MAGNA NOBIS (On Marriage Impediments
and Dispensations)
Pope
Benedict XIV
Encyclical of
Pope Benedict XIV promulgated on 29 June 1748.
To the
Venerable Brothers, Greetings and Apostolic
Benediction.
It was a painful surprise to learn from
trustworthy reports and letters that a certain false opinion had spread in
Condemnation of Marriages with Heretics
2. Nor is it necessary for us to prove in full
the antiquity of the discipline by which the Apostolic See always condemned the
marriage of Catholics with heretics. But it will be sufficient to bring forward
only some evidence with which We may show that the same discipline and rule
which has been diligently preserved down to our own time flourishes now, by Us
no less religiously preserved. This is what our predecessor Pope Urban VIII
testifies to concerning his own times in his Apostolic Letters dated December
30, 1624; these may be read in the book of Cardinal Albitius
entitled De inconstantia in Fide, chap. 37,
no. 127, where he writes: "Granted that We hold that the marriages of
Catholics with heretics are all-together to be avoided, and, as far as it
depends on us, We aim to keep them far from the Catholic Church." Also our
predecessor Pope Clement XI, in the letters dated June 25, 1706, and found in
the collection of his briefs and letters published in Rome in 1724, expresses himself
no less clearly. On page 321 we read: "We consider it most important not
to transgress the rules of the Church of God, of the Apostolic See, of our
predecessors and of the holy people, all of whom shrink from the marriage of
Catholics with heretics, unless the good of the entire Christian community
should demand it." And in other letters dated July 23, 1707, in the same
collection, page 391: "Indeed the Church shrinks from such marriages which
present so many proofs of deformities and spiritual danger."
3. Our judgment in this matter is sufficiently
clear in the Decretal Rescript
published by our authority November 4, 1741, and printed in volume I of Bullarii nostri,
no. 34, sect. 3, as follows: "In the first place his Holiness grieves very
much that some Catholics today are demented in their base love. They no longer
shrink from these destestable marriages which the
Church has always condemned and forbidden. He praises those bishops who strive
to restrain Catholics from marrying heretics by imposing more severe penalties.
Also "He seriously admonishes all bishops and Vicars Apostolic, parish
priests, missionaries, and other faithful ministers in
Heresy Must Be Abjured
4. When a dispensation is requested to allow a
Catholic to marry a heretic or to remove some canonical impediment which exists
between the contracting parties, neither the permission nor the dispensation is
granted except with the addition of this expressed law or condition, namely
that the heresy must first be abjured. Pope Innocent X was on his guard
and ordered that such dispensations should not be granted at all unless there
was proof, supported by authentic documents, that the heretical fault of the
heterodox contracting party had been rejected under oath; this testimony was
left us by Cardinal Albitius, at that time Assessor
of the Congregation of the Universal Inquisition, in the tractate mentioned
above, De Inconstantia in Fide, chap. 18, no.
44. Clement XI, in the Congregation of the Holy Office held in his presence on
June 16, 1710, ordered the Archbishop of Malines to give no permission or
dispensation for marriages to be celebrated between a contracting Catholic and
a heretic unless the abjuration of heresy had indeed preceded; he ordered that
the theologians who had opinions contrary to this practice be sharply admonished.
Vicenzo Cardinal Petra recorded this in his
Commentary on the Constitution XII in Suo C of John
XXII, Operum, vol. 4, p. 76, no. 14.
5. Some examples are found of Roman Pontiffs
who either gave permission to contract marriages or gave dispensations
concerning some impediment, without the condition of first abjuring heresy. We
say first of all that these concessions were very rare and most of them were
granted for marriages to be contracted among the highest princes, and not
without an urgent and grave cause, a cause which concerned the public welfare.
Besides, opportune safeguards were always added, lest the Catholic spouse might
be perverted by the heretical one; the former would know that he must strive
for the conversion of the latter. In addition, children of both sexes born of
the union must be educated in the sanctity of the Catholic religion. It is easy
then to realize that in such concessions no opportunity for error was open to
the executors unless they wished knowingly and deliberately to fail in their
duty. Finally, from what We have said so far, it is obvious that the Apostolic
See has always both disapproved and condemned such marriages unless the
abjuration of the heresy preceded; it still abominates and detests them.
Justification for Dispensation
6. Sometimes the justifications for
dispensations are not openly mentioned in the petitions; the ministers and
officials of the Holy See cannot divine this. Therefore, to silence accusers
and calumniators, it is sufficient to point out that every dispensation is
given to a specified executor, who is to determine the truth of everything in
the deposition. Since he knows that the marriage of Catholic with heretics is
condemned by the Apostolic See, he can also understand that the evil of heresy,
which affects one of the contracting parties and which is not mentioned in the
letters of dispensation, was concealed from the Apostolic See. It is his duty
to suspend the execution of such letters and to notify the Roman Pontiff and
his officials of the reason for the suspension, as Pope Alexander III
prescribed in his letter to the Archbishop of Ravenna. This was entered in the
Codex of Decretals to insure its perpetual effect, in
the chapter Si quando, de Rescriptis,
where we read: "Diligently consider the nature of this business and either
comply with Our orders or by your letter explain the reasonable cause which
prevents you; for if you do not, We will maintain what was suggested to Us by
an evil report."
