VVhether anie dispensation may be made in degrees of kindred prohibited by God.
* 1.1 48 Now let vs declare, whether anie dispen∣sing may be in the degrées forbidden by the law of God. For at this daie, those which would be counted christians, being matched in the de∣grées forbidden, doo saie; Let vs go to the Pope, let vs talke with him, he will dispense with vs, so we reward him with monie. Neither doo the common sort onelie saie this, but our maisters, which be the Schoole-diuines, * 1.2 in the fourth booke of sentences, the 34. distinction, concerning ma∣trimonie write, that the Pope can dispense. And they indeuour to prooue that this he may doo. For they saie, that those precepts, which be in the 18. and 20. chapter of Leuiticus, * 1.3 touching degrées forbidden, partlie be morall, and partlie iudici∣all. The morall and naturall are, that the father may not marrie his daughter, nor the sonne his mother. Here they saie is such an indecencie, as by no meanes it can be taken awaie; but that it should be a perpetuall impediment. For they saie, that the father and the daughter, the mother and hir sonne be one flesh. Notwithstanding, in matrimonie it behooueth, that one flesh become another than it was: howbeit, those are not se∣uered.
But if the reason were firme, Adam might not haue married Eue: she was his flesh, for he saith; * 1.4 This is now flesh of my flesh. They an∣swer, that Eue was the flesh of Adam; not by waie of nature, but by miracle; sith God so fra∣med Adams rib, as it was made a woman. Howbeit, when kindred is defined, we haue no recourse to miracles: but it is said to be a bond of those persons, which be deriued from one be∣ginning by procreation; so Eue might not be called a kinswoman of Adam. Wherefore they saie, that in those precepts, which be in Leuiti∣cus, the indecencie betwéene father and daugh∣ter, mother and sonne, is naturall, morall, and perpetuall: and that the rest of the degrées doo apperteine to the iudiciall lawes. Some inde∣cencie they would haue to be there, but yet not so much as hath béene alwaies forbidden. * 1.5 For brethren & sisters did at the first time marrie one to another: yea and the sister of the brother de∣parted, was married in the lawe, * 1.6 for the raising vp of séed. Iacob had two sisters in wedlocke; Amram had his aunt; Abraham had Sara, * 1.7 whom he called sister. Wherefore (saie they) these de∣grées; namelie, the father and the daughter, the mother and the sonne, are after a sort perpetual∣lie forbidden by the lawe of nature, and by the morall lawe: but other persons, which be forbid∣den by God, were kept backe from marriages; howbeit, that was by the iudiciall lawes.
But those lawes endured so long, as the ciuill regiment of the Iewes continued: which being decaied, we are not tied to those lawes anie fur∣ther, than the church hath allowed of them; so as vnto vs they be lawes of the church, and not mo∣rall lawes: neither are they laid vpon vs by the lawes of God, but by the lawes ecclesiasticall and positiue. And whereas they make the Pope to be president ouer the whole church, they saie it is in his power, for certeine iust causes, to re∣lease these impediments. They so flatter the Pope, that Caietane Secunda secundae Thomae, question 154. article the ninth, saith, that the Pope dooth for iust causes dispense in all those degrées (except for marriage betwéene the fa∣ther and the daughter, and betwéene the mother and hir sonne;) not by a common lawe alrea∣die ordeined, but by the Popes licence. This he assigneth to be the cause, for that they be iudici∣als. Experience teacheth, * 1.8 that these things haue sometimes happened. Emanuel the king of Por∣tugall married two sisters, Catharine Quéene of England two brethren, * 1.9 Ferdinandus the king of Naples married his aunt: Pope Alexander the sixt allowing the same. I haue read, * 1.10 that Martin the fift gaue licence to marrie with a na∣turall sister: whereof manie of the Canonists saie, that it is to be doubted, whether it were law∣full or no. This licence is horrible. Ye sée how great matters these men challenge vnto them∣selues.
I am of another mind: and those things, which be conteined in Leuiticus, touching de∣grées forbidden, I estéeme them to be morall. Such marriages séeme rather beastlie than hu∣mane. * 1.11 And that the same [prohibition of de∣grées] is rather naturall and morall, I prooue by the verie words of those lawes. When GOD made those lawes, he spake on this wise; Ob∣serue ye these things, * 1.12 and defile not your selues with these abhominations, as the Chanaanites, which were before you, and I did cast them out. If ye shall imitate them, and shall defile your selues, the earth also shall cast you out. Thus I reason; The Chanaanites were not the people of Israel, God did not giue lawes vnto them by Moses, yet were they punished for such kind of marriages; wherefore they were bound to these