SECTION 8 



MATRIMONY 



Marriage was instituted by God for the propa- 

 gation of the human race. 1 Christ raised the 

 contract to the dignity of a Sacrament. 2 



The Sacrament of Matrimony is a most impor- 

 tant institution both from the moral and the 

 social point of view. The duties it imposes may 

 be briefly described as follows : 



I. Obligation. — No individual human being, 

 whether man or woman, is obliged to enter the 

 married state. The words of the Creator, "In- 

 crease and multiply and fill the earth," are to be 

 regarded as a blessing; 3 but even if they embod- 

 ied a formal command, they would bind only the 

 race as a whole, not each individual member, for 

 the object of the command, i. e., the propagation 

 of humankind, can be attained even though many 



lGen. I, 27 sq.; II, 18-24.— St. 17; IX, 1, 7; XVII, 20 sq.; XXVIII, 



Augustine, Contra Iulian. Pelag., 3; XXXV, 11; XLVIII, 3 sq. — St. 



Ill, c. 25, n. 57; ibid., IV, c. 7, n. Augustine, De Peccato Orig., c. 35, 



38 (Migne, P. L., XLIV, 731, 757). n. 40: "Ilia Dei verba: Crescite et 



2 Matt. XIX, 4-6; Eph. V, 21-32. tnultiplicamini, non est damnando- 

 — Cone. Trident., Sess. XXIV, De rum praedictio peccatorum, sed fe- 

 Matr., can. 1. — Cat. Rom., P. II, c. cundatarum benedictio nuptiarum." 

 8, qu. 14-16. (Migne, P. L., XLIV, 405). 



3 Gen. I, 26; cfr. Gen. V, 2; VIII, 



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