Publisher's Synopsis
From the beginning of the INTRODUCTION.
The degree Ne Temere, published on the 2nd of August, 1907, is a law determining for Catholics the form of valid marriage and of valid engagements to marry. It is a law which is destined to hold an important place in the history of ecclesiastical discipline, for in it we have the first instance, in the nineteen centuries of the Church's life, of a general regulation affecting the solemnities of engagements, and, in the same long period, the second instance of such a regulation touching the formalities required for marriage. An additional interest attaches to it because it is the first fruits of the important work of codification undertaken four years ago.
The right of the Church to enact such a law is beyond question. For marriage is something more than a mere civil contract. Elevated by the Divine Founder of Christianity to the dignity of a sacrament, it has thereby been committed to the care and the control of the Church which Christ empowered to exercise in His name His power over sacred things. Legislation, therefore, which tends to conserve the dignity and sanctity of Christian marriage is both the right and the duty of ecclesiastical authority; and obedience to such legislation is a necessary consequence of Christian conviction.
A great pledge of social security lies in this sacred power of the Church. It has been said with truth that it is hard to find words to express the debt of gratitude which modern civilization owes to the Catholic Church, and this debt is especially great because of the beneficent influence exerted in so special a manner in regard to marriage, which she has defended and sanctified at all times, even at great cost, fighting, as Leo XIII well said, the battle of civilization as well as of religion.1 Others may forget or disregard the holiness of the marital state, she is ever vigilant in its defense; good men without her fold may desire correction of abuses and yet lack the power to accomplish needed reform, she has the wisdom to perceive and the capacity to right aught that tends to degrade the marital union; others are but factions or weak individuals, she marshals her children as a great army in the defense of right and truth. All who follow her matrimonial discipline will ever be a healthful leaven in a society where false and noxious concepts of the relation of husband and wife are only too common....
