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Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae

CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE
* /

ENCYCLICAL LETTER

POPE LEO XIII





Ghristian Marriage

Encyclical Letter

of

Pope Leo XIII

Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae

(With Discussion Club Outline

by Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, S*J.)

New York

THE PAULIST PRESS
401 West S9th Street



For Discussion Club Outline

Imprimt Potest:

JiiMiES P. Sweeney, S.J.,

Provincial, Maryland-New York.

Discussion Club Outline, Copyright, 1942, by

The Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle in the

State of New York

PRINTEn AND PUBLISHED IN THE U. S. A.

BY THE PAULIST PRESS, NEW YORK, N. Y.

DeaddM



Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae

ENCYCLICAL LETTER OF OUR HOLY FATHER
BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE

POPE LEO xni

ON

Christian Marriage

To Our Venerable Brethren, All Patriarchs, Primates,

Archbishops and Bishops of the

Catholic World,

In Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See,

POPE LEO XIII

Venerable Brethren,
«

Health and Apostolic Benediction

The Divine Plan

1. The hidden design of the divine wisdom, which Jesus

Christ the Savior of men came to carry out on earth, had this

end in view, that, by Himself and in Himself, He should divinely

renew the world, which was sinking as it were, with length of

years, into decline. The Apostle Paul summed this up in words

of dignity and majesty when he wrote to the Ephesians, thus:

That He might make known unto us the mystery of His will . . .

to re-establish all things in Christ that are in heaven and on

earth}

Restoration by Christ

2. In truth, Christ our Lord, setting Himself to fulfil the

commandment which His Father had given Him, straightway

imparted a new form and fresh beauty to all things, taking away

the effects of their time-worn age. For He healed the wounds

which the sin of our first father had inflicted on the human race-

1 Ephes. i. 9, 10.

3



He brought all men by nature children of wrath, into favor with

God; He led to the light of truth men wearied out by long-

standing errors; He renewed to every virtue those who were

weakened by lawlessness of every kind; and, giving them again

an inheritance of never-ending bliss. He added a sure hope that

their mortal and perishable bodies should one day be partakers

of immortality and of the glory of heaven. In order that these

unparalleled benefits might last as long as men should be found

on earth. He trusted to His Church the continuance of His work;

and, looking to future times. He commanded her to set in order

whatever might have become deranged in human society, and

to restore whatever might have fallen into ruin.

The Human Race Elevated

3. Although the divine renewal we have spoken of chiefly

and directly affected men as constituted in the supernatural order

of grace, nevertheless some of its precious and salutary fruits

were also bestowed abundantly in the order of nature. Hence

not only individual men, but also the whole mass of the human

race, have in every respect received no small degree of worthi-

ness. For, so soon as Christian order was once established in the

world, it became possible for all men, one by one, to learn what

God^s fatherly providence is, and to dwell in it habitually, there-

by fostering that hope of heavenly help which never confound-

eth. From all this outflowed fortitude, self-control, constancy,

and the evenness of a peaceful mind, together with many high

virtues and noble deeds.

The State Benefitted

4. Wondrous, indeed, was the extent of dignity, steadfast-

ness, and goodness which thus accrued to the State as well as

to the family. The authority of rulers became more just and

revered; the obedience of the people more ready and unforced;

the union of citizens closer; the rights of dominion more se-

cure. In very truth, the Christian religion thought of and pro-

vided for all things which are held to be advantageous in a

State; so much so indeed that, according to St. Augustine, one

cannot see how it could have offered greater help in the matter

of living well and happily, had it been instituted for the single

object of procuring or increasing those things which contribute

to the conveniences or advantages of this mortal life.

4



God Established Marriage

5. Still the purpose We have set before Us is not to recount,

in detail, benefits of this kind; Our wish is rather to speak about

that family union of which marriage is the beginning and the

foundation. The true origin of marriage, Venerable Brothers, is

well known to all. Though revilers of the Christian faith refuse

to acknowledge the never-interrupted doctrine of the Church on

this subject, and have long striven to destroy the testimony of

all nations and of all times, they have nevertheless failed not

only to quench the powerful light of truth, but even to lessen

it. We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by
any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man

from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face

the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously

took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep. God

thus, in His most far-reaching foresight, decreed that this

husband and wife should be the natural beginning of the

human race, from whom it might be propagated and preserved

by an unfailing fruitfulness throughout all futurity of time.

Unity and Perpetuity

And this union of man and woman, that it might answer more

fittingly to the infinite wise counsels of God, even from the begin-

ning manifested chiefly two most excellent properties—deeply
sealed, as it were, and signed upon it—namely, unity and per-
petuity. From the Gospel we see clearly that this doctrine was de-

clared and openly confirmed by the divine authority of Jesus

Christ. He bore witness to the Jews and to His apostles that mar-

riage, from its institution, should exist between two only, that is,

between one man and one woman; that of two they are made, so

to say, one flesh; and that the marriage bond is by the will of

God so closely and strongly made fast that no man may dissolve

it or render it asunder. For this cause shall a man leave father

and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be

in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh.

What, therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asun-

der.^

Its Ideal Corrupted

6. This form of marriage, however, so excellent and so pre-

eminent, began to be corrupted by degrees, and to disappear

2 Matt. xiz. 5, 6.

5



among the heathen; and became even among the Jewish race

clouded in a measure and obscured. For in their midst a com-

mon custom was gradually introduced, by which it was ac-

counted as lawful for a man to have more than one wife; and

eventually when by reason of the hardness of their hearty^ Moses

indulgently permitted them to put away their wives, the way was

open to divorce.

Results of Corruption

7. But the corruption and change which fell on marriage

among the Gentiles seem almost incredible, inasmuch as it was

exposed in every land to floods of error and of the most shame-

ful lusts. All nations seem, more or less, to have forgotten the

true notion and origin of marriage; and thus everywhere laws

were enacted with reference to marriage, prompted to all ap-

pearance by State reasons, but not such as nature required.

Solemn rites, invented at will of the lawgivers, brought about

that women should, as might be, bear either the honorable name

of wife or the disgraceful name of concubine; and things came

to such a pitch that permission to marry, or the refusal of the

permission, depended on the will of the heads of the State, whose

laws were greatly against equity or even to the highest degree

unjust. Moreover, plurality of wives and husbands, the abound-

ing source of divorces, caused the nuptial bond to be releaxed ex-

ceedingly. Hence, too, sprang up the greatest confusion as to

the mutual rights and duties of husbands and wives, inasmuch as

a man assumed right of dominion over his wife, ordering her to

go about her business, often without any just cause; while he

was himself at liberty (as St. Jerome says) ‘^to run headlong with

impunity into lust, unbridled and unrestrained, in houses of ill-

fame and amongst his female slaves, as if the dignity of the persons

sinned with, and not the will of the sinner, made the guilt.’’
^

Woman the Sufferer

When the licentiousness of a husband thus showed itself,

nothing could be more piteous than the wife, sunk so low as

to be all but reckoned as a means for the gratification of pas-

sion, or for the production of offspring. Without any feeling of

shame marriageable girls were bought and sold, just like so

much merchandise; ® and power was sometimes given to the

4 Op. tom. i. col. 4SS.

6

3 Matt. xix. 8. 5 Amob. adv. Gent. 4.



father and to the husband to inflict capital punishment on the

wife. Of necessity the offspring of such marriages as these were

either reckoned among the stock in trade of the commonwealth

or held to be the property of the father of the family; ® and the

law permitted him to make and unmake the marriages of his

children at his mere will, and even to exercise against them the

monstrous power of life and death.

