Christian economyChristian oeconomie

In the third place, let the judgement of the ancient Church be observed. Ambrose, in his first book of the Patriarch Abraham, chap. 9. requires this consent in marriages, which he saith is so equal and agreeable to nature, that even the Poets acknowledged the same. For which purpose he reciteth two verses out of the Grecian Poet Euripides, in his Tragedy called Andromacha, wherein ⟨p. 93⟩in when Orestes desired to marry Hermione, she frames him this answer, That the matter of her marriage wholly depended upon the pleasure and authority of her father, & was not in her own power or liberty. Innocentius, who was both a Pope and Martyr, in his decretal epistles, so strictly requireth consent of parents,¹ as where it is wanting, he concludes the marriage to be void. In the Coū cell of Lateran, it was decreed that Clandestine contracts & secret marriages, made and undertaken between party and party, should be holden as unlawful as marriages in those degrees of consanguinity and affinity, which are forbidden by God. Tertullian saith,² That in this world the son cannot ^*rightly and lawfully marry without the allowance of his father. Basil in an Epistle to Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium, affirmeth; That marriages which are made without them which have power over the parties, are fornications, and therefore that they which are joined together in marriage, while their parents or masters live, are in no sort free from imputation of sin, until they have approbation from them, for then ⟨p. 94⟩marriage is ratified & confirmed, when they have yielded allowance thereunto.

In the third place, let the iudgement of the ancient Church be obserued. Ambrose, in his first booke of the Patriarch Abraham, chap. 9. requires this consent in mariages, which he saith is so equall and agreeable to nature, that euē the Poets acknowledged the same. For which purpose he reciteth two verses out of the Grecian Poet Euripides, in his Tragedie called Andromacha, wherin ⟨p. 93⟩