Divorce and remarriage

Every passage that touches divorce or remarriage, even briefly: separation and putting away a spouse, grounds for divorce and the exception clause, desertion by an unbelieving spouse, remarriage after divorce or after a spouse's death, second marriages of widows and clergy, and Old Testament divorce texts. Broader than the topics Divorce and Remarriage, which list only passages that substantially address them. Part of Marriage.

Passages that touch on this topic, in date order.

Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.4 (29.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks: does a husband sin by living with an adulterous wife?
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.5 (29.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A husband who knowingly stays with an unrepentant adulterous wife shares her sin.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.6 (29.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The husband should separate but not remarry; remarriage is adultery.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.7 (29.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks whether a repentant wife may return.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.8 (29.8)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The husband must take back a repentant wife; this is why he must not remarry. The rule applies equally to both.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.9 (29.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Idolatry is also adultery; do not live with one who persists in it.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.10 (29.10)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Separated spouses must stay unmarried because repentance is possible.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.4.1 (32.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks whether a widow or widower sins by remarrying.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.4.2 (32.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Remarriage after a spouse's death is no sin, though remaining single brings more honor.
First Apology 15Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christ's teaching on purity, divorce, celibacy, repentance, love of enemies, generosity, and trust in God.
Second Apology 2Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · A Christian wife who divorced her dissolute husband is denounced by him; her teacher Ptolemaeus and two others are executed under Urbicus simply for confessing the name of Christ.
Protevangelium of James 13Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Joseph finds Mary pregnant, is reassured by an angel, both are accused before the priest and cleared, and on the journey to Bethlehem Mary goes into labour, while Joseph sees all creation stand still.
Sentences of Sextus 236Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A man who puts away his wife declares that he cannot even govern a woman.
Sentence 236 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A man who sends away his wife confesses that he is not able even to rule a wife.
Dialogue with Trypho 78.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Joseph, thinking Mary guilty of fornication, was told by an angel that her child was of the Holy Spirit.
Dialogue with Trypho 114.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Jer 2:13 and a free quotation on Zion's divorce.
Diatessaron, section 8Tatian · ca. 160-180
Diatessaron, section 25Tatian · ca. 160-180
To Autolycus 3.13Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Scripture forbids unchastity even in thought; the Gospel forbids lustful looks, marrying a divorced woman, and divorce except for sexual immorality.
To Autolycus 3.15Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Christians, who may not even watch gladiatorial shows or immoral plays, cannot be guilty of promiscuity or cannibalism; their life is marked by chastity, monogamy, righteousness, and the rule of God.
A Plea for the Christians 33Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians marry only for children, many remain celibate, and marriage is for life: divorce and remarriage, and even remarriage after a spouse's death, are condemned as adultery.
The Instructor 1.9.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Reviling, accusation, and lamentation are further forms of the Instructor's correction, found in Isaiah, John the Baptist, David, and Jeremiah.
Against Heresies 4.15.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Moses permitted divorce because of Israel’s hardness, as Paul also made concessions for the weak; the same God gave both covenants and respects human freedom.
Against Heresies 4.23.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The patriarchs and prophets sowed what the apostles reaped; Joseph was persuaded by Isaiah’s prophecy, and Christ showed himself foretold by Isaiah.
Miscellanies 1.21.124Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Zerubbabel won the right to restore Jerusalem; with Ezra came the renewal of the Scriptures, the Passover, and the end of foreign marriages; from Moses' birth to the restoration Clement counts 1,155 years.
Miscellanies 2.23.145Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage must be kept pure like a sacred image, with prayer morning and night and decency in word and deed; Scripture forbids divorce except for sexual immorality and counts remarriage adultery while the other spouse lives.
Miscellanies 2.23.146Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A wife is beyond suspicion through modesty, prayer, and care of her home; whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery, and the man who divorces her makes her an adulteress, as does the one who receives her, since otherwise she would return to her husband.
Miscellanies 3.1.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Self-control covers the tongue, possessions, and desires, and is a gift of divine grace; the church blesses celibacy given by God, admires a single marriage, bears with others' weakness, and permits second marriage to those who burn.
Miscellanies 3.6.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law aims at self-restrained marriage and family life; Christ fulfilled, not abolished it; marriage can be used with self-control, and those who call intercourse polluted, being born of it, condemn themselves.
Miscellanies 3.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The seed of the sanctified is holy, and spouses sanctify each other; Christ forbade divorce except for sexual immorality, citing “the two shall be one flesh”; that there is no marriage after the resurrection, like the end of food, does not license indulgence now.
Miscellanies 3.6.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Some call marriage fornication from the devil and claim to imitate the unmarried Lord; but Christ's bride was the church, he needed no helper or heirs, and he himself upheld marriage and spoke of it continuing until his coming.
Miscellanies 3.6.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's saying about eunuchs followed the disciples' question about divorce: they asked whether a man could remarry after putting away an adulterous wife; even pagan athletes and musicians practiced sexual abstinence.
Miscellanies 3.11.74Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul wants the church presented as a pure virgin to Christ, its only Bridegroom; but each believer may lawfully marry, meaning a first marriage; Paul fears deception like Eve's.
Miscellanies 3.12.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's image of the wife bound to her husband applies allegorically to the church's union with the risen Christ; his permission for a widow to remarry “only in the Lord” and his preference that she remain establishes monogamy, and does not make marriage devilish.
Miscellanies 3.12.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's “come together again” prevents temptation; Christ, the same Lord of law and gospel, replaced polygamy with monogamy; second marriage after a spouse's death is permitted but falls short of the gospel's perfection; baptism replaces the law's washings after intercourse.
Miscellanies 3.12.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law's washing after emission of seed foreshadowed baptismal rebirth without condemning birth; marriage is not merely of the old law, for the same God gave law and gospel, and what God joined man may not separate.
Miscellanies 3.12.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We become children again, reborn through water; the married too may care for the Lord's things, and both wife and virgin are holy in the Lord; Paul speaks sternly to restrain those inclined to a second marriage.
Miscellanies 3.12.89Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · To call marriage fornication is blasphemy; fornication, like idolatry, is falling from the one to the many, and defilement is union with another's body; Paul wants younger widows to marry and bear children.
Miscellanies 3.12.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul accepts the husband of one wife, whether presbyter, deacon, or layman; Christ called the Jews adulterous for abandoning the law's intent; the man who excused himself from the supper because of marriage illustrates preferring pleasure to God, not a condemnation of marriage.
Miscellanies 3.15.97Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “Better to marry than to burn” preserves mutual marital duty; “hate father, mother, wife” means not to be led by irrational impulses, since the same Scripture commands honoring parents; the married should not divorce, and the one vowed to celibacy should stay unmarried.
Miscellanies 3.18.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul, citing the Lord, forbids divorce, requiring a separated wife to remain unmarried or be reconciled; he also makes good household management a qualification for bishops; this refutes those who say marriage belongs only to the old law.
Apology 6Tertullian · ca. 197 · The Romans who accuse Christians of abandoning ancestral custom have themselves abandoned their ancestors' laws on luxury, women's modesty, marriage, and the gods.
Apology 50Tertullian · ca. 197 · Christians suffer as soldiers fight, to win; the pagans praise heroes who died for glory but condemn Christians who die for God, yet every persecution makes more Christians: “the blood of Christians is seed.”
On Patience 12Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience makes peace and forgiveness possible, waits for the repentance of sinners (even a separated spouse), and is the source of the love Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13.
To His Wife 1.1Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Tertullian writes to his wife, urging her not to remarry if he dies first, since there is no marriage in the resurrection.
To His Wife 1.2Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · God blessed marriage as one man and one woman, as with Adam and Eve; the patriarchs' plural marriages were a provisional license later corrected by Christ and the apostle.
To His Wife 1.4Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · The desires of the flesh and of the world that urge remarriage should be overcome, following widows who have chosen to be “married to God” and trusting God's provision.
To His Wife 1.5Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Children and posterity are no reason for Christians to remarry, since the end is near and encumbrances hinder; the time is short.
To His Wife 1.6Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Many Christians live continently even within marriage, and even pagan priestesses keep virginity and widowhood for their demons; a Christian widow can surely do so for God.