Christ Restores Marriage

8. So manifold being the vices and so great the ignominies

with which marriage was defiled, an alleviation and a remedy

were at length bestowed from on high. Jesus Christ, who re-

stored our human dignity and who perfected the Mosaic law,

applied early in His ministry no little solicitude to the question

of marriage. He ennobled the marriage in Cana of Galilee by

His presence, and made it memorable by the first of the miracles

which he wrought; ^ and for this reason, even from that day

forth, it seemed as if the beginning of new holiness had been

conferred on human marriages. Later on He brought back

matrimony to the nobility of its primeval origin, by condemn-

ing the customs of the Jews in their abuse of the plurality of

wives and of the power of giving bills of divorce; and still more

by commanding most strictly that no one should dare to dis-

solve that union which God Himself had sanctioned by a bond

perpetual. Hence, having set aside the difficulties which were

adduced from the law of Moses, He, in character of supreme

Lawgiver, decreed as follows concerning husbands and wives:

/ say to yoUy that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it

be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery;

and he that shall marry her that is put away committeth

adultery,^

Cothalic Traditian and Marriage

9. But what was decreed and constituted in respect to mar--

riage by the authority of God, has been more fully and more

clearly handed down to us, by tradition and the written Word,

through the Apostles, those heralds of the laws of God. To the

Apostles, indeed, as our masters, are to be referred the doctrines

which our holy Fathers, the Councils, and the Tradition of the

Universal Church have always taught,^ namely, that Christ our

6 Dion3Ts. Halicar. lib. ii., cc. 26, 27.

8 Matt. xix. 9.

7

7 John ii.

9 Trid. sess. xxiv. ?n pr



Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament; that to

husband and wife, guarded and strengthened by the heavenly

grace which His merits gained for them, He gave power to at-

tain holiness in the married state; and that, in a wondrous way,

making marriage an example of the mystical union between Him-

self and His Church, He not only perfected that love which is

according to nature,^® but also made the natural union of one

man with one woman far more perfect through the bond of

heavenly love. Paul says to the Ephesians: Husbands, love your

wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himselj

up for it, that He might sanctify it. ... So also ought men to

love their wives as their own bodies. . . . For no man ever hated

his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ

doth the Church; because we are members of His body, of His

flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave His

father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall

be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in

Christ and in the Church}^ In like manner from the teaching

of the Apostles we learn that the unity of marriage and its per-

petual indissolubility, the indispensable conditions of its very

origin must, according to the command of Christ, be holy and

inviolable without exception. Paul says again: To them that are

married, not I, but the Lord commandeth that the wife depart

not from her husband; and if she depart, that she remain un-

married or be reconciled to her husband. And again: A

woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but

if her husband die, she is at liberty}^ It is for these reasons

that marriage is a great sacrament; honorable in all; holy,

pure, and to be reverenced as a type and symbol of most high

mysteries.

The Noble Purpose of Marriage

10. Furthermore, the Christian perfection and completeness

of marriage are not comprised in those points only which have

been mentioned. For, first, there has been vouchsafed to the mar-

riage union a higher and nobler purpose than was ever previously

given to it. By the command of Christ, it not only looks to the

propagation of the human race, but to the bringing forth of

children for the Church, fellow-citizens with the saints, and the

lOTrid. sess. xxiv. cap. i. de reform, matr. il Eph. v. 25-32.

12 1 Zor. vH. 10, It 18 1 Cor. vii. 39.

14 Eph. V. 32. 18 Heb. xHi- 4.

8



domestics of God; so that a people might be born and brought

up for the worship and religion of the true God and our Saviour

Jesus Christ}'^

Mutuol Duties and Rights Defined

11. Secondly, the mutual duties of husband and wife have

been defined, and their several rights accurately established.

They are bound, namely, to have such feelings for one another

as to cherish always very great mutual love, to be ever faithful

to their marriage vow, and to give one another an unfailing and

unselfish help. The husband is the chief of the family and the

head of the wife. The woman, because she is flesh of his flesh,

and bone of his bone, must be subject to her husband and obey

him; not, indeed, as a servant, but as a companion, so that her

obedience shall be wanting in neither honor nor dignity. Since

the husband represents Christ, and since the wife represents the

Church, let there always be, both in him who commands and in

her who obeys, a heaven-born love guiding both in their respec-

tive duties. For the husband is the head of the wife; as Christ

is the head of the Church, . . . Therefore, as the Church is sub-

ject to Christ, so also let wives be to their husbands in all

things}'^

CKildren and Parents

12. As regards children, they ought to submit to the parents

and obey them, and give them honor for conscience’ sake; while,

on the other hand, parents are bound to give all care and watch-

ful thought to the education of their offspring and their virtuous

bringing up: Fathers, . . . bring them up (that is, your children)

in the discipline and correction of the LordP From this we see

clearly that the duties of husbands and wives are neither few nor

light; although to married people who are good these burdens

become not only bearable but agreeable, owing to the strength

which they gain through the sacrament.

Church Authority and Marriage

13. Christ, therefore, having renewed marriage to such and

so great excellence, commended and entrusted all the discipline

bearing upon these matters to his Church. The Church, always

and everywhere, has so used her power with reference to the

16 Eph. ii. 19.

Eph. V. 23, 24.

9

17 Catech. Rom. c. viii.

19 Ibid. vi. 4.



marriages of Christians, that men have seen clearly how it be-

longs to her as of native right; not being made hers by any human

grant, but given divinely to her by the will of her Founder. Her

constant and watchful care in guarding Marriage, by the preserva-

tion of its sanctity, is so well understood as to not need proof.

That the judgment of the Council of Jerusalem reprobated

licentious and free love,^® we all know; as also that the incestu-

ous Corinthian was condemned by the authority of blessed Paul.^^

Again, in the very beginning of the Christian Church were re-

pulsed and defeated, with the like unremitting determination, the

efforts of many who aimed at the destruction of Christian mar-

riage, such as the Gnostics, Manicheans, and Montanists; and in

our own time Mormons, St. Simonians, Phalansterians, and Com-

munists.

Marrioge Rights Equal

14. In like manner, moreover, a law of marriage just to all,

and the same for all, was enacted by the abolition of the old

distinction between slaves and free-born men and women; and

thus the rights of husbands and wives were made equal: for, as

St. Jerome says, “with us that which is unlawful for women is

unlawful for men also, and the same restraint is imposed on

equal conditions.’’ The self-same rights also were firmly es-

tablished for reciprocal affection and for the interchange of du-

ties; the dignity of the woman was asserted and assured; and it

was forbidden to the man to inflict capital punishment for adul-

tery, or lustfully and shamelessly to violate his plighted faith.

