There's the often-quoted line from Augustine, "consensus, non concubitus, facit matrimonium." However, I'm having trouble tracking down the citation. Anyone know where I might be able to find the Latin citation for that?
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1 Answer
It's not from Augustine, it's from Aquinas, who in his Summa Theologica writes consensus facit matrimonium. The rest of the quote is instead a summary of the position he took and simplified so that it can be used as a legal maxim. It is not a direct quote.
There is a close resemblance, though, to a line Aquinas attributes to Chrysostom:
matrimonium non facit coitus, sed voluntas.
The line actually comes from the Opus Imperfectum in Mattaeum, which was thought to be by Chrysostom, although that is no longer believed. (I'll call the author then Pseudo-Chrysostom.)
Augustine has a similar idea in his De Bono Coniugali, but the wording and context are different:
Quod mihi non uidetur propter solam ?liorum procreationem, sed propter ipsam etiam naturalem in diuerso sexu societatem.
The explanation why marriage is a good lies, I think, not merely in the procreation of children, but also in the natural compact itself between the sexes. (Trans. P. G. Walsh)
For proof that it's not only about procreation, he talks about the elderly getting married, despite not doing so for procreation purposes. This isn't really what Aquinas or Pseudo-Chrysostom was talking about, though, which is what defines a marriage, rather than what defines a good marriage.