ARCANUM
(On Christian Marriage)
Pope Leo XIII
Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII promulgated on 10 February 1880.
To the
Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and
Communion with the Apostolic See.
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."1
2. In truth, Christ our Lord, setting Himself to fulfill 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; He brought all men, by nature children
of wrath, into favor with God; He led to the light of truth men wearied out by
longstanding 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 entrusted 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.
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 worthiness. 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, thereby fostering that hope of heavenly help which
never confoundeth. From all this out-flowed fortitude, self-control, constancy, and the
evenness of a peaceful mind, together with many high virtues and noble deeds.
4. Wondrous, indeed, was the extent of dignity, steadfastness, 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 secure. In very truth, the Christian religion thought
of and provided 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 contributed to the conveniences or
advantages of this mortal life.
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. And this union of man and
woman, that it might answer more fittingly to the infinite wise counsels of God, even from
the beginning manifested chiefly two most excellent properties—deeply sealed, as it
were, and signed upon it—namely, unity and perpetuity. From the Gospel we see clearly
that this doctrine was declared and openly confirmed by the divine authority of Jesus
Christ. He bore witness to the Jews and to His Apostles that marriage, 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 asunder."2
6. This form of marriage, however, so excellent and so pre-eminent, began to be
corrupted by degrees, and to disappear among the heathen; and became even among the Jewish
race clouded in a measure and obscured. For in their midst a common custom was gradually
introduced, by which it was accounted as lawful for a man to have more than one wife; and
eventually when "by reason of the hardness of their heart,"3 Moses indulgently
permitted them to put away their wives, the way was open to divorce.
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
shameful 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 appearance by State reasons, but not such as nature required. Solemn
rites, invented at will of the law-givers, 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, as well as divorce,
caused the nuptial bond to be relaxed exceedingly. 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 "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."4 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 passion, or for the production of offspring. Without any
feeling of shame, marriageable girls were bought and sold, like so much merchandise,5
and power was sometimes given to the 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 common-wealth or held to be the property of the
father of the family;6 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.
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 restored 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;7 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 condemning 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 dissolve 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, "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."8
9. But what was decreed and constituted in respect to marriage 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,"9 namely, that Christ our
Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament; that to husband and wife, guarded and
strengthened by the heavenly grace which His merits Rained for them, He gave power to
attain holiness in the married state; and that, in a wondrous way, making marriage an
example of the mystical union between Himself and His Church, He not only perfected that
love which is according to nature,10 but also made the naturally indivisible 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 Himself 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."11 In like manner from the teaching of the
Apostles we learn that the unity of marriage and its perpetual 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 unmarried or be reconciled to her husband."12 And again:
"A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die,
she is at liberty."13 It is for these reasons that marriage is "a great
sacrament";14 "honorable in all,"15 holy, pure, and to be reverenced as
a type and symbol of most high mysteries.
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 marriage 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 domestics of God";16 so that "a people might be born and
brought up for the worship and religion of the true God and our Savior Jesus
Christ."17
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 respective duties. For "the husband is the head of the wife; as
Christ is the head of the Church. . . Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so
also let wives be to their husbands in all things."18
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 watchful 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 Lord."19 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.
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 marriages of
Christians that men have seen clearly how it belongs 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 preservation 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,20 we all know; as also that the incestuous
Corinthian was condemned by the authority of blessed Paul.21 Again, in the very
beginning of the Christian Church were repulsed and defeated, with the like unremitting
determination, the efforts of many who aimed at the destruction of Christian marriage,
such as the Gnostics, Manicheans, and Montanists; and in our own time Mormons, St.
Simonians, phalansterians, and communists.22
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;23 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."24 The self-same rights also were
firmly established for reciprocal affection and for the interchange of duties; the dignity
of the woman was asserted and assured; and it was forbidden to the man to inflict capital
punishment for adultery,25 or lustfully and shamelessly to violate his plighted faith.
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;26 that, for the purpose of spreading more widely
the supernatural love of husbands and wives, she has decreed marriages within certain
degrees of consanguinity or affinity to be null and void;27 that she has taken the
greatest pains to safeguard marriage, as much as is possible, from error and violence and
deceit;28 that she has always wished to preserve the holy chasteness of the marriage
bed, the security of persons,29 the honor of husband and wife,30 and the sanctity of
religion.31 Lastly, with such foresight of legislation has the Church guarded its divine
institution 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.
