307. XI. THAT BEFORE THE CELEBRATION OF THE WEDDING,A CONJUGIAL COVENANT IS TO BE ENTERED INTO IN THE PRESENCE OF WITNESSES. A conjugial covenant should rightly be entered into before the wedding is celebrated, in order that the statutes and laws of love truly conjugial may be known and may be remembered after the wedding; also that it may be a bond, holding their minds within the bounds of rightful marriage; for after the initial stages of marriage, the state preceding betrothal returns at times, and in this state remembrance vanishes and forgetfulness of the contracted covenant comes in. Yea, by reason of enticements to things unchaste coming from unchaste persons, it becomes wholly obliterated, and if it is then recalled to mind, there comes a disparagement of it. For the averting of these transgressions, society has taken upon itself the protection of this covenant, and has enacted penalties against those who break it. In a word, the ante-nuptial covenant makes known the ordinances of love truly conjugial, establishes them, and binds libertines to obedience to them. Add to this, that by this covenant the right to propagate children, and for the children the right to inherit the goods of their parents, is made legitimate.