To His Wife 1.7Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · A husband's death by God's will ends the marriage; the church's rules barring the twice-married from office and enrolled widows show how second marriage detracts from holiness.
To His Wife 1.8Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · God champions widows; widowhood, being chosen by effort, has a merit of its own even beside virginity, and a widow should avoid idle and loose company.
To His Wife 2.1Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · In a second book, Tertullian turns to the case of a widow who does remarry: Paul advises continence but commands that remarriage be “only in the Lord.”
To His Wife 2.2Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Paul's instruction that a believer stay with an unbelieving spouse concerns those converted after marriage; it gives no license for a Christian to marry an unbeliever, since remarriage is “only in the Lord.”
Didascalia 2.2Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 3.1Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.22Anonymous · first half of the third century · Purity rites from the second legislation must be abandoned; Christians gather and offer the eucharist in cemeteries for the departed, touch the dead without fear, and treat menstruation and seminal flow as no bar to prayer, while adultery alone truly defiles.
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XXIV (on Deut 19–23)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · The catena summarizes laws of Deuteronomy given because of Israel's corruption: retaliation, war, the unsolved murder, the captive wife, the rebellious son, the hanged man, the bird's nest, the parapet, the violated virgin, the runaway slave, interest, and vows.
Exhortation to Chastity 1Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian counsels a widowed brother that God wills our sanctification, which comes in three degrees: virginity from birth, continence from baptism, and “monogamy,” refusing a second marriage after a spouse's death.
Exhortation to Chastity 2Tertullian · ca. 208 · Since God took the first spouse away, remarrying is striving against his will; and we cannot excuse our choices as his will, because we choose freely, as Adam did.
Exhortation to Chastity 3Tertullian · ca. 208 · What God merely permits is not what he truly wills; Paul gave leave to marry on his own judgment, and “better to marry than to burn” calls marriage only the lesser evil, not a good.
Exhortation to Chastity 4Tertullian · ca. 208 · Paul's leave to remarry is his own counsel, which he at once qualifies, while his counsel of continence comes with the Holy Spirit's authority and so amounts to a command.
Exhortation to Chastity 5Tertullian · ca. 208 · God made one woman from one rib for Adam, and “two in one flesh” means two, not three; Christ's one marriage to the one church doubles that rule, and plural marriage began with the accursed Lamech.
Exhortation to Chastity 6Tertullian · ca. 208 · The patriarchs' many wives belonged to the time of “increase and multiply,” which God has now recalled at the end of the ages, as the Gospel supersedes the old law.
Exhortation to Chastity 7Tertullian · ca. 208 · Since clergy must be married only once, and laypeople are also priests who may have to baptize or offer in need, laypeople too must keep to one marriage.
Exhortation to Chastity 8Tertullian · ca. 208 · What is merely lawful is not thereby good; license tests discipline, and Paul, who did not use his right to a wife, calls us to follow his example.
Exhortation to Chastity 9Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian argues that second marriage is akin to sexual immorality, since it arises from the same desire of the flesh, and that permitting a second marriage leaves no limit to further ones.
Exhortation to Chastity 10Tertullian · ca. 208 · Widowhood is an opportunity for continence, which makes prayer and spiritual life clearer; if even marital intercourse dulls the Spirit, a second marriage does so still more.
Exhortation to Chastity 11Tertullian · ca. 208 · A remarried man still prays and offers yearly for his dead wife, and so stands before God with two wives, through a once-married clergy.
Exhortation to Chastity 12Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian answers the excuses for remarrying (running a household, having heirs) and says a widower should rather take a widow as a “spiritual wife,” warning that a second marriage may bring children anyway.
Exhortation to Chastity 13Tertullian · ca. 208 · Even pagans honor once-married women and priestly celibacy, and Dido and Lucretia died rather than take a second man; how much more should Christians, like those of the church who live in continence, refuse a second marriage.
Against Marcion 1.21Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The apostolic churches argued about conduct, never about which God to worship; their unbroken tradition confesses only the Creator, so Marcion's god is his own invention.
Against Marcion 1.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion baptized only the celibate and those who divorced, condemning marriage; Tertullian answers that marriage is good, blessed by the Creator, and that celibacy is better only as a free choice, while abolishing marriage would destroy both holiness and the human race.
Against Marcion 4.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The call of Levi, the question of fasting, Christ as bridegroom, and the sayings on new wine and patches all show Christ fulfilling the Creator's law and prophets, not separating from a foreign god.
Against Marcion 4.34Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian argues that Christ's saying on divorce and remarriage forbids putting away a wife in order to marry another, allows divorce for adultery as Moses did, and was aimed at Herod's unlawful marriage; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus likewise upholds Moses and the prophets.
Against Marcion 5.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 1 Corinthians 4–10 Tertullian finds the Creator's judgment, his festivals fulfilled in Christ, the resurrection of the body, the regulation (not abolition) of marriage, the one Father from whom are all things, and the law of the ox and the rock in the wilderness as figures of Christ.
On the Soul 39Tertullian · ca. 210 · Pagan birth rites hand children over to demons from birth; the children of believers are called holy, but only baptism by water and the Spirit makes one truly holy.
On Monogamy 1Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Tertullian sets the New Prophecy's rule of one marriage between heretics who forbid marriage and the “psychics” who allow remarriage.
On Monogamy 3Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · One marriage is not a new rule: Christ and Paul already preferred continence and allowed marriage only as a concession, so the Paraclete, far from innovating, spares our weakness by not demanding complete continence.
On Monogamy 4Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · From creation onward Scripture shows monogamy: one woman from one rib, “two into one flesh,” only the accursed Lamech with two wives, and Noah's family and even the animals in the ark by pairs.
On Monogamy 5Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Christ calls all things back to the beginning, including one indissoluble marriage; Christ himself was unmarried in the flesh and has one bride, the church, so Christians owe him at least monogamy.
On Monogamy 6Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Those who appeal to Abraham's two wives must remember that Christians are Abraham's children through the faith he had while uncircumcised and married once; the better examples of Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and Joshua point to monogamy.
On Monogamy 7Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · The law of levirate marriage served reasons that have now ceased; the law's rules for priests, which forbade them to remarry, apply to Christians, whom Christ has made priests.
On Monogamy 8Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · The Gospel opens with examples of monogamy and continence (Zechariah, John the Baptist, Mary, Simeon, Anna, Peter), and Christ's own teaching and example point the same way.
On Monogamy 9Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · As man may not separate by divorce those whom God joined, so he may not join by marriage those whom God has separated by death; any union with another after the first is adultery.
On Monogamy 10Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · A widow is even more bound to her dead husband than a divorced wife to hers: she prays and offers for him, will rise with him, and to take another man would divide her heart between two husbands.
On Monogamy 11Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Tertullian argues that Paul's permission for a widow to marry “in the Lord” (1 Cor 7:39) applies only to someone widowed before coming to faith, not to Christians who lose a spouse.
On Monogamy 12Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Against the claim that monogamy binds only the clergy: the clergy are chosen from the laity, and if monogamy were for bishops alone, so would be all the other virtues Paul lists with it.
On Monogamy 13Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Paul's advice that young widows remarry concerns those who could not keep a vow of widowhood; and Romans 7 frees a widow to remarry only under the law, from which Christians have died.
On Monogamy 14Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Paul's leave to remarry was a temporary concession like Moses' leave to divorce; as Christ removed divorce, the Paraclete now removes second marriage, and those who will not accept it must answer for their own choice.
On Monogamy 15Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Refusing second marriage is not heresy, since marriage itself is not forbidden; and those who excommunicate Christians who denied the faith under torture should not excuse remarriage as mere weakness of the flesh.
On Monogamy 16Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Remarriage is not weakness but appetite; Christians who remarry for support, company, or heirs will be judged at the end by the continence of saints and even of pagans, and should at least follow the first Adam, who married once.
On Modesty 1Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian laments the decay of modesty and attacks a bishop's edict forgiving adultery and sexual immorality after penance, defending his New Prophecy view that such sins, like second marriage, exclude from the church.
