Marriage in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

The nature, purpose, and obligations of marriage, its rites, and the patriarchs' polygamy.

1 Clement 1.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · The Corinthians once respected their leaders and elders, and their households were well ordered.
1 Clement 6.3Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Jealousy has broken up marriages.
1 Clement 21.6Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Reverence Christ, respect leaders, honor elders, teach the young, guide wives in goodness.
1 Clement 21.7Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · Wives should show purity, gentleness, and impartial love.
1 Clement 33.5Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God made man male and female in his image.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.1 (29.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Keep purity; let no thought of another's wife enter your heart.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.2 (29.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Even the thought is sin; the deed brings death.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.4 (29.4)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks: does a husband sin by living with an adulterous wife?
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.5 (29.5)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · A husband who knowingly stays with an unrepentant adulterous wife shares her sin.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.6 (29.6)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The husband should separate but not remarry; remarriage is adultery.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.7 (29.7)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks whether a repentant wife may return.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.8 (29.8)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · The husband must take back a repentant wife; this is why he must not remarry. The rule applies equally to both.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.9 (29.9)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Idolatry is also adultery; do not live with one who persists in it.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.10 (29.10)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Separated spouses must stay unmarried because repentance is possible.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.1.11 (29.11)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · This is not permission to sin, but a way back for the sinner; God can heal past sin.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.4.1 (32.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas asks whether a widow or widower sins by remarrying.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 4.4.2 (32.2)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Remarriage after a spouse's death is no sin, though remaining single brings more honor.
Shepherd of Hermas, Mandate 12.2.1 (45.1)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Chief evil desires: another's spouse, wealth, food, drink, luxury.
Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 2.2.3 (6.3)Hermas · ca. 100–150 · Hermas must warn his children and his wife.
To Polycarp 5.1Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Wives should be content with their husbands, and husbands should love their wives as Christ loves the church.
To Polycarp 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Celibacy must be kept humbly, and marriages should be made with the bishop's consent so that they are according to the Lord.
To the Philippians 4.2Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Wives are to be taught to live in faith, love, and purity, to cherish their husbands, and to raise their children in the fear of God.
To Diognetus 5.6Anonymous · ca. 150–200 (disputed) · They marry and have children, but do not abandon infants.
First Apology 15Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christ's teaching on purity, divorce, celibacy, repentance, love of enemies, generosity, and trust in God.
First Apology 27Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians do not expose infants, who are often raised for prostitution; the pagans do the vices they falsely charge to Christians.
First Apology 29Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians marry only to raise children or remain continent; one young man even sought castration to prove Christian chastity.
Acts of Andrew (Vatican fragments), chapter 4Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Aegeates tells Maximilla that if she returns to their married life he will release Andrew, and if not he will torment him.
Acts of Andrew (Vatican fragments), chapter 5Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Andrew urges Maximilla to refuse Aegeates and to endure his threats, seeing in her Eve repenting and in himself Adam turning back.
Acts of John 63Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · A man falls in love with Drusiana, who has renounced relations even with her husband; his friends warn him off.
Acts of John 113Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · In his last prayer John thanks the Lord for keeping him from marriage and asks to be received into his rest.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 5Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · In Onesiphorus's house Paul breaks bread and begins a series of beatitudes in praise of chastity and self-control.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 8Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Theocleia calls Thamyris and tells him that Thecla has been captivated by a stranger's teaching.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 11Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Thamyris offers Demas and Hermogenes money to tell him about Paul.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 12Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Demas and Hermogenes report that Paul makes chastity a condition of the resurrection.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 20Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Paul and Thecla are brought before the governor, and Thecla's mother demands that she be burned.
Second Apology 2Justin Martyr · ca. 150–160 · A Christian wife who divorced her dissolute husband is denounced by him; her teacher Ptolemaeus and two others are executed under Urbicus simply for confessing the name of Christ.
On the Resurrection 3Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · If the members of the body rise, their functions need not be active: some are barren or virgins even now, and Christ was born of a virgin and foretold that marriage ceases in the age to come.
Sibylline Oracles 8.21ff.Anonymous · 2nd-3rd cent. · The Sibyl condemns the love of gold as the source of impiety, war, and broken families, which makes even marriage a matter of gold.
Discourse to the Greeks 4Anonymous · 2nd–3rd century (disputed) · Greek festivals breed excess and licentiousness; Greeks condemn in their families what they honour in their gods.
Sentences of Sextus 230Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · You are permitted to refuse marriage, so that you may live cleaving to God without ceasing. Know that marrying and begetting children are both very hard; but if, knowing it to be very hard, like a battle, you nevertheless do not wish to fight, then marry a wife and beget children.
Sentences of Sextus 231Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Every unchaste man is an adulterer even with his own wife.
Sentences of Sextus 232Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Do nothing for the sake of lust alone.
Sentences of Sextus 236Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A man who puts away his wife declares that he cannot even govern a woman.
Sentences of Sextus 237Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A chaste woman is the glory of her husband.
