B. Solution of the Question

13. To the question, then, I say that affinity simply impedes matrimony.

14. And the reason is only the statute of the Church delegitimizing the affinal, and it impedes in the same degree in which there is consanguinity; and this point indeed about affinity properly speaking is plain in Gregory IX, Decretals IV tit.14 ch.8, ‘On consanguinity and affinity’.

15. Likewise about affinity commonly and extensively speaking, which is called the justice of public honorableness [Gloss on Decretals, Thomas Aquinas, Richard of Middleton ad loc.]: Gregory IX, ibid., ch.1, “Equally, as the canons say, must one abstain from those consanguineous and proper to the wife.” About this justice of public honorableness are many things found also in Gregory IX, ibid., chs.1-9 or Boniface VIII Decretals Book Six IV tit.1 ch.1, that from espousals which are null by the law itself (or in whatever way), while they are not null by defect of consent, this impediment to matrimony arises; and it impedes contracting matrimony and destroys one already contracted.