On Modesty 16Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Paul's teaching on the body as Christ's temple, on marriage as a concession against sexual immorality, and on divorce and continence shows he could never pardon adultery or incest after baptism.
Letter to Aristides 2Julius Africanus · ca. 220–240 · Israelite descent was reckoned by nature or by law (levirate marriage), so both Gospel genealogies are true.
Letter to Aristides 3Julius Africanus · ca. 220–240 · Matthan and Melchi married the same woman in turn; their sons Jacob and Heli were half-brothers, and Jacob raised up Joseph as Heli's legal son.
Fragment 44Julius Africanus · after 221 · Ezra, sent by Artaxerxes, brought the remnant and temple vessels to Jerusalem, taught the law, and made those who had married foreign wives put them away.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.22Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus complains that under Callistus men married more than once were ordained, and clergy who married after ordination kept their office, justified by Rom 14:4 and the parable of the weeds.
Commentary on John 13.44Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul's “living husband” is the law.
Commentary on John 13.45Origen · ca. 230–248 · When the law dies, the soul is released from it.
Commentary on John 13.46Origen · ca. 230–248 · Paul: while the husband lives, joining another is adultery; after his death she is free.
Commentary on John 13.51Origen · ca. 230–248 · The five husbands are the five senses; the sixth is a false, heretical “spiritual” teaching the soul turns to after them.
Homily on Luke 17Origen · ca. 233–250 · Joseph is called Jesus’ father for the sake of the genealogy; the “fall and rising” happen in the same person; Christ is a sign spoken against by heretics; the sword in Mary’s soul is doubt at the passion; and Anna is held up as a model of widowhood, with remarriage said to exclude from the kingdom though not from salvation.
Homily on Luke 39Origen · ca. 233–250 · Against the Sadducees, the risen do not marry but are like the angels, and the blessings of children promised in Scripture are spiritual; “render to Caesar” means casting off the earthly image and restoring God’s image, which God asks of us in order to give back more.
Homilies on Joshua 1.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The book of Joshua depicts the mysteries of Christ: the death of Moses signifies the end of the law, as Paul’s image of a widow freed from her husband shows.
Homilies on Leviticus 12.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Christ's bride is the church, a virgin in the simplicity of faith; the 'widow' is the soul that leaves the law without taking up the Gospel, and 'of his own race' marks the church, not Israel, as Christ's kin.
Homilies on Numbers 16.4Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Discussing whether God always does what he says, Origen examines Jonah’s preaching to Nineveh and Gad’s message to David, distinguishes God’s words from a prophet’s (as with Moses’ permission of divorce), and finally prefers Jeremiah’s teaching that God relents.
Homilies on Numbers 17.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Balak takes Balaam to Phogor (“delight”); Origen explains why the law allowed sacrifices to God (a concession like divorce, and perhaps a remedy against sacrifices to demons) until Christ, the one perfect victim.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.1Origen · ca. 240 · Literally, the passage recalls how Israel, the northern kingdom, was exiled first for its sins, while Judah, instead of learning from it, sinned still worse.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.2Origen · ca. 240 · Israel's rejection, like a wife given a bill of divorce, opened salvation to the nations; now the church, the new Judah, is in danger of sinning like Israel or worse.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.4Origen · ca. 240 · Israel's fall should make us fear, since God is both kind and severe; the “high mountains” and “leafy trees” of Israel's idolatry are pride, like the Pharisee's, and the attractive but fruitless words of heretics.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.5Origen · ca. 240 · Judah, and the church after her, should learn from Israel's rejection; like a newly bought slave who asks which servants were honored and which punished, we should read Scripture and imitate the righteous.
Homilies on Jeremiah 4.6Origen · ca. 240 · Judah turned back to God only half-heartedly; true conversion means reading the Old and New Testaments, imitating the righteous, and living by what we read.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.4Origen · ca. 240 · A widow who stays unmarried because she wrongly fears that remarriage means damnation profits from the “deception”: remarriage is not damning, but remaining once-married is more blessed; so too the fear of eternal punishment keeps many from sin, while some who reject it grow worse.
On the Good of Modesty 6Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ's teaching that a wife may be put away only for adultery is the source of the Bible's severe rules against adultery and sexual immorality.
On the Singleness of Clerics 31Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Married Christians who vow continence often live apart, yet celibate clergy (“eunuchs”) cannot bear to sleep without a woman's company.
On the Singleness of Clerics 32Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Married couples separate for continence out of love, while clerics claim “love” to keep unrelated women; Israel in Ezra put away unlawful wives, but these clerics would sooner deny their parents than leave their women.
Against Celsus 3.48Origen · ca. 248 · “Not many wise” does not mean none; Paul requires a bishop to be able to teach and refute opponents, so the church welcomes the educated as well as the ignorant.
Commentary on Matthew 12.4Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Pharisees and Sadducees are “adulterous” because the soul, wedded to the law of the mind, has turned to the law of sin; with Rom 7 Origen describes the law as the soul’s husband, who dies for the perfect, who are then joined to the living Word, while the Word leaves the synagogue for the Gentiles.
Commentary on Matthew 14.16Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains the Pharisees' trap about divorce, Jesus' answer from Genesis that not every cause dissolves a marriage, marriage as God's joining and a gift of grace, and condemns those who forbid marriage.
Commentary on Matthew 14.17Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen applies “one flesh” to Christ and the church, saying that the synagogue separated herself from Christ by unfaithfulness, and that nothing can separate the church from Christ.
Commentary on Matthew 14.18Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen takes up Deuteronomy's law of the bill of divorce, asks whether a law Moses gave because of hardness of heart has a spiritual sense, and compares Paul's counsel to widows given “in my judgment.”
Commentary on Matthew 14.19Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reads Deuteronomy's law of divorce allegorically of the synagogue, divorced by Christ for unfaithfulness, with the fall of Jerusalem and the end of the temple worship as the bill of divorce.
Commentary on Matthew 14.20Origen · ca. 246–248 · Continuing his allegory of the bill of divorce, Origen asks how the divorced synagogue can be saved, since Deuteronomy forbids the first husband to take her back, and explains the lawgiver's freedom to change the law.
Commentary on Matthew 14.21Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen applies the law of divorce to the soul and its guardian angel, citing the Shepherd of Hermas on souls that fall from Michael to the angels of luxury, punishment, and repentance.
Commentary on Matthew 14.22Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen asks why Paul excludes twice-married men from church office, even when they may be more chaste than the once-married, and suggests that the rule is symbolic of the soul that has not been divorced from Christ.
Commentary on Matthew 14.23Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen says some laws, in the Old and New Testaments alike, are concessions to weakness, and reports that some church leaders have let a wife remarry while her husband is alive, against Scripture but not wholly without reason.
Commentary on Matthew 14.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen discusses Jesus' exception for sexual immorality, asks whether a man may divorce a wife guilty of poisoning, murder, or theft, notes other ways a husband can make his wife commit adultery, and teaches that celibacy is a gift God gives to those who ask.
Commentary on Romans 6.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains Paul’s marriage analogy in Romans 7: the law according to the letter is the dead first husband, and the soul is now free to be joined to Christ, the risen second husband, serving in the newness of the Spirit.
Commentary on Romans 7.18Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains why God makes his wrath known but hides his kindness, that vessels of mercy are those who purge themselves, that Israel lost the grace it did not keep and the Gentiles must fear the same, and that God says “not my people” and “sons of the living God” in the conscience.
To Quirinus 3.62Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Christians must not marry pagans, as the examples of Isaac, Ezra, and Solomon and Paul's words “only in the Lord” show.
To Quirinus 3.74Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · True widows are to be honored, but younger widows who grow restless and wish to remarry are warned against.
To Quirinus 3.90Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · A wife must not leave her husband; if she does, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled.
Symposium 3.12Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul's permission of marital relations is a concession, not a command; likewise he allows a widowed person to remarry only as better than burning, as a sick man may be allowed food on a fast day.
Res. 1.38Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The narrator argues that death was given as a remedy, the 'garments of skins' being mortality rather than bodies, so that sin might be destroyed root and all in the body's dissolution and the body raised pure, like a temple freed of a fig tree.
