RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Marquis Marriage
Marriage was desired out of reverence for the family
and the State, also because of the support during life
and in old age thus secured and to pro-
2. Marriage vide for the payment of the last honors Among to the dead. Sons competent for these
Greeks and duties could proceed only from a woman Romans, who had been received into the family cult. The results were monogamy, and the elevation of the position of woman. It is true that family interests decided the husband's choice and that the wife stood under the legal guardianship of the husband; but in so far as she brought a dowry, administered the affairs of the household, and educated the children, she was relatively independent and highly esteemed. There may have been possible a comprehensive and intimate communion of husband and wife as an ethical gift resulting from marriage, especially in Rome, where woman enjoyed freedom of movement outside of the home and took an interest in the activity of man, while in Athens her seclusion in the house made this impossible for her; but such a communion was impeded by the dissipations of sexual intercourse which was still estimated in a naturalistic manner and might be indulged in by any man, so that Demosthenes says significantly: " We keep courtesans to be amused, concubines to be nursed, wives for the bringing forth of legitimate children and as faithful watchers of the house." Changes in the manner of economic production and in the relations of the family brought about unfavorable consequences. The principal duties of woman lost their significance when degeneration of the family cult and of economic production took place. As the power of the head of the family was restricted, woman became legally more independent. Thus matrimony became merely a civil contract with no higher purpose, and might be dissolved with the consent of both parties and was frequently so dissolved. The male's desire for legitimate sons vanished with decay of reverence for the family and of interest in the state. The sole incentive of marriage remaining, namely, hope of increase in influence and fortune, did not supply a permanent ethical bond. On the other hand, marriage was beneficially influenced by the birth of the philosophic idea of spiritual and ethical personality. Sexual intercourse, which for Neo-Pythagorean spiritualism was under any circumstance contamination of the spirit, was, in consequence of the Stoic idea of control of the sensual desires by rational purpose, declared admissible only in matrimony and for the purpose of producing children. It was regarded as incumbent on the husband to be faithful in marriage and the idea of a harmonious ethical life communion of husband and wife was developed, without accomplishing, however, any noteworthy change either in theory or in actual life.
Christianity first brought about such a change by applying stronger motives than philosophy furnished, namely, such religious sentiments as reverence for God's commandments and fear of his punishment, to which the power of higher morals and the penitential discipline of the congregation contributed. It is true, expectation of the imminent end of the world obstructed the development of a VII.— 13
complete doctrinal system of marriage and hindered appreciation of the importance which it has in the evolution of history and in the uni- 3. New- versal mission of Christianity. Never- Testament theless, the contrast of the funda- View of mental conceptions of Christianity with Marriage. Jewish and pagan morals immediately brought about great progress. Christ condemned the laxity of the Jewish laws of divorce; he declared every separation as disobedience of God's commandment (the addition " saving for the cause of fornication," Matt. v. 32, is wanting in I Cor. vii. 10, 11, and disagrees with the uncompromising attitude of the Sermon on the Mount), because a relation of communion which, on account of its divinely created impulse, takes precedence even over the relationship to father and mother can not be dissolved by the arbitrary act of man. Paul emphasizes the unconditional objectionableness of fornication (which among the pagans, at least among the men, was not considered an offense) upon the basis of the idea of holiness, of the duty of the man who has been called to be a member of God's people and even elevated to be a temple of God and a member of Christ to devote even the physical life to the honor of God and to avoid self-pollution by indulging in the impulses of the flesh (I Cor. vi. 13, 20; I Thess. iv. 7, 8). It is owing to the emphasis upon this factor, which was derived from later Judaism and was intensified by the Hellenistic dualism of spirit and flesh, and also to eschatological expectation that for Paul virginity was the higher ideal and that matrimony was a means conceded for the prevention of a worse evil, fornication, though marriage was a state which, for persons not specially blessed with the grace of abstinence, was not only permissible, but preferable (I Cor. vii. 2, 36, 38). Furthermore, celibacy recommends itself to him as more convenient in view of the sufferings of the last days (ib. vii. 26 sqq.), also because zeal for the Lord might easily be encroached upon by worldly cares (32-34). The Pauline cast of thought reappears in Rev. xiv. 4; I Tim. hi. 2, 12, iv. 3-5. In view of the expectation of the end of the world, the moral purposes which had urged pagans and Jews to marry receded, and the idea that the bringing forth of children is a means of accomplishing the purposes of God had not yet arisen. This " low " view of matrimony, which nevertheless in connection with the prohibition of all fornication signifies progress, did not, however, hinder idealization of the mutual relations of husband and wife through the Christian view that husband and wife are of equal value in Christ (Gal. iii. 28); hence conjugal union represented itself as an ethical union between persons of equal position whose differences consisted only in the distinctions of nature, although the continuation of the legal and social subordination of the wife to the husband was demanded, not only out of regard to unbelievers, but as the order of God (Col. iii. 18; I Pet. iii. 1-6) and as proved from the history of man (I Cor. xi. 3-15; Eph. v. 22; I Tim. ii. 11-14). Man should use his superior position not for the purpose of asserting legal claims but to show due respect and love to woman (Eph. v. 25,
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