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St. Robert's «De Matrimonio» (excerpts)

Started by Geremia, April 12, 2018, 10:26:55 AM

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Geremia

St. Robert's De Matrimonio treatise is in De controversiis tome 3 (DjVu pp. 779ff.  or here).

Ryan Grant of Mediatrix Press plans to translate all of De controversiis, so he'll get to the De matrimonio at some point.

English translations of parts of St. Robert's De Matrimonio exist in Cormac Burke's The Theology of Marriage:
Quote from: De Matrimonio ch. 2 (Burke p. 38n19)Marriage could not signify that [the union of Christ and the church], unless between husband and wife, over and beyond the civil contract, there were also a spiritual union of souls. ... If God joins man and woman for this purpose, that by their spiritual union they should signify the spiritual union of Christ and the Church, he then doubtlessly gives them the grace without which they could not achieve that spiritual union.
Quote from: De Matrimonio ch. 5 (Burke p. 84n29)[Matrimony] is a union that consecrates and sanctifies souls [unio sacrans, et sanctificans animas].
Quote from: De Matrimonio ch. 6 (Burke p. 34n6 & Pius XI's Casti Connubii §110)The sacrament of matrimony can be regarded in two ways: first, in the making, and then in its permanent state. For it is a sacrament like that of the Eucharist, which not only when it is being conferred, but also while it remains, is a sacrament; for as long as the married parties are alive, so long is their union a sacrament of Christ and the Church.
Quote from: De Matrimonio ch. 6 (Burke p. 200n47)The third end is that marriage be a remedy against concupiscence [Tertius finis est ut sit coniugium in remedium contra concupiscentiam].
Quote from: De Matrimonio ch. 7 (Burke p. 7n8)The Council [of Trent] does not acknowledge any difference between Matrimony in ancient times, whether before or after the sin of Adam, and Matrimony as it is a Sacrament of the new law, insofar as concerns the rite. It places the distinction in that the latter is a cause of grace, while the former was not. According to the Council of Trent therefore, the matter, form and minister of the Sacrament of Matrimony are the same as they were in the Marriages of the ancients, which were not Sacraments.
Quote from: De Matrimonio ch. 14 (Burke p. 9n14). St. Robert summarizes the erroneous claim of Melchior Cano, O.P., that a priest's blessing constitutes the form of matrimonyif matrimony is truly a sacrament, then, besides the civil contract, it should have some sacred form, as well as an ecclesiastical minister.