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In Roman Catholic canon law, a solemn vow is a vow ("a deliberate and free promise made to God about a possible and better good")〔(Code of Canon Law, canon 1191 §1 )〕 that the Church has recognized as such.〔(Code of Canon Law, canon 1192 §2 )〕 Any other vow, public or private, individual or collective, concerned with an action or with abstaining from an action, is a ''simple vow''. In canon law a vow is public (concerning the Church itself directly) only if a legitimate superior accepts it in the name of the Church; all other vows, no matter how much publicity is given to them, are classified as private vows〔(Code of Canon Law, canon 1192 §1 )〕 (concerning directly only those who make them). The vow taken at profession as a member of any religious institute is a public vow,〔(Code of Canon Law, canon 654 )〕 but in recent centuries can be either solemn or simple. There is disagreement among theologians as to whether the distinction between solemn and simple vows derives simply from a decision of the Church to treat them differently or whether, in line with the opinion of Saint Thomas Aquinas,〔(''Summa Theologica'' II-II, q. 88, art. 7 )〕 a solemn vow is, antecedently to any decision by the Church, a more strict, perfect and complete consecration to God.〔(Yūji Sugawara, ''Religious Poverty: from Vatican Council II to the 1994 Synod of Bishops'' (Loyola Press 1997 ISBN 978-88-7652-698-5), pp. 127-128 )〕 Aquinas held that the only vows that could be considered solemn were those made by receiving holy orders or by the profession of the rule of a religious institute. As support for his view, he cited the fact that these two vows alone were considered to make the celebration of marriage invalid.〔 A man who promised, either to a human being or to God (thus making a vow), to marry a certain woman was bound by that promise or vow, but if he broke it and married a different woman, the marriage was nonetheless considered valid. Similarly, if he made a vow to enter a particular religious institute or become a priest, but instead entered a different institute or decided to marry, the religious profession or the marriage, despite being a violation of his vow, was still considered valid. But once he had received holy orders or made religious profession, any marriage he contracted was considered null and void. Solemn vows were originally considered indissoluble. Not even the Pope could dispense from them.〔Thomas Aquinas, ''Summa Theologica'', II-II, q. 88, a.11〕 If for a just cause a religious was expelled, the vow of chastity remained unchanged and so rendered invalid any attempt at marriage, the vow of obedience obliged in relation, generally, to the bishop rather than to the religious superior, and the vow of poverty was modified to meet the new situation but the expelled religious "could not, for example, will any goods to another; and goods which came to him reverted at his death to his institute or to the Holy See".〔(Paul M. Quay, "Renewal of Religious Orders, or Destruction?", in ''Commentarium pro Religiosis et Missionariis'', vol. 65 (1984), pp. 77-86 )〕 ==Solemn and simple vows in religious institutes== Originally, the vows taken by profession in any of the religious institutes approved by the Holy See were classified not only as public but also as solemn.〔(Arthur Vermeersch, "Religious Life" in The Catholic Encyclopedia.,Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911 ). Accessed 18 July 2011〕 This was declared by Pope Boniface VIII (1235 – 1303).〔"Illud solum votum debere dici solemne . . . quod solemnizatum fuerit per suceptionem S. Ordinis aut per professionem expressam vel tacitam factam alicui de religionibus per Sedem Apostolicam approbatis" (C. unic. de voto, tit. 15, lib. III in 6, quoted in (Celestine Anthony Freriks, ''Religious Congregations in Their External Relations'' ), p. 17).〕 The situation changed in the 16th century. In 1521, two years after the Fourth Lateran Council had forbidden the establishment of new religious institutes, Pope Leo X appointed a rule with simple vows for those tertiaries attached to existing institutes who undertook to live in a community. In 1566 and 1568, Pope Pius V rejected this class of institute, but they continued to exist and even increased in number. After at first being merely tolerated, they afterwards obtained approval.〔 Only on almost the last day of the 19th century were they officially reckoned as religious, when Pope Leo XIII recognized as religious all men and women who took simple vows in such congregations.〔Constitution "Conditae a Christo" of 8 December 1900, cited in (Mary Nona McGreal, ''Dominicans at Home in a New Nation'', chapter 11 )〕 A special case applied to the Jesuits. In the 16th century, Ignatius of Loyola obtained authorization for the members of the Society of Jesus to be divided into the professed with solemn vows and the coadjutors with dispensable simple vows.〔(Karl Rahner, ''Sacramentum Mundi'', article "Religious Orders" )〕 Nevertheless, before Pope Leo XIII's reforms in the 19th century, these simple vows constituted them religious in the true and proper sense of the word, with the consequent privileges and exemption of regulars, including them being a diriment impediment to matrimony, etc.〔Quanto fructuosius (1-2-1583) and Ascendente Domino (5-24-1584).〕 In theory, the recognition as religious for simple vows had universal validity, but in practice, the Roman Curia considered it an exclusive privilege to the Society of Jesus.〔''History of Religious Life'', Vol. 3, Jesús Álvarez Gómez, CMF, 1990 (Spanish)〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「solemn vow」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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