Sentences of Sextus 238Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · If you show reverence to your wife, you have her reverent.
Sentences of Sextus 239Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Let the marriage of the faithful be a contest of self-control.
Sentence 230 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · For he grants you to refuse marriage, so that you may live as one who sits beside God. Marry and have children, knowing that each is hard; but if, knowing as you do that war is hard, you would still show courage, then marry and have children.
Sentence 231 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Every licentious man is an adulterer with his own wife.
Sentence 233 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Know that you are an adulterer even if you only think of committing adultery; and let the same principle hold for you concerning every sin.
Sentence 235 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Let self-control be considered the adornment of a faithful wife.
Sentence 236 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A man who sends away his wife confesses that he is not able even to rule a wife.
Sentence 237 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · A self-controlled wife is her husband's glory.
Sentence 238 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · If you respect your wife, you will have a wife who respects you.
Sentence 239 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · Let the marriage of the faithful be a contest of self-control.
Dialogue with Trypho 78.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Joseph, thinking Mary guilty of fornication, was told by an angel that her child was of the Holy Spirit.
Dialogue with Trypho 110.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Christians have beaten swords into plowshares; each sits under his own vine, that is, is faithful to his own wife.
Dialogue with Trypho 134.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin criticizes rabbis who permit polygamy by appealing to the patriarchs.
Dialogue with Trypho 134.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · The patriarchs' marriages were mysteries, not examples of lust.
Dialogue with Trypho 134.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Jacob's two wives prefigure the synagogue (Leah) and the church (Rachel), for whom Christ serves.
Dialogue with Trypho 141.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · David's fall shows that the patriarchs' marriages were not license; Justin criticizes polygamy.
Diatessaron, section 25Tatian · ca. 160-180
To Autolycus 2.20Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Genesis 2:8–25 is quoted: the garden, its rivers, the command about the tree of knowledge, the creation of the woman, and the first marriage.
To Autolycus 2.28Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · God made Eve from Adam's rib to show that one God made both, and marriage fulfills Adam's prophecy; Satan, a fallen angel, deceived Eve and is still invoked in the Bacchic cry “Euan.”
To Autolycus 3.13Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Scripture forbids unchastity even in thought; the Gospel forbids lustful looks, marrying a divorced woman, and divorce except for sexual immorality.
To Autolycus 3.15Theophilus of Antioch · ca. 180–185 · Christians, who may not even watch gladiatorial shows or immoral plays, cannot be guilty of promiscuity or cannibalism; their life is marked by chastity, monogamy, righteousness, and the rule of God.
Fragment 31Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 170–200
A Plea for the Christians 33Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians marry only for children, many remain celibate, and marriage is for life: divorce and remarriage, and even remarriage after a spouse's death, are condemned as adultery.
Martyrdom of Peter (Greek Acts of Peter) 5Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Xanthippe and other wives withdraw from their husbands, and Albinus and Agrippa plot Peter's death.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 32Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Simon flies over Rome but falls at Peter's prayer and dies after surgery at Terracina; the prefect Agrippa's concubines, hearing Peter preach chastity, refuse him.
Acts of Peter (Vercelli) 34Anonymous · ca. 180–200 · Xanthippe, wife of Albinus, and many others withdraw from their spouses after Peter's preaching on chastity, and Albinus and Agrippa plot to kill Peter.
Fragment 14Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd–early 3rd century · The end of a saying from Clement's treatise on marriage, against giving a girl in marriage before she is ripe.
Fragment 1 (Hypotyposes 4; on 1 Cor 11:10)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century
Fragment 64 (Sacra Parallela 304)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century
The Instructor 1.4.10Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Men and women have the same virtue, the same Instructor, and the same salvation; in the age to come the distinction of sex no longer matters.
The Instructor 2.1.9Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Food is indifferent in itself, but Christians must not eat at the table of demons or cause the weak to stumble; they should use God's gifts as masters and seek the heavenly food.
The Instructor 2.3.36Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Paul's teaching on living “as though not” applies all the more to luxury; the Lord bids us sell our goods and follow him, possessing only faith, confession, and kindness.
The Instructor 2.6.52Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Instructor cuts off sin at its root, forbidding foul words as the path to foul deeds; the body and marriage are not shameful, only their misuse; idle chatter must also be avoided.
The Instructor 2.7.54Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wisdom warns against dining and drinking with married women; if women must be present they should be modestly dressed, and men should keep their eyes and posture decorous.
The Instructor 2.8.66Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Some mild perfumes may be allowed to women, but in excess they smell of the funeral; perfume can make men effeminate.
The Instructor 2.8.71Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Flowers and beauty fade; the Christian's crowns are spouse, marriage, and children, and Christ is the crown of the church; flowers have medicinal properties but garlands are for revelers.
The Instructor 2.10.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The aim of marital intercourse is children, and in begetting a human being cooperates with God; seed must not be wasted in unnatural acts. Moses's prohibition of the hare and the hyena was read as a symbolic ban on pederasty and adultery.
