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image, male and female created He them; and God blessed them, and said, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth" (Gen. i. 27). Here we see that the primary end of this union of man and woman in marriage is alluded to. Further on a more particular account of the creation of Eve is given, and the second end of marriage is referred And the Lord said, It is not good for man to be alone; let us make a help like unto himself." And then a little further on: "For Adam there was not found a helper like himself. Then the Lord cast a deep sleep on Adam; and when he was asleep, He took one of his ribs and filled up the flesh for it; and the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman, and brought her to Adam; and Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh" (Gen. ii. 18 et seq.). And our Lord Himself refers to this account as showing that matrimony was of divine appointment (Matt. xix. 5). These two are spoken of as the ends of marriage before the fall of man. But after the fall, when now the flesh was no longer obedient to the spirit, there was a third subsidiary end of marriage, that through it men might more easily avoid offending God by sins of impurity. And so St. Paul, in speaking of those who do not possess the gift of continence, says: "To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (1 Cor. vii. 2).

These were the three ends of matrimony as instituted by God; and, moreover, it was a perpetual and indissoluble union. This is to be gathered, as the Council of Trent teaches, from the passages already quoted from the Book of Genesis. We find, indeed, in the Book of Deuteronomy (chap. xxiv. 1) that directions are given concerning the divorcing of a wife; but when the disciples of our Lord referred to this permission, our Lord answered them, that Moses, by reason of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Matt. xix. 8).

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CHAP. CXXIV.

Of Matrimony as a Sacrament: its Nature, Institution, Matter, Form, Minister, and Subject.

SUCH being the contract of marriage as instituted by God, the next thing is to explain the sacrament which is founded on that contract. For as in every sacrament some sensible and natural thing is taken and raised into a means of grace, so in this sacrament the natural contract of marriage is raised to be a means of supernatural effects on our souls. Accordingly matrimony, as a sacrament, is defined as "a sacrament of the new law, by which the contract of marriage is blessed and sanctified;" by the contract of marriage being meant the legitimate union of man and woman, as already explained.

The Church has laid it down, in the Council of Trent, that matrimony is a true and proper sacrament, and one of the Seven instituted by our Lord. The Roman Catechism refers to the tradition of the Church, and to the words of St. Paul as proving this: "So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the Church. For 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 adhere to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the Church" (Ep. v. 28). It is not known exactly when our Lord instituted this sacrament. Many of the Fathers thought that, as He sanctified water for washing away sins by being Himself baptised in the Jordan, so He sanctified marriage and raised it to the dignity of a sacrament, by Himself assisting at the marriage at Cana, where He worked His first miracle. While others refer to the words of our Lord when, in speaking of marriage, and its institution by God in Paradise, He said: "What, therefore, God hath joined together let no man put asunder" (Matt. xix. 6). And others, again, think that it was formerly ordained by our Lord, with other sacraments, after His Resurrection,

when he spoke to His disciples "of the kingdom of God" (Acts i. 3).

Matter and Form and Minister. There are some persons who have held that the minister of the Sacrament of Matrimony is a priest, and that the form is the words that are used by him in the Marriage Service: "I join you together in matrimony, in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" the matter consisting in the persons of the man and woman which are mutually given over to each other. But the oldest, as well as the most common opinion,-if, indeed, it is not now universal, -is, that the contracting parties are themselves the ministers of the sacrament. For while the Church ordinarily requires the parish priest to assist at the ceremony, yet by its not always making the validity of the marriage to depend on this, it shows that it is not absolutely essential. From this, therefore, it would follow that while the matter of the sacrament consists, as has been said, in the mutual giving up of the contracting parties to one another, the form does not consist in the words of the priest,-which are intended to acknowledge and ratify the contract just made, but in the words or outward signs, by which the man and woman mutually accept each other as husband and wife.

Subject of Matrimony. By the subjects of matrimony are meant the persons capable of receiving the sacrament. Every baptised person who is not hindered by any natural impediment, or any that arises from the law of God or of the Church, is capable of receiving the Sacrament of Matrimony. Thus there are four sorts of obstacles to receiving it validly. 1st. Unbaptised persons, though they can enter into the contract, are incapable of receiving the Sacrament of Marriage. 2dly. Persons incapable from any natural cause of the principal end of marriage cannot validly contract it. 3dly. The law of God prohibits persons within certain degrees of kindred from contracting marriage, so that they cannot do so validly; and 4thly. The law of the Church also prohibits certain persons, and declares them incapable of matrimony. But the prohibition "to marry within certain degrees of kindred, or in any way forbidden

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by the Church," has been treated of in its own place, under the Precepts of the Church; and the prohibitions of the divine law are explained together with them.

CHAP. CXXV. Of the Indissolubility of Marriage. THOUGH there are certain persons who are incapable of contracting matrimony, yet when the contracting parties are neither of them so hindered, and the sacrament has been ratified, the marriage cannot be dissolved by any earthly power. This was clearly laid down by our Lord Himself, when the Pharisees asked Him whether it was lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause. He referred them to the institution of marriage in the beginning; and after quoting the words of the Old Testament, He added, "What, therefore, God hath joined together let no man put asunder" (Matt. xix. 6).

Upon their objecting that Moses had given directions about divorce, He answered that Moses had permitted it because of the hardness of their hearts, but added: "I say to you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and he who shall marry her that is put away committeth adultery" (v. 9). And St. Paul teaches that nothing but death can dissolve the marriagebond (Rom. vii. 2). As this is the law of God, the Church cannot give leave that it should be broken. And so we find in the history of the Church that the greatest inducements could not prevail on the Head of the Church to grant a dissolution of a true marriage, although, as in the case of England at the Reformation, the schism of a whole country was to be the consequence of refusal.

Yet there are some apparent exceptions to this rule. First, in case there has been some cause which rendered either of the parties incapable of contracting matrimony, the Church can, upon inquiring into the matter, and finding it to be so, declare the marriage null. This has sometimes been mistaken for a dissolving of the marriage; but in reality it is only declaring that there never was any real

marriage at all, because of some impediment which made the contract invalid.

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Secondly, The Church can grant a divorce in the sense, not of dissolving the bond of marriage, but authorising the separation of man and wife. An exception of this sort is made by our Lord Himself when He says: Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication," that is, adultery. Yet it is plain that only a separation was here meant, and not a dissolution of the bond of matrimony; for our Lord adds, that "he that marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery" (Luke xvi. 18). And St. Paul commands that the wife should not depart from her husband; "and if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband" (1 Cor. vii. 11). This is the difference between the mere contract of marriage, and marriage raised to the dignity of a sacrament. The Jews were permitted to put away their wives, and the bond of marriage was dissolved. So the Church can dispense for grave cause from the mere contract of marriage when, as in the case of unbaptised persons, the Sacrament of Marriage has not been received. But among Christians the bond of the Sacrament of Matrimony is indissoluble, and separation is only sanctioned for some grave cause, such as, (1) adultery; (2) one of the parties being unable to live with the other without great danger of losing faith or falling into grievous sin; or (3) from the mutual consent of the parties, in order that they may enter religion. But this last is not easily or frequently permitted.

The third exception is the case of the Church dissolving a marriage when it has not been ratified and sealed by the parties living together as man and wife, or, as it is called, (6 consummated." When it has been consummated, the Church cannot dissolve it; but till then it can be dissolved, if either party has a vocation to religion. This has been permitted by the tradition of the Church, and also because, being known to be permitted, it becomes a condition of

the contract.