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The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary
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Abstract: Martin Luther, in his workentitled ”De captivitate babilonica ecclesiae” (1520) contested the fact that the Churchemphasized the legal interpretation of matrimony, overstating the rules and the laws whichregarded it. He declared that matrimony is a ‘very wordly’ thing, without knowing that thisstatement had been already made, more than 250 years before, by another great theologian,St. Thomas of Aquino. The latter even went further than Luther, saying that matriomony isthe most wordly sacrament. Indeed in this sacrament human wishes, passions and the mostnatural features are sanctified by faith.Throughout history the Church had to defend the institution of matrimony fromdifferent movemements and spiritualizing sects which were attacking it. The great number ofofficial statements in this direction prove the deepest concern of the Church in this field.Matrimony was declared officially ‘sacramentum’ for the first time in Verona (1184). Thisstatement was later reinforced by St. Thomas and the Council of Florence. During the timeof Reformation a strong debate took place between the Catholic and the Protestant churches,because the latter denied the sacramental nature of matrimony, relying on the idea that onlytwo sacraments were instituted by Christ (Baptism and Eucharist). Luther’s idea of asacrament was thus much tighter than that of the Catholic Church. The Council of Trentdeclared: “ septem sunt sacramenta novae Legis a Domino nostro Jesu Christo instituta” andthey acknowledged the institution of this sacrament by Christ on the analogy of theinstitution of the Church. The Church is the sacrament of Christ himself, and all the othersacraments arise from Him. The Second Vatican Council underlined that the legal aspect ofmatrimony (materia, forma) is not the most important but the symbolic one. Matrimony is notsimply a contract , but much more than that - a covenant. A man and a woman livingtogether and loving each other as Christ loved his Church are a sign in the society, theytestify God’s love to |
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