_Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me._ In answer to the questions you have put to me about the rights, use, and end of matrimony and the single life, I answer that _it is good for a man not to touch a woman_. Notice here from S. Anselm and Ambrose that certain false Apostles, in order... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER 7 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER In this chapter he answers five questions of the Corinthians about the laws of matrimony, and about the counsel of virginity and celibacy i. The first question is whether matrimony and its use are lawful for a Christian, as being born again and sanctified. The an... [ Continue Reading ]
_Nevertheless to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife._ Lest being unmarried, and unwilling to live a chaste life, he fall into fornication. _Every man_, say Melancthon and Bucer, must include the priest and the monk. I reply that _every man_ means every man that is free, not bound by v... [ Continue Reading ]
_Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence._ A modest paraphrase for the conjugal debt.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The wife hath not power of her own body but the husband,_ She has not power, that is, over those members which distinguish woman from man, in so far as they serve for the conjugal act. _Power_ she has not over them so as to contain at her own will or to have intercourse with another. That power bel... [ Continue Reading ]
_Defraud ye not one the other._ By denying the marriage debt. The words _and to fasting_, though in the Greek, are wanting in the Latin. Hence Nicholas I., in his answers to the questions if the Bulgarians (c. 50), writes to them that, throughout the forty days of Lent, they should not come at their... [ Continue Reading ]
_But I speak this by permission and not of commandment_. 1. I permit the act of copulation by way of indulgence: I do not prescribe it. Nay, S. Augustine (_Enchirid._ c. 78) takes it: "I say this by way of pardon." The Greek word denotes forgiveness, and hence S. Augustine gathers that it is a veni... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I would that all men were even as I myself._ That is so far as the single life and continency is concerned. The Apostle means that he wishes it if it could well be. _I would_, therefore, denotes as inchoate and imperfect act of the will. This is evident too from his subjoining, _But every man h... [ Continue Reading ]
_But if they cannot contain, let then marry, for it is better to marry than to burn._ This may be a reference to Ruth 1:13. It is better to marry than to burn, unless, that is, you are already wedded to Christ by a vow. Cf. S. Ambrose (_ad Virg. Laps._ c. v.). for to those who are bound by a vow of... [ Continue Reading ]
_But to the rest speak I... let him not put her away_. _The rest_ are those that are married and belong to different religions; and to them I say, that if a brother, _i.e._, one of the faithful, have a wife that is an unbeliever, &c. In other words, I have thus far spoken to married people when bot... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife._ Such union by marriage is holy. The believer, therefore, is not, as you so scrupulously fear, defiled by contact with an unbeliever, but rather the unbeliever, as Anselm says, is sanctified by a kind of moral naming and sprinkling of holiness,... [ Continue Reading ]
_But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart._ If the unbeliever seek for a dissolution of the marriage, or will not live with his partner without doing injury to God, by endeavouring to draw her way to unbelief or to some wickedness, or by uttering blasphemy against God, or Christ, or the faith,... [ Continue Reading ]
_For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband?_ If we take the first meaning of "peace" given above, the sense will be: Live in peace as far as you can, O believer, with your unbelieving partner, for you know not the good that he may derive thence: perhaps by living with him yo... [ Continue Reading ]
_But as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk._ I have said this much about the marriage of an unbeliever with a believer, and about separation and divorce, if the unbeliever seek for it, and about living together in peace; but I do not wish to be unde... [ Continue Reading ]