Presumption that Both Parties are Catholic
7. In truth the circumspection of the Apostolic
See and its officials does not stop here. Sometimes when a dispensation to
remove some canonical impediment for a reasonable cause is requested it comes
from a region in which Catholics live together with heretics. When it is not
certain from other sources whether both of the petitioners or only one of them
is Catholic, the above Pontifical officials always presume both to be
Catholics. Therefore they set forth their wishes in a little book (called Supplicationum) to which the Papal signature is
applied: "The afore-said petitioners, who are truly members of the
orthodox faith and live under obedience to the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and
intend so to live and die, etc." These words agree with others which are
added in provisional and conditional form, namely: "Provided the
petitioners mentioned are truly worshipers of the orthodox faith, and live in
obedience to the Holy Roman Church and intend so to live and die."
8. Considering the above, We ask: when letters of
matrimonial dispensation are conceived in such words and sent in that way, if
later it is learned that the contracting parties are heretics, or one of them
is Catholic and the other heretic, and nevertheless the dispensation is
executed, whose fault is it and who can be accused of issuing an improper
dispensation? Is it he who in good faith has granted it after applying
opportune safeguards and adding legitimate conditions; or is it not rather he
who, without regard for such conditions and with no previous examination of the
contracting parties, executes the dispensation and permits it to have an undue
effect contrary to the will of the one granting it?
Girls Less Than Twelve Years Old
9. But some one may object that not all
dispensations sent out for execution were armed with such clauses; for in the kindgom of Poland itself, not many years ago, a certain
dispensation was sent from Rome which did not display any conditions of this
kind. The dispensation concerned age in favor of a girl who was six months
short of 12 years, which is the legal age for girls to enter matrimony. In the
concession it was explained that "craft complemented age so that legally
she could contract marriage." Hence it should be considered a declaratory
document rather than a dispensation, since the faculty of contracting marriage
before the time prescribed, as often as craft supplies for age, comes from the
very provisions of the law and canons. Indeed the bishops themselves and the
ordinaries of places may decide on this question, which is one of fact: whether
indeed craft, as is stated, has supplied for age. Consequently they have the
authority to give permission to contract marriage. It is not necessary to
appeal to the Apostolic See, except for greater solemnity of the act or "lest
there might arise some question of the validity of such a marriage on the score
of insufficient age," as the formula which is customarily used in
declaratory letters concerning insufficient age states. Indeed canonists teach
that there is an extraneous right of the Apostolic See and of ordinary judges
to decide in this matter, whether indeed craft, as is asserted, may supply for
age. But only the Holy See has the right of granting a dispensation to contract
marriage to a minor, who is not yet mature for conjugal union, but has attained
that use of reason sufficient to understand its purpose and nature. Indeed for
the validity of matrimony, just as natural and divine law requires the use of
reason, so positive canon law requires the natural power of conjugal union. The
Roman Pontiff is above canon law, but any bishop is inferior to that law and
consequently cannot modify it.
10. But let us pass over the question of
whether permission to contract a marriage before the legal age, when craft
supplies for age, is properly called a dispensation or rather has the force of
a declaration, and therefore whether it ought to be classified as an act of
grace or of justice. When one of the contracting parties or both are infected
with heresy, and this is not mentioned in the application and could not be
known in any other way, the apostolic letters granted in this matter lack those
words and conditions which are customarily added to other dispensations. Let us
see nevertheless whether others of equal force are present by which the
executor of such letters should abstain from executing them. There can be no
doubt about this, however, if we refer to what was required of the executor in
such letters, "that he inform himself diligently about the premises"
and see "whether it is really and legitimately obvious in such a minor
that craft does supply for the defect in age." The same executor is
commissioned to permit the applicant to marry "provided there is no other
canonical impediment to contracting matrimony with a person legally free to
marry, or with a person to whom an Apostolic dispensation has been granted,
according to the norms of the Council of Trent." These words surely
indicate that he should be no means permit a minor to enjoy such a dispensation
or declaration if he learns that the minor was planning to marry a heretic.
11. But our discussion has been longer than We
intended at the beginning of our letters. We do not at all regret this. We are
concerned that the truth about facts and events be known and that false rumors
spread against the sacred Chair of Peter do not find credence. If anything is
done anywhere against the sacred canons, may the fault not be ascribed to the
innocent.
12. But that the end of Our letters may return
to where they began; to you, venerable brothers, and to the other ordinary
bishops of that kingdom, We again earnestly command that you and your
respective officials study the Apostolic Letters of dispensation which are sent
to you for execution; certainly, if you find anything in them abnormal and of a
new kind, you should look into its truth or falsity. There is
much malice among men on earth, nor is it given us to know to what
lengths the audacity of deceitful men can go. Indeed it has come to our ears
that someone, disregarding the impediment of grade, married a heretical man to
a Catholic woman; afterwards when he learned that his deed was open to
criticism, he did not hesitate to assert that he was justified in this matter
by an Apostolic dispensation which he had received from
13. Truly We believe that such a detestable
crime as this could not have been committed in the midst of the renowned nation
of the Polish people, which We embrace with paternal love. Nor could the
bishops of that kingdom, all of whom together and individually We hold in great
honor, have participated in this. To you, however, venerable brothers, and to
the flock committed to you, We bestow the Apostolic Benediction from the depths
of our soul.
Given at