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282 Documents: 4. 5
4. 5. Consummation and indissolubility in the Oculus
sacerdotis of William of Pagula
This document shows that di·usion to a wider audience of the symbolic
rationale of the rule that entry into a religious order by one partner in an
unconsummated marriage left the other partner free to remarry. Pastoral
manuals like this were designed for ordinary priests to help them look after
their lay parishioners better. The Latin is simple and clear. The Oculus
sacerdotis is an exellent example of the genre, especially well developed
in England, apparently. For the author see Sharpe, Handlist, no. 2141
(‘William of Paull’), p. 799, with further references, especially to work by
Leonard Boyle. The passage is from Oculus sacerdotis, 3.14.
London, BL MS Royal 6. E. I
Parchment manuscript, 390 mm.ÿ270 mm., 121 folios; paragraph marks
in red and blue, initial letters mostly or all in blue but with red decoration.
The manuscript looks late fourteenth century, according to Warner and
Gilson. In addition to the Oculus sacerdotis, itcontainstheSacramentale,
‘a treatise, mainly theological, on the sacraments, by the canonist
W[illelmus] de Monte Hauduno . . . d. circ. 1343’. There is more pastoral
material at the extremities of the manuscript.
Fo. 68VA:
Matrimonium solvi potest ante consummationem matrimonii, puta per
ingressum religionis, et non post matrimonium consummatum. Ratio est
quia in coniugio sunt duo, videlicet consensus animorum, et commixtio
corporum. Consensus *animorum significat caritatem, que consistit in
spiritu inter deum et iustam animam—et anima separari a deo potest per
peccatum: sic matrimonium *solvi potest per ingressum religionis, sed
commixtio corporum significat conformitatem que consistit in carne inter
Christum et ecclesiam, et illa coniunctio Christi ad ecclesiam designatur
per unionem qua iuncta est divinitas carni humane in utero virginali. Unde
quia humana caro nunquam a deitate separata est, ideo propter talem
coniunctionem nunquam dissolvitur matrimonium. Vel potest dici quod
facilius potest una anima separari a deo quam tota ecclesia: Extra ‘De
Bigamis’ c(apitulo). Debitum, et xxvii q. ii. c(apitulo) Qua propter in
Glosa et Extra ‘[De] Conver. Coniugatorum’ c(apitulo) Ex publico in
Glosa ult.
Description based on Warner and Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts, i.
150, and on personal inspection.
significat] or signat
significat] or signat
X. 1. 21. 5.
Pars II, C. 27, q. 2, c. 37.
‘Qua propter. perficiunt.—Non quo ad sui essentiam, sed ad significatio-
[See p. 283 for n. 6 cont. and nn. 7 and 8.