Whether consent is the efficient cause of matrimony?

❌ Objection 1 : It would seem that consent is not the efficient cause of matrimony. For the sacraments depend not on the human will but on the Divine institution, as shown above (Sent. iv, D, 2; TP, Question [64], Article [2]). But consent belongs to the human will. Therefore it is no more the cause of matrimony than of the other sacraments.

❌ Objection 2 : Further, nothing is its own cause. But seemingly matrimony is nothing else than the consent, since it is the consent which signifies the union of Christ with the Church.

❌ Objection 3 : Further, of one thing there should be one cause. Now there is one marriage between two persons, as stated above (Question [44], Article [1]); whereas the consents of the two parties are distinct, for they are given by different persons and to different things, since on the one hand there is consent to take a husband, and on the other hand consent to take a wife. Therefore mutual consent is not the cause of matrimony.