Bonaventure

Cap. I. De cognatione carnali.

Nunc superest aliquid de cognatione dicere. Est autem cognatio alia carnalis, et alia spiritualis. Primum de carnali cognatione et affinitate inspiciamus. Cognati igitur vel affines in septimo gradu vel infra copulari non debent. Unde Gregorius¹: « Progeniem suam unumquemque usque ad septimam decernimus observare generationem; et quamdiu se agnoscunt affinitate propinquos, ad coniugalem copulam accedere denegamus; quod si fecerint, separentur ». Item, Nicolaus Papa²: « De consanguinitate sua nullus uxorem ducat usque post generationem septimam, vel quousque parentela cognosci potest ». Item: « Nulli ex propinquitate sui sanguinis usque ad septimum gradum uxores ducant ». — His auctoritatibus aliisque pluribus consanguineorum coniunctiones prohibentur usque ad septimum gradum.

Cap. II. De computatione graduum consanguinitatis.

Quomodo autem gradus consanguinitatis computandi sint, Isidorus³ ostendit sic: « Series consanguinitatis sex gradibus dirimitur, hoc modo: filius et filia, quod est frater et soror, sit ipse truncus. Illis seorsum seiunctis, ex radice illius trunci egrediuntur isti ramusculi: nepos et neptis, primus; pronepos et proneptis, secundus; abnepos et abneptis, tertius; adnepos et adneptis, quartus; trinepos et trineptis, quintus; trinepotis nepos et trineptis neptis, sextus ». Attende, quod sex gradus tantum ponit Isidorus, quia truncum inter gradus non computat. — Alii vero, qui septem ponunt gradus, truncum inter gradus computant. « Varie namque computantur gradus cognationis. Alii enim patrem in primo gradu, filios in secundo ponunt. Alii primum gradum filios appellant, negantes, gradum cognationis inter patrem et filium esse, cum una caro sint pater et filius.

Auctoritates ergo, quae consanguinitatis cautelam usque in septimum gradum prohibent, patrem ponunt in primo gradu; illae vero, quae usque ad sextum gradum prohibent, primum gradum filios appellant. Atque ita fit, ut eaedem personae secundum hanc diversitatem inveniantur in sexto et septimo gradu¹ ». Patrem vero in primo gradu ponit qui fratres dicit esse secundum gradum. Hoc modo computat Zacharias Papa² inquiens: « Parentelae gradus taliter computamus: ego et frater meus una generatio sumus primumque gradum efficimus. Rursus, filius meus et fratris mei filius secunda generatio sunt et gradum secundum faciunt, atque ad hunc modum ceterae successiones ». « Inter illos vero, qui sex computant gradus, et illos qui septem computant gradus, nulla in sensu existit diversitas, quamvis in numero graduum varietas videatur. Ultima enim generatio, si a fratribus sumat initium numerandi, septima invenitur ».

Cap. III. Quare septem gradus computantur.

Quare vero sex computet Isidorus, ipse aperit dicens³: « Consanguinitas dum se paulatim propaginum ordinibus dirimens usque ad ultimum gradum protraxerit et propinquitas esse desierit; tunc primum lex in matrimonii vinculum eam recipiet et quodam modo incipiet revocare fugientem. Ideo autem usque ad sextum generis gradum consanguinitas constituta est, ut, sicut sex aetatibus mundi generatio et hominis status finitur, ita propinquitas generis tot gradibus terminetur ». In his sex gradibus omnia propinquitatum nomina continentur, ultra quos nec affinitas inveniri, nec successio potest amplius prorogari. Secundum alios, septem gradus ideo computantur, ut ita post septem gradus sponsus sponsae iungatur, sicut post hanc vitam, quae septem diebus agitur, Ecclesia Christo iungetur.

Cap. IV. De dispensatione Gregorii habita ad Anglicos.

His autem occurrit illud, quod Gregorius⁴ Augustino, Anglorum Episcopo, a quo requisitus fuerat, quota generatione debeant copulari, rescribit sic: « Quaedam lex Romana permittit, ut sive fratris vel sororis, seu duorum fratrum germanorum seu duarum sororum filius et filia misceantur. Sed experimento didicimus, ex tali coniugio sobolem non posse succrescere. Unde necesse est, ut quarta vel quinta generatio fidelium licenter sibi coniungantur ». Sed post multum temporis idem Gregorius a Felice, Messinae Siciliae praesule, requisitus, utrum Augustino scripserit, ut Anglorum quarta generatione contracta matrimonia non solverentur, inter cetera talem reddidit rationem: « Quod scripsi Augustino, Anglorum Episcopo, ipsi etiam Anglorum genti, quae nuper ad fidem venerat, ne a bono, quod coeperat, metuendo austeriora recederet, specialiter et non generaliter me cognoscas scripsisse. Nec ideo haec eis scripsi, ut, postquam in fide fuerint solidati, si infra propriam consanguinitatem inventi fuerint, non separentur, aut infra affinitatis lineam, id est usque ad septimam generationem iungantur ».