Apostolic Church Order 16Anonymous · ca. 300 · The choice of a bishop: where a church has fewer than twelve men, three men from neighbouring churches examine the candidate, who must be of good report, temperate, the husband of one wife or unmarried, and able to interpret Scripture.
Apostolic Church Order 20Anonymous · ca. 300 · Three deacons are to be appointed: tested, married once, temperate, generous, and diligent in caring for and correcting the congregation.
Canon 8Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Women who leave their husbands without cause and marry others are refused communion even at death.
Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A Christian wife who leaves an adulterous Christian husband may not remarry; if she does, she is excluded from communion until the first husband dies, except in illness.
Canon 10Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A woman deserted by a catechumen husband who remarries may be baptized; a baptized woman who knowingly marries a man who left a blameless wife receives communion only at death.
Canon 38Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · In emergencies a layman of good standing may baptize a sick catechumen, who must later be brought to the bishop for the laying on of hands.
Canon 61Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A man who marries his deceased wife's sister is excluded from communion for five years.
Canon 65Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A cleric who knowingly keeps an adulterous wife is refused communion even at death.
Canon 72Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A widow who sins sexually and marries the man does five years' penance; if she leaves him for another, she is refused communion even at death.
Against the Nations 2.5Arnobius of Sicca · ca. 297–303 · The rapid spread of Christianity, the conversion of the learned, and the steadfastness of believers under persecution are evidence of its divine origin.
Church History 1.7.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted): both Gospels are true, because the lines of Solomon and Nathan were intertwined by levirate and second marriages.
Church History 1.7.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted): Matthan and Melchi married the same woman in turn, since the law allowed a widowed or divorced woman to remarry.
Church History 1.7.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted): Estha bore Jacob to Matthan and, after his death, Heli to Melchi.
Church History 1.11.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Gospels and Josephus record that Herod Antipas married his brother's living wife Herodias, discarding his own wife, killed John, and fought Aretas.
Church History 4.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): because her husband persisted in unnatural vice, she wished to separate from him.
Church History 4.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): urged by her family, she stayed, hoping he would change.
Church History 4.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): when her husband behaved even worse in Alexandria, she served him a bill of divorce (repudium) so as not to share his sins.
Church History 4.17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): the husband, instead of rejoicing at her reform, denounced her as a Christian.
Homilies 2.20Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Justa, expelled by her husband for her faith, stays a widow, marries off her daughter, and adopts two boys who grew up with Simon.
Homilies 3.54Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Truth is found only in Jesus’ teaching; he answered the Sadducees that Moses’ permission came from hardness of heart, not from the beginning.
Testament of Our Lord 1.20Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 1.33Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 2.2Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Divine Institutes 6.23.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's law binds husband and wife equally; either is an adulterer if unfaithful.
Divine Institutes 6.23.33Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Marrying a divorced woman, or divorcing a wife (except for adultery) to marry another, is adultery.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 61.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Husband and wife are equally bound; a wife may be dismissed only if convicted of adultery.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 39.3Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Maximinus proposed marriage, planning to divorce his wife; Valeria replied boldly.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 39.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Valeria refused: she was in mourning, he would divorce her too, and remarriage did not befit her rank.
Canon 10Anonymous · 1 August 314 · Young Christian men whose wives commit adultery are to be counseled, as far as possible, not to remarry while their wives live.
Canon 2Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A woman who marries two brothers in turn is excluded until death, unless at death she promises to dissolve the marriage if she recovers.
Canon 3Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · Those married many times do the fixed penance, which may be shortened by their conduct and faith.
Canon 7Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A presbyter should not attend the wedding feast of a second marriage, since such a marriage requires penance.
Canon 8Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A man whose wife was convicted of adultery cannot be ordained, and a cleric whose wife commits adultery must put her away or give up his ministry.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius refers to his other work on the patriarchs’ polygamy, and notes that the new covenant does not forbid children: a bishop is to be the husband of one wife.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.22Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · God asks where Israel’s bill of divorce is; she was sent away for her sins.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The church may be called Zion’s daughter because it was born from Israel through the apostles, while the mother was put away, as the prophets said.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.23.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah: the Lord asks where Israel's bill of divorce is, saying they were sent away for their sins because no one answered when he came.
Demonstration of the Gospel 6.23.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The Lord blames the Jewish people's rejection on their own refusal to receive him, not on any divorce from his side.
Canon 8Anonymous · 325 · Novatianist clergy (the “Cathars”) who join the church keep their rank after the laying on of hands, if they accept the church's teaching on the remarried and the lapsed.
Canon 14Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · A wife who leaves her husband out of abhorrence of marriage is anathematized.
Canon 1Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Those lawfully joined in a second marriage are to be readmitted to communion by indulgence after a short time of prayer and fasting.
Catechetical Lecture 4.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Those married once must not despise those who remarry, since a second marriage is permitted to the weak; all sexual sin is to be banished, and the body kept pure.
Commentary on Matthew 1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary reconciles the genealogies, explains the omitted kings, defends Mary’s perpetual virginity, and interprets the Magi, the flight to Egypt, and the slaughter of the innocents.
Commentary on Matthew 4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the Sermon on the Mount from the Beatitudes to almsgiving: the apostles as salt and light, Christ fulfilling the law, and the Gospel’s stricter precepts on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of enemies.
Commentary on Matthew 19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary leaves the question of divorce untouched (referring readers to the words of Jesus, the disciples, and Paul), explains the three kinds of eunuchs, reads the children as the nations, and the rich young man as Israel trusting in the law, with the camel through the needle as the nations entering by the gospel.
Commentary on Matthew 22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the wicked tenants (vineyard as Israel, winepresses as prophets, tower as law, the son as Christ cast out) and the wedding feast (the resurrection, the bulls as martyrs, the guests as Israel then the nations, the wedding garment as the Spirit’s glory).
Letter 160Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers a letter circulating under Diodorus's name that allowed a man to marry his deceased wife's sister: church custom forbids it, Lev 18:18 does not permit it, and Lev 18:6 forbids it.
Letters 188, 189Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil's first canonical letter to Amphilochius rules on the baptism of heretics and schismatics, abortion, lapsed deacons, repeated marriages, homicide, divorce, oaths, and other cases; the ref ends with most of his letter to Eustathius the physician defending the one godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Letters 198, 199Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil explains to Eusebius why his letters are few and that he is near death; then (Letter 199, the Second Canonical Letter) he answers Amphilochius on oaths, fallen virgins, monks' vows, sexual immorality and adultery, abduction, unlawful and repeated marriages, deserted spouses, rebaptism of Encratites, and related cases.
Letter 217Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil's third canonical letter to Amphilochius: after personal news, canons 51–84 set the penitential periods for murder, adultery, fornication, incest, perjury, sorcery, apostasy, and other sins, and stress that the fruits of repentance, not time alone, decide.
Letter 247Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory tells the governor he opposes the divorce; then he writes to the father, refusing to help ratify the divorce sought by a father for his daughter: the Church's law forbids it, and he will believe the daughter only when she can speak freely.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.3.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Paul calls Adam and Eve's union a mystery of Christ and the church; Jesus, asked about divorce, shows that he himself spoke Gen 2:24.
Tractates on the Psalms 67.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God is father of those who renounce the devil and judge of the church widowed from the law, and also, literally, protector of orphans and judge of true widows.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary follows the Septuagint 'widow' (not 'catch'), praising widows' continence and, with Romans 7, reading the widow as the church freed from the law to be joined to Christ.
Tractates on the Psalms 139.6Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The snares, ropes, and stumbling blocks are the plots of the Jewish leaders and the trick questions of Sadducees and Pharisees about resurrection, tribute, the law, and divorce.
Oration 37.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Pharisees test Christ on divorce; Gregory says some questions deserve silencing, but this one honours chastity, and he rejects the civil law that punishes a wife's adultery but leaves a husband's unchastity unpunished.
Oration 37.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory reads Eph 5 as discouraging second marriage (the first is law, the second concession, the third transgression) and explains that Christ permits separation only from an unchaste wife, urging spouses to correct rather than separate.