The Instructor 2.10.87Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Nature itself, by the structure of the body, forbids homosexual acts and other unfruitful intercourse; Jeremiah's “hyena's den” condemns idolatry.
The Instructor 2.10.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The hare's constant mating was read as a symbol; the prohibition of eating it teaches abstinence from excessive intercourse, intercourse with pregnant women, homosexual acts, pederasty, and adultery.
The Instructor 2.10.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · We should regard boys as sons and other men's wives as daughters, and control the sexual organs with modesty; nature permits marriage for procreation, not excess or relations with youths.
The Instructor 2.10.91Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Plato, learning from Moses, forbade sowing where seed cannot grow; the law forbids homosexual intercourse and adultery; sexual union is lawful only with one's own wife.
The Instructor 2.10.92Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Seed must not be wasted; Moses forbade intercourse during menstruation, and Clement holds that intercourse during pregnancy is also wrong, since pleasure alone, even in marriage, is not a lawful aim.
The Instructor 2.10.93Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The organs of generation, which God created, are not shameful to name; during pregnancy nature is at work and should not be disturbed; lust breeds many passions, and Scripture prays to be delivered from them.
The Instructor 2.10.94Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Whether to marry at all is a real question; even within marriage intercourse is not to be used freely, since, as Democritus said, it exhausts the body.
The Instructor 2.10.95Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Marriage is to be accepted, for God wills humanity to multiply, but not for licentiousness; intercourse not aimed at children outrages nature.
The Instructor 2.10.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Marriage aims at children; abortion, used to hide sexual immorality, destroys humanity with the embryo; the married should not have intercourse by day, the time for prayer, reading, and good works.
The Instructor 2.10.97Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Marital intercourse should be occasional and modest, at night after the day's prayers, and marked by dignity toward one's wife; love founded on lust soon fades and turns to hate.
The Instructor 2.10.98Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Licentious speech must not even be named among Christians; intercourse is risky except for procreation, and adultery leads to death.
The Instructor 2.10.99Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Even pagan poetry condemns adultery and homosexual acts; those who sin in darkness forget that God's eyes see all, as Sirach, Isaiah, and Heraclitus say.
The Instructor 2.10.100Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The light within us is not overcome by darkness; the fornicator is dead to God; modesty must never be put off, and in the resurrection the pure flesh will put on incorruption like the angels.
The Instructor 2.10.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Sexual desire must be ruled; only the married may sow, at the right time; and the Lord's words about ravens and lilies teach that we need not care for costly food or clothing.
The Instructor 2.10.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Embroidered and dyed clothing is for display; Scripture forbids boasting in clothing; the faithful are clothed with incorruption; a wife who loves finery falls away from God and her husband, like Eriphyle.
The Instructor 2.10.114Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women should not bare any part of the body; Scripture commands the head to be veiled; purple clothing draws the eyes of men and inflames vanity.
The Instructor 3.2.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Made-up women are like Egyptian temples: behind the curtain of cosmetics is no image of God but a harlot and the serpent; love of finery turns wives into courtesans.
The Instructor 3.2.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Made-up women are idle ornaments who ruin households and marriages, as the comic poets mock with their catalogue of a woman's toilet.
The Instructor 3.3.19Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The beard is a sign of manhood older than Eve, who was taken from Adam's side; to remove it is to transgress nature; smoothing marks the effeminate and the adulteress.
The Instructor 3.3.21Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Licentiousness is everywhere: prostitution of women and boys, homosexual acts, and, because of the exposure of infants, fathers unknowingly committing incest with their own children in the brothels.
The Instructor 3.4.27Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The true eunuch is one who does not wish to indulge; Samuel warned that a king would take daughters as servants; rich women neglect housework for idle and corrupting company.
The Instructor 3.4.28Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Rich women parade in litters, visit temples and diviners, and learn love charms that destroy marriages, trading purity for shame.
The Instructor 3.5.32Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women who will not undress before their husbands bathe naked in mixed public baths or before their slaves, feeding lust.
The Instructor 3.7.38Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Elijah's simple meal and the Lord's command to carry no purse teach frugality: Christians should share, give up excess possessions and servants, and travel light, household and all.
The Instructor 3.7.39Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Husband and wife should travel together with frugality; the body is the measure of possessions; generosity is the staff for the road to heaven, and like a well it refills as it gives.
The Instructor 3.8.41Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Frugality trains Christians to endure persecution, having no fatherland on earth; examples teach virtue, as Penelope's faithfulness and the Spartans' drunken Helots did.
The Instructor 3.10.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Young men should exercise in the gymnasium; women should exercise in spinning, weaving, and housework, like the woman of Proverbs 31, Sarah, and Rachel.
The Instructor 3.11.57Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women may wear a gold ring only as a seal for household goods; a wife with an unchaste husband may adorn herself to please him alone, while gently leading him to simplicity.
The Instructor 3.11.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Dignity comes from removing excess; husbands should entrust the household to their wives; men may have a signet ring for sealing only; freedom lies in the soul, not in ornaments.
