On Marriage and Concupiscence

Contents

Translation in progress.

Reading pages: 0.1–1.15 · 1.16–1.34 · 1.35–2.13 · 2.14–2.29 · 2.30–2.46 · 2.47–2.60

1. 0.1Augustine thanks Count Valerius for three letters and for the good report of him brought by the presbyter Firmus.
2. 0.2Augustine praises Valerius's catholic faith, humility, generosity, and firmness against heresy.
3. 0.3Augustine commends Valerius's married chastity and sends him the book that follows.
4. 1.1Against the Pelagians, Augustine sets out to distinguish the evil of concupiscence, through which original sin is passed on, from the goodness of marriage.
5. 1.2Augustine gives three reasons for addressing the work to Valerius: his married chastity, his action against the Pelagians, and a Pelagian writing that reached him.
6. 1.3Paul shows that married chastity, like continence, is a gift of God that the will cannot keep without God's help.
7. 1.4Chastity kept without faith is not true virtue, since everything not of faith is sin.
8. 1.5Union for begetting is the natural good of marriage, but true married chastity exists only where it serves the true faith.
9. 1.6Shame arose in the first couple not because they had been blind before the fall but because sin brought an indecent motion into their members.
10. 1.7The disobedience of the sexual members is the fitting penalty of man's disobedience to God, and so the first couple covered them with fig leaves.
11. 1.8Like a limp on the way to a good goal, lust is an evil that marriage uses without being made evil by it.
12. 1.9A believer uses his wife in holiness, not in the disease of desire, when he restrains concupiscence and uses it only for begetting children to be reborn in Christ.
13. 1.10Polygamy was once allowed for the sake of offspring, but monogamy was the original pattern, and a woman with several men could only be a harlot.
14. 1.11The 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.
15. 1.12Joseph and Mary were truly husband and wife without intercourse, so both are rightly called Christ's parents, and married couples who abstain by consent remain married.
16. 1.13All 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.
17. 1.14Begetting children was a duty in Old Testament times, but now is the time to refrain from embracing, since children of God are born spiritually from all nations.
18. 1.15Augustine explains 1 Cor 7:29–33: those who have wives should live as though they had none, not subject to carnal concupiscence.
19. 1.16Intercourse in marriage beyond the purpose of begetting is pardoned by Paul's concession, which implies some fault, but it is pardoned because of marriage.
20. 1.17Intercourse for pleasure within marriage is a venial fault, but those who prevent conception, expose children, or procure abortion are not truly married.
21. 1.18Now continence is better for those who can receive it, but those who cannot should marry, to avoid sexual immorality.
22. 1.19The goods of marriage to be loved are offspring, faithfulness, and sacrament; concupiscence is an evil from sin that marriage only tolerates.
23. 1.20Even regenerate parents beget children of this world, because they beget through the concupiscence that belongs to the old man, which a believer must not love.
24. 1.21As the olive's seed produces a wild olive, so regenerated parents beget children who contract original sin and need regeneration.
25. 1.22The church's exorcism and renunciation at infant baptism show that infants are under the devil's power through original sin until baptized.
26. 1.23None of the three goods of marriage—offspring, faithfulness, sacrament—is the source through which sin passes to children.
27. 1.24Concupiscence began after sin and is the law of sin, as the universal shame of intercourse shows, which only the Cynics shamelessly denied.
28. 1.25In the baptized, concupiscence is no longer sin unless it is consented to; it is called sin because it comes from sin and leads to sin.
29. 1.26Human nature is from God, but through the fault inflicted by the devil those born through concupiscence are subject to him, the unclean to the unclean.
30. 1.27Even lawful marital intercourse involves the heat of lust, the daughter of sin, so every child born of it is bound by original sin except Christ, born of a virgin.
31. 1.28In baptism concupiscence is forgiven as to its guilt but remains, like a languor after illness, until the body is fully healed.
32. 1.29As past sins remain in guilt until forgiven, so concupiscence can remain in act after baptism while its guilt is taken away.
33. 1.30Concupiscence stirs evil desires even without consent; we must not obey them and should wish them gone, as Paul shows in Romans 7.
34. 1.31One cannot say 'it is not I who do it' when one consents to concupiscence or acts on it; that is true only of desire without consent.
35. 1.32One who resists desire does good but does not accomplish it, since desire remains; the command 'You shall not covet' shows the goal to be reached in immortality.