Oration 37.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Answering the remark that it is better not to marry, Gregory grants that marriage is honourable and good for the moderate and for children, but not when it becomes a path to vice.
Oration 39.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Against the Novatianists, Gregory defends the readmission of the repentant, citing David, Peter, the Corinthian offender, and Paul's permission for young widows to remarry.
Hexaemeron 7.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · God's providence, shown even in the sea urchin's weather sense, extends to us; the viper and lamprey teach spouses to bear with each other and keep their union.
Hexaemeron 8.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Birds teach lessons on widowhood, the cruelty of exposing children, fair inheritance, and, from the vulture, the credibility of the virgin birth.
Hexaemeron 9.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Virtue is natural to the soul as health to the body; animals' love for their young and the dog's reasoning and loyalty shame ungrateful and impious men.
Letter 14.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome honors the clergy, who consecrate the Eucharist and exercise discipline, but warns that their office demands the highest standards and brings grave danger to the unworthy.
Letter 22.29Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome advises Eustochium on companions, humility toward her maidservants, and avoiding idle widows and affected speech, and asks what pagan literature has to do with Scripture.
Letter 41.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome lists the Montanists' errors: Sabellian views of the Trinity, condemnation of second marriage as adultery, extra Lents, a hierarchy that ranks bishops third, and refusal of penance.
Letter 49.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites his comments on 1 Corinthians 7, where he said that the Lord forbids putting away a wife and that marriage too is a gift of God, though a different one.
Letter 49.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls that he called marriage a gift of God and cites his teaching that a wife may be put away only for sexual immorality and may not remarry while her husband lives.
Letter 49.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls that he allowed second and third marriages and urged a believing husband not to use his faith as a reason to leave his wife.
Letter 49.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites passages where he called marriage the root and foundation of virginity and forbade a married man to divorce his wife.
Letter 49.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains his 'middle way' between lust and Manichaean contempt for marriage and defends his remarks on second and later marriages.
Letter 49.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome distinguishes not condemning from praising and cites passages where he rejected the Encratite condemnation of marriage and set out three grades of chastity.
Letter 49.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his remarks on the troubles of marriage and restates that second and later marriages are not condemned in the church, though they are not praised.
Letter 52.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells clerics not to seek gifts, arrange marriages, or manage others' estates, and to distribute alms at once.
Letter 54.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the young widow Furia, who asks how to remain a widow, recalling that the women of her family traditionally did not remarry.
Letter 54.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Furia, having known the troubles of marriage, not to marry again for the sake of children or heirs.
Letter 54.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Furia against self-interested servants and gossiping matrons who spread slander against Christians and monks.
Letter 54.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Furia to imitate her mother, persuade her father, and make her widowhood a virtue.
Letter 54.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the reasons young widows give for remarrying and describes the troubles of second marriages.
Letter 54.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome holds up the widow Marcella as a living model and refers Furia to his books against Jovinian on second marriage.
Letter 55.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers that a woman who left an adulterous husband and married another while he lives is an adulteress and cannot be admitted to communion without penance.
Letter 55.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome requires the woman to do penance and cease relations with her second partner in order to receive communion, and holds that, by Deuteronomy 24, she cannot return to her first husband.
Letter 64.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome notes that many interpret the high priest of Leviticus 21 as Christ.
Letter 64.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome applies the high priest's marriage rules spiritually to the soul, which must be a pure virgin betrothed to Christ.
Letter 69.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends a Spanish bishop who married once before and once after baptism, arguing that baptism makes a wholly new man and recalling a debate at Rome.
Letter 69.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Paul's qualifications for bishops and argues that a marriage before baptism cannot count against a man when every sin before baptism is forgiven.
Letter 69.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome offers alternative readings of 'husband of one wife' (against polygamy; bishops wedded to churches) and shows the absurdities of his opponents' view.
Letter 69.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites Scripture on the complete cleansing and newness given in baptism, which leaves no room for a first marriage to count against a man.
Letter 69.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome begins to explain Paul's list of a bishop's qualities: irreproachable, sober, prudent, well ordered, hospitable, and able to teach.
Letter 69.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome continues through Paul's list, warning against drunken, violent, greedy, luxurious, and newly baptized bishops.
Letter 69.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome concludes that church leaders must follow the canons fairly, not private grudges, and that the accused bishop's only fault is a marriage before baptism.
Letter 77.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that Fabiola divorced a vicious first husband and remarried in ignorance of the gospel's rule, which forbids a Christian woman to remarry while her husband lives.
Letter 77.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Fabiola's public penance in the Lateran basilica after her second husband's death and cites biblical examples of forgiven penitents.
Letter 77.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes the humility and grief of Fabiola's penance, which she bore as though she had committed adultery.
Letter 79.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Salvina to devote herself to raising her children and to keep her widowhood in chastity and austerity, avoiding rich food and luxury.
Letter 79.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Salvina that penitence is no substitute for keeping chastity, and argues that second marriage is only a concession to prevent worse sin.
Letter 79.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome compares the concession of second marriage to the 'statutes that were not good' given to rebellious Israel and holds up Judith and Anna as models for Salvina's widowhood.
Letter 107.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Writing to Laeta, daughter of the pagan pontiff Albinus and wife of Toxotius, Jerome cites Paul on mixed marriages, rejoices in her Christian household and daughter Paula, and hopes her father too will convert as Rome turns from its temples.
Letter 122.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · God’s mercy calls sinners back even after great sins, as Jeremiah, Isaiah, Joel, Hosea and David show.
Letter 123.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that Geruchia owes her family a single marriage, having an heir already, and praises her for refusing suitors from the palace.
Letter 123.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome sets out Paul’s instruction in 1 Timothy 5 that younger widows should remarry, and reads it as a concession to prevent sexual immorality, not a command.
Letter 123.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains each clause of 1 Timothy 5:14 as a safeguard against sexual immorality, concluding that second and even third marriages are allowed the incontinent only as the lesser evil.
Letter 123.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Reading 1 Corinthians 7 and 1 Timothy 5, Jerome argues that widowhood is a freedom, that Paul counsels widows to remain unmarried, that young widows should support themselves, and that the once-married rule binds laity as well as clergy.
Letter 123.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome distinguishes what Paul wills (remaining unmarried) from what he is compelled to allow (second marriage), and cites the Levitical rules on the priests’ widowed daughters.
Letter 123.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites pagan examples of priestly monogamy and of women who died rather than take another man, including the Teuton matrons after Aquae Sextiae.
Letter 123.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says the church does not condemn second marriages or expel the twice-married, but ranks a second marriage outside the hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold harvest.
Letter 123.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls a Roman couple, a man who had buried twenty wives and a woman married twenty-two times, whose funeral contest the city watched like a game.
Letter 123.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Geruchia to read the Scriptures that crown chastity, not those that concede remarriage, and to take widowhood as a God-given freedom.
Letter 123.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues from Adam and Eve, Christ and the one church, the Song of Songs and Noah’s ark that Scripture favors a single marriage.
Letter 123.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the objection from the patriarchs’ many wives: the command to multiply belonged to an earlier time, and these Old Testament marriages are types of the synagogue and the church.
Letter 123.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Using Dido’s story Jerome answers the arguments for remarriage from desire for children and from the need of a man to manage property.
Letter 123.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Geruchia against compromising company and against anxiety over property, citing Paul’s care for his reputation, Jacob, and the poverty of the apostles.
Letter 123.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome asks Geruchia whom she could marry amid the invasions, says his warnings are really aimed at women who promote remarriage, and recommends his letters to Eustochium, Furia and Salvina.
Letter 128.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome sets out Pacatula's upbringing: seclusion from boys, obedience to her mother, the Psalter and Scripture from age seven, a sober governess; he warns of seducers and of women who desert their husbands.
Letter 146.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues from Scripture and Alexandrian custom that presbyters and bishops were originally the same office and that deacons rank below presbyters.
Canon 1Anonymous · 374 · Henceforth no man married twice, or married to a woman previously married, may be ordained, whether the marriages were before or after baptism; those already ordained are left undisturbed.