The Church Protects Marrioge

15. It is also a great blessing that the Church has limited,

so far as is needful, the power of fathers of families, so that sons

and daughters, wishing to marry, are not in any way deprived of

their rightful freedom; that, for the purpose of spreading more

widely the supernatural love of husbands and wives, she has de-

creed marriages within certain degrees of consanguinity or affinity

to be null and void; that she has taken the greatest pains to safe-

guard marriage, as much as is possible, from error and violence

and deceit; that she has always wished to preserve the holy

chasteness of the marriage bed, personal rights, the honor of hus-

band and wife, and the security of religion. Lastly, with such

foresight of legislation has the Church guarded its divine institu-

20 Acts XV. 29. 21 1 Cor. v. 5. 22 Oper. tom. 1 col. 4SS,

10



tion, that no one who thinks rightfully of these matters can fail to

see how, with regard to marriage, she is the best guardian and

defender of the human race; and how withal her wisdom has come

forth victorious from the lapse of years, from the assaults of men,

and from the countless changes of public events.

Perversiye Ideas of Marriage

16. Yet, owing to the efforts of the arch-enemy of mankind,

there are persons who, thanklessly casting away so many other

blessings of redemption, despise also or utterly ignore the restora-

tion of marriage to its original perfection. It is a reproach to

some of the ancients that they showed themselves the enemies of

marriage in many ways; but in our own age, much more perni-

cious is the sin of those who would fain pervert utterly the nature

of marriage, perfect though it is, and complete in all its details

and parts. The chief reason why they act in this way is because

very many, imbued with the maxims of a false philosophy and

corrupted in morals, judge nothing so unbearable as submission

and obedience; and strive with all their might to bring about that

not only individual men, but families also, nay indeed, human

society itself, may in haughty pride despise the sovereignty of

God.

The State and Marriage

17. Now since the family and human society at large spring

from marriage, these men will on no account allow matrimony

to be the subject of the jurisdiction of the Church. Nay, they

endeavor to deprive it of all holiness, and so bring it within the

contracted sphere of those rights which, having been instituted

by man, are ruled and administered by the civil jurisprudence of

the community. Wherefore it necessarily follows that they at-

tribute all power over marriage to civil rulers, and allow none

whatever to the Church; and when the Church exercises any such

power, they think that she acts either by favor of the civil au-

thority or to its injury. Now is the time, they say, for the heads

of the State to vindicate their rights unflinchingly, and to do their

best to settle all that relates to marriage according as to them

seems good.

Civil Marriage Laws

18. Hence are owing civil marriages

y

commonly so called;

hence laws are framed which impose impediments to marriage;

n



hence arise judicial sentences affecting the marriage contract, as

to whether or not it have been rightly made.. Lastly, all power

of prescribing and passing judgment in this class of cases is, as

we see, of set purpose denied to the Catholic Church, so that no

regard is paid either to her divine power or to her prudent laws.

Yet under these, for so many centuries, have the nations lived on

whom the light of civilization shone bright with the wisdom of

Christ Jesus.

The Sacredness of Marriage

19. Nevertheless, all those who reject what is supernatural,

as well as all who profess that they worship above all things the

divinity of the State, and strive to disturb whole communities

with such wicked doctrines, cannot escape the charge of delu-

sion. Marriage has God for its Author, and was from the very

beginning a kind of foreshadowing of the Incarnation of His Son;

and therefore there abides in it a something holy and religious;

not extraneous, but innate; not derived from men, but implanted

by nature. Innocent III, therefore, and Honorius III, our prede-

cessors, affirmed not falsely nor rashly that a certain sacredness

of marriage rites existed ever amongst the faithful and unbeliev-

ers.^^ We call to witness the monuments of antiquity, as also

the manners and customs of those people who, being the most

civilized, had the greatest knowledge of law and equity. In the

minds of all of them it was a fixed and foregone conclusion that,

when marriage was thought of, it was thought of as conjoined

with religion and holiness. Hence among those, marriages were

commonly celebrated with religious ceremonies, under the author-

ity of pontiffs, and with the ministry of priests. So mighty, even

in the souls ignorant of heavenly doctrine, was the force of nature,

of the remembrance of tbeir origin, and of the conscience of the

human race. As, then, marriage is holy by its own power, in its

own nature, and of itself, it ought not to be regulated and ad-

ministered by the will of civil rulers, but by the divine authority

of the Church, which alone in sacred matters professes the office

of teaching.

The Dignity of Marriage

20. Next, the dignity of the sacrament must be considered;

for through addition of the sacrament the marriages of Chris-

tians have become far the noblest of all matrimonial unions. But

23 Apud fideles et infideles existere sacramentum conjugii.

12



to decree and ordain concerning the sacrament is, by the will of

Christ Himself, so much a part of the power and duty of the

Church, that it is plainly absurd to maintain that even the very

smallest fraction of such power has been transferred to the civil

ruler.

History and Church Authority

21. Lastly should be borne in mind the great weight and

crucial test of history, by which it is plainly proved that the

legislative and judicial authority of which We are speaking has

been freely and constantly used by the Church, even in times

when some foolishly suppose the head of the State either to have

consented to it or connived at it. It would, for instance, be in-

credible and altogether absurd to assume that Christ our Lord

condemned the long-standing practice of polygamy and divorce

by authority delegated to Him by the procurator of the prov-

ince, or the principal ruler of the Jews. And it would be equally

extravagant to think that, when the Apostle Paul taught that

divorces and incestuous marriages were not lawful, it was because

Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero agreed with him or secretly com-

manded him so to teach. No man in his senses could ever be

persuaded that the Church made so many laws about the holi-

ness and indissolubility of marriage, and the marriages of slaves

with the free-born, by power received from Roman emperors,

most hostile to the Christian name, whose strongest desire was

to destroy by violence and murder the rising Church of Christ.

Still less could any one believe this to be the case, when the law

of the Church was sometimes so divergent from the civil law that

Ignatius the Martyr, Justin, Athenagoras and Tertullian pub-

licly denounced as unjust and adulterous certain marriages which

had been sanctioned by Imperial law.

Marriage and the Christian Emperors

22. Furthermore, after all power had devolved upon the

Christian emperors, the supreme Pontiffs and Bishops assembled

in Council persisted, with the same independence and conscious-

ness of their right in commanding or forbidding in regard to mar-

riage whatever they judged to be profitable or expedient for the

time being, however much it might seem to be at variance with

the laws of the State. It is well known that, with respect to

13



the impediments arising from the marriage bond, through vow,

disparity of worship, blood relationship, certain forms of crime,

and from previously plighted troth, many decrees were issued

by the rulers of the Church in the Councils of Granada, Arles,

Chalcedon, the second of Milevum, and others, which were often

widely different from the decrees sanctioned by the laws of the

empire. Furthermore, so far were Christian princes from arro-

gating any power in the matter of Christian marriage, that they

on the contrary acknowledged and declared that it belonged ex-

clusively in all its fullness to the Church. In fact, Honorius,

the younger Theodosius, and Justinian also, hesitated not to

confess that the only power belonging to them in relation to

marriage was that of acting as guardians and defenders of the

Holy Canons. If at any time they enacted anything by their

edicts concerning impediments of marriage, they voluntarily ex-

plained the reason, affirming that they took it upon themselves

so to act, by leave and authority of the Church, whose judgment

they were wont to appeal to and reverently to accept in all ques-

tions that concerned legitimacy and divorce; as also in all those

points which in any way have a necessary connection with the

marriage-bond. The Council of Trent, therefore, had the clear-

est right to define that it is in the Church’s power ‘To establish

diriment impediments of matrimony,” and that “matrimonial

causes pertain to ecclesiastical judges.”