36. 1.33Delight in God's law according to the inner man is a gift of grace, and true freedom lies in delighting willingly in it.
37. 1.34The law in the members that takes Paul captive is concupiscence; it takes him captive in the flesh, as Mary spoke of the Lord's body as 'my Lord'.
38. 1.35The flesh is held captive by concupiscence until the redemption of the body, but sin does not reign where its desires are not obeyed.
39. 1.36There is no condemnation for those in Christ, because the guilt of concupiscence is forgiven even though the desire remains.
40. 1.37Like the olive whose seed yields a wild olive, the forgiven parent passes on to the child the guilt he no longer bears, until the child is reborn.
41. 1.38Baptism, given once, is the ground for the forgiveness of all later sins and will finally cleanse the church of every spot, including concupiscence itself.
42. 1.39The church will be without spot or wrinkle only in the world to come; those who claim it is so now condemn themselves.
43. 1.40Augustine cites Ambrose, whom Pelagius praised, as teaching that everyone conceived through intercourse is bound by sin, and closes the book to Valerius.
44. 2.1Augustine explains that he writes the second book in answer to extracts from a Pelagian writing that Valerius sent through Alypius.
45. 2.2Augustine identifies the extracts as taken from Julian's four books written against the first book On Marriage and Concupiscence.
46. 2.3Augustine complains that his opponent quoted him while leaving out his citation of Rom 5:12.
47. 2.4Augustine notes that his opponent omitted the words that charge the Pelagians with denying that infants need baptism for the forgiveness of sin.
48. 2.5His opponent also omitted the words applying Col 1:13 to infants, because he denies that they need rescue from the power of darkness.
49. 2.6His opponent cut off Augustine's reference to 'the body of this death', which recalls Paul's cry in Rom 7:24.
50. 2.7Augustine quotes Julian's preface, which accuses the catholic teachers of driving people into Manichaeism for fear of being called Pelagians.
51. 2.8Catholics affirm free choice and God as creator; what makes the Pelagians heretics is denying that grace is needed for good and that infants need redemption.
52. 2.9Augustine distinguishes the catholic, Manichaean, and Pelagian views of human nature and turns Julian's charge of Manichaeism back on him.
53. 2.10Augustine decides to quote all of his opponent's statements, not only the erroneous ones, so that readers can judge fairly.
54. 2.11The fruits of marriage are human beings, not the sins they are born with; the devil is the author of guilt, not of nature.
55. 2.12Augustine corrects Julian's misquotation about Eve's name and agrees that God made the sexes and gives fruitfulness.
56. 2.13Julian challenges Augustine to say what in the sexes, their union, or their fruitfulness belongs to the devil.
57. 2.14The sexes, their union, and fruitfulness are from God; Julian avoids naming concupiscence, which is from the world and which even he is ashamed to mention.
58. 2.15All sinned in Adam's will; Ambrose taught the same about conception, and the Pelagians who call this Manichaean must say the same of Ambrose, as Jovinian did.
59. 2.16God is the author of bodies and their union; the devil holds human beings not as human but as sinners.
60. 2.17Julian's phrase 'natural appetite' is a fig leaf for the lust he will not name; man is God's work, but concupiscence is from the world.
61. 2.18Julian's 'power of the members' unwittingly names the members' disobedience to the will, which would not have existed without sin.
62. 2.19Adam's words at Seth's birth refer to the gift of a son, not to God stirring up sexual desire, as Julian supposed.
63. 2.20Scripture speaks of seed cursed from the beginning and of children of wrath by nature, which shows a fault in human nature inherited from Adam.
64. 2.21The blessing given to Noah concerns the good of nature, which God preserves even in fallen humanity, not the fault that corrupted it.
65. 2.22Julian admits that Scripture's 'one flesh' approaches shame, which proves that the shame comes from the penalty of sin, not from God's work.
66. 2.23In Abraham and Sarah God gave fruitfulness, not concupiscence, which was already present in the body of this death.
67. 2.24The penalty for an uncircumcised infant shows original sin; circumcision, like baptism later, signified cleansing from it through faith in the coming Mediator.
68. 2.25Julian praises intercourse 'with heat, pleasure, and seed' but will not say 'with lust'; original sin is the ancient faith, not Augustine's invention.
69. 2.26God makes each child as he made Adam from clay, but pleasure does not produce the seed, and procreation could have taken place without lust.
