§ 119. EXTREME UNCTION, ORDINATION, MARRIAGE. 747
Since it became a sacrament, it signifies, in addition, the union of Christ and the Church and the union of two natures in one person. The Vulgate's false translation of Ephes. 5 : 31, " this is a great sacrament," confirmed the Schoolmen in placing matrimony among the sacraments. That which constitutes the sacramental element is the verbal consent of the parties, and also, as Thomas Aquinas thought, the priest's benediction.1
Thomas was inclined to permit marriage for boys after the age of fourteen and girls after the age of twelve.2 Ac cording to the same authority, children are to follow the social condition of the mother.3 The impediments to mar riage were carefully catalogued and discussed. Their number was put at twelve, such as kinship, mistake, vows, and mis representation, and couched in the lines which Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas quote: —
error, conditio, votum, cognatio crimen, cultus disparitas,4 vis, or do, ligamen, honestas, si sis affinis, si forte coire nequibis hcec socianda vetant connuUa, facta retractant.
The Fourth Lateran modified some of the more severe restrictions of marriage within the limits of consanguinity, but declared children illegitimate whose parents were within the forbidden limits, even though the ceremony were per formed in the church. The councils of the thirteenth and
p. 481, conjugium ante peccatum ad officium, post peccatum ad remedium. Alarms ab Insulis, Reg. Theol., 114, Migne's ed., p. 681, conjugium sacramentum remedii contra incontinentiam. So also, Bonaventura, Brevil. , VI. 13 ; Th. Aq., Supplem., XLIL 2, Migne, IV. 1084; Summa, LXI. 2, Migne, p. 558.
1 Th. Aq., Supplem., XLIL 1, Migne, IV. 1083, benedictio sacerdotis quce est quoddam sacramentale.
2 These were supposed to be the " years of discretion." Supplem., LVIII. 5, Migne, IV. 1165. The synod of Nismes, 1096, forbade the marriage of girls under twelve. For cases of the marriage of princesses under twelve, see Eicken, pp. 448 sq.
8 " Just as the offspring of animals follow the nature of the mother." Thomas instances the mule, Supplem., LII. 4, Migne, 1127.
4 This refers to a marriage in which one party is a Catholic and the other a heretic, Jew, or infidel.
748 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
fourteenth centuries give frequent rules for marriage. They were to be performed before the Church and only after public announcement. The children of parties marrying unbe lievers and the offspring of clandestine marriages were made illegitimate.1
Death dissolves marriage and the surviving party has the right to marry again to the fourth time or even more often. Otherwise the marriage bond is perpetual — vinculum matrimonii est perpetuum. This follows from two considerations : marriage involves the training of the children and is a symbol of the union between Christ and the Church. Matri mony becomes absolutely binding only upon copulation. Before that has taken place, one party or the other may go into an order and in this case the other party has the right to marry again.
Divorce was allowed for one cause only, fornication. The Schoolmen supported this position from the words of Christ. Divorce, however, is a separation, not a release with license to marry again. Marriage can never be annulled by the act of man. What God hath joined together, no man can put asunder.2 Only after the death of the offending party may the innocent party enter again into a marriage con tract.3 The second and subsequent marriages are a sacra ment as the first marriage is.
1 Synods of London 1102, 1125, 1200, Fourth Lateran 1215, Treves 1227, Magdeburg 1261, etc. The synod of London, 1200, forbade either man or wife taking a long journey without the other's consent. Thomas Aquinas took the position that marriages between a believer and an unbeliever are not to be allowed because they prevent the education and training of children in the worship of God, which is one of the chief objects of the sacra ment. Supplem., LIX. 1, Migne, IV. 1107.
2 Th. Aq., tiupplem., LXI. 2, Migne, IV. 1177. Thomas asserts that, be fore the carnalis copula takes place, the bond is a spiritual one and it may be broken by either party becoming spiritually dead, dying to the world and living unto God in a convent. After copulation the bond between man and wife is a carnal tie — vinculum carnale — and can be broken only by the death of the body.
3 Th. Aq., Supplem., LXII. 5, Migne, IV. 1184, non licet uni, altero vivente, ad aliam copulam transire. Either party may, however, enter a convent without seeking the consent of the other.