1. Exposition of the Opinion

8. Here it is said [Richard of Middleton, Sent. IV d.31 princ. 1 q.1] that he who contracts matrimony obligates himself to carnal union, at least under the condition if it be asked for; and certitude about not asking for it is found in very few. But in that act a man is deprived of the greatest good, namely the use of reason, according to the Philosopher Ethics 7.7 15-18, “such an act robs the wisest man of intellect.” Hence Augustine, City of God 14.16 [Lombard, Sent. IV d.31 ch.5 n.1]: “Pleasure, than which there is none greater among bodily pleasures - in the moment of time when its extreme is reached, almost all the keenness and as it were vigilance of thinking is overthrown” But no one, according to right reason, should obligate himself to anything by which he suffer so great an evil unless there be there some compensating good; therefore no one ought to contract matrimony unless there are goods compensating this throwing away of the use of reason; and those are said by the saints to be goods excusing the carnal act [Lombard, ibid., ch.5 n.7]. Now these goods are the good of faith, of offspring, and the sacrament [Lombard, ibid., ch.5 n.1].