16. Yet, owing to the efforts of the archenemy of mankind, there are persons who,
thanklessly casting away so many other blessings of redemption, despise also or utterly
ignore the restoration 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 pernicious 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—indeed, human society itself—may in haughty pride despise the
sovereignty of God.
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
attribute 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 authority 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.
18. Hence are owing civil marriages, commonly so called; hence laws are framed which
impose impediments to marriage; 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.
19. Nevertheless, the naturalists,32 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 delusion. 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 predecessors, affirmed not falsely nor rashly that a sacrament of
marriage existed ever amongst the faithful and unbelievers.33 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 authority 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 their 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 administered by the will of civil rulers, but by the divine
authority of the Church, which alone in sacred matters professes the office of teaching.
20. Next, the dignity of the sacrament must be considered, for through addition of the
sacrament the marriages of Christians have become far the noblest of all matrimonial
unions. But 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.
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 incredible 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 province, 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 commanded him so to teach. No man in his senses could ever be
persuaded that the Church made so many laws about the holiness and indissolubility of
marriage,34 and the marriages of slaves with the free-born,35 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 anyone believe this
to be the case, when the law of the Church was sometimes so divergent from the civil law
that Ignatius the Martyr,36 Justin,37 Athenagoras,38 and
Tertullian39 publicly
denounced as unjust and adulterous certain marriages which had been sanctioned by imperial
law.
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
consciousness of their right in commanding or forbidding in regard to marriage 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 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 at the Councils of Granada,40 Arles,41
Chalcedon,42 the second of Milevum,43 and others, which were often widely different
from the decrees sanctioned by the laws of the empire. Furthermore, so far were Christian
princes from arrogating any power in the matter of Christian marriage that they on the
contrary acknowledged and declared that it belonged exclusively in all its fullness to the
Church. In fact, Honorius, the younger Theodosius, and Justinian,44 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 explained the reason,
affirming that they took it upon themselves so to act, by leave and authority of the
Church,45 whose judgment they were wont to appeal to and reverently to accept in all
questions that concerned legitimacy46 and divorce;47 as also in all those points which
in any way have a necessary connection with the marriage bond.48 The Council of Trent,
therefore, had the clearest right to define that it is in the Church's power "to
establish diriment impediments of matrimony,"49 and that "matrimonial causes
pertain to ecclesiastical judges."50
23. Let no one, then, be deceived by the distinction which some civil jurists have so
strongly insisted upon—the distinction, namely, by virtue of which they sever the
matrimonial contract 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 of 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. 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 ornament, or outward endowment, which can be
separated and torn away from the contract at the caprice of man. Neither, therefore, 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 anyone else has ever been violated, no one can truly say that
it has been violated by the Church. Would that the teaching of the naturalists, besides
being full of falsehood and injustice, were not also the fertile source of much detriment
and calamity! But it is easy to see at a glance the greatness of the evil which unhallowed
marriages have brought, and ever will bring, on the whole of human society.
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 institution 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 designs of infinite wisdom and usefulness begin either to be hurtful or cease to be
profitable, partly because through the change undergone they have lost their power of
benefiting, and partly because God chooses to inflict punishment on the pride and audacity
of man. Now, those who deny that marriage is holy, and who relegate it, stripped of all
holiness, among the class of common secular things, uproot thereby the foundations of
nature, not only resisting the designs of Providence, but, so far as they can, destroying
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.
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 propagation
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 accordance 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 parents 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, recognizing
it their duty to obey those who rule justly and lawfully, to love all, and to injure no
one.
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 anyone 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 trustworthy 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 excellent ideal of marriage which nature herself had
impressed 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, cherishing all sublime
virtues, quickening and urging us to everything that is the glory of a lofty and generous
soul? When the Christian religion is rejected and repudiated, marriage sinks of necessity
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 from this
source, not only into private 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 indeed is
natural, 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, whenever 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 variance 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.
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 jurisprudence; and
hence they have to go with 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
century, 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 reenacted, because they wish God
and His Church to be altogether exiled and excluded from 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.
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 inducements to unfaithfulness are supplied; harm is done to the education and
training of children; occasion is afforded for the breaking 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 corruption 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 experience shows us, opening out a way to every
kind of evil-doing in public and in private life.
30. Further still, if the matter be duly pondered, we shall clearly see these evils to
be the more especially dangerous, because, divorce once being tolerated, there will be no
restraint powerful enough to keep it within the bounds marked out or pre-surmised. 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 themselves, 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 judicial separations largely increased: and such
shamelessness of life followed that men who had been in favor of these divorces repented
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 of decency
was blunted in their soul; the meager restraint of passion 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.