The Instructor 3.11.63Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wigs are godless: when the presbyter lays on hands in blessing he blesses someone else's hair; wives who wear false hair deceive their husbands and shame Christ; gray hair should not be dyed.
The Instructor 3.11.66Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Idleness breeds excess and lust, which exercise dissolves; those made in God's image should not dishonor him with cosmetics; wives should adorn themselves with modesty and the hidden beauty of the heart.
The Instructor 3.11.67Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women's true adornment is their own handiwork and household care, in which husband, children, and God rejoice; the valiant woman of Proverbs is a crown to her husband.
The Instructor 3.12.84Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Husbands should show restraint toward their wives before the servants; the greatest bond of marriage is self-control, sweeter than gold or power.
The Instructor 3.12.95Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The apostolic household code: wives, husbands, children, fathers, slaves, and masters; then Paul's exhortations to walk by the Spirit, bear burdens, be at peace, pray, and speak graciously.
Exhortation to the Greeks 10.107Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Whoever seeks God finds life; the human being in whom the virtues are written is God's hymn, and wisdom makes good fathers, sons, husbands, and masters.
Against Heresies 1.6.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Valentinians call church members simple and claim grace as their own possession, saying that the spiritual must practise the mystery of conjunction and need no works.
Against Heresies 1.24.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Saturninus taught a Saviour without real body, two races of men, and that marriage and procreation come from Satan.
Against Heresies 1.28.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Encratites, following Saturninus and Marcion, rejected marriage and meat; Tatian, Justin's pupil, after Justin's death added Aeons and denied Adam's salvation.
Against Heresies 1.28.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Others, following Basilides and Carpocrates, allowed promiscuity, plural marriage and idol-meat; the heresies are past counting.
Against Heresies 3.22.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Mary’s obedience undid Eve’s disobedience: as the virgin Eve bound the knot by unbelief, the virgin Mary loosed it by faith.
Against Heresies 4.15.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Moses permitted divorce because of Israel’s hardness, as Paul also made concessions for the weak; the same God gave both covenants and respects human freedom.
Excerpts from Theodotus 67.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · Christ's saying to Salome, that death lasts as long as women bear children, does not condemn birth,
Miscellanies 2.18.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law commands love of strangers as oneself, forbids abhorring an Egyptian, requires offering peace before war, and protects the captive woman, allowing intercourse only in marriage and for children.
Miscellanies 2.18.89Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law restrains the captor's desire by a waiting period and by cutting the captive's hair; if he no longer wants her, he may not sell her or keep her as a slave but must set her free.
Miscellanies 2.18.93Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · There is no excuse for exposing children: one who does not want children should not marry; the law forbids killing an animal with its young, and the Romans spare pregnant condemned women, showing the law's humane concern.
Miscellanies 2.19.99Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Noah was saved by devotion to God; of Abraham's many children only Isaac inherited, and of Isaac's twins the younger received the blessing, a prophetic type; all things belong to the wise, who long for the one through whom all things were made.
Miscellanies 2.20.107Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The tragedians mock Menelaus for yielding to Helen; Antisthenes would shoot Aphrodite for corrupting women; pleasure, even if God-given for procreation, must not be admitted; Xenophon's Virtue rebukes pleasure's luxuries.
Miscellanies 2.22.135Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Ezekiel describes the righteous man who avoids idolatry, adultery, and oppression, gives to the poor, and takes no interest; he shall live; Isaiah calls the wicked to seek the Lord and turn to him.
Miscellanies 2.23.137Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement begins his discussion of marriage: it is the lawful union of man and woman for legitimate children; whether to marry depends on the person, time, and age, and should be for children, with a willing and suitable wife.
Miscellanies 2.23.138Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Abraham's words teach that half-sisters by the same mother may not marry; philosophers differed on marriage, Plato approving, Democritus and Epicurus refusing, the Stoics indifferent, but in practice many were slaves to pleasure.
Miscellanies 2.23.139Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · One should not urge on others what one would not do oneself; defenders of marriage appeal to nature and “increase and multiply,” but humans should be more faithful than the birds that keep one mate; the childless, they say, lack natural perfection.
Miscellanies 2.23.140Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · One should marry for one's country, children, and the completion of the world; the poets pity childless marriage; in sickness a wife's constant care surpasses all others, a true helper as Scripture says.
Miscellanies 2.23.141Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Even Menander admits marriage's goods; it supports the aged, and children preserve a man's memory; the Spartan and Platonic laws penalized not marrying, since without children cities would perish.
Miscellanies 2.23.142Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Refusing marriage is impious and unmanly; since losing children is a great evil, having them is good, and so marriage is good; a child needs both father and mother.
Miscellanies 2.23.143Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Homer prays for a husband and home with like-mindedness; Christian marriage seeks rational concord, adorns character not appearance, treats the wife as life's helper, and must be purged of all impurity, since human seed is more precious than grain.
Miscellanies 2.23.144Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Animals mate in season and depart; Polyxena, even when slain, fell modestly; yielding to the passions is the worst slavery and mastering them the only freedom; transgressors are sold to foreign sins until they repent.
