On Adulterous Marriages

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 1.1–1.16 · 1.17–2.1 · 2.2–2.14 · 2.15–2.22

1. 1.1Augustine states Pollentius's view that 1 Cor 7:11 forbids remarriage only to a wife who left without cause, and shows that it would let spouses leave each other freely for the sake of continence.
2. 1.2Paul's teaching on the marital debt forbids one spouse to leave the other for continence without consent, and the Lord permits putting away a wife only for sexual immorality.
3. 1.3Augustine argues that Paul's “let her remain unmarried” must refer to a wife who separated lawfully, that is, because of her husband's sexual immorality.
4. 1.4Augustine imagines a wife who leaves her unwilling husband for continence and cites 1 Cor 7:11 in her defense, showing where Pollentius's reading leads.
5. 1.5Augustine answers that Paul's words apply only to a wife who may lawfully depart, and that a wife whose husband is faithful may not depart at all.
6. 1.6Augustine quotes Pollentius's advice that a wife who dismisses an adulterous husband should not remarry because of scandal, and contrasts it with his own view that she may not remarry at all.
7. 1.7Paul's condition “let her remain unmarried” applies to the wife who separates lawfully from an unfaithful husband; any other reading would let continent spouses break up Christian marriages.
8. 1.8If Matt 19:9 allowed a husband who dismisses an unfaithful wife to remarry, husband and wife would be under unequal rules, contrary to 1 Cor 7:4.
9. 1.9Augustine explains the exception clause as naming the graver case: remarriage after dismissing an innocent wife is worse adultery, but remarriage after dismissing an unfaithful one is still adultery.
10. 1.10Mark and Luke state without exception that everyone who dismisses his wife and marries another commits adultery, so Matthew must be read in harmony with them.
11. 1.11Augustine explains that he quoted Matt 5:32 from the Sermon on the Mount, notes the variant Latin renderings, and observes that some manuscripts lack its final clause.
12. 1.12The exception clause of Matt 19:9, spoken to the Pharisees, must be read in the light of Mark and Luke: everyone who dismisses his wife and remarries commits adultery.
13. 1.13Since Luke calls the man who marries a dismissed woman an adulterer, she remains her first husband's wife, and so the husband who dismissed her also commits adultery if he remarries.
14. 1.14Paul's instruction not to leave an unbelieving spouse is his own advice, not the Lord's command; separation is permitted but not expedient, since the spouse may be won for Christ.
15. 1.15Many good acts are done not from command but from free charity, as Christ paid the tax and Paul gave up his rights; some lawful things are not expedient.
16. 1.16Augustine distinguishes what is lawful but not expedient (such as leaving an unbelieving spouse) from what is good and better (such as marriage and virginity).
17. 1.17Augustine argues that doing what is lawful but not expedient is not properly a sin, though it should not be done.
18. 1.18Lawful but inexpedient acts are those permitted before God but avoided so as not to hinder others' salvation; the Lord forbids only what is unlawful.
19. 1.19Unbelief is a “fornication of the mind,” so leaving an unbelieving spouse is lawful, but Paul advises against it lest unbelievers be repelled from the faith.
20. 1.20Ezra's command to dismiss foreign wives applied to marriages made against God's law; converts already married to pagans are neither forbidden nor commanded to separate.
21. 1.21Paul's counsel is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so is from the Lord in a real sense, though it is not a command.
22. 1.22A command must be obeyed; counsel leaves freedom, but the lawful option may not be expedient, as when leaving an unbelieving spouse drives him into adulterous remarriage.
23. 1.23Augustine compares Paul's counsel on virginity with his counsel on mixed marriages: in the first both options are good, in the second one is lawful but not expedient.
24. 1.24Augustine defends his earlier exposition: Paul's “I, not the Lord” shows that leaving an unbelieving spouse is lawful but should not be done out of love.
25. 1.25Augustine distinguishes the command not to contract marriages with unbelievers from Paul's advice about marriages already existing when one spouse converts.
26. 1.26Augustine sets out the case of two pagan spouses of whom one converts, and argues that the Lord's silence leaves room for the apostle's counsel.
27. 1.27The Lord's commands on marriage admit no exception for expediency: a husband who dismisses an adulterous wife must remain unmarried, since everyone who dismisses his wife and remarries commits adultery.
28. 1.28Augustine tells a Christian who has dismissed an adulterous wife to refuse even a marriage that would bring a pagan woman to faith, since remarriage would still be adultery.
29. 1.29Winning a soul for Christ does not justify committing adultery by remarriage, since one may not do evil that good may come.
30. 1.30Neither remarriage after divorce nor breaking a vow of continence may be excused by the hope of converting a prospective spouse.
31. 1.31Where the Lord gives no command, Paul's counsel guides; but for any kind of fornication, of flesh or spirit, dismissal never permits remarriage.
32. 1.32Augustine admits that the question of marriage is very obscure and intricate and that he has not resolved every difficulty.
33. 1.33Augustine advises that dying catechumens who can no longer ask for baptism should be baptized, as infants are, while not condemning more cautious clergy.
34. 1.34Augustine explains “Do not give what is holy to dogs,” and rules that dying catechumens living in adulterous second marriages may be baptized, and dying penitents reconciled.
35. 2.1Augustine explains why he answers Pollentius's further questions in a second book: the first had been published before he could add to it.
36. 2.2Augustine restates Pollentius's position: 1 Cor 7:11 concerns a wife who left a faithful husband, and a spouse who commits sexual immorality is to be counted as dead, freeing the other to remarry.
37. 2.3If adultery dissolved the bond like death, the adulterous wife herself would be free to remarry without sin, which contradicts Paul; the bond ends only with physical death.
38. 2.4The marriage bond survives separation as baptism survives excommunication; adultery is a death of the soul, not the death that frees a spouse to remarry.
39. 2.5Against Pollentius's objection, Augustine argues that a husband may and should be reconciled to a repentant adulterous wife, since Christ forgave the adulteress.
40. 2.6Augustine reports that some removed the story of the woman taken in adultery from their manuscripts, fearing it licensed sin, and rebukes husbands who condemn adulterous wives while committing adultery themselves.
41. 2.7Augustine rejects the double standard that punishes adulterous wives but excuses husbands, citing even a pagan emperor's rescript, and calls adulterous men to repentance.
42. 2.8Reconciliation after a forgiven adultery is possible; if it does not happen, both spouses must remain continent, since remarriage would make four adulterers of two spouses.
43. 2.9To the objection that forbidding remarriage is inhuman to the incontinent, Augustine replies that the same complaint would justify adultery in cases of illness, captivity, or an unpleasant wife.
44. 2.10Even a wife unjustly dismissed commits adultery if she remarries; the complaint of the incontinent cannot change Christ's law, and the bond remains while the spouse lives.
45. 2.11The desire for children cannot excuse remarriage after dismissing an adulterous wife, any more than it could justify dismissing a barren one.
46. 2.12Paul allowed marriage as a remedy for incontinence, not for the sake of children; so neither motive can excuse adultery, and one who must avoid adultery must keep continence.
47. 2.13A spouse unwilling to be reconciled to a repentant adulterer must remain continent, since only death dissolves the bond; fear, effort, and prayer can lead to love of continence.
48. 2.14Answering the fear that forbidding remarriage would lead husbands to have adulterous wives put to death, Augustine urges mercy grounded in awareness of one's own sin.
49. 2.15Christians should spare adulterous wives out of forgiveness, not because remarriage is allowed; a Christian may neither kill an adulterous wife nor remarry while she lives.
50. 2.16Augustine answers the objection that forbidding remarriage tempts men to murder: the same objection would apply to the undisputed adultery of marrying a wife unjustly divorced.
51. 2.17Augustine argues that the risk of husbands resorting to murder cannot be a reason to deny that remarriage is adultery, since the same argument would overturn the Lord's teaching altogether.
52. 2.18If remarriage after a spouse's adultery were allowed, husbands could engineer their wives' adultery by dismissing them and then claim freedom to remarry.
53. 2.19Augustine applies Christ's saying on eunuchs for the kingdom to those who, after divorce, must remain continent to avoid adultery and so to enter the kingdom.
54. 2.20Augustine encourages divorced spouses to accept continence, which by faith and grace can become willing and even be vowed, and so gain the reward of those who chose it freely.
55. 2.21Men who claim weakness as an excuse for adultery are refuted by the chastity they demand of women, such as the Syrian wives of long-absent merchants.
56. 2.22Augustine points to clergy who were ordained against their will and yet kept continence, urging those separated from spouses to do the same out of fear of judgment.