31. Even in Catholic States the 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.
32. Can anyone, therefore, doubt that laws in favor of divorce 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 with 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 sacrament, 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 society, will have unceasing cause
to fear lest they should be miserably 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.
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;51 as well as for her having branded with anathema the baneful
heresy obtaining among Protestants touching divorce and separation;52 also, for having
in many ways condemned the habitual dissolution of marriage among the Greeks;53 for
having declared invalid all marriages contracted upon the understanding that they may be
at some future time dissolved;54 and, lastly, for having, from the earliest times,
repudiated the imperial laws which disastrously favored divorce.55
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 fullness of his power.
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.
35. They should do this the more readily because the Catholic Church, though powerless
in any way to abandon the duties of her office or the defense of her authority, still very
greatly inclines 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 promulgates decrees.
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 to which secular matters have been entrusted 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 hereafter. For, as We have shown in former encyclical
letters,56 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 usefulness. 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 defense for the public good of
the faithful.
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.
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 committed 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 scrupulously guarded, and commanded to be believed in all ages by the
faithful of Christ.
39. Let special care be taken that the people be well instructed 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 command 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.
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 accordance with
the laws of the State, it cannot be more than a rite 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 possibly 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.
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 impossible 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 influenced 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.
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, reverses of fortune, and the
sorrows of life.
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 proving 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 Catholic partner; are a hindrance to the proper education of the children; and
often lead to a mixing up of truth and falsehood, and to the belief that all religions are
equally good.
44. Lastly, since We well know that none should be excluded 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.
45. You will at once see, venerable brothers, that the doctrine 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 God 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, with humble prayer, implore the help of the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin
Mary, that, our hearts being quickened to the obedience 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 meantime, as an earnest of heavenly gifts, and a testimony of Our special
benevolence, We grant to you all, venerable brothers, and to the people confided to your
charge, from the depths of Our heart, the apostolic benediction.
Given at St. Peter's in Rome, the tenth day of February, 1880, the third year of Our
pontificate.
ENDNOTES:
1. Eph. 1:9-10.
2. Matt. 19:5-6.
3. Matt. 19:8.
4. Jerome "Epist." 77, 3 (PL 22, 691).
5. Arnobius, "Adversus Gentes," 4 (sic, perhaps 1, 64).
6. Dionysius Halicarnassus, lib. II, chs. 26-27 (see "Roman Antiquities," tr. E. Cary, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1948, Vol. 1, pp. 386.393).
7. John 2.
8. Matt. 19:9.
9. Trid., sess. xxiv, "in principio" (that is, Council of Trent, "Canones et decreta;" the text is divided into sessions, chapters, and canons, i.e., decrees).
10. Trid., sess. xxiv, cap. 1, "De reformatione matrimonii."
11. Eph. 5:25-32.
12. I Cor. 7:10-11.
13. I Cor. 7:39.
14. Eph. 5:32.
15. Heb. 13:4.
16. Eph. 2:19.
17. "Catech. Rom.," ch. 8.
18. Eph. 5:23-24.
19. Eph. 6:4.
20. Acts 15:29.
21. I Cor. 5:5.
22. Gnostics: common name for several early sects claiming a Christian knowledge (gnosis) higher than faith. Manicheans: disciples of the Persian Mani (or Manes, c. 216-276) who taught that everything goes back to two first principles, light and darkness, or good and evil. Montanists: disciples of Montanus (in Phrygia, last third of the second century), condemned marriage as a sinful institution. Mormons: sect founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, which favored polygamy. Saint-Simonians: disciples of the French philosopher Saint Simon (1760-1825) founder of a "new Christianity" based upon science instead of faith. Phalansterians: members of a phalanstery, that is, of a socialist community after the principles of Charles Fourier (1772-1837). Communists: supporters of a regime in which property belongs to the body politic, each member being supposed to work according to his capacity and to receive according to his wants; communism is usually associated with the name of Karl Marx (1818-1893).
23. Cap. 1, "De conjug. serv. Corpus juris canonici," ed. Friedberg (Leipzig, 1884), Part 2, cols. 691-692.
24. Jerome, Epist. 77 (PL 22, 691).
25. Can. "Interfectores" and Canon "Admonere," quaest. 2 "Corpus juris canonici" (Leipzig, 1879), Part 1, cols. 1152-1154.