Miscellanies 2.23.145Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage must be kept pure like a sacred image, with prayer morning and night and decency in word and deed; Scripture forbids divorce except for sexual immorality and counts remarriage adultery while the other spouse lives.
Miscellanies 2.23.146Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A wife is beyond suspicion through modesty, prayer, and care of her home; whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery, and the man who divorces her makes her an adulteress, as does the one who receives her, since otherwise she would return to her husband.
Miscellanies 2.23.147Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law's death penalty for adultery agrees with the gospel, since one Lord gave both: the adulteress dies to the commandments, but the one who repents is reborn; more is required of those given more. Book 2 ends here.
Miscellanies 3.1.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Book 3 opens with the heretics' views on marriage: the Valentinians approve it; the Basilidians explain Christ's saying about eunuchs, praising those who renounce marriage for the kingdom to avoid its cares.
Miscellanies 3.1.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Basilidians read “better to marry than to burn” as advice not to wear out the soul in struggle; Isidore counsels marriage for those who cannot pray free of desire, and otherwise brotherly help.
Miscellanies 3.1.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Self-control covers the tongue, possessions, and desires, and is a gift of divine grace; the church blesses celibacy given by God, admires a single marriage, bears with others' weakness, and permits second marriage to those who burn.
Miscellanies 3.2.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Carpocratians hold wives in common; Epiphanes, son of Carpocrates, died at seventeen and was worshiped as a god in Cephallenia; he taught a doctrine of the Monad.
Miscellanies 3.2.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Epiphanes says God made male and female for common union and gave men strong desire, which no law can abolish; Clement answers that this destroys both law and gospel, which forbid adultery and coveting a neighbor's wife.
Miscellanies 3.2.9Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law's death penalty and Christ's “but I say, do not desire” show the force of the commandment; Epiphanes mocks “you shall not covet” as absurd, since God gave desire, and calls marriage private ownership.
Miscellanies 3.3.12Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Marcionites refuse marriage not from choice but from hatred of the Creator, whose world they think evil; yet they eat his food, breathe his air, and received the gospel in his world.
Miscellanies 3.3.18Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Plato says the philosopher's soul flees the body, like Paul's cry about “the body of this death”; in the Republic he welcomes old age for freeing him from sexual desire, a savage master.
Miscellanies 3.3.22Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The Greek tragedians complained of the pains of bearing and raising children; the Marcionites took such complaints godlessly and turned them against the Creator.
Miscellanies 3.3.24Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement thinks the Pythagoreans married for children and then abstained; their ban on beans, he suggests, was because beans were thought to cause barrenness.
Miscellanies 3.4.25Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marcion is self-controlled only out of hatred of the Creator; Christ's “let the dead bury their dead” does not condemn the flesh; the Nicolaitans misuse a story of Nicolaus giving up his wife to justify sexual immorality.
Miscellanies 3.4.26Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Nicolaus himself was faithful to one wife and his children lived chastely; his gesture renounced passion, and “abusing the flesh” meant self-control, as Matthias also taught.
Miscellanies 3.4.27Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Some heretics call promiscuity “mystical fellowship”; one quoted “give to everyone who asks” to a Christian virgin, who answered innocently that he should speak to her mother about marriage; they falsify Christ's words.
Miscellanies 3.6.45Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Against ascetics who reject marriage as feeding death, Clement cites John on antichrists who left the church, and explains the saying to Salome, “as long as women bear children,” as teaching the natural order, not that birth is evil.
Miscellanies 3.6.46Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law aims at self-restrained marriage and family life; Christ fulfilled, not abolished it; marriage can be used with self-control, and those who call intercourse polluted, being born of it, condemn themselves.
Miscellanies 3.6.47Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The seed of the sanctified is holy, and spouses sanctify each other; Christ forbade divorce except for sexual immorality, citing “the two shall be one flesh”; that there is no marriage after the resurrection, like the end of food, does not license indulgence now.
Miscellanies 3.6.48Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If the ascetics have already received the resurrection, they should stop eating too; abstinence alone proves nothing, since pagans and the Magi practice it; the kingdom is not food and drink, and self-control is a hidden virtue of the soul.
Miscellanies 3.6.49Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Some call marriage fornication from the devil and claim to imitate the unmarried Lord; but Christ's bride was the church, he needed no helper or heirs, and he himself upheld marriage and spoke of it continuing until his coming.
Miscellanies 3.6.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's saying about eunuchs followed the disciples' question about divorce: they asked whether a man could remarry after putting away an adulterous wife; even pagan athletes and musicians practiced sexual abstinence.
Miscellanies 3.6.51Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Aristotle of Cyrene kept his oath to Lais by sending her portrait home; celibacy is no virtue unless for love of God; Paul condemns those who forbid marriage and counsels spouses to stay together.
Miscellanies 3.6.52Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The righteous of old ate with thanksgiving and married with self-control; Paul forbids judging over food; Christ himself ate and drank; the ascetics cannot claim to surpass them.
