Girls Less Than Twelve Years Old

9. But some one may object that not all dispensations sent out for execution were armed with such clauses; for in the Kingdom of Poland itself, not many years ago, a certain dispensation was sent from Rome which did not display any conditions of this kind. The dispensation concerned age in favor of a girl who was six months short of 12 years, which is the legal age for girls to enter matrimony. In the concession it was explained that "craft complemented age so that legally she could contract marriage". Hence it should be considered a declaratory document rather than a dispensation, since the faculty of contracting marriage before the time prescribed, as often as craft supplies for age, comes from the very provisions of the law and canons. Indeed the bishops themselves and the ordinaries of places may decide on this question, which is one of fact: whether indeed craft, as is stated, has supplied for age. Consequently they have the authority to give permission to contract marriage. It is not necessary to appeal to the Apostolic See, except for greater solemnity of the act or "lest there might arise some question of the validity of such a marriage on the score of insufficient age", as the formula which is customarily used in declaratory letters concerning insufficient age states. Indeed canonists teach that there is an extraneous right of the Apostolic See and of ordinary judges to decide in this matter, whether indeed craft, as is asserted, may supply for age. But only the Holy See has the right of granting a dispensation to contract marriage to a minor, who is not yet mature for conjugal union, but has attained that use of reason sufficient to understand its purpose and nature. Indeed for the validity of matrimony, just as natural and divine law requires the use of reason, so positive canon law requires the natural power of conjugal union. The Roman Pontiff is above canon law, but any bishop is inferior to that law and consequently cannot modify it.