Chapter VII.--The Case of a Heathen Whose Wife is Converted After Marriage with Him Very Different, and Much More Hopeful.
If these things may happen to those women also who, having attained the faith while in (the state of) Gentile matrimony, continue in that state, still they are excused, as having been "apprehended by God" [483] in these very circumstances; and they are bidden to persevere in their married state, and are sanctified, and have hope of "making a gain" [484] held out to them. "If, then, a marriage of this kind (contracted before conversion) stands ratified before God, why should not (one contracted after conversion) too go prosperously forward, so as not to be thus harassed by pressures, and straits, and hindrances, and defilements, having already (as it has) the partial sanction of divine grace? "Because, on the one hand, the wife [485] in the former case, called from among the Gentiles to the exercise of some eminent heavenly virtue, is, by the visible proofs of some marked (divine) regard, a terror to her Gentile husband, so as to make him less ready to annoy her, less active in laying snares for her, less diligent in playing the spy over her. He has felt "mighty works;" [486] he has seen experimental evidences; he knows her changed for the better: thus even he himself is, by his fear, [487] a candidate for God. [488] Thus men of this kind, with regard to whom the grace of God has established a familiar intimacy, are more easily "gained." But, on the other hand, to descend into forbidden ground unsolicited and spontaneously, is (quite) another thing. Things which are not pleasing to the Lord, of course offend the Lord, are of course introduced by the Evil One. A sign hereof is this fact, that it is wooers only who find the Christian name pleasing; and, accordingly, some heathen men are found not to shrink in horror from Christian women, just in order to exterminate them, to wrest them away, to exclude them from the faith. So long as marriage of this kind is procured by the Evil One, but condemned by God, you have a reason why you need not doubt that it can in no case be carried to a prosperous end.
[483] Comp. Phil. iii. 12, and c. ii. sub fin.
[484] Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 16 and 1 Pet. iii. 1.
[485] Tertullian here and in other places appears, as the best editors maintain, to use the masculine gender for the feminine.
[486] Magnalia. Comp. 2 Cor. xii. 12.
[487] Timore.
[488] Comp. de Or., c. iii. (med.), "angelorum candidati;" and de Bapt., c. x. sub fin., "candidatus remissionis."
Chapter VIII.--Arguments Drawn Even from Heathenish Laws to Discountenance Marriage with Unbelievers. The Happiness of Union Between Partners in the Faith Enlarged on in Conclusion.
Let us further inquire, as if we were in very deed inquisitors of divine sentences, whether they be lawfully (thus condemned). Even among the nations, do not all the strictest lords and most tenacious of discipline interdict their own slaves from marrying out of their own house?--in order, of course, that they may not run into lascivious excess, desert their duties, purvey their lords' goods to strangers. Yet, further, have not (the nations) decided that such women as have, after their lords' [489] formal warning, persisted in intercourse with other men's slaves, may be claimed as slaves? Shall earthly disciplines be held more strict than heavenly prescripts; so that Gentile women, if united to strangers, lose their liberty; ours conjoin to themselves the devil's slaves, and continue in their (former) position? Forsooth, they will deny that any formal warning has been given them by the Lord through His own apostle! [490]
What am I to fasten on as the cause of this madness, except the weakness of faith, ever prone to the concupiscences of worldly [491] joys?--which, indeed, is chiefly found among the wealthier; for the more any is rich, and inflated with the name of "matron," the more capacious house does she require for her burdens, as it were a field wherein ambition may run its course. To such the churches look paltry. A rich man is a difficult thing (to find) in the house of God; [492] and if such an one is (found there), difficult (is it to find such) unmarried. What, then, are they to do? Whence but from the devil are they to seek a husband apt for maintaining their sedan, and their mules, and their hair-curlers of outlandish stature? A Christian, even although rich, would perhaps not afford (all) these. Set before yourself, I beg of you, the examples of Gentiles. Most Gentile women, noble in extraction and wealthy in property, unite themselves indiscriminately with the ignoble and the mean, sought out for themselves for luxurious, or mutilated for licentious, purposes. Some take up with their own freedmen and slaves, despising public opinion, provided they may but have (husbands) from whom to fear no impediment to their own liberty. To a Christian believer it is irksome to wed a believer inferior to herself in estate, destined as she will be to have her wealth augmented in the person of a poor husband! For if it is "the poor," not the rich, "whose are the kingdoms of the heavens," [493] the rich will find more in the poor (than she brings him, or than she would in the rich). She will be dowered with an ampler dowry from the goods of him who is rich in God. Let her be on an equality with him on earth, who in the heavens will perhaps not be so. Is there need for doubt, and inquiry, and repeated deliberation, whether he whom God has entrusted with His own property [494] is fit for dotal endowments? [495] Whence are we to find (words) enough fully to tell the happiness of that marriage which the Church cements, and the oblation confirms, and the benediction signs and seals; (which) angels carry back the news of (to heaven), (which) the Father holds for ratified? For even on earth children [496] do not rightly and lawfully wed without their fathers' consent. What kind of yoke is that of two believers, (partakers) of one hope, one desire, [497] one discipline, one and the same service? Both (are) brethren, both fellow servants, no difference of spirit or of flesh; nay, (they are) truly "two in one flesh." [498] Where the flesh is one, one is the spirit too. Together they pray, together prostrate themselves, together perform their fasts; mutually teaching, mutually exhorting, [499] mutually sustaining. Equally (are they) both (found) in the Church of God; equally at the banquet of God; equally in straits, in persecutions, in refreshments. Neither hides (ought) from the other; neither shuns the other; neither is troublesome to the other. The sick is visited, the indigent relieved, with freedom. Alms (are given) without (danger of ensuing) torment; sacrifices (attended) without scruple; daily diligence (discharged) without impediment: (there is) no stealthy signing, no trembling greeting, no mute benediction. Between the two echo psalms and hymns; [500] and they mutually challenge each other which shall better chant to their Lord. Such things when Christ sees and hears, He joys. To these He sends His own peace. [501] Where two (are), there withal (is) He Himself. [502] Where He (is), there the Evil One is not.