Miscellanies 3.6.53Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Peter and Philip had children, and Paul had a wife; the apostles took their wives along as sisters and fellow ministers to women; the kingdom is not food and drink; the ascetics do not match the prophets, who lived austerely yet thanked the Creator.
Miscellanies 3.7.58Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · In marriage, food, and all else we should act by will, not desire; the husband who marries for children should love his wife but beget them with a reverent will, walking decently as in the day.
Miscellanies 3.7.60Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Those who reject marriage and food out of hatred for the flesh are like pagan ascetics, such as the Brahmans and the Indian “Holy Men,” who abstain from meat, wine, and women.
Miscellanies 3.9.63Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The ascetics cite the Gospel of the Egyptians, “I came to destroy the works of the female”; but the world still goes on, so Christ destroyed the works of desire, the vices that are the soul's decay, not natural birth.
Miscellanies 3.9.64Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's answer, “as long as women bear children,” means as long as desires are active, since sin is the soul's death; death follows birth by God's order, and woman, bearing children, is also the source of life.
Miscellanies 3.9.65Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Eve was called Life as mother of all, righteous and unrighteous; Paul did not despise life in the flesh but saw it as thankful endurance for others, while departure to be with Christ is love's perfection.
Miscellanies 3.9.66Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The ascetics omit the rest of the Salome dialogue: when she said she did well not to bear children, the Lord answered, “Eat every plant, but not the bitter one,” leaving marriage or celibacy to free choice.
Miscellanies 3.9.67Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage according to reason is no sin; each is free to choose regarding children; some who reject marriage fall into hatred of humanity and lose love, while others indulge within marriage and become like beasts.
Miscellanies 3.10.68Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “Where two or three are gathered” may mean husband, wife, and child, since God joins them; the heretics set the Creator with the many and the Savior with the one elect, but the same God is with the married and the celibate.
Miscellanies 3.10.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The two or three may also be Jews and Gentiles made one new man in the church, and law, prophets, and gospel united in one knowledge; those who refuse marriage from hatred or misuse the flesh from desire are not among them.
Miscellanies 3.11.71Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement turns to the Scriptures that refute the heretics: the law's “you shall not covet” anticipated Christ's “you shall not desire”; the law's rule on captive women shows it meant marriage to be used with restraint and for children.
Miscellanies 3.11.72Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement claims the patriarchs did not approach pregnant or nursing wives, citing the three years between Aaron and Moses and the small numbers of the tribe of Levi.
Miscellanies 3.11.73Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Moses required three days' abstinence before Sinai; Paul's call to “come out and be separate” means separation from pagan immorality and heresy, not from the married.
Miscellanies 3.11.74Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul wants the church presented as a pure virgin to Christ, its only Bridegroom; but each believer may lawfully marry, meaning a first marriage; Paul fears deception like Eve's.
Miscellanies 3.12.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's permission for spouses to abstain by consent and for a time teaches self-control without endangering marriage; celibacy and marriage each have their own service to the Lord, and bishops should be tested by ruling their households.
Miscellanies 3.12.80Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's image of the wife bound to her husband applies allegorically to the church's union with the risen Christ; his permission for a widow to remarry “only in the Lord” and his preference that she remain establishes monogamy, and does not make marriage devilish.
Miscellanies 3.12.81Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Tatian taught that returning to marital relations after prayer serves the devil; Clement answers that sexual immorality is devilish, but chaste marriage unites for prayer and children, as Scripture's “Adam knew Eve … God raised up seed” shows.
Miscellanies 3.12.82Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's “come together again” prevents temptation; Christ, the same Lord of law and gospel, replaced polygamy with monogamy; second marriage after a spouse's death is permitted but falls short of the gospel's perfection; baptism replaces the law's washings after intercourse.
Miscellanies 3.12.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law's washing after emission of seed foreshadowed baptismal rebirth without condemning birth; marriage is not merely of the old law, for the same God gave law and gospel, and what God joined man may not separate.
Miscellanies 3.12.84Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The law is holy and shows sin without creating it; so marriage according to the law is holy, a mystery of Christ and the church; sexual immorality and marriage are as far apart as the devil from God.
Miscellanies 3.12.85Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul foretold that some would forbid marriage and foods, which God created good to be received with thanksgiving; no one may be compelled to abstain from marriage, meat, or wine, though abstaining with thanksgiving is also good.
Miscellanies 3.12.86Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's letters never reject chaste marriage but accept both marriage and celibacy; a heretic reads “do not store up treasure on earth” as forbidding children, but Christ was urging the rich to share with the needy.
Miscellanies 3.12.87Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “They neither marry nor are given in marriage” does not reject marriage but corrects hopes of fleshly pleasure in the resurrection; “call no one father on earth” means the earthly father is only a servant of birth, God the true Father.
Miscellanies 3.12.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We become children again, reborn through water; the married too may care for the Lord's things, and both wife and virgin are holy in the Lord; Paul speaks sternly to restrain those inclined to a second marriage.