A Contract and o Sacroment

23. Let no one then be deceived by the distinction which

some civil jurists have so strongly insisted upon—the distinc-
tion, namely, by virtue of which they sever the matrimonial con-

tract from the sacrament, with intent to hand over the contract

to the power and will of the rulers of the State, while reserving

questions concerning the sacrament to the Church. A distinction,

or rather severance, of this kind cannot be approved; for certain

it is that in Christian marriage the contract is inseparable from

the sacrament; and that, for this reason, the contract cannot be

true and legitimate without being a sacrament as well. For

Christ our Lord added to marriage the dignity of a sacrament;

but marriage is the contract itself, whenever that contract is

lawfully concluded.

24 Trid. sess. xxiv. can. 4, 12.

14



The Image of Christ's Nuptials

24. Marriage, moreover, is a sacrament, because it is a holy

sign which gives grace, showing forth an image of the mystical

nuptials of Christ with the Church. But the form and image

of these nuptials is shown precisely by the very bond of that most

close union in which man and woman are bound together in one;

which bond is nothing else but the marriage itself. Hence it is

clear that among Christians every true marriage is, in itself and

by itself, a sacrament; and that nothing can be further from the

truth than to say that the sacrament is a certain added orna-

ment, or outward endowment, which can be separated and torn

away from the contract at the caprice of man. Neither there-

fore by reasoning can it be shown, nor by any testimony of

history be proved, that power over the marriages of Christians

has ever lawfully been handed over to the rulers of the State.

If, in this matter, the right of any one else has ever been vio-

lated, no one can truly say that it has been violated by the

Church. Would that the teaching of those who reject what is

supernatural, besides being full of falsehood and injustice, were

not also the fertile source of much detriment and calamity 1 But

it is easy to see at a glance the greatness of the evil which un-

hallowed marriages have brought, and ever will bring, on the

whole of human society.

Marriage Not a Human Institution

25. From the beginning of the world, indeed, it was divinely

ordained that things instituted by God and by Nature should be

proved by us to be the more profitable and salutary the more

they remain unchanged in their full integrity. For God, the

Maker of all things, well knowing what was good for the institu-

tion and preservation of each of His creatures, so ordered them

by His will and mind that each might adequately attain the end

for which it was made. If the rashness or the wickedness of

human agency venture to change or disturb that order of things

which has been constituted with fullest foresight, then the de-

signs of infinite wisdom and usefulness begin either to be hurtful

or cease to be profitable, partly because through the change un-

dergone they have lost their power of benefiting, and partly be-

cause God chooses to inflict punishment on the pride and au-

dacity of man. Now those who deny that marriage is holy, and

15



who relegate it, stripped of all holiness, among the class of com-

mon things, uproot thereby the foundations of nature, not only

resisting the designs of Providence, but, so far as they can, de-

stroying the order that God has ordained. No one, therefore,

should wonder if from such insane and impious attempts there

spring up a crop of evils pernicious in the highest degree both

to the salvation of souls and to the safety of the commonwealth.

God's Twofold Purpose in Marriage

26. If, then, we consider the end of the divine institution of

marriage, we shall see very clearly that God intended it to be a

most fruitful source of individual benefit and of public welfare.

Not only, in strict truth, was marriage instituted for the propa-

gation of the human race, but also that the lives of husbands and

wives might be made better and happier. This comes about in

many ways: by their lightening each other’s burdens through

mutual help; by constant and faithful love; by having all their

possessions in common; and by the heavenly grace which flows

from the sacrament. Marriage also can do much for the good

of families, for, so long as it is conformable to nature and in ac-

cordance with the counsels of God, it has power to strengthen

union of heart in the parents; to secure the holy education of

children; to temper the authority of the father by the example

of the divine authority; to render children obedient to their par-

ents and servants obedient to their masters. From such marriages

as these the State may rightly expect a race of citizens animated

by a good spirit and filled with reverence and love for God, recog-

nizing it their duty to obey those who rule justly and lawfully, to

love all, and to injure no one.

Results of Desecroting Morrioge
4

27. These many and glorious fruits were ever the product of

marriage, so long as it retained those gifts of holiness, unity, and

indissolubility from which proceeded all its fertile and saving

power; nor can any one doubt but that it would always have

brought forth such fruits, at all times and in all places, had it

been under the power and guardianship of the Church, the trust-

worthy preserver and protector of these gifts. But now there is

a spreading wish to supplant natural and divine law by human

law; and hence has begun a gradual extinction of that most ex-

cellent ideal of marriage which Nature herself had impressed

16



on the soul of man, and sealed, as it were, with her own seal; nay,

more, even in Christian marriages this power, productive of so

great good, has been weakened by the sinfulness of man. Of

what advantage is it if a State can institute nuptials estranged

from the Christian religion, which is the mother of all good, cher-

ishing all sublime virtues, quickening and urging us to everything

that is the glory of a lofty and generous soul? When the Chris-

tian religion is rejected and repudiated, marriage sinks of neces-

sity into the slavery of man’s vicious nature and vile passions, and

finds but little protection in the help of natural goodness. A very

torrent of evil has flowed frofti this source, not only into pri-

vate families, but also into States. For the salutary fear of

God being removed, and there being no longer that refreshment

in toil which is nowhere more abounding than in the Christian

religion, it very often happens, as from facts is evident, that the

mutual services and duties of marriage seem almost unbearable;

and thus very many yearn for the loosening of the tie which they

believe to be woven by human law and of their own will, when-

ever incompatibility of temper, or quarrels, or the violation of

the marriage vow, or mutual consent, or other reasons induce

them to think that it would be well to be set free. Then, if they

,
are hindered by law from carrying out this shameless desire,

they contend that the laws are iniquitous, inhuman, and at vari-

ance with the rights of free citizens; adding that every effort

should be made to repeal such enactments, and to introduce a

more humane code sanctioning divorce.

Divorce Does Not Holt Impiety

28. Now, however much the legislators of these our days may

wish to guard themselves against the impiety of men such as

we have been speaking of, they are unable to do so, seeing that

they profess to hold and defend the very same principles of juris-

prudence; and hence they have to go with the times, and render

divorce easily obtainable. History itself shows this; for, to pass

over other instances, we find that, at the close of the last cen-

tury, divorces were sanctioned by law in that upheaval, or rather,

as it might be called, conflagration in France, when society was

wholly degraded by the abandoning of God. Many at the present

time would fain have those laws re-enacted, because they wish

God and His Church to be altogether exiled and excluded from

17



the midst of human society, madly thinking that in such laws a

final remedy must be sought for that moral corruption which is

advancing with rapid strides.

Evils Flowing From Divorce

29. Truly, it is hardly possible to describe how great are the

evils that flow from divorce. Matrimonial contracts are by it

made variable; mutual kindness is weakened; deplorable induce-

ments to unfaithfulness are supplied; harm is done to the edu-

cation and training of children; occasion is afforded for the break-

ing up of homes; the seeds of dissension are sown among families;

the dignity of womanhood is lessened and brought low, and women

run the risk of being deserted after having ministered to the

pleasures of men. Since, then, nothing has such power to lay

waste families and destroy the mainstay of kingdoms as the cor-

ruption of morals, it is easily seen that divorces are in the highest

degree hostile to the prosperity of families and States, springing

as they do from the depraved morals of the people, and, as experi-

ence shows us, opening out a way to every kind of evil-doing in

public and in private life.

