Compulsory and Conditional Consent

Consent is a voluntary or free-will act. Now, as we have seen elsewhere in these studies (la Ilae, q. 6), an act may be voluntary and yet have in it an element of involuntariness. Thus, the captain of a ship who throws overboard a valuable cargo in time of storm, wills to perform the act, but does not wish to perform it; he would not perform it were he not afraid of losing both ship and cargo if he retained the goods on board. Therefore, it appears that a kind of compulsion canbe back of a free consent. There is such a thing as a compulsory consent, or a contract made under duress, but the stress of circumstance which compels the consent is, in contracts, from other people and not from storms or irrational creatures. Now, a contract made under duress is a contract, but, in both civil and ecclesiastical law, it is a voidable contract.

It is possible for a normal person, and even a person of steady and reliable character, to be so moved by fear as to consent to a contract under its stress.

Consent given under stress of fear invalidates the marriage contract. Marriage is a permanent bond; it involves”a lifelong bargain.” Now, a person who is moved by fear to consent to a situation, does so to escape a danger, but hardly intends to bear the unpleasant situation permanently after the danger is past. Hence, it is unlikely that consent under compelling fear is really a consent sufficient for marriage. In any event, the Church, which has the right of legislating upon the essential conditions for receiving a sacrament, has declared compulsory consent insufficient for the sacrament of matrimony.

Some have thought that the party who uses compulsion tomake the other party marry him is truly married; for there can beno question of his free will and full consent in the contract. But this is quite impossible; marriage means the joining of two wills in a common consent. A man cannot be the true husband of one who is not his wife; nor can a woman be the wife of a man who is not her husband. What prevents true consent for one of the parties prevents the marriage.

A condition attached to the consent does not necessarily prevent a true marriage, unless it be a future condition, or a condition that conflicts with the very nature of marriage. Thus, there is no marriage if one party says, “I take you for my true husband (wife) on condition that you will not drink any more.” Nor is there a marriage if the consent is given on condition that there will be no children.

Parents cannot compel their children to marry.