Miscellanies 3.12.89Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · To call marriage fornication is blasphemy; fornication, like idolatry, is falling from the one to the many, and defilement is union with another's body; Paul wants younger widows to marry and bear children.
Miscellanies 3.12.90Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul accepts the husband of one wife, whether presbyter, deacon, or layman; Christ called the Jews adulterous for abandoning the law's intent; the man who excused himself from the supper because of marriage illustrates preferring pleasure to God, not a condemnation of marriage.
Miscellanies 3.13.91Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Julius Cassianus, founder of Docetism, argues that sexual organs do not prove intercourse is from God, since Christ blessed eunuchs and Isaiah calls them not fruitless trees.
Miscellanies 3.13.92Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Cassianus, like Tatian but from Valentinus's school, thinks Christ freed us from sexual union; he cites the Lord's saying to Salome: “when you tread on the garment of shame, and the two become one.”
Miscellanies 3.14.94Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Cassianus misreads Paul's warning about Eve's deception as saying birth came from deception; Christ came to those who had strayed in mind through disobedience, perhaps because Adam sought marriage before God's time.
Miscellanies 3.14.95Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The old and new man mean disobedient and obedient life, not birth and rebirth; Cassianus wrongly takes the garments of skin as bodies; Christians, citizens of heaven, should marry and possess as though not doing so, using creation with thanksgiving.
Miscellanies 3.15.96Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's “because of sexual immorality let each have his own wife … lest Satan tempt you” is addressed not to those who use marriage restrainedly for children but to those tempted beyond that, whom Satan seeks to lead astray.
Miscellanies 3.15.97Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · “Better to marry than to burn” preserves mutual marital duty; “hate father, mother, wife” means not to be led by irrational impulses, since the same Scripture commands honoring parents; the married should not divorce, and the one vowed to celibacy should stay unmarried.
Miscellanies 3.15.98Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Isaiah promises both the faithful eunuch and the married their reward: celibacy justifies only with obedience, and the children of the chosen are blessed, not cursed, as the heretics claim.
Miscellanies 3.15.99Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The true eunuch is the one who begets no truth; by obedience he bears fruit; the apostles begot spiritual children; the eunuch barred from God's assembly is the barren in word and deed, but those who make themselves eunuchs from sin are blessed.
Miscellanies 3.16.100Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Jeremiah's curse on his birthday laments the people's sins, not birth; Ezra and Job lament too; a newborn has committed no sin; David's “in sin my mother conceived me” refers to Eve, mother of the living, not to his own sinfulness.
Miscellanies 3.16.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Micah's “firstborn for ungodliness” refers to sinful habits, not birth; birth is also good, since in it we learn the truth; Paul disciplines his body like an athlete, using things with self-control; some prefer widows to virgins for self-control.
Miscellanies 3.17.102Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · If birth were evil, then Christ and the Virgin would be in evil; this is the root of Docetism in Cassianus, Marcion, and Valentinus; man becomes a beast not in marriage but in adultery; the view that the serpent taught Adam intercourse insults the Creator.
Miscellanies 3.17.103Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Even if Adam and Eve sinned by coming together too soon, birth itself is holy, the means by which all things exist; the church's life needs the body, since Christ came in the flesh; good desire is a tree of life.
Miscellanies 3.17.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Some claim marital “knowledge” was the sin of the tree of knowledge; but then knowledge of truth is the tree of life, and chaste marriage shares in it; Christ healed bodies, so the flesh is not the enemy; “flesh and blood” that cannot inherit the kingdom is sin.
Miscellanies 3.18.105Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Clement sums up: some, strict to the point of blasphemy, reject creation and marriage, though celibacy should be chosen with thanksgiving and without despising the married; others, libertines, follow the words of the wicked in Proverbs about a common purse.
Miscellanies 3.18.107Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ warns against leading his elect astray; Paul forbids association with the sexually immoral but does not call marriage immorality; spouses must not deprive each other except by agreement for a time.
Miscellanies 3.18.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul, citing the Lord, forbids divorce, requiring a separated wife to remain unmarried or be reconciled; he also makes good household management a qualification for bishops; this refutes those who say marriage belongs only to the old law.
Miscellanies 4.8.59Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Man and woman share one human nature and so the same virtue; women, like men, free and slave, must pursue self-restraint and justice; they differ only in what belongs to sex, such as childbearing.
Miscellanies 4.8.60Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Woman shares man's virtue in soul and differs in body; Paul teaches headship yet mutual dependence in the Lord; women, like men, must master pleasure by walking in the Spirit.
Miscellanies 4.8.63Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · All humanity needs education and virtue; Euripides speaks both ill and well of wives, and Homer praises like-minded spouses; as Christ is head of man, the husband is head of his wife, being God's image and glory.
Miscellanies 4.8.64Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul in Ephesians calls for mutual submission: wives to husbands as the church to Christ, and husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church.
Miscellanies 4.8.65Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's household code in Colossians sets out the duties of wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters, all under the one Lord in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free.