Divorce Breeds and Spreads

30. Further still, if the matter be duly pondered, we shall •

clearly see these evils to be the more especially dangerous, be-

cause, divorce once being tolerated, there will be no restraint

powerful enough to keep it within the bounds marked out or

presurmised. Great indeed is the force of example, and even

greater still the might of passion. With such incitements it must

needs follow that the eagerness for divorce, daily spreading by

devious ways, will seize upon the minds of many like a virulent

contagious disease, or like a flood of water bursting through every

barrier. These are truths that doubtlessly are all clear in them-

selves; but they will become clearer yet if we call to mind the

teachings of experience. So soon as the road to divorce began

to be made smooth by law, at once quarrels, jealousies, and ju-

dicial separations largely increased; and such shamelessness of life

followed, that men who had been in favor of these divorces re-

pented of what they had done, and feared that, if they did not

carefully seek a remedy by repealing the law, the State itself

might come to ruin. The Romans of old are said to have shrunk

with horror from the first example of divorce, but ere long all sense

18



of decency was blunted in their soul; the meager restraint of pas-

sion died out, and the marriage vow was so often broken that what

some writers have affirmed would seem to be true—namely, women
used to reckon years not by the change of consuls, but of their

husbands. In like manner, at the beginning, Protestants allowed

legalized divorces in certain although but few cases, and yet from

the affinity of circumstances of like kind, the number of divorces

increased to such extent in Germany, America, and elsewhere,

that all wise thinkers deplored the boundless corruption of morals,

and judged the recklessness of the laws to be simply intolerable.

Misery the Sequel to Divorce

31. Even in Catholic States the like evil existed. For whenever

at any time divorce was introduced, the abundance of misery that

followed far exceeded all that the framers of the law could have

foreseen. In fact, many lent their minds to contrive all kinds of

fraud and device, and by ’ accusations of cruelty, violence, and

adultery to feign grounds for the dissolution of the matrimonial

bond of which they had grown weary; and all this with so great

havoc to morals that an amendment of the laws was deemed to be

urgently needed.

Sociol Upset Its Consequence

32. Can any one, therefore, doubt that laws in favor of di-

vorce would have a result equally baneful and calamitous were

they to be passed in these our days? There exists not, indeed,

in the projects and enactments of men any power to change the

character and tendency which things have received from nature.

Those men therefore show but little wisdom in the idea they have

formed of the well-being of the commonwealth who think that the

inherent character of marriage can be perverted with impunity;

and who, disregarding the sanctity of religion and of the sacra-

ment, seem to wish to degrade and dishonor marriage more basely

than was done even by heathen laws. Indeed, if they do not

change their views, not only private families, but all public so-

ciety, will have unceasing cause to fear lest they should be miser-

ably driven into that general confusion and overthrow of order

which is even now the wicked aim of Socialists and Communists.

Thus we see most clearly how foolish and senseless it is to expect

any public good from divorce, when, on the contrary, it tends to

the certain destruction of society.

19



The Church Safeguards the State

33. It must consequently be acknowledged that the Church

has deserved exceedingly well of all nations by her ever-watchful

care in guarding the sanctity and the indissolubility of marriage.

Again, no small amount of gratitude is owing to her for having,

during the last hundred years, openly denounced the wicked

laws which have grievously offended on this particular subject;

as well as for her having branded with anathema the baneful

heresy obtaining among Protestants touching divorce and separa-

tion; also for having in many ways condemned the habitual disso-

lution of marriage among the Greeks; for having declared invalid

all marriages contracted upon the understanding that they may be

at some future time dissolved; and lastly, for having, from the

earliest times, repudiated the imperial laws which disastrously

favored divorce.

The Bravery of the Popes

34. As often, indeed, as the supreme Pontiffs have resisted

the most powerful among rulers, in their threatening demands

that divorces carried out by them should be confirmed by the

Church, so often must we account them to have been contending

for the safety, not only of religion, but also of the human race.

For this reason all generations of men will admire the proofs

of unbending courage which are to be found in the decrees of

Nicholas I against Lothair; of Urban II and Paschal II against

Philip I of France; of Celestine III and Innocent III against

Alphonsus of Leon and Philip II of France; of Clement VII

and Paul III against Henry VIII; and lastly, of Pius VII,

that holy and courageous Pontiff, against Napoleon I, when

at the height of his prosperity and in the fulness of his power.

Rulers Should Co-operate With the Church

This being so, all rulers and administrators of the State who

are desirous, of following the dictates of reason and wisdom,

and anxious for the good of their people, ought to make up their

minds to keep the holy laws of marriage intact, and to make use

of the proffered aid of the Church for securing the safety of morals

and the happiness of families, rather than suspect her of hostile

intention and falsely and wickedly accuse her of violating the civil

law.

20



The Church Co-operotes With Civil Rulers

35. They should do this the more readily because the Catho-

lic Church, though powerless in any way to abandon the duties of

her office or the defence of her authority, still very greatly in-

clines to kindness and indulgence whenever they are consistent

with the safety of her rights and the sanctity of her duties.

Wherefore she makes no decrees in relation to marriage without

having regard to the state of the body politic and the condition

of the general public; and has besides more than once mitigated,

as far as possible, the enactments of her own laws when there

were just and weighty reasons. Moreover, she is not unaware,

and never calls in doubt, that the Sacrament of Marriage, being

instituted for the preservation and increase of the human race,

has a necessary relation to circumstances of life which, though

connected with marriage, belong to the civil order, and about

which the State rightly makes strict inquiry and justly promul-

gates decrees.
$

Concord Between Church and State

36. Yet no one doubts that Jesus Christ, the Founder of the

Church, willed her sacred power to be distinct from the civil

power, and each power to be free and unshackled in its own

sphere: with this condition, however—a condition good for both,
and of advantage to all men—that union and concord should be
maintained between them; and that on those questions which are,

though in different ways, of common right and authority, the

power of which secular matters have been intrusted should happily

and becomingly depend on the other power which has in its charge

the interests of heaven. In such arrangement and harmony is

found not only the best line of action for each power, but also

the most opportune and efficacious method of helping men in all

that pertains to their life here, and to their hope of salvation here-

after. For, as We have shown in former Encyclical Letters, the
intellect of man is greatly ennobled by the Christian faith, and

made better able to shun and banish all error, while faith borrows

in turn no little help from the intellect; and in like manner, when

the civil power is on friendly terms with the sacred authority

of the Church, there accrues to both a great increase of useful-

ness. The dignity of the one is exalted, and so long as religion

is its guide it will never rule unjustly; while the other receives

help of protection and defence for the public good of the faithful.

21



Public Safety Calls for Co-operation

37. Being moved, therefore, by these considerations, as We
have exhorted rulers at other times, so still more earnestly We
exhort them now, to concord and friendly feeling; and We are the
first to stretch out Our hand to them with fatherly benevolence,

and to offer to them the help of Our supreme authority, a help

which is the more necessary at this time when, in public opinion,

the authority of rulers is wounded and enfeebled. Now that the

minds of so many are inflamed with a reckless spirit of liberty,

and men are wickedly endeavoring to get rid of every restraint

of authority, however legitimate it may be, the public safety

demands that both powers should unite their strength to avert

the evils which are hanging, not only over the Church, but also

over civil society.