70. 2.27Julian cites 1 Cor 15 and the story of Abimelech to argue that God gives the power of generation and that no one is born guilty.
71. 2.28Julian cut short 1 Cor 15:36–38, which speaks of grain that dies and rises, to make it seem to speak of human seed.
72. 2.29As farmers sow by the will without lust, so in paradise human seed could have been sown by obedient members, and children conceived without lust and born without pain.
73. 2.30The closing of the wombs in Abimelech's house was a punishment, probably by pain, and has nothing to do with lust.
74. 2.31God does not make human beings for the devil; like the potter of Rom 9, he makes vessels of mercy and of wrath from the same lump and uses even evil for good.
75. 2.32God creates and nourishes the wicked as he feeds them, for the good of their nature, while using their inherited fault to show his mercy.
76. 2.33In denying that infants are under the devil, Julian accuses the whole church, which exorcises infants at baptism.
77. 2.34Julian argues from Rom 1:26–27 that sexual desire is natural and good in its measure, and presses Augustine to call marriage simply good or evil.
78. 2.35Paul's 'natural use' refers to the use of the members made for begetting, not to praise of marriage; unnatural acts are worse even than unlawful natural ones.
79. 2.36Marriage is good and lust is evil; married people use an evil well, and human nature is both God's good work and in need of a Savior.
80. 2.37There is no marriage without union, but in paradise the union would have been without shame; marriage and its fruit are good, the sin they are born with is evil.
81. 2.38As the Arians call catholics Sabellians, so the Pelagians call them Manichees; but catholics call marriage good and hold only that an evil passed from the first couple to all.
82. 2.39Every human being, whether born of marriage or of sexual immorality, is good as God's work and guilty through original sin.
83. 2.40Julian argues that a child born of adultery is innocent, as a crop from stolen seed is not guilty of the theft.
84. 2.41Julian argues that if original sin came from marriage, marriage would be evil, since a tree is known by its fruit.
85. 2.42Marriage is not the cause of sin; the lust that marriage cannot now avoid comes not from its blessed institution but from Adam's sin.
86. 2.43Christ's saying about the tree and its fruit concerns good and evil wills, not marriage; the cause of original sin is Adam's voluntary sin.
87. 2.44Julian asks whether sin in an infant comes from its will, from marriage, or from its parents, arguing that none of these can be the source.
88. 2.45Paul's 'through one man' in Rom 5:12 refers to generation from Adam, not to imitation, which would have pointed to the devil.
89. 2.46Augustine expounds Rom 5:13–19: one sin brought condemnation to all, and grace in Christ abounds to forgive both it and all other sins.
90. 2.47Augustine answers Julian's question with a chain of texts from Rom 5: sin entered through one man's offense.
91. 2.48Original sin comes from the will of the first man; evil wills arose in good creatures because they were made from nothing, and God works good even from evil.
92. 2.49An infant has both a nature from God and a fault from Adam, and so is rightly under the devil until rescued by grace.
93. 2.50Infant exorcism and many Scriptures teaching that all are born under sin are older than Manichaeism and belong to the catholic faith.
94. 2.51Ambrose and Cyprian, who wrote before Manichaeism reached the Roman world, taught original sin and infant baptism for its forgiveness.
95. 2.52Augustine spoke only of shameful concupiscence, which appeared after sin, as the fig-leaf girdles of Adam and Eve show.
96. 2.53Augustine never denied bodily motion in marriage, only the shameful motion of the genitals, which would have obeyed the will like other members had there been no sin.
97. 2.54Present marriage is the same marriage God instituted, changed in quality by sin but not in nature.
98. 2.55Julian admits that Christ died for infants; lust is a disease because it moves against the will and causes shame, as 1 Thess 4:5 implies.
99. 2.56Since Julian admits that Christ died for infants, and Christ died for sins, infants must have original sin for Christ to forgive.
100. 2.57The devil created nothing in human nature but wounded it by persuading sin, so that fallen nature begets sinners, as sick parents pass on illness.
101. 2.58Original sin, forgiven in baptized parents, is still passed to their children, as the olive's seed yields a wild olive.
102. 2.59Augustine ridicules the idea of unrestrained lust in paradise and argues that, even on Julian's view, concupiscence must have been corrupted by the first sin.
103. 2.60Augustine closes by urging Julian to let infants come to Christ, whose name Jesus means Savior from sins.