Miscellanies 4.8.67Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Wives and slaves may pursue true philosophy even against husbands' or masters' threats, and free men even under tyrants; to die for virtue is noble for women as for men, for it belongs to the good, not to one sex.
Miscellanies 4.15.97Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Knowledge about idol meat must yield to the weak; Paul's permission to buy market meat excludes what the apostolic decree forbade (idol meat, blood, strangled things, fornication); Paul renounced his right to a wife and food to set an example.
Miscellanies 4.17.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Following 1 Clement: respect leaders and elders, instruct the young, lead wives to purity, gentleness, and impartial love, and teach children humility, pure love, and the fear of the Lord, who searches hearts.
Miscellanies 4.19.123Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Noble women of old did humble work, like Sarah serving the angels; a wife should first try to win her husband to the way of salvation, otherwise pursue virtue alone, obeying him in all but what concerns virtue and salvation.
Miscellanies 4.20.125Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Euripides describes the loving wife who honors her husband's words, shares his sorrows and joys, and bears his sickness with him.
Miscellanies 4.20.126Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Marriage conducted according to reason, in faith, with hearts cleansed and bodies washed in baptism, is sanctified; a good marriage is judged by virtue, not wealth or beauty; the wife is God's gift to the husband as a helper.
Miscellanies 4.20.127Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · A wife troubled by her husband will first try reason and persuasion; if he will not listen, she will live sinlessly, even to death, with God as her helper and guide, aiming at his friendship.
Miscellanies 4.20.128Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul tells older women to train the younger to love their husbands and children and live purely; Hebrews urges peace and holiness, warning against immorality like Esau's.
Miscellanies 4.20.129Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Hebrews crowns the discussion of marriage: it is honorable and the bed undefiled; for man and woman alike, Peter says, faith tested in trials brings joy and salvation; Paul boasts of his sufferings for Christ.
Miscellanies 4.22.146Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The knower would do no wrong even with impunity, reward, or secrecy, having chosen the good for itself; food, marriage, or celibacy without knowledge do not commend us; abstinence from fear is no better than a dog's fear of the stick.
Miscellanies 4.23.147Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · All created things, including marriage and childbearing with self-restraint, are good, though freedom from passion is better; those who abstain from fear or dislike slander the Creator; true obedience to “do not desire” comes from within.
Miscellanies 4.23.149Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul teaches choosing the better among goods, not rejecting marriage as bad; God made necessities easy to obtain; as Democritus says, teaching reshapes nature; God gave both nature and renewal; the one who trusts God finds peace and may become a god.
Miscellanies 6.2.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · More parallels: Euripides and Theognis on the exile, Epicharmus and Euripides on ill-matched marriages, Sophocles and Euripides on bad men's gifts, and Solon, Theognis, Thucydides, and Philistus on prosperity breeding insolence.
Miscellanies 6.2.13Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Simonides echoes Hesiod on good and bad wives, and several poets repeat one another on the uncertainty and troubles of human life.
Miscellanies 6.12.100Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The knower limits his desires, values living well above life, and puts no family bond before love for God; after childbearing his wife becomes like a sister, since souls are neither male nor female and do not marry in the resurrection.
Miscellanies 6.12.101Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Sarah laughed from modesty, not unbelief, and Abraham called her his sister; God grants the prayers of the repentant when they ask, but gives to the knower at a mere thought, as with Hannah, since he knows the heart and foreknew that creation was good.
Miscellanies 7.11.63Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Looking to the patriarchs, prophets, angels, and the Lord, the one who knows endures suffering out of firm hope in what is to come; so Peter, seeing his wife led to martyrdom, encouraged her to remember the Lord.
Miscellanies 7.11.64Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Peter and his wife show what Christian marriage should be: free of possessive passion and undistracted from love for the Lord; the soul of the one who knows is strong in every trial, an image of God's power and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Miscellanies 7.12.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Self-control begins in fear of God and is perfected in love; the one who knows eats, drinks, and marries as need and reason require, and the married man who serves God amid family cares surpasses the solitary man, whose virtue is less tested.
Octavius 31.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians keep to one marriage, sober meals, and many to lifelong virginity.
Octavius 35.6Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians avoid even sinful thoughts, and none are in prison except for their faith.
On the Dress of Women 2.4Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · A wife need please only her husband; a Christian husband does not require beauty, and a pagan one suspects it.
On the Dress of Women 2.13Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Christian chastity must be visible, like a light on a hill; women should shed luxuries that would weaken them for chains and martyrdom and adorn themselves with modesty, God's word, and Christ's yoke.
On Prayer 22Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian argues that Paul's command to veil “women” includes virgins, from the use of the word in Genesis and in Greek, from “every woman,” from the angels, and from nature; at the least, betrothed girls and consecrated virgins should be veiled.
To His Wife 1.1Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Tertullian writes to his wife, urging her not to remarry if he dies first, since there is no marriage in the resurrection.
To His Wife 1.2Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · God blessed marriage as one man and one woman, as with Adam and Eve; the patriarchs' plural marriages were a provisional license later corrