Chapter XXIV: Of Marriage and Divorce. De Conjugio et Divortio.
Of Marriage and Divorce. De Conjugio et Divortio.
I. Marriage is to be between one man and one woman: neither is it lawful for any man to have more than one wife, nor for any woman to have more than one husband at the same time. [1817] I. Conjugium inter unum virum ac foeminam unam contrahi debet; neque viro ulli uxores plures, nec ulli foeminæ ultra unum maritum eodem tempore habere licet.
[1818] II. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife;
[1819] for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed; [1820] and for preventing of uncleanness.
[1821] II. Conjugium erat institutum, cum propter mariti uxorisque auxilium mutuum, [1822] tum propter humani generis prole legitima, Ecclesiæqeu sancto semine incrementum, [1823] tum vero etiam ad impudicitiam declinandam. [1824] III. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able with judgment to give their consent. [1825] Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry only in the Lord. [1826] And, therefore, such as profess the true reformed religion should not marry with infidels, Papists, or other idolaters: neither should such as are godly be unequally yoked, by marrying with such as are notoriously wicked in their life, or maintain damnable heresies. [1827] III. Matrimonio jungi cuivis hominum generi licitum est, qui consensum suum præbere valent cum judicio;
[1828] Veruntamen solum in Domino connubia inire debent Christiani;
[1829] proindeque quotquot religionem veram reformatamque profitentur, non debent Infidelibus, Papistis, aut aliis quibuscunque idololatris connubio sociari; neque sane debent qui pii sunt impari jugo copulari, conjugium cum illis contrahendo qui aut improbitate vitæ sunt notabiles, aut damnabiles tuentur hæreses. [1830] ;
IV. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden in the Word; [1831] nor can such incestuous marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man, or consent of parties, so as those persons may live together, as man and wife. [1832] The man may not marry any of his wife's kindred nearer in blood than he may of his own, nor the woman of her husband's kindred nearer in blood than of her own. [1833] IV. Connubia intra consanguinitatis affinitatisque gradus in verbo Dei vetitos iniri non est licitum; [1834] neque possunt ejusmodi incesta conjugia quavis aut humana lege, aut consensione partium fieri legitima, adeo ut personis illis ad instar mariti et uxoris liceat unquam cohabitare. [1835] Non licet viro e cognatione uxoris suæ ducere, quam si æque seipsum attingeret sanguine, ducere non liceret; sicuti nec foeminæ licet viro nubere a mariti sui sanguine minus, quam a suo liceret, alieno. [1836]
V. Adultery or fornication, committed after a contract, being detected before marriage, giveth just occasion to the innocent party to dissolve that contract. [1837] In the case of adultery after marriage, it is lawful for the innocent party to sue out a divorce, [1838] and after the divorce to marry another, as if the offending party were dead.
[1839] V. Adulterium aut scortatio si admittatur post sponsalia, ac ante conjugium detegatur, personæ innocenti justam præbet occasionem contractum illum dissolvendi; [1840] quod si adulterium post conjugium admittatur, licebit parti innocenti divortium lege postulare ac obtinere; [1841] atque quidem post factum divortium conjugio alteri sociari, perinde acsi mortua esset persona illa quæ conjugii fidem violabat. [1842] VI. Although the corruption of man be such as is apt to study arguments, unduly to put asunder those whom God hath joined together in marriage; yet nothing but adultery, or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by VI. Quamvis ea sit hominis corruptio ut proclivis sit ad excogitandum argumenta, indebite illos quos Deus connubio junxit dissociandi; nihilominus tamen extra adulterium ac desertionem ita obstinatam, ut cui nullo remedio, nec ab Ecclesia nec a
the Church or civil magistrate, is cause sufficient of dissolving the bond of marriage; [1843] wherein a public and orderly course of proceeding is to be observed; and the persons concerned in it, not left to their own wills and discretion in their own case. [1844] Magistratu civili subveniri possit, sufficiens causa nulla esse potest conjugii vinculum dissolvendi. [1845] Atque hac quidem in re procedendi ordo publicus et regularis est observandus, nec personæ illæ, quarum jus agitur, sunt suo arbitrio judiciove in causa propria permittendæ.
[1846]