Tracts, legal and historical

183
detiir quod non, quia raero jure nonpotuit esse uxor
tempore quo nati sunt quod requiritur ut supra de
legitimatione per verum matrimoniura, § 3, q. 6. 1
In contrarium decidit glossa extra, qui filii shit le-
gitimi caput tanta. Et ex hoc non singularem ex-
tensionem ad caput ex te?wre, ubi dicitur quod si
fuerit defectus in matrimonio ignorantia parentum
excusat, 2 nam idem est per illam glossam si fuerit
defectus in concubinatu, et postea contrahitur ma-
trimoniura." 3 It cannot be denied, while stress is
laid upon Sardis' first reason, that the analogy in
the last instance is striking ; for if an impediment
to a marriage, existing at the birth of the issue,
does not deprive them of the benefit of their parents'
ignorance, it may be harmless also in a case of concu-
binage, like that of Robert II. and Elizabeth Mure.
But, on the other hand, it has been argued that
bona fides is not to be presumed in concubinage, be-
cause the parties dant operam rei illicitae, which ex-
ception cannot apply in the previous alternative,
where in fact there is, on the part of the contrac-
tors, nothing that can affect their consciences, or ac-
tually impeach their honor or morality. Abbo and
1 He here refers to what he had previously laid down upon
that subject.
2 That is to say, if the marriage is celebrated in facie Ecclesie,
it would be otherwise, if clandestine.
3 De naturalibus jiliis,2LC successione eorum. Tractat. Trac-
tat. Vol. viii. P. ii. p. 37. The quotation is fully given with-
out the contractions.