Ancoratus 68.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The Spirit legislates as the Lord does.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ upholds marriage, which Simon corrupts.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus' teaching on divorce shows the Creator is his Father.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage is from God, as Christ and Paul teach.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.14.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul commands younger widows to marry and bear children.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Josephus remarried to avoid ordination by the Arians.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.18.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius says the Ebionites permit divorce and repeated remarriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus said Moses permitted divorce because of hardness of heart, but God joined marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God's law forbids divorce; Moses' law allows it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Moses legislated against God's will, but out of necessity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Unhappy marriages risked leading the people into sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Moses gave the divorce law as the lesser evil.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The divorce law kept them from worse sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · So Moses' own law is distinct from God's.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Moses' divorce law was given by the Holy Spirit, not against God's will.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ cites Genesis to show how God joined marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God himself did not speak the words about one flesh at creation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · As Adam's words were God's, so Moses' law was God's; two of Ptolemy's claims fall.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture shows marriage is from God and honourable.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Priesthood is given chiefly to the once-married living in continence and to virgins.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A layman may remarry after his wife's death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Montanists expel those who remarry.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church encourages but does not compel abstention from second marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul bears with the weak, as his counsel on younger widows shows.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Only widows who broke a vow are condemned for remarrying; Paul permits others to marry.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Matthew opens with Christ's genealogy and virginal conception.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The angel tells Joseph not to put Mary away.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Novatians exclude the twice-married after baptism.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Rules for clergy were wrongly applied to all.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The twice-married are not admitted to the priesthood.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Clergy must be continent or widowed where the canons are strict.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Laity may remarry after a spouse’s death.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius says the church bears with those who remarry after death or separation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Not bigamy, but a lawful second marriage after separation, is tolerated.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul allows widows to remarry and restores the repentant sinner.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A lawful second marriage is borne with; Paul allows a widow to remarry “in the Lord.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Remarriage after a spouse’s death is “in the Lord.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “In the Lord” means an honorable marriage and a godly life.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.7.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They misapply the rule on second marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.11.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They extend clerical rules to all and make God harsh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.11.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They pride themselves on one rule.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Forced separation is human; chosen continence is God’s work.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The same Scripture commands honoring parents and marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture needs discernment, not constant allegory.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Widows who break their pledge incur judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.7.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul’s moderate word rejects both rigorists and the lax.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.31.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ took Genesis 2 literally in the divorce question.
Apostolic Canon 5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy may not put away their wives on the pretext of piety.
Apostolic Canon 17Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man twice married after baptism, or with a concubine, cannot be ordained.
Apostolic Canon 18Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man married to a widow, a divorced woman, a courtesan, a slave or an actress cannot be ordained.
Apostolic Canon 48Anonymous · ca. 380 · A layman who divorces his wife and remarries, or marries a divorced woman, is excommunicated.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.2.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A bishop must be the husband of one wife who herself has married only once, and rule his household well.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.1.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Women enrolled as widows must be at least sixty, so that a second marriage is not to be feared.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.1.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A young enrolled widow who remarries is blamed for breaking her promise, not for the marriage itself.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.1.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · A young woman who stays unmarried after losing her husband, having the gift of widowhood, is blessed like the widow of Zarephath.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.2.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Young widows are not to be enrolled but should be supported, so that need does not drive them into an unseemly remarriage.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.2.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · One marriage is righteous; a second after the widow’s vow is unlawful because of the broken promise; a third shows incontinence; more is sexual immorality.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.2.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God made one wife for one man, but young widows are permitted a second husband to avoid sin.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.14.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · A husband may not put away a blameless wife, for God joined them, but he must not keep a wife who has committed adultery.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.17.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Bishops, presbyters and deacons must have married only once and may not marry or remarry after ordination.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.17.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy may not marry a courtesan, a slave, a widow or a divorced woman.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.29.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God bears witness to the bond with the wife of one's youth.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.50Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The clergy, like the Levites whose portion is God, must be free of greed, married only once, continent, and guardians of the mysteries, exercising the four virtues and discerning when duties change.
On the Duties of the Clergy 2.6Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Ambrose defines the useful not as monetary gain but as piety, so that the useful, the honourable, and the just coincide, as in chastity and widowhood.
Letter 157.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's command to leave all, including a wife, applies when one must choose between spouse and Christ; otherwise divorce is forbidden except for sexual immorality, and Paul's counsel on mixed marriages applies.
Homilies on Matthew 17.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Plucking out the offending eye means cutting off friends or relatives who lead us into sin, which serves both parties; the theater is condemned, and the next lemma on divorce is introduced.
Homilies on Matthew 17.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Mosaic certificate of divorce was a concession to prevent worse crimes; Christ, having removed anger, forbids putting away a wife except for sexual immorality, makes the man who does so responsible for her adultery, and closes remarriage to the woman put away; he then turns to oaths.
Homilies on Matthew 18.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Love and prayer for enemies are the ninth and highest step of a ladder of virtue whose reward is likeness to God; Christ’s own forgiveness on the cross makes it possible, and the angry man is to be pitied as one sick, while the whole sermon is shown to uproot anger, desire, and greed.
Homilies on Matthew 18.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Praying for persecutors crowns the commands; Christ uses the rewards more than threats, shaming his hearers by comparison with tax collectors and Gentiles, and Christians are urged to greet their enemies first.
Homilies on Matthew 62.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · On the Pharisees’ question about divorce, Chrysostom explains Christ’s appeal to creation (one man joined to one woman, one flesh), his answer about Moses’ concession to hardness of heart, the disciples’ objection, and the saying about eunuchs, which he applies to voluntary virginity and not to bodily mutilation.
Homilies on Matthew 64.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The thrones mean sharing Christ’s glory and condemning unbelieving Israel; leaving wife means preferring godliness, not breaking marriages; the parable of the laborers teaches that late converts can receive the full reward, while faith without a worthy life and even one neglected virtue can shut one out of heaven.
Homilies on Matthew 86.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Passions once admitted are hard to expel, and the devil leads men from small sins to great ones—as with Saul, Cain and Judas—then to despair, and also deceives under a guise of piety, as when wives refuse their husbands for the sake of continence, or men abhor foods or grieve immoderately; Scripture arms us against each of these ways.
Sermon 51.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Joseph, thinking Mary an adulteress, showed true justice: he would neither keep her out of carnal love nor punish or expose her, but planned to put her away quietly.
Sermon 91.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one ascends to heaven except Christ, so believers ascend only as members of his body, Christ and the church being two in one flesh as in marriage.
On the Profit of Believing 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391–392 · Christ used history (David and the loaves) and aetiology (Moses’ permission of divorce given for hardness of heart).
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains that Moses’ certificate of divorce was meant to delay separation, that Christ excepts only sexual immorality, and that, following Paul, neither a wife who departs nor a husband who puts away his wife may marry another while the spouse lives.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine reconciles Christ’s ban on putting away a wife with the command to hate one’s wife: the Christian loves the spouse as a human being and fellow heir, while hating the temporal and mortal bond that will not exist in the resurrection.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine asks how widely “sexual immorality” in the exception clause is to be taken, argues from 1 Cor 7 that it includes idolatry, unbelief, and every unlawful desire, holds that a woman who is put away should remain unmarried or be reconciled, and recounts without judgment a case from Antioch.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine sums up the precepts so far as the hard conquest of habit, including bearing every hardship of marriage except sexual immorality and not marrying a divorced woman, and introduces the precepts of mercy.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the “sin unto death” of 1 John 5:16 as a Christian’s envious attack on the brotherhood after receiving grace, connects it with the sin against the Holy Spirit and with Judas’s despair, and reads the martyrs’ cry for vengeance as a prayer for the overthrow of sin’s kingdom.
Against Jovinianus 1.4Jerome · 393 · Jerome compares Jovinian's teaching to the serpent's in paradise, announces his plan, and states that Jovinian, by making all merits equal, wrongs both virginity and marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.5Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes Jovinian's first argument: from Genesis onward God blessed marriage, and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles were married.
Against Jovinianus 1.7Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:1–9 and 1 Pet 3:1–7 to argue that marriage is allowed as a remedy against sexual immorality and that intercourse hinders prayer.
Against Jovinianus 1.8Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that Paul's permission to resume marital relations is an indulgence, not a command, and that the gifts of virginity and marriage differ.
Against Jovinianus 1.10Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes 1 Cor 7:10–17 on divorce and mixed marriages and argues that Christian women may not marry pagans.
Against Jovinianus 1.11Jerome · 393 · Jerome interprets Paul's sayings about circumcision and slavery in 1 Cor 7:17–24 as figures for the married and the unmarried.
Against Jovinianus 1.12Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's use of "I have no command of the Lord": virginity is counseled, not commanded, as Christ's saying on eunuchs shows, and is the greater gift.
Against Jovinianus 1.13Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:28–38: marriage is not sin, but virginity is better, freeing the virgin for the things of the Lord.
Against Jovinianus 1.14Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from 1 Cor 7:39–40 and other texts that second marriage is permitted only as a concession and ranks below a single marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.15Jerome · 393 · Jerome reports a view that Paul's permission to remarry applied to those widowed before baptism, and argues that if second marriage is allowed, so are third and later ones.
Against Jovinianus 1.16Jerome · 393 · Jerome begins his answer from the Old Testament: Adam and Eve were virgins in paradise, Christ and the Church are the true sense of Gen 2:24, and the number two is not called good.
Against Jovinianus 1.18Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that meat-eating, divorce, and circumcision were later concessions, and that Christ restores the order of the beginning, in which there was no divorce.
Against Jovinianus 1.19Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's appeal to the patriarchs: Abraham's circumcision must be followed with his wives, Isaac had one wife, and Jacob's marriages belong to his time in Mesopotamia.
Against Jovinianus 1.20Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns Jovinian's examples from Judah to Moses, and cites the laws of Sinai, the bread of the Presence, and priestly marriage as showing the precedence of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.23Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's examples of Samson, Deborah, Jephthah, Samuel, and Boaz and Ruth.
Against Jovinianus 1.30Jerome · 393 · Jerome reads the Song of Songs as celebrating virginity, the chaste turtledove, and the bride's purity.
Against Jovinianus 1.33Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's claim that baptized virgins and widows are equal, citing Jeremiah's virginity and Ezekiel's freedom after his wife's death.
Against Jovinianus 1.34Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objection that Paul appointed married clergy: Paul's requirements were a concession to new converts, and married clergy are bound to continence.
Against Jovinianus 1.35Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds the qualifications for a bishop in 1 Tim 3, stressing chastity, and argues that rank in the clergy does not determine merit before Christ.
Against Jovinianus 1.37Jerome · 393 · Jerome gathers Paul's sayings on the flesh and the spirit (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians) and applies them to the superiority of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.43Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Dido and Hasdrubal's wife as pagan women who chose death rather than a second marriage or captivity.
Against Jovinianus 1.44Jerome · 393 · Jerome gives further pagan examples of faithful wives: Niceratus's wife, Artemisia, Teuta, the Indian widows, and Alcibiades's concubine.
Against Jovinianus 1.45Jerome · 393 · Jerome continues with examples of devoted wives: Strato's wife, Panthea, the wife of Candaules, Rhodogune, Alcestis, Penelope, and Laodamia.
Against Jovinianus 1.46Jerome · 393 · Jerome gives examples of Roman women honored for chastity and for refusing a second marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.47Jerome · 393 · Jerome quotes at length Theophrastus's lost book On Marriage, arguing that a wise man should not marry.
Against Jovinianus 1.48Jerome · 393 · Jerome adds examples from pagan history and literature of the troubles of marriage, and the views of Epicurus and Chrysippus.
Against Jovinianus 1.49Jerome · 393 · Jerome quotes Seneca's lost On Marriage on excessive love and on chastity as woman's chief virtue, and ends with pagan honor for the once-married.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine reconciles Genesis 2 on marriage with Christ's call to leave a wife for the kingdom: both come from the Lord, a wife is left only if she hinders faith (1 Cor 7:15), and divorce is otherwise forbidden except for sexual immorality.
On the Christian Struggle 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 396–397 · Augustine rejects those who deny that the church can forgive all sins and who condemn remarried widows as adulteresses, against Paul's permission.
Confessions 9.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica won her husband for Christ before his death and cared for all Augustine's companions like a mother.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that Jesus fulfilled the ancient moral precepts given before Moses but destroyed the specifically Mosaic ones, such as retaliation and divorce.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that the Mosaic certificate of divorce was meant to delay and discourage divorce by sending the husband to the scribes for counsel, and asks why Manichaeans, who reject procreation, object to divorce.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows that Christ answered the question about divorce from the books of Moses, which teach that God joined male and female, and that Moses permitted divorce only because of hardness of heart.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the Paraclete came immediately after Christ’s glorification, and that the Montanists, who used the same texts to condemn second marriage, show how any heresy can claim the Paraclete.
Canon 4Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · A subdeacon who remarries after his wife's death is reduced to door-keeper or reader; one who marries a third time is suspended for two years and then restored only as a layman.
Canon 18Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · The widow of a bishop, presbyter or deacon who remarries is shunned and receives communion only at death.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew and Luke agree that Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit; Luke tells the annunciation Matthew omits, and Matthew tells Joseph's dream Luke omits.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.120Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew and Mark both tell of the question on divorce, though in Mark Jesus asks what Moses commanded, while in Matthew the Pharisees raise Moses' bill of divorce in reply.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.121Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Whether the Pharisees raised Moses' bill of divorce unprompted or in reply to Jesus' question, both evangelists show the intentions of the speakers truly.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.122Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Alternatively, the Pharisees mentioned Moses' permission twice, once in reply to Jesus and once after his appeal to creation, and Mark places Jesus' answer after the first.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 132–133Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Levirate marriage was lawful even for a married brother, since the law allowed more than one wife, and it gave the dead man an heir and kept the inheritance in the tribe; and Christ, born of Joseph's wife without his seed, was Joseph's son as Joseph was Heli's son by law, as the evangelists' written genealogies show.
On the Good of Marriage 3Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage is good not only for children but for the natural companionship of the sexes, and it gives faithfulness and restraint to desire.
On the Good of Marriage 6Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine grades marital intercourse (blameless for procreation, venially faulty from desire) and argues that the marriage bond, as a kind of sacrament, survives separation.
On the Good of Marriage 7Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine finds it a hard question whether a man who dismisses an adulterous wife may remarry, inclines to think not, and explains the firmness of the bond as a sacrament.
On the Good of Marriage 15Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christians now free to choose continence should prefer it; the patriarchs married from duty, not lust, and would have embraced continence had it been offered.
On the Good of Marriage 17Augustine of Hippo · 401 · A marriage once entered among God's people can be dissolved only by death, even if it is childless; the patriarchs' plural marriages were a duty of their time.
On the Good of Marriage 21Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Monogamy now signifies the future unity of the church under Christ; hence a cleric must be the husband of one wife, and a wife may never pass from a living husband to another.
On the Good of Marriage 27Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine tells a continent Christian how to answer the taunt “So you are better than Abraham?”: celibate chastity is better, but Abraham had continence in disposition.
On the Good of Marriage 32Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine sums up the three goods of marriage, offspring, faithfulness, and sacrament, the last making the bond indissoluble while both spouses live.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Woman was made for procreation; marriage is good and a remedy for incontinence, and its threefold good is fidelity, offspring, and sacrament, which forbids separation and remarriage after dismissal.
On Holy Virginity 15Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Not divorcing is a precept, since a wife may be put away only for sexual immorality; not marrying is a counsel, so marrying is no sin.
On Holy Virginity 23Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christ himself says that those who renounce marriage do so for the kingdom of heaven.
Canon 102 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Neither a husband nor a wife who has been put away may marry another; they must remain unmarried or be reconciled, or be put under penance.