The numbered footnotes below correspond to markers in both the Latin body above and the English translation. They are Quaracchi's Notae ad Librum Sententiarum — the editors' apparatus to the Master's own text. Quaracchi restarts the numbering on each printed page, so the labels here are page-qualified (p844-1, p845-1, …).

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Chap. I. On carnal kinship.

It now remains to say something about kinship. Now one kinship is carnal, and another spiritual. Let us first look at carnal kinship and affinity. Kinsfolk, then, or persons related by affinity within the seventh degree or nearer ought not to be joined in marriage. Whence Gregory¹: « We decree that each one is to observe his own lineage as far as the seventh generation; and as long as they acknowledge themselves to be near of kin by affinity, we deny them access to the marriage bond; and if they shall have done it, let them be separated ». Likewise, Pope Nicholas²: « Let no one take a wife from among his own blood-relations until after the seventh generation, or as long as the kindred can be known ». Likewise: « Let no one take a wife from the nearness of his own blood within the seventh degree ». — By these authorities and by many others the unions of blood-relations are forbidden as far as the seventh degree.

Chap. II. On the reckoning of the degrees of consanguinity.

But in what way the degrees of consanguinity are to be reckoned, Isidore³ shows thus: « The series of consanguinity is divided out into six degrees, in this manner: let the son and the daughter, that is to say the brother and the sister, be themselves the trunk. When these are set apart by themselves, from the root of that trunk there go forth these little branches: grandson and granddaughter, the first; great-grandson and great-granddaughter, the second; great-great-grandson and great-great-granddaughter, the third; the son and daughter of these, the fourth; the third-grandson and third-granddaughter, the fifth; the grandson of the third-grandson and the granddaughter of the third-granddaughter, the sixth ». Note that Isidore posits only six degrees, because he does not reckon the trunk among the degrees. — Others, however, who posit seven degrees, do reckon the trunk among the degrees. « For the degrees of kinship are variously reckoned. For some place the father in the first degree, the sons in the second. Others call the sons the first degree, denying that there is a degree of kinship between father and son, since father and son are one flesh.

Therefore the authorities which forbid the observance of consanguinity as far as the seventh degree place the father in the first degree; but those which forbid it as far as the sixth degree call the sons the first degree. And so it comes about that, according to this diversity, the same persons are found in the sixth and in the seventh degree¹ ». But he places the father in the first degree who says that brothers are the second degree. In this way Pope Zacharias² reckons, saying: « We reckon the degrees of kindred thus: I and my brother are one generation and make up the first degree. Again, my son and my brother's son are the second generation and make the second degree, and in this manner the remaining successions ». « But between those who reckon six degrees and those who reckon seven degrees there exists no diversity in sense, although a variety appears in the number of the degrees. For the last generation, if it takes the beginning of the numbering from the brothers, is found to be the seventh ».

Chap. III. Why seven degrees are reckoned.

But why Isidore reckons six, he himself discloses, saying³: « When consanguinity, dividing itself out little by little through the ranks of the offshoots, shall have drawn itself out to the last degree and shall have ceased to be nearness of kin; then for the first time the law will receive it into the bond of matrimony and will in a certain way begin to call back the one who is fleeing away. And consanguinity has been established as far as the sixth degree of the stock for this reason: that, just as generation and the state of man is brought to an end in the six ages of the world, so the nearness of the stock may be terminated in as many degrees ». In these six degrees all the names of the relationships are contained, beyond which neither affinity can be found, nor can the succession be prolonged any further. According to others, seven degrees are reckoned for this reason: that so, after seven degrees, the bridegroom may be joined to the bride, just as after this life, which is passed in seven days, the Church will be joined to Christ.

Chap. IV. On the dispensation granted by Gregory to the English.

But against these things there arises that which Gregory⁴ writes back to Augustine, Bishop of the English, by whom he had been asked in what generation they might be joined in marriage; and he writes thus: « A certain Roman law permits that the son and the daughter either of a brother or of a sister, or of two full brothers or of two sisters, be joined together. But we have learned by experience that from such a marriage offspring cannot grow up. Whence it is necessary that the fourth or the fifth generation of the faithful be lawfully joined to one another ». But after a long time the same Gregory, being asked by Felix, bishop of Messina in Sicily, whether he had written to Augustine that marriages contracted by the English in the fourth generation should not be dissolved, gave among other things this account: « Know that what I wrote to Augustine, Bishop of the English, I wrote specially and not generally — for the English people themselves, who had lately come to the faith, lest, in dread of things too austere, they should fall back from the good which they had begun. Nor did I write these things to them for this purpose, that after they shall have been made solid in the faith, if they be found within their own consanguinity, they should not be separated, or that they should be joined within the line of affinity, that is, up to the seventh generation ».

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