49. Aristotle and Plutarch and our Seneca have written treatises on matrimony, out of which we have already made some extracts and now add a few more. "The love of beauty is the forgetting of reason and the near neighbour of madness; a foul blot little in keeping with a sound mind. It confuses counsel, breaks high and generous spirits, draws away men from great thoughts to mean ones; it makes men querulous, ill-tempered, foolhardy, cruelly imperious, servile flatterers, good for nothing, at last not even for love itself. For although in the intensity of passion it burns like a raging fire, it wastes much time through suspicions, tears, and complaints: it begets hatred of itself, and at last hates itself." The course of love is laid bare in Plato's Phædrus from beginning to end, and Lysias explains all its drawbacks--how it is led not by reason, but by frenzy, and in particular is a harsh gaoler over lovely wives. Seneca, too, relates that he knew an accomplished man who before going out used to tie his wife's garter upon his breast, and could not bear to be absent from her for a quarter of an hour; and this pair would never take a drink unless husband and wife alternately put their lips to the cup; and they did other things just as absurd in the extravagant outbursts of their warm but blind affection. Their love was of honourable birth, but it grew out of all proportion. And it makes no difference how honourable may be the cause of a man's insanity. Hence [4639] Xystus in his Sentences tells us that "He who too ardently loves his own wife is an adulterer." It is disgraceful to love another man's wife at all, or one's own too much. A wise man ought to love his wife with judgment, not with passion. Let a man govern his voluptuous impulses, and not rush headlong into intercourse. There is nothing blacker than to love a wife as if she were an adulteress. Men who say they have contracted marriage and are bringing up children, for the good of their country and of the race, should at least imitate the brutes, and not destroy their offspring in the womb; nor should they appear in the character of lovers, but of husbands. In some cases marriage has grown out of adultery: and, shameful to relate! men have tried to teach their wives chastity after having taken their chastity away. Marriages of that sort are quickly dissolved when lust is satiated. The first allurement gone, the charm is lost. What shall I say, says Seneca, of the poor men who in numbers are bribed to take the name of husband in order to evade the laws promulgated against bachelors? How can he who is married under such conditions be a guide to morality, teach chastity, and maintain the authority of a husband? It is the saying of a very learned man, that chastity must be preserved at all costs, and that when it is lost all virtue falls to the ground. This holds the primacy of all virtues in woman. This it is that makes up for a wife's poverty, enhances her riches, redeems her deformity, gives grace to her beauty; it makes her act in a way worthy of her forefathers whose blood it does not taint with bastard offspring; of her children, who through it have no need to blush for their mother, or to be in doubt about their father; and above all, of herself, since it defends her from external violation. There is no greater calamity connected with captivity than to be the victim of another's lust. The consulship sheds lustre upon men; eloquence gives eternal renown; military glory and a triumph immortalise an obscure family. Many are the spheres ennobled by splendid ability. The virtue of woman is, in a special sense, purity. It was this that made [4640] Lucretia the equal of Brutus, if it did not make her his superior, since Brutus learnt from a woman the impossibility of being a slave. It was this that made [4641] Cornelia a fit match for Gracchus, and [4642] Porcia for a second Brutus. [4643] Tanaquil is better known than her husband. His name, like the names of many other kings, is lost in the mists of antiquity. She, through a virtue rare among women, is too deeply rooted in the hearts of all ages for her memory ever to perish. Let my married sisters copy the examples of [4644] Theano, [4645] Cleobuline, Gorgente, [4646] Timoclia, the [4647] Claudias and Cornelias; and when they find the Apostle conceding second marriage to depraved women, they will read that before the light of our religion shone upon the world wives of one husband ever held high rank among matrons, that by their hands the sacred rites of Fortuna [4648] Muliebris were performed, that a priest or [4649] Flamen twice [4650] married was unknown, that the high-priests of Athens to this day [4651] emasculate themselves by drinking hemlock, and once they have been drawn in to the pontificate, cease to be men.
[4254] From this expression and that quoted in the notice above, it would be supposed that Jerome knew Jovinianus and his mode of life. But there is no reason to think that he had this knowledge; and his imputations against his adversary must be taken as the inferences which he draws from his opinions.
[4255] Hor. Ars Poet. 139.
[4256] Pers. Sat. iii. 118.
[4257] Plautus, Pseudolus, i. 1. 23. Has quidem, pol, credo, nisi Sibylla legerit, Interpretari alium potesse neminem.
[4258] The allusion is probably to the Sybilline books.
