Of the Impediment to Marriage, Arising From a Solemn Vow

Of the Impediment to Marriage, Arising From a Solemn Vow — St. Thomas Aquinas asks: Whether one party after the marriage has been consummated can enter religion without the other's consent?; Whether before the marriage has been consummated one consort can enter religion without the other's consent?; Whether the wife may take another husband if her husband has entered religion before the consummation of the marriage?.

We must next consider the impediments which supervene to marriage. We shall consider (1) the impediment which affects an unconsummated marriage, namely a solemn vow: (2) the impediment which affects a consummated marriage, namely fornication. Under the first head there are three points of inquiry:

Article 1: Whether one party after the marriage has been consummated can enter religion without the other's consent?

Married persons are forbidden (1 Cor. 7:5) to abstain from the use of marriage even for a time without one another's consent, in order to have time for prayer.

Further, no one can lawfully do that which is prejudicial to another without the latter's consent. Now the religious vow taken by one consort is prejudicial to the other, since the one has power over the other's body. Therefore one of them cannot take a religious vow without the other's consent.

No one can make an offering to God of what belongs to another. Wherefore since by a consummated marriage the husband's body already belongs to his wife, he cannot by a vow of continence offer it to God without her consent.

Article 2: Whether before the marriage has been consummated one consort can enter religion without the other's consent?

According to Jerome [*Prolog. in Joan.] our Lord called John from his wedding.

Before marital intercourse there is only a spiritual bond between husband and wife, but afterwards there is a carnal bond between them. Wherefore, just as after marital intercourse marriage is dissolved by carnal death, so by entering religion the bond which exists before the consummation of the marriage is dissolved, because religious life is a kind of spiritual death, whereby a man dies to the world and lives to God.

Article 3: Whether the wife may take another husband if her husband has entered religion before the consummation of the marriage?

No one can bind another to those things which belong to perfection. Now continence is of those things that belong to perfection. Therefore a wife is not bound to continence on account of her husband entering religion, and consequently she can marry.

Just as bodily death of the husband dissolves the marriage tie in such a way that the wife may marry whom she will, according to the statement of the Apostle (1 Cor. 7:39); so too after the husband's spiritual death by entering religion, she can marry whom she will.