Arcanum (encyclical)
Arcanum is an encyclical issued 10 February 1880 by Pope Leo XIII on the topic of Christian marriage. It was considered the forerunner to Pope Pius XI's 1930 Casti connubii and Pope Paul VI's 1968 Humanae vitae. Arcanum outlines the role of marriage in the late 19th century, and goes through those actions which weaken the marriage contract such as polygamy and divorce. The encyclical also posits the church as a protector of marriage, and not one interfering in the marital relationship.
Summary
Leo began “Arcanum” by recalling the history of marriage, established in the Old Testament when God created man and woman:"We record what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any, that God, on the sixth day of creation, having made man from the slime of the earth, and having breathed into his face the breath of life, gave him a companion, whom He miraculously took from the side of Adam when he was locked in sleep."
According to Leo, the institution of marriage was corrupted over the years by the Jewish nation. Polygamy and divorce both became accepted practice such as men being allowed to violate their vows by having sexual relations outside of marriage. Also, parents were allowed to buy and sell marriageable girls and to make and unmake the marriages of their offspring.
The Excellence of Marriage
All of these practices were condemned by Christ who raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament, Leo states in Arcanum.
"By the command of Christ, it not only looks to the propagation of the human race, but to the bringing forth of children for the Church...."
"The list of those who tried to corrupt the sacrament of marriage was long, starting with the incestuous Corinthian was condemned by the authority of blessed Paul."
This continued into the 19th Century “in our own time Mormons, St. Simonians, phalansterians, and communists.”
Almost since its inception, the Church had been at odds with the State about the sanctity of marriage. The civil institution of marriage cannot replace the sacrament of marriage as so many of Leo's contemporaries thought it could. The placing of marriage under the state as just another civil, contractual institution was a part of the on-going secular movement by the Freemasons and Socialists of Leo's time. “...in Christian marriage the contract is inseparable from the sacrament, and that, for this reason, the contract cannot be true and legitimate without being a sacrament as well.
Treating marriage as just another contractual event opened the door for the reckless enablement of divorce. According to the modernists, what was needed was for Christianity “to introduce a more humane code sanctioning divorce.
THE EVILS OF DIVORCE
The evils from divorce were many according to Leo in Arcanum:
• Matrimonial contracts are by it made variable; mutual kindness is weakened;
• deplorable inducements to unfaithfulness are supplied;
• harm is done to the education and training of children;
• occasion is afforded for the breaking up of homes;
• the seeds of dissension are sown among families;
• the dignity of womanhood is lessened and brought low, and women run the risk of being deserted after having ministered to the pleasures of men
...The Romans of old are said to have shrunk with horror from the first example of divorce.
Due to marriage's relation to the circumstances of life, marriage was something “about which the State rightly makes strict inquiry and justly promulgates decrees.” In spite of that state's interest in marriage, marriage had a spiritual side and many of Leo's predecessors had to stand up to the princes and emperors of their times who tried to relax the bonds of marriage:
... the decrees of Nicholas I against Lothair; of Urban II and Paschal II against Philip I of France; of Celestine III and Innocent III against Alphonsus of Leon and Philip II of France; of Clement VII and Paul III against Henry VIII; and, lastly, of Pius VII, that holy and courageous pontiff, against Napoleon I, when at the height of his prosperity and in the fullness of his power.
Mixed-Marriages
Though later Popes would place conditions on mixed-Marriages, during the 19th Century, those marriages, per Leo, were considered part of the on-going rationalist attack on this sacred sacrament:
Care also must be taken that they do not easily enter into marriage with those who are not Catholics; for, when minds do not agree as to the observances of religion, it is scarcely possible to hope for agreement in other things....they give occasion to forbidden association and communion in religious matters; endanger the faith of the Catholic partner; are a hindrance to the proper education of the children; and often lead to a mixing up of truth and falsehood, and to the belief that all religions are equally good.
Later Encyclicals by Leo XIII on Marriage
In two later encyclicals, Leo expressed his displeasure with the passing of legislation legalizing civil marriage in both Peru and Ecuador. Leo objected to these laws because they had removed the Church from the marriage contract and therefore from the teachings of Christ himself and from Church law. As he stated in “Arcanum”, Leo saw a role for the state in the institution of marriage, but the basis of marriage must be within the context of the sacrament of marriage which only the Church can confer:
The matter of the contract can be separated in some sense from the nature of the sacrament. This means that while the civil authority retains in full its right to regulate the so-called civil effects, the marriage itself is subject to the authority of the Church.
Summary of Arcanum from The Catholic Encyclopedia
Arcanum taught that since family life is the germ of society, and marriage is the basis of family life, the healthy condition of civil no less than of religious society depends on the inviolability of the marriage contract. The argument of the encyclical runs as follows: The mission of Christ was to restore man in the supernatural order. That should benefit man also in the natural order; first, the individual; and then, as a consequence, human society. Having laid down this principle, the encyclical deals with Christian marriage which sanctifies the family, i.e. the unit of society. The marriage contract, Divinely instituted, had from the beginning two properties: unity and indissolubility. Through human weakness and wilfulness it was corrupted in the course of time; polygamy destroyed its unity, and divorce its indissolubility. Christ restored the original idea of human marriage, and to sanctify more thoroughly this institution He raised the marriage contract to the dignity of a sacrament. Mutual rights and duties were secured to husband and wife; mutual rights and duties between parents and children were also asserted: to the former, authority to govern and the duty of training; to the latter, the right to parental care and the duty of reverence. Christ instituted his church to continue his mission to men. The church, true to her commission, has always asserted the unity and indissolubility of marriage, the relative rights and duties of husband, wife, and children; she has also maintained that, the natural contract in marriage having been raised to the dignity of a sacrament, these two are henceforth one and the same thing so that there cannot be a marriage contract amongst Christians which is not a sacrament. Hence, while admitting the right of civil authority to regulate the civil concerns and consequences of marriage, the church has always claimed exclusive authority over the marriage contract and its essentials, since it is a sacrament. The encyclical shows by the light of history that for centuries the church exercised, and the civil power admitted, that authority. But human weakness and wilfulness began to throw off the bridle of Christian discipline in family life; civil rulers began to disown the authority of the church over the marriage tie; and rationalism sought to sustain them by establishing the principle that the marriage contract is not a sacrament at all, or at least that the natural contract and the sacrament are separable and distinct things. Hence arose the idea of the dissolubility of marriage and divorce, superseding the unity and indissolubility of the marriage bond. The encyclical points to the consequences of that departure in the breaking up of family life, and its evil effects on society at large. It points out as a consequence, that the church, in asserting its authority over the marriage contract, has shown itself not the enemy but the best friend of the civil power and the guardian of civil society. In conclusion, the encyclical commissions all bishops to oppose civil marriage, and it warns the faithful against the dangers of mixed marriages.