These are the things which that utterance of the apostle has, beneath its brevity, left to be understood by us. These things, if need shall be, suggest to your own mind. By these turn yourself away from the examples of some. To marry otherwise is, to believers, not "lawful;" is not "expedient." [503]
[489] Oehler refers us to Tac., Ann., xii. 53, and the notes on that passage. (Consult especially Orelli's edition.)
[490] The translator inclines to think that Tertullian, desiring to keep up the parallelism of the last-mentioned case, in which (see note 1) the slave's master had to give the "warning," means by "domino" here, not "the Lord," who on his hypothesis is the woman's Master, not the slave's, but the "lord" of the "unbeliever," i.e., the devil: so that the meaning would be (with a bitter irony, especially if we compare the end of the last chapter, where "the Evil One" is said to "procure" these marriages, so far is he from "condemning" them): "Forsooth, they" (i.e., the Christian women) "will deny that a formal warning has been given them by the lord:" (of the unbelievers, i.e., the Evil One) "through an apostle of his!" If the other interpretation be correct, the reference will be to c. ii. above.
[491] Sæcularium.
[492] Matt. xix. 23, 24; Mark x. 23, 24; Luke xviii. 24, 25; 1 Cor. i. 26, 27.
[493] Matt. v. 3; but Tertullian has omitted "spiritu," which he inserts in de Pa., c. xi., where he refers to the same passage. In Luke vi. 20 there is no to pneumati.
[494] Censum.
[495] Invecta. Comp. de Pa., c. xiii. ad init.
[496] Filii.
[497] Comp. de Or., c. v. ad fin.; de Pa., c. ix. ad fin.; ad Ux., i. c. v. ad init.
[498] Gen. ii. 24; Matt. xix. 5; Mark x. 8; Eph. v. 31.
[499] Col. iii. 16.
[500] Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.
[501] Comp. John xiv. 27.
[502] Matt. xviii. 20.
[503] Comp. 1 Cor. x. 23.
Elucidation.
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(Marriage lawful, p. 39.)
St. Peter was a married apostle, and the traditions of his wife which connect her married life with Rome itself render it most surprising that those who claim to be St. Peter's successors should denounce the marriage of the clergy as if it were crime. The touching story, borrowed from Clement of Alexandria, is related by Eusebius. "And will they," says Clement, "reject even the apostles? Peter and Philip, indeed, had children; Philip also gave his daughters in marriage to husbands; and Paul does not demur, in a certain Epistle, to mention his own wife, whom he did not take about with him, in order to expedite his ministry the better." Of St. Peter and his wife, Eusebius subjoins, "Such was the marriage of these blessed ones, and such was their perfect affection." [504]
The Easterns to this day perpetuate the marriage of the clergy, and enjoin it; but unmarried men only are chosen to be bishops. Even Rome relaxes her discipline for the Uniats, and hundreds of her priesthood, therefore, live in honourable marriage. Thousands live in secret marriage, but their wives are dishonoured as "concubines." It was not till the eleventh century that the celibate was enforced. In England it was never successfully imposed; and, though the "priest's leman" was not called his wife (to the disgrace of the whole system), she was yet honoured (see Chaucer), and often carried herself too proudly.
The enormous evils of an enforced celibacy need not here be remarked upon. The history of Sacerdotal Celibacy, by Henry C. Lea [505] of Philadelphia, is compendious, and can be readily procured by all who wish to understand what it is that this treatise of Tertullian's orthodoxy may best be used to teach; viz., that we must not be wiser than God, even in our zeal for His service.
[504] Eccl. Hist., Book III. cap. xxx.
[505] Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., second edition, enlarged, 1884.
tertullian chastity anf04 tertullian-chastity On Exhortation to Chastity /ccel/schaff/anf04.iii.vi.html
On Exhortation to Chastity
V.
On Exhortation to Chastity. [506]
[Translated by the Rev. S. Thelwall.]
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