Dist. 39, Art. 2, Q. 4
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-q4
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### Question IV. *Whether among infidels coming to the faith the marriage is dissolved.*

Fourthly it is asked whether among infidels coming to the faith the marriage is dissolved on account of the illegitimacy of the persons, as for instance if one has a sister as wife. And that it is not [dissolved], it seems:

1. By that decretal of Innocent, *Gaudemus*, in which he says that they are not to be separated.

2. Likewise, it seems by reason: "Through the Sacrament of baptism marriages are not dissolved, but crimes are taken away": therefore, since that was a marriage among the pagans, it is not dissolved when he is baptized.

3. Likewise, "pagans are not bound by canonical constitutions," but they only begin to be bound when they come to the faith; "but laws and constitutions impose their form on future affairs, they are not called back to the past": if therefore he contracted before he is bound, the constitution does not dissolve such a marriage.

**On the contrary:** 1. If some infidel contracted [marriage] with two [women], upon coming to the faith he is compelled to relinquish one, because this is against the canonical constitutions, as is proved through the decretal *On Divorces*, *Gaudemus* etc.: therefore by a similar [argument] in the matter proposed.

2. Likewise, if some infidel repudiated his wife — which indeed is licit among them — when both come to the faith, he is compelled to take her back, because this, among the faithful, is not licit: therefore by a similar [argument] on the contrary he is bound to dismiss such a wife.

3. Likewise, among the faithful it is profane to take the sister of one's wife as wife; but the newly converted ought to conform himself to the faithful: therefore he ought to reckon a marriage of this kind profane: therefore it ought no longer to stand.

> **Conclusion.** When those converted to the faith have contracted marriage with a diriment impediment according to the law of nature and the divine [law], they are to be separated; it is otherwise if the impediment is from a constitution of the Church.

**I respond:** It must be said that the illegitimacy of persons with respect to marriage is twofold. One is ac-

cording to *nature* and *divine institution*, as, for instance, that a son not contract with his mother, nor a father with his daughter; likewise, that one bound to a wife not take another, or also in the degrees prohibited by divine law in Leviticus chapter eighteen, as the jurists say, where the second degree is prohibited; and this illegitimacy binds both the faithful and infidels. And if in such illegitimacy a marriage is contracted among infidels, it is dissolved when they come to the faith; because, as Ambrose says, "what is done outside God's decree is not to be reckoned a marriage, but, when it is recognized, is to be amended." Hence if a Jew contracts with a sister in the second degree, upon coming to the faith he is separated from her. But if he contracted with his brother's wife, since this was permitted in the Law, he is by no means separated. — The other [kind of] illegitimacy is from a *constitution of the Church*, as are persons within the fourth degree; and this does not bind infidels nor impede the marriage from being contracted; and because [such constitutions] are not called back to the past, they do not dissolve what was legitimately already contracted.

*To 1, 2.* To that, then, which is objected concerning bigamy and repudiation, it must be resolved that each is against the law of nature and against the divine law; therefore it is not similar.

*To 3.* To that which is objected, that it is profane to take the sister of one's wife as wife, or even to have her; it must be said that this is true on account of the *Church's mandate*; and since this man is not bound by it, he ought not to reckon that marriage profane; hence this man, from the time he came to the faith, is bound not to contract further against the Church's statute; if nevertheless he did contract, it ought not to be dissolved, nor is he bound to dismiss [her], because the constitution of the Church does not extend to him.

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