Innocent XII, 1691-1700

Reply: Since in actions of impurity scarcity of matter is not present, and if it should be present, is not in the matter at hand, they have decided that it should be denounced, and that a contrary opinion is not probable.

To the decrees of the Holy Office of February 11th, 1661, Benedict XIV referred readers in the Constitution "Sacramentum Poenitentiae," of June 1, 1741 (Docum. V in Cod. Iuris. Can.).

INNOCENT XII, 1691-1700

Matrimony as a Contract and a Sacrament¹

[Reply of the Holy Office to Mission. Capucc., July 23, 1698]

5006. Whether matrimony between apostates from the faith and those previously rightly baptized, entered upon after the apostasy, publicly according to the custom of pagans or Mohammedans, is truly matrimony and a sacrament.

Reply: If any agreement of dissolubility be at hand, there is no matrimony and no sacrament, but if none is at hand, there is matrimony and a sacrament.