[4259] Æn x. 640.
[4260] The philosopher of Ephesus. Flourished about b.c. 513.
[4261] Ibi est distinctio. Instead of clearness we have to make a choice between possible meanings.
[4262] Marcion lived about a.d. 150, and was co-temporary with Polycarp, who is said to have had a personal encounter with him at Rome. Unlike other Gnostics he professed to be purely Christian in his doctrines. He is specially noted for his violent treatment of Scripture: he rejected the whole of the Old Testament, while of the New he acknowledged only the Gospel of S. Luke and ten of S. Paul's Epistles, and from these he expunged whatever he did not approve of. His sect lasted until the sixth century.
[4263] By birth an Assyrian, and a pupil of Justin Martyr. His followers were called Encratites, or Temperates, from their great austerity. They also bore the names Water-drinkers and Renouncers.
[4264] Heb. xiii. The Revised Ver. translates "let marriage be, etc." There is no verb in the original, the sentence being probably designed to be a Christian proverb, and capable of serving either as an assertion or as a precept. The revised rendering is preferred by the chief modern commentators.
[4265] Gen. i. 28.
[4266] For much interesting information relating to counting on the fingers, and for authorities on the subject, see Mayor's note on Juvenal x. 249.
[4267] The philosopher of Crotona, in Italy, b.c. 580-510. See some of his sayings in Jerome's Apology, iii. 39-40.
[4268] The great teacher of the Academy at Athens; lived b.c. 428-389.
[4269] Surnamed the "Just." He was the opponent of Themistocles. He fought at Marathon (490), and although in exile did good service at Salamis (480). He was now recalled, and after commanding the Athenians at Platæa (479) died, probably in 468, so poor that he did not leave enough to pay for his funeral.
[4270] Flourished about b.c. 370. A disciple of Socrates, and founder of the Cyrenaic School of Philosophy; he was luxurious in his life, and held pleasure to be the highest good.
[4271] Epicurus (b.c. 342-270), though a disciple of Aristippus, does not appear to have deserved the odium attached to his name by Jerome and many others. "Pleasure with him was not a mere momentary and transitory sensation, but something lasting and imperishable, consisting in pure and noble enjoyments, that is, in ataraxia and aponia, or the freedom from pain and from all influences which disturb the peace of our mind, and thereby our happiness which is the result of it." See Zeller's Socrates and the Socratic Schools (Reichel's translation), second ed., p. 337 sq.
[4272] The famous Athenian, talented, reckless and unscrupulous; born about b.c. 450, assassinated 404.
[4273] Gen. ii. 24.
[4274] Matt. xix. 5.
[4275] Gen. i. 28; ix. 1.
[4276] Gen. ix. 1.
[4277] Gen. ix. 3.
[4278] Gen. xxv. 23.
[4279] Gen. xxx. 1.
[4280] Gen. xxx. 2.
[4281] Palo. Rev. Vers. tent-pin.
[4282] Ps. lxxii. 1.
[4283] Ps. lxxii. 15.
[4284] Is. xxxviii. 19. Sept.
[4285] 1 Tim. v. 14.
[4286] Hebr. xiii. 4. See note on sec. 3.
[4287] 1 Cor. vii. 39.
[4288] 1 Tim. ii. 14.
[4289] 1 Cor. vii. 29.
[4290] 1 Cor. vii. 1 sq.
[4291] Prov. vi. 27, 28.
[4292] Mithras was the God of the Sun among the Persians. His worship was introduced at Rome under the Emperors, and thence spread over the empire.
[4293] Son of Vulcan, king of Athens, and the first to drive a four-in-hand, Virg. G. iii. 113: "First to the chariot, Ericthonius dared four steeds to join, and o'er the rapid wheels victorious hang."
[4294] 1 Pet. iii. 7.
[4295] 1 Pet. iii. 2, 3.
[4296] 1 John ii. 6.
[4297] 1 Cor. vii. 7.
[4298] 2 Cor. ii. 7.
[4299] 2 Cor. ii. 7.
[4300] 2 Cor. ii. 10. Margin.
[4301] Ps. xlv. 9, 13, 14.
[4302] 1 Peter iii. 7, joined with 1 Peter iv. 10.
[4303] 1 Cor. vii. 8.
[4304] Tit. i. 12.
[4305] 1 Cor. xv. 33.
[4306] Acts xvii. 28.
[4307] 1 Cor. vii. 10 sq.
[4308] 2 Cor. vi. 14 sq.
[4309] 1 Cor. vii. 39.
