Special Political Discourses on Domestic Society and the Rights of Citizens

On the Types of Marriage. Discourse I.

[matrimo]nial matters are handled more according to reasons of State original: "Status rationem," referring to political necessity or raison d'état than according to the ordination of the Church; and therefore they are almost always found to be unfortunate. See Philippe de Comines, book 7, chapter 3, and book 8, chapter 15; John Barclay in Argenis, book 3, page 368. And these Political Marriages must also be entered into cautiously; for often they are sought for no good purpose, nor with the intent that they be consummated, but only so that enemies may be lulled into a false sense of security—which Polyænus presents as a stratagem in book 4 regarding Antigonus at the beginning.

V. Just as in Marriage inequality—of whatever kind it may be—ought to be avoided (Richter, Economic Axioms, 61), so too it must not be permitted that those who are too old marry young girls (Arithmaeus, Pericula, 2, page 39). For if there is too great a distance between those who are born and those who beget them, then the duty of Parents easily withers and ceases; likewise, if there is too much proximity in years, all reverence toward Parents is removed, for children who are close in age to their Parents tend to become insolent and arrogant. By the same reasoning, if there is a great dissimilarity of age between the contracting parties, we can predict a great deal of discord; see Junius, Political Questions, 29; Arnisaeus, On Marriage, chapter 2, section 4. And as in all things, so also in Marriage: proportion is capable of producing harmony and concord (Martial, Epigrams, book 4, number 13).

Regarding the Marriage of a Young Man and an Old Woman, where there is no hope of offspring, what should be thought? This is debated by Master Doctor Felix Bidembach in his Treatise on the Causes of Marriage at the end. There he says: such a marriage should not be contracted, but once contracted, it ought not to be dissolved. And for what the Genevan constitution The legal and religious codes of Calvinist Geneva decrees on this matter, see Zepper, On the Mosaic Laws, page 543, book 4, chapter 20. To this belongs the joke of Bartolomeo Bolla, from Bergamo, regarding the ridiculous wedding of two old people whose combined age was one hundred and thirty years:

Hurry here, you Doctors of Medicine,
And contemplate these flowers of May.
Who bring joy to this old age,
And make the whole City run together.
Have you never heard that death is born,
And of this new fate for the World?
From this Marriage a genuine death shall be born,
Unless they quickly become prey for Charon The ferryman who carries souls across the river Styx in Greek mythology.
They are joined against conscience;
But these things are written according to conscience.

And from Athenæus, Philip Melanchthon, book 3 of the Epigrams.

As when an owl by chance builds its nest in a cold tomb,
And the foul bird keeps to its blind bed: