party], in fact remains on the side of the infidel, as long as the faithful [party] can return to the infidel; but afterward it remains only as a punishment, while the infidelity lasts.

**I respond:** It must be said that some say that it is not for us to determine this question, since it does not pertain to us *to judge those who are outside*. — But it is true that it does not pertain [to us] to judge by *publishing* [it] spiritually; nevertheless *the spiritual man judges all things, discerning* who lives rightly and who does not live rightly.

And therefore it must be said that immediately after the departure the bond is dissolved on the husband's side, since he can be joined to another at once, but not so on the woman's side. Hence it must be noted that the bond remains in two ways: either according to the *truth of the Sacrament*, or as a *punishment of sin*. As long as the deserted husband — or the faithful woman — remains in a state in which he can return to her, the woman is bound with respect to the *truth of the Sacrament*. But when the husband is in a state in which he cannot be joined to her — as if he marries another, or enters religion, or receives holy orders — the woman is loosed according to the *truth of the Sacrament*, since she is no longer a wife; yet nevertheless she is bound as a *punishment of sin*; whence she is not permitted to marry until she is released from the fault; and this is not [the case] as long as she is *unfaithful*. But if she *is converted* and baptized, since then she is loosed from all fault and punishment of sin, from that point she will licitly be able to marry, unless something else stands in the way.

And thus both [sets of] objections are answered. For the first ones prove that it is dissolved according to truth; the second, that it remains as a punishment of sin.

To that which is asked, by whom it is dissolved, I say that [it is dissolved] by God and by the Church, but *per accidens*: because, from the fact that he ceases to be a husband, consequently she ceases to be a wife. *And if you object* that she reaps advantage from malice, it must be said that this is false, because, as long as the fault remains, she is bound by the divine judgment. And *further*, if she comes to the faith, and the husband seeks her back, provided he has not contracted [marriage] with another, she is to be restored to him. — Hence it can reasonably enough be said that that bond is not entirely dissolved at once, when the woman departs, but [only] when the husband is bound to another faithful [party] by an inseparable bond: for then the stronger bond dissolves the weaker; whence, even if it was previously in some way loosed, from that point it is perfectly loosed, that last [bond] persisting.

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