26. Saus. 30, quaest. 3, cap. 3, "De cognat. spirit." (op. cit., Part 1, col. 1101).
27. Cap. 8, "De consang. et affin." (op. cit., Part 2, col. 703); cap 1, "De cognat. legali" (col. 696). 28. Cap. 26, "De sponsal." (op. cit., Part 2, col. 670); cap. 13 (col. 665); cap. 15 (col. 666); cap. 29 (col. 671); "De sponsalibus et matrimonio et alibi."
29. Cap. 1, "De convers. infid." (op. cit., Part 2, col. 587); cap. 5, 6, "De eo qui duxit in matrim." (cols. 688-689).
30. Cap. 3, 5, 8, "De sponsal. et matr." (op. cit., Part 2, cols. 661, 663). Trid., sess. xxiv, cap. "De reformatione matrimonii."
31. Cap. 7, "De divort." (op. cit., Part 2, col. 722).
32. Maintain the self-sufficiency of the natural order.
33. Concerning Innocent III, see "Corpus juris canonici," cap. 8, "De divort.," ed. cit., Part 2, col. 723. Innocent III refers to I Cor. 7:13. Concerning Honorius III, see cap. ii, "De transact.," (op. cit., Part 2, col. 210).
34. "Canones Apostolorum," 16, 17, 18, ed. Fr. Lauchert, J. C. B. Mohr (Leipzig, 1896) p. 3.
35. "Philosophumena" (Oxford, 1851), i.e., Hippolytus, "Refutation of All Heresies," 9, 12 (PG 16, 3386D-3387A).
36. "Epistola ad Polycarpum," cap. 5 (PG 5, 723-724).
37. "Apolog. Maj.," 15 (PG 6. 349A. B).
38. "Legat. pro Christian.," 32, 33 (PG 6, 963-968).
39. "De coron. milit.," 13 (PL 2, 116).
40. "De Aguirre, Conc. Hispan.," Vol. 1, can. 11.
41. Harduin, "Act. Concil.," Vol. 1, can. 11.
42. Ibid., can. 16.
43. Ibid., can. 17.
44. "Novel.," 137 (Justinianus, "Novellae," ed. C. E. Z. Lingenthal, Leipzig, 1881, Vol. 2, p. 206).
45. Fejer, "Matrim. ex instit." Chris. (Pest, 1835).
46. Cap. 3, "De ord. cogn." (Corpus juris canonici, ed. Cit., Part 2, col. 276).
47. Cap. 3, "De divort." (ed. cit., Part 2, col. 720).
48. Cap. 13, "Qui filii sint legit." (ed. cit., Part 2, col. 716).
49. Trid., sess. xxiv, can. 4.
50. Ibid., can. 12.
51. Pius VI, "Epist. ad episc. Lucion.," May 20, 1793; Pius VII, encycl. letter, Feb. 17, 1809, and constitution given July 19, 1817; Pius VIII, encycl. letter, May 29, 1829; Gregory XVI, constitution given August 15, 1832; Pius IX. address. Sept. 22, 1852.
52. Trid., sess. xxiv, can. 5, 7.
53. Council of Florence and instructions of Eugene IV to the Armenians; Benedict XIV, constitution "Etsi Pastoralis," May 6, 1742.
54. Cap. 7, "De condit. appos". ("Corpus juris canonici," ed. cit., Part 2, col. 684).
55. Jerome, "Epist. 69, ad Oceanum" (PL 22, 657); Ambrose, Lib. 8 in cap. 16 Lucae, n. 5 (PL 15, 1857); Augustine, "De nuptiis," 1, 10, 11 (PL 44, 420). Fifty years after the publication of "Arcanum," Pope Pius XI published his own encyclical "Casti Connubii" (December 31, 1930), which may be found translated, with notes and bibliography, in J. Husslein, S. J., "Social Wellsprings," Vol. II, pp. 122-173; also in pamphlet form, translated by Canon G. D. Smith, Catholic Truth Society of London; Paulist Press, New York; with a discussion club outline by Gerald C. Treacey, S. J.; National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington, 1939. These pontifical acts should be completed by two addresses given by Pope Pius XII (October 29, 1951, and November 26, 1951), English translation published in pamphlet form by the National Catholic Welfare Conference under the title, "Moral Questions Affecting Married Life," with a discussion outline by Edgar Schmiedeler, O. S. B.
56. "Aetemi Patris," Leo XIII, August 4, 1879.