Apology against Rufinus 1.32Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome defends his teaching that baptism washes away all sins, so that a man married twice before baptism may become a cleric, and denies seeking office or wealth.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 39Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The one holy church keeps the whole faith; Rufinus warns against the 'councils of vanity' of Marcion, Ebion, Mani, Paul of Samosata, Arius and others.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · By attending the wedding Christ confirmed that God made marriage, against those who would call it evil; as joining is from God, divorce is from the devil, dismissal being allowed only for sexual immorality, and consecrated virgins too share in the Church's marriage to Christ.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Original sin is inherited as death is; whatever holiness Paul means in 1 Corinthians 7:14, it does not replace baptism for unbelieving spouses or for the children of believers.
City of God 14.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Marriage and procreation, blessed by God before sin, belong to the real, bodily difference of male and female, as Christ taught when asked about divorce: “What God has joined, let man not separate.”
City of God 16.34Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Abraham's marriage to Keturah may signify carnal people who claim the new covenant, but it also shows that remarriage after a spouse's death is no sin.
On Faith and Works 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The occasion of the dispute: some wanted to baptize those remarried after divorce, whose unions Christ calls adultery, and extended this to all unrepentant sinners.
On Faith and Works 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · A married candidate who refused abstinence during the days of preparation would not be baptized; how then can an adulterer who refuses to amend be admitted?
On Faith and Works 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · A woman who unknowingly marries another's husband becomes an adulteress only once she knows; ending such unions corrects sin rather than dissolving marriages, since in the church marriage is a sacrament.
On Faith and Works 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Paul's permission to let an unbelieving spouse depart (1 Cor 7:15) applies when she demands that the Christian continue in crime; the pain of such separation is the “fire” by which he is saved.
On Faith and Works 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Refusing baptism to those who profess to persist in adultery is not uprooting the weeds early but refusing to sow them; such people themselves refuse to come to Christ.
On Faith and Works 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Refusing baptism to an adulterer who will not change is not the lazy servant's fault; admitting him would teach that unrepentant adulterers inherit the kingdom, a “bad net” pastors must avoid.
On Faith and Works 33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Excluding the openly unrepentant from baptism is not new but the church's ancient custom for prostitutes and actors; where adulterers are carelessly admitted, the practice should be corrected, not extended.
On Faith and Works 35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Augustine distinguishes manifest adultery, which bars from baptism, from doubtful cases: marriage to unbelievers, Herod's union, a faithful concubine, and a man who remarries after putting away an adulterous wife, where Scripture is obscure and error may be venial.
On Faith and Works 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · The absence of an explicit apostolic rule on remarried converts proves nothing; Peter's call to leave a crooked generation covers adultery, and John's demands on tax collectors show a fortiori that adultery cannot be allowed.
On Faith and Works 47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Those who seek baptism while professing to keep their adulteries are worse than backsliders: they refuse to leave Sodom at all, and sinning knowingly aggravates guilt.
On Faith and Works 49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Conclusion: the wicked are tolerated without abandoning discipline; candidates must be taught how to live as well as what to believe; eternal life is not promised to dead faith, and those who openly intend to remain in adultery refuse Christ's gift.
On the Good of Widowhood 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Marriage, with its offspring, faithfulness, and indissoluble sacrament, is good; a widow who remarries after her husband's death is blessed, but one who remains a widow is more blessed.
On the Good of Widowhood 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Widowhood does not condemn second marriage, which the apostle allows, against the Montanists, the Novatianists, and Tertullian; it simply ranks higher.
On the Good of Widowhood 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Under the old dispensation holy women married, and men took several wives, out of duty to propagate the people from whom Christ would come; so Ruth's second marriage need not rank below Anna's widowhood.
On the Good of Widowhood 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · In the last times, when children are begotten spiritually from all nations, a second marriage for a widow with children would show only incontinence; marriage remains good, but a vowed continence must not be broken.
On the Good of Widowhood 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · For one who has vowed continence even the wish to marry is condemned: not because marriage is evil, but because the vow is broken.
On the Good of Widowhood 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Augustine rejects the view that marriages of women who broke a vow of continence are adulteries, since separating such couples would make the husbands, who then remarry, real adulterers.
On the Good of Widowhood 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Such marriages are not adulteries, but breaking a vow of continence is worse than adultery; second marriages as such are no crime.
On the Good of Widowhood 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Augustine will not condemn third or later marriages after a spouse's death, since neither Paul nor Christ did, though their number is a matter of shame; every widow is more blessed if she remains so.
On the Good of Widowhood 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · A widow's merit is measured by the strength of her continence, not by the number of her husbands; Anna is praised for her long widowhood after a short marriage.
On the Good of Widowhood 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Comparing imagined widows, Augustine gives the palm to the most fervent piety rather than to having had only one husband.
On the Good of Widowhood 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Continence ranks above marriage and virginity above widowhood, but no true marriage is condemned; ascetics who condemn second marriages are not to be followed.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.39Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Marriage has three goods, offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond, and it makes good use of lust; the shame attached to sexual desire comes from the disobedience of sin, not from marriage.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul'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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul'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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · If 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Mark 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Since 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul'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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine distinguishes what is lawful but not expedient (such as leaving an unbelieving spouse) from what is good and better (such as marriage and virginity).
On Adulterous Marriages 1.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Unbelief 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Ezra'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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul's counsel is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and so is from the Lord in a real sense, though it is not a command.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · A 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine distinguishes the command not to contract marriages with unbelievers from Paul's advice about marriages already existing when one spouse converts.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Winning a soul for Christ does not justify committing adultery by remarriage, since one may not do evil that good may come.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Neither remarriage after divorce nor breaking a vow of continence may be excused by the hope of converting a prospective spouse.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Where the Lord gives no command, Paul's counsel guides; but for any kind of fornication, of flesh or spirit, dismissal never permits remarriage.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · If 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The marriage bond survives separation as baptism survives excommunication; adultery is a death of the soul, not the death that frees a spouse to remarry.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Against Pollentius's objection, Augustine argues that a husband may and should be reconciled to a repentant adulterous wife, since Christ forgave the adulteress.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine rejects the double standard that punishes adulterous wives but excuses husbands, citing even a pagan emperor's rescript, and calls adulterous men to repentance.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Reconciliation 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · To 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Even 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The desire for children cannot excuse remarriage after dismissing an adulterous wife, any more than it could justify dismissing a barren one.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · A 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Christians 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · If remarriage after a spouse's adultery were allowed, husbands could engineer their wives' adultery by dismissing them and then claim freedom to remarry.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The sacrament of marriage makes the bond last as long as both spouses live, so that marrying another after separation is adultery by the law of the gospel.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · All three goods of marriage were present in the marriage of Joseph and Mary, and Christ was conceived without the concupiscence that marks all flesh born of intercourse.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers Julian's charge that he denies that marriage is instituted by God, showing from Scripture that present marriages are God's work.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers the charge that he calls the saints only relatively good, explaining that right faith, not moral achievement alone, distinguishes the righteous, and illustrating this with two contrasting men.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ's human birth from the Holy Spirit, the gift equal to the giver, shows grace, as the annunciations to Mary and Joseph declare.
Retractations 1.18Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Augustine qualifies statements on perfection in this life, the law, anger, hating relatives, the Lordly man, and daily food, and leaves open what kind of fornication permits putting away a wife.
Retractations 2.57Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine says that in his two books On Adulterous Marriages he did not fully resolve the very difficult question of divorce and remarriage, though he opened many of its recesses.
The Conferences 21.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas’s wife refuses to join him, warning that she may sin if deserted; he argues from the Gospel that the call to perfection outweighs marriage, and when she will not yield he leaves her for the monastery, later becoming head of the diaconia.
The Conferences 21.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian insists that he does not encourage the breaking of marriages, affirms marriage as honorable, and leaves judgment of Theonas’s act to the reader, noting that God and the elders approved him.
The Conferences 23.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas explains “sold under sin” as Adam’s sale of his descendants into slavery to the devil for the forbidden fruit, from which God, respecting free will, redeemed them only in the fullness of time by Christ’s blood.
Canon 21Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · A penitent widow who remarries or lives in suspect familiarity with a man is excluded from the church with him; the same applies to a male penitent.
Canon 45Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Men married to a widow or married twice may not be ordained above subdeacon, and are removed if ordained.