The Bishop's Duty

38. But, while earnestly exhorting all to a friendly union of

will, and beseeching God, the Prince of Peace, to infuse a love of

concord into all hearts. We cannot. Venerable Brothers, refrain

from urging you more and more to fresh earnestness, and zeal, and

watchfulness, though we know that these are already very great.

With every effort and with all authority, strive, as much as you

are able, to preserve whole and undefiled among the people com-

mitted to your charge the doctrine which Christ our Lord taught

us; which the apostles, the interpreters of the will of God, have

handed down; and which the Catholic Church has herself scrupu-

lously guarded, and commanded to be believed in all ages by the

faithful of Christ.

The Spreod of Right Doctrine

39. Let special care be taken that the people be well in-

structed in the precepts of Christian wisdom, so that they may

always remember that marriage was not instituted by the will of

man, but, from the very beginning, by the authority and com-

mand of God; that it does not admit of plurality of wives or

husbands; that Christ, the author of the New Covenant, raised

it from a rite of nature to be a sacrament, and gave to His Church

legislative and judicial power with regard to the bond of union.

On this point the very greatest care must be taken to instruct

them, lest their minds should be led into error by the unsound

conclusions of adversaries who desire that the Church should

be deprived of that power.

22



The Meoning of True Marriage

40. In like manner, all ought to understand clearly that, if

there be any union of a man and a woman among the faithful of

Christ which is not a sacrament^ such union has not the force

and nature of a proper marriage; that although contracted in ac-

cordance with the laws of the State, it cannot be more than a rit^

or custom introduced by the civil law. Further, the civil law

can deal with and decide those matters alone which in the civil

order spring from marriage, and which cannot possible exist, as

is evident, unless there be a true and lawful cause of them, that is

to say, the nuptial bond. It is of the greatest consequence to

husband and wife that all these things should be known and well

understood by them, in order that they may conform to the laws

of the State, if there be no objection on the part of the Church;

for the Church wishes the effects of marriage to be guarded in all

possible ways, and that no harm may come to the children.

Divorce and Separation

41. In the great confusion of* opinions, however, which day

by day is spreading more and more widely, it should further be

known that no power can dissolve the bond of Christian marriage

whenever this has been ratified and consummated; and that, of

a consequence, those husbands and wives are guilty of a manifest

crime who plan, for whatever reason, to be united in a second

marriage before the first one has been ended by death. When,

indeed, matters have come to such a pitch that it seems impossi-

ble for them to live together any longer, then the Church allows

them to live apart, and strives at the same time to soften the evils

of this separation by such remedies and helps as are suited to

their condition; yet she never ceases to endeavor to bring about

a reconciliation, and never despairs of doing so. But these are

extreme cases; and they would seldom exist if men and women

entered into the married state with proper dispositions, not in-

fluenced by passion, but entertaining right ideas of the duties of

marriage and of its noble purpose; neither would they anticipate

their marriage by a series of sins drawing down upon them the

wrath of God.

Religion Necessary

42. To sum up all in a few words, there would be a calm

and quiet constancy in marriage if married people would gather



strength and life from the virtue of religion alone, which imparts

to us resolution and fortitude; for religion would enable them to

bear tranquilly and even gladly the trials of their state, such as,

for instance, the faults that they discover in one another, the

difference of temper and character, the weight of a mother’s

cares, the wearing anxiety about the education of children, re-

verses of fortune, and the sorrows of life.

Dangers in Mixed Marriages

43. Care also must be taken that they do not easily enter

into marriage with those who are not Catholics; for when minds

do not agree as to the observances of religion it is scarcely possible

to hope for agreement in other things. Other reasons also prov-

ing that persons should turn with dread from such marriages are

chiefly these: that they give occasion to forbidden association and

communion in religious matters; endanger the faith of the Catho-

lic partner; are a hindrance to the proper education of the chil-

dren; and often lead to a mixing up of truth and falsehood, and

to the belief that all religions are equally good.

The Unlawfully Married

44. Lastly, since We well know that none should be ex-
cluded from Our charity. We commend. Venerable Brothers, to
your fidelity and piety those unhappy persons who, carried away

by the heat of passion, and being utterly indifferent to their

salvation, live wickedly together without the bond of lawful

marriage. Let your utmost care be exercised in bringing such

persons back to their duty; and, both by your own efforts and

by those of good men who will consent to help you, strive by

every means that they may see how wrongly they have acted; that

they may do penance; and that they may be induced to enter into

a lawful marriage according to the Catholic rite.

The Safety of Nations and Souls

45. You will at once see. Venerable Brothers, that the doc-

trine and precepts in relation to Christian marriage, which We
have thought good to communicate to you in this letter, tend

no less to the preservation of civil society than to the everlasting

salvation of souls. May Gk)d grant that, by reason of their

gravity and importance, minds may everywhere be found docile

and ready to obey them! For this end let us all suppliantly,

24



with humble prayer, implore the help of the Blessed and Immacu-

late Virgin Mary, that, our hearts being quickened to the obedi-

ence of faith, she may show herself our mother and our helper.

With equal earnestness let us ask the princes of the apostles,

Peter and Paul, the destroyers of heresies, the sowers of the seed

of truth, to save the human race by their powerful patronage

from the deluge of errors that is surging afresh. In the mean-

time, as an earnest of heavenly gifts, and a testimony of Our

special benevolence. We grant you all. Venerable Brothers, and

to the people confided to your charge, from the depths of Our

heart, the Apostolic Benediction.

46. Given at St. Peter’s in Rome, the tenth day of February,

1880, the third year of Our Pontificate.

LEO XIII, Pope.

DISCUSSION CLUB OUTLINE

By Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, SJ.

Numerals Indicate Paragraphs

LESSON I

Paragraphs 1 to S

According to God’s plan Christ came to re-establish all things in Him-

self. ,He healed the wounds of sin that had afflicted humanity from the

Fall, restoring mankind to God’s favor. He brought to men the light of

truth and the power of virtue, and gave them assurance of immortal bliss.

He left His Church in the world to continue His healing mission. The

effect of the teaching of the Church has benefited not only man as an

individual but the whole social body. To such a degree is this true that

it may be said that the Church has contributed to human happiness, and

the welfare of the State in an extraordinary manner.

It is not our intention to treat of all the benefits accruing to human

society from the teaching of the Church, but to speak of the family and of

marriage which is the foundation of the family. Marriage was established

by God when He gave Eve to Adam as his wife and decreed that from

them the human race should be propagated. As our Lord taught clearly

marriage is from its foundation the life-long union of one man and one

woman, joined together in a bond that no man may sever. ‘‘For this cause

shall a man leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they too

shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not but two but one flesh.

What therefore God hath joined together let no man put asunder” (Matt. xix.

5, 6).

25



QUESTIONS

What was Christ’s purpose in coming upon earth ?

How does St. Paul express it?

Enumerate the benefits given mankind by Christ.

How is the Church related to Christ’s plan?

Was man as an individual the sole recipient of Christ’s mercy?

What benefit did the State derive from our Lord’s coming to earth?

Explain the origin of marriage.

What did Christ say of marriage?

Quote the text in St. Matthew’s Gospel on marriage.

LESSON II

Paragraphs 6 to 10

With the passing of time the true meaning of marriage was lost sight

of by the pagan world, and even among the Jews it became clouded.

