_It is reported commonly among you._ It is no vague rumour, but a well-ascertained fact. 1. The Gentiles who were not barbarians, but living civilised and honest lives, by natural instinct rejected all such intercourse of a step-son and step-mother. The poets praise Hippolytus for preferring to inc... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER V. SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER i. The Apostle proceeds from the schism of the Corinthians to deal with the scandal caused by incest among them: he blames them for allowing one living openly in incest to remain among them, and orders them to excommunicate him and hand him over to Satan. II. He... [ Continue Reading ]
_And ye are puffed up._ You meanwhile are so occupied with your contentious pride that you neglect to correct this incestuous person by removing him from your society. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Anselm. Learn from this how careful not only prelates but all the faithful should be to remove from... [ Continue Reading ]
_To deliver such an one to Satan._ Theophylact thinks that by these words Paul actually excommunicates the fornicator, but it is truer to say that by them he orders his excommunication to be carried out by the prelates in the Corinthian Church. If otherwise, he would have said, "I deliver," instead... [ Continue Reading ]
_Your glorying is not good._ Your boasting yourselves in your worldly wisdom, which makes you say, "I am of Paul," "I of Apollos," is evil and out of place. It were better for you to cast down the eyes of your mind, since you allow so great a wickedness to exist among you. So Anselm; Theophylact add... [ Continue Reading ]
_Purge out, therefore, the old leaven._ Eject this fornicator from your society, lest like leaven he infect the whole. It follows that not the predestinate alone, or hidden sinners, but that public sinners, like this fornicator, are in the Church till they are excommunicated. So Chrysostom. Although... [ Continue Reading ]
_Therefore let us keep the feast._ The Latin has, "Let us banquet," because feasts were wont to be celebrated with solemn banquets in token of rejoicing. The feast here is either the feast of the Passover or of unleavened bread. And notice that, according to Exod.xii., the evening of the fourteenth... [ Continue Reading ]
_If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator._ This admits of being rendered, "If any man that is a brother be called a fornicator." Hence S. Augustine (_contra Parmen._ lib. iii. c. 2) says: " _Is called_," _i.e._, is judged and declared guilty of fornication. _Or covetous... or an extorti... [ Continue Reading ]
_For what have I to do to judge them that are without? To judge_ is here and elsewhere the same as to condemn and punish fornicators, _e.g_., by excommunicating them, which is done in order to warn others who are pure and innocent not to mingle with them. When S. Paul says that they were not to ming... [ Continue Reading ]