[4310] Mal. ii. 11, 12.
[4311] R.V. "To the man that doeth this, him that waketh and him that answereth."
[4312] 1 Cor. vii. 18 sq.
[4313] But S. Paul hints at a surgical operation. See Josephus, Antiq. Bk. xii. c. v. sec. 1, where certain apostates from Judaism are said "to have hid their circumcision that even when they were naked [in the gymnasium] they might appear to be Greeks." See also Celsus, Bk. vii. c. xxv.
[4314] Gal. v. 19.
[4315] 1 Cor. vi. 17.
[4316] 1 Cor. vii. 25, 26.
[4317] Ferias nuptiarum. The reference is to 1 Cor. vii. 5.
[4318] Matt. xix. 10 sq.
[4319] Jerome uses the Greek word agonothetes --President of the Games.
[4320] S. John vii. 37.
[4321] Is. lvi. 3.
[4322] Jer. xxxviii. 7.
[4323] Acts viii. 27.
[4324] 1 Cor. vii. 26.
[4325] Matt. xxiv. 19, &c.
[4326] 1 Cor. vii. 27.
[4327] 1 Cor. vii. 30 sqq.
[4328] See Rev. Ver. Margin.
[4329] See the treatise on the Perp. Virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Rome, 384.
[4330] Ep. xxii. on the guarding of virginity. Rome, 384.
[4331] Jerome apparently, here, alludes to some early work of Tertullian not now extant.
[4332] Jerome often alludes to his relation to Gregory, in the year 381; he was present at the council of Constantinople, of which Gregory was then the bishop.
[4333] This rendering supposes kai memeristai to be joined to the preceding sentence. The Vulgate has et divisus est, and so also the Æthiopic Version.
[4334] S. John xv. 19.
[4335] 1 Cor. vii. 35.
[4336] 1 Cor. iii. 10.
[4337] 1 Cor. vii. 37, 38.
[4338] Ps. xxxvi. 27.
[4339] Eccles. vii. 16.
[4340] 1 Cor. vii. 39, 40.
[4341] 1 Tim. v. 11, 15.
[4342] 1 Cor. vii. 40.
[4343] Rom vii. 2, 3.
[4344] 1 Tim. v. 14, 15.
[4345] See 1 Tim. iii. 12. Most ancient writers interpreted S. Paul's words as referring to second marriages after loss of first wife, however happening. And certain Councils decided in the same sense, e.g. Neocæsarea (a.d. 314). Ellicott's Pastoral Ep., fifth ed., p. 41.
[4346] 1 Tim. v. 9. Other authorities, however, suppose the words to refer to an order of widows, and pertinently ask, would the Church thus limit her alms.
[4347] 1 Cor. vi. 12.
[4348] Eph. v. 31; Gen. ii.
[4349] Eph. v. 32.
[4350] Eph. v. 25; Col. iii. 9-11.
[4351] 1 Thess. iv. 7.
[4352] Lit. through a virgin. The allusion is, probably, to his baptism by a virgin, i.e., John Baptist.
[4353] But see Gen. iv. 26.
[4354] 1 Pet. iii. 20.
[4355] Eph. i. 10.
[4356] Rev. i. 8; xxii. 13.
[4357] Rom. xiv. 21.
[4358] Gen. xxxi. 46-49, where the heap itself is called Galeed.
[4359] Gen. xxxii. 25, 28, 31.
[4360] Gen. xxxv. 16, 20.
[4361] Gen. xxxviii.
[4362] Gen. xxxviii. 9.
[4363] Ex. iv. 24-26.
[4364] Ex. iii. 5.
[4365] 1 Sam. xxi. 4.
[4366] Levit. xxi. 13, 14.
[4367] The reference is, probably, to Levit. xxii. 13. But the second marriage is not there prohibited, and in the ideal polity of Ezekiel (xliv. 22) a priest might marry the widow of a priest.
[4368] Levit. xxi. 3.
[4369] Deut. xx. 6, 7, where an indulgence, not a prohibition, is clearly indicated.
[4370] Ex. xxxviii. 8. Sept. Vulg. "who watched;" Onkelos' Targum "who assembled to pray," and so the Syriac Version. The Hebrew word signifies "to go forth to war," but is applied to the temple service, a sort of militia sacra (Gesenius). Hence Rev. Version, "the serving women which served at the door of the tent of meeting;" and Margin, "the women which assembled to minister." Comp. Numb. iv. 3, 23, 30, 35, 39; and 1 Sam. ii. 22.