Eventually Moses permitted his people divorce under certain conditions,

“by reason of the hardness of their hearts,” as our Lord explicitly stated

(Matt. xix. 8).

Pagan society sank deeper and deeper into corruption until marriage

became little better than legalized lust. The pagan State determined the

conditions for marriage, pagan laws allowed plurality of wives and husbands,

the husband was an absolute tyrant, the wife a slave, the children were

merely the property of the husband. Marriageable girls were bought and

sold like cattle, for women were considered as instruments for the produc-

tion of offspring, and means for the gratification of man’s lusts. Such was

marriage among the pagans when Christ our Lord came upon earth.

Christ our Lord restored marriage to its original dignity and raised it to

the honor of a sacrament. As Supreme Lawgiver He put aside all objec-

tions that the Pharisees offered from the Law of Moses and to husbands

and wives said: “I say to you that whosoever shall put away his wife, except

it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and

he that shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery” (Matt,

xix. 9).

According to Catholic Tradition Christ made marriage a sacrament, gave

to husband and wife the grace to attain holiness in the married state, and

made the natural love of man and woman a supernatural bond of heavenly

love, likening it to the love He has for His Church. St. Paul says: “Husbands

love your wives as Christ loved the Church. ... So also ought men love their .

wives as their own bodies. . . . This is a great sacrament; but I speak in

Christ and in the Church” (Ephes. v. 25).

From the teaching of the Apostles we learn the unity and indissolubility

of marriage. “To them that are married,” declares St. Paul, “not I but the

Lord commandeth that the wife depart not from her husband; and if she

depart, that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband” (1 Cor.

vii. 10, 11). “A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth;

but if her husband die, she is at liberty” (1 Cor. vii. 39). That is why

26



marriage “is a great sacrament” (Eph. v. 32), “honorable in all” (Hebr.

xiii. 4).

Furthermore Christ has given to marriage a higher purpose than merely

the propagation of the race. For by Christas command children are to be

brought forth to be members of God’s Church and citizens in His Kingdom.

Again the mutual duties of husband and wife have been made clear. The

husband is head of the family as Christ is Head of the Church. The wife

gives her husband loving obedience as a partner and companion, and not

as a servant. There is thus a mutuality of dignity, honor and love. And

children owe their parents loyal obedience, while parents are bound to edu-

cate their offspring in “the discipline and correction of the Lord” (Eph. vi.

4) . It is clear then that the duties and responsibilities of husband and wife

are by no means light. They receive strength to fulfill them from the grace

of the sacrament.

QUESTIONS

Did marriage retain its original purity among the Jews and the pagans?

How did pagan marriage laws affect women?

What rights did pagan laws give the husband ?

How did they affect children?

Who gave a new holiness to marriage?

Cite Apostolic teaching regarding marriage.

How does St. Paul express the love between man and wife ?

What higher purpose has been given marriage by the command of Christ ?

LESSON III

Paragraphs 11 to 16

To the Church Christ has given the right and duty of safeguarding

marriage. Accordingly she has constantly passed laws to protect the mar-

riage bond. From the time of the Council of Jerusalem to the present,

the Church has refuted the errors that have appeared in regard to this holy

sacrament. To the Gnostic of early days and to the Communist in modem

times the Church says: “Mine and mine alone is the right to say what

marriage is and regulate everything concerning this sacred contract. Christ

has given me this right.” It was due to the Church that a just marriage

law was enacted equal for man and woman, abolishing the old distinction

between the slave and the free-born. “For with us,” says St. Jerome, “that

which is unlawful for women is unlawful for men also.” It was through

this legislation of the Church that woman’s dignity was proclaimed and se-

cured. It is the Church that has limited the power of the father of the

family and denied him the right to interfere with the freedom of his child

in choosing a life-partner. To diffuse the supernatural love of husbands

and wives the Church forbids marriage within certain degrees of relation-

ship, and she has ever been watchful to safeguard marriage from error, vio-

lence and deceit. To any fair-minded person the history of the Church

proves her to be the best guardian of the human race, in protecting the divine

institution of marriage.

27



QUESTIONS

Enumerate the mutual rights and duties of husband and wife.

State the rights and duties of parents and children.

To whom did Christ entrust the discipline regarding marriage?

What may we conclude from the action of the early Church regarding

marriage ?

Quote St. Jerome on the justice of the Church’s marriage laws.

What does the Church say regarding the freedom of people to marry?

Why does the Church forbid marriage to those within certain degrees

of relationship?

What motives prompt those who are seeking to destroy the right ideal

of marriage?

LESSON IV

Paragraphs 17 to 22

We reproach some of the ancients for their attitude toward marriage.

But what of our moderns who ignore or despise the restoration of marriage

to its original perfection? This modem disregard of the sanctity of

marriage springs from the false philosophy of the day which teaches un-

bridled license not only to individuals but to the family and to the human

race, ignoring completely the sovereignty of God. Modern theories hold

that the State and not the Church has jurisdiction over marriage. If they

allow the Church any say in the matter they do so by favor of the State.

So we have what are called civil marriages. And we find State laws pre-

scribing what is licit and valid in the marriage contract, ignoring the legis-

lation of the Church.

We assert in the face of these errors that marriage has God for its

author and the Church for its protector. From earliest times marriage has

been regarded as something holy and religious. This is a fact even among

unbelievers. A further fact is that the more civilized the people, the more
they regarded marriage as sacred. As marriage then is holy by its very na-

ture, it should be regulated not by the civil ruler but by the divine authority

of the Church. Moreover as marriage is a sacrament among Christians it

belongs, by the will of Christ, to the jurisdiction of the Church and not the

State. History testifies that the Church has ever exercised her juridical

power in face of the opposition of the State. It would be foolish to think

that Christ legislated on marriage with authority delegated to Him by the

procurator of Judea or by the chief ruler among the Jews. It would like-

wise be absurd to think that Paul taught the holiness of marriage because

the Roman emperor authorized him to do so. The fact is the Church from

earliest times often pronounced marriages unjust and unlawful that were

sanctioned by Imperial law.

Even after the Roman Empire became Christian, the Popes and the

Bishops in council assembled continued to legislate regarding marriage, even

though this legislation did not conform to the imperial decrees. And Chris-

tian princes far from resenting this, agreed that such legislation fell within

the province of the Church. And if they passed laws concerning impediments

29



to marriage, they always asserted that it was done with the approval

and permission of the Church. It is not surprising then to find the Council

of Trent declaring that it belongs to the Church “to establish diriment

impediments of matrimony” and that “matrimonial causes pertain to

ecclesiastical judges.”

QUESTIONS

The State has all power over marriage. Refute.

Prove that marriage has been holy and religious from the beginning.

Give the historical argument for the sacredness of marriage.

Why should not marriage be regulated and administered by civil rulers?

What makes the marriages of Christians the noblest of all unions?

Has the Church used her rights over marriage by the consent of civil

rulers? Explain.

What was the attitude of the Church toward Imperial Roman law on

marriage ?

What was the attitude of Popes and Councils toward the Christian

emperors?

Quote the emperors Honorius, Theodosius and Justinian on the Church’s

marriage laws.

Cite the canon of the Council of Trent regarding the Church’s power

over marriage.

