j written after he became a Montanist (comp. esp. cap. x) ; while in the treatise A d uxorem, -mitten before he left the- CathoUc Church, he does not condemn remarriage, although he praises widowhood. Most of the fathers, while, from the times of Hennas and of Clement of Al- exandria, they regard remarriage as no sin, look on widowhood and the state of a widower as capalile of higher virtue. Augustine thus expresses both opinions in his little work De bono viduitatis, written at the re- quest of a widow named Juliana, whose daughter had chosen a virgin's life. "As the good thing of virginity which your daughter has chosen does not condemn your one marriage, so your widowhood does not con- demn the second marriage of some one else. . . . Do not so extol your good thing as to accuse that which is not evil belonging to another, as if it were evil, but so much the more rejoice in your good, the more you per- ceive that not only evUs are prevented by it, but that
]\IARRIAGE
T9.3
MARRIAGE
it surpasses some good things in excellence. The evil things are adultery and fornication. Now from these illicit things she is far removed who by a free vow has bound herself, and thus has brought to pass not by the power of law, but bj- the purpose of love, that for her not even la^vfid things should be lawful." See Diga- mists; Celibacy.
3. But if the apostle Paul could even advise young widows to marry again, must not this be understood as if he thought this the less of two evils, and only nec- essary to save the persons in question from crime? Hcrw otherwise can we explain his directions that a bishop, and so also a deacon, must be the husband of one wife? (1 Tim. iii, 2, 12; Titus i, 6). ' Some have explained these directions as forbidding polygamy— — that is, simultaneous polygamy, to speak technically — which would seem to imply that among the private members of the Church at Ephesus and in Crete such plurality of wives was allowed. But the words in 1 Tim. V, 9, where the qualification occurs that the aged vkhic in question must have been the wife of one ma?), forbid such an interpretation, for othenvise we should have to suppose that polyandry was practiced. The phrases are exactly of the same form in all the four cases, siuce in the last-mentioned verse the participle ytyovvia is to be joined to "sixty years" (comp. Luke ii, 42). The sense, then, must be that the bishop, or deacon, or widow had not been married but once. Now this was a special precept suited to the state of life of the times, for in marrying more than once they might have obtained divorce — in their heathenish condition — or have married divorced persons contrary to the law of Christ. Of these irregularities, if they had married but once, there would be less probability.
IV. Many one-sided and erroneous opinions must arise when marriage is looked at only in one of its as- pects or relations. Thus it may be said to exist Kbe- rorum qxcerendoriun causa ; but if that is the only side on which we view it, we shall have to say that no mar- riages ought to be contracted when the woman is past the age of chUd-bearing. It may be put on the foun- dation of restraming and moderating those sexual de- sires which might otherwise imbrute men. But if this were the only reason for marriage, it would be at the best but a necessan,- evU. It may be said to be insti- tuted for the happiness of the partners in the union ; but if this were all, every disappointed man or woman ought to have an opportunity to place his or her affec- tions on a new object. It may be said to be in idea the highest religious luiion, but a Christian wife has never felt it to be right for this reason to leave a luisband merely because he is unconverted. We must, then, look at marriage on every side : on its jural, moral, and re- ligious aspects ; on its relations to sexual differences ; to the birth and education of children ; to its use in ce- menting the State together through the ties of kindred ; to the love that will almost of course subsist between the married couple ; to the field which it affords for the highest social and spiritual well-being of husband, wife, and famUy. It ought to be added also, as a point of no small importance, that the jural relations of marriage are determined bj' the moral convictions of men, and that thus Christianity, by purifying the moral sense, and by giving forth a nobler idea of marriage, has ennobled and strengthened civil law. Those nations have had the best moral habits where the sentiments regarding matrimony and the family were the most pure. 'Witness the IJomans of the earlier ages, to whom divorce was unknown, and among whom the matron was chaste and frugal. The corruption of Koman mor- als first appeared, according to Horace, in the defilement of married life and the family :
" Fecunda cnlpoe srecnla nuptias Primum iuqniuavere et genus et domos."