LESSON V

Paragraphs 23 to 27

Some civil jurists have attempted to distinguish between marriage as a

contract and as a sacrament, giving the jurisdiction of the contract to the

State and the jurisdiction of the sacrament to the Church. This is wrong

for the contract and the sacrament are one and the same. -Moreover mar-

riage is a sacrament for it is a sacred sign which gives grace, mirroring forth

the image of the mystical nuptials of Christ with the Church. The form and

image of these nuptials is found in the marriage bond whkh makes man and

woman one, and this bond is the marriage itself. The sacrament is not

something added to the contract, an outward ornament. No. Sacrament

and contract are one. So everything pertaining to it belongs to the juris-

diction of the Church. If these truths had been appreciated and observed,

human society would not have been afflicted with so many evils springing

from unholy marriages.

The more closely God’s law and the law of Nature are observed, the

happier the state of human society. This is the lesson of history. The Divine

law gives order to the world. Order gives peace. Peace brings happiness.

Those who deny the sacred character of marriage and reduce it to a merely

human level, uproot the very foundations of nature and set at nought the

Divine plan. The consequence of this is that innumerable evils follow

detrimental to human society and the eternal welfare of souls. According

to God’s plan marriage was to be the source of individual benefit and of

public welfare. It was not only instituted for the propagation of chil-

29



dren, but for mutual happiness of man and woman. For the common

life that results from marriage makes for human happiness, as it calls

for sacrifice based on love and strengthened by sacramental grace. Par-

ents and children form the family in which there are mutual rights and

duties. And from such families the State may expect dutiful and loyal

citizens.

Such were the fruits of marriage as long as it remained one, holy and

indissoluble. And such results would have continued had the guardianship

of the Church over marriage been permitted to continue. But now men are

striving to lower this true ideal of marriage and substitute human law for

God’s law. This is fatal both to individual good and to the welfare of

society. Take religion out of marriage, reject the authority of the Church

in this all-important matter, and you will have a flood of evik flowing

into human society. For once the fear and love of God are thrown into the

discard unbridled lusts rule men, and marriage becomes a mere outlet for

passion, with divorce as a refuge when passion is sated.

QUESTIONS

The State has the right over the contract, the Church over the sacra-

ment. Discuss.

Why is marriage a sacrament?

Is the sacrament added to the contract as an outward ornament?

What has followed from men tampering with God’s plan regarding mar-

riage?

Is the propagation of the human race God’s only purpose in marriage?

How does marriage, according to God’s plan, benefit the individual, the
family, the State?

When marriage loses its supernatural character what effects follow?

LESSON VI

Paragraphs 28 to 33

Let divorce be resorted to as a remedy and the remedy will prove

worse than the disease. For once allow divorce, and the marriage bond is

rendered unstable, mutual love is weakened, the way is opened to unfaith-

fulness, children are neglected, the dignity of woman is destroyed, and the

solid foundation of home life is shattered. Divorce is but an expression of

depravity of morals. Depraved morals mean the end of the home and the

ruin of the State. It is idle to think that divorce can be kept within a

restricted sphere. It will grow and spread like a virulent plague. History

testifies to this. The Romans allowed legal divorce, hoping it would remain

an occasional practice. Before long it became widespread. When Prot-

estantism began the same process was followed. Look at the divorce record

of Protestant countries today. And even in some Catholic countries un-

fortunately the same policy was adopted, with the same result.

The modem clamor for laws in favor of divorce, if heeded, will bring

to the modem world the same evils that have been brought in the past,

whenever the sacred character of marriage has been tampered with. One

30



fact stands out clearly—the spread of divorce means the ruin of society.
The Church deserves well of all nations for her uncompromising attitude

toward divorce. From the beginning of her history, and especially during

the last century, she has unflinchingly condemned every law that has fa-

vored divorce. Rulers of States have often urged the Popes to approve

divorce laws enacted by the civil power. They have been met by a fear-

less refusal. It is for the State to realize that the Church is working for

civil welfare when she stands for unhesitating obedience to God’s law which

prohibits divorce. The Church is ever anxious to co-operate with the State

for the common welfare. Her laws on marriage ever look to the common

good. She realizes that the State should legislate upon marriage because

marriage is intimately connected with the civil order. The concern of the

Church is to see to it that every State law conforms to God’s law regarding

marriage.

QUESTIONS

Why is any divorce law incapable of protecting the sacredness of

marriage ?

Enumerate the evils that follow from divorce.

A nation’s attitude toward divorce is an index of the morality of its

people. Explain.

Divorce once allowed, morality corrupts. Prove from history.

Enumerate the benefits conferred on the State by the Church’s attitude

on marriage.

LESSON VII

Paragraphs 34 to 38

Christ our Lord Who founded the Church wished it to be distinct from

the State. He wished each power to be free in its own sphere, and at the

same time that concord should be maintained between them. In this har-

mony is found the best line of action for each power, and the best method

of helping men in their life here and for their life hereafter. When civil

and Church authority are on friendly terms the usefulness and influence

of both are increased to the benefit of the public good. In these days

when unbridled license masking under the name of liberty is growing

apace, public safety demands the most friendly co-operation between both

powers, to avert the dangers threatening not only the Church but civil

society itself.

QUESTIONS

The early Romans attempted to restrict divorce. What was the result?

What were the Pope’s defending when they opposed every State that ad-

vocated divorce ?

Does the Church oppose all State regulation of marriage?

According to the Mind of Christ what should be the relation between

Church and State?

Enumerate the benefits following from the proper relationship of Church

and State.

What will avert the evils now threatening civil society and the Church?

31



LESSON VIII

Paragraphs 39 to 45

We appeal to all the Bishops of the Catholic world to preserve and

spread the doctrine of Christ, handed down to them from the Apostles.

We ask them to remind their flocks that marriage was instituted by God,

was raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament, and that legislative and

judicial power regarding this sacred bond has been entrusted by Him to

His Church. Moreover the children of the Church must be taught that any

union of man and woman among Christ’s faithful which is not a sacrament,

is not marriage. It is for the civil law to deal only with those matters

which in the civil order spring from marriage. A Christian marriage rati-
fied and consummated cannot be dissolved by any power on earth. Death

alone dissolves a Christian marriage. Divorce is a sin against nature and

against God. In special cases the Church permits separation. In no case

divorce. And even in the event of separation the Church ever strives for a

reconciliation of the married couple. If people entered upon marriage

with an appreciation of its dignity and nobility, there would be few unhappy

marriages.

Catholics should not marry non-Catholics without realizing the dangers

involved. For the blending of two minds which is an essential of a happy

marriage is difficult when there is divergence of attitude toward religion.

Agreement in other things is hard when there is disagreement on religion.

The education of children is difiicult when there is difference of religious

viewpoint.

Wc urge the Bishops to bring back those who are living together outside

the bonds of holy wedlock, and we pray our Blessed Mother and the holy

Apostles Peter and Paul to render the minds of all people docile to the

teachings we have given on Christian marriage.

QUESTIONS

Sum up the teaching that the Pope is urging the Bishops to spread among

the people.

Can there be a marital union among Christians that is not a sacrament?

Can the civil law deal with those matters which in the civil order spring

from marriage?

What power can dissolve a marriage ratified and consummated?

What is permissible for people who claim they can no longer live to-

gether as man and wife?

What part must religion play in marriage?

Enumerate the dangers of mixed marriages.

With what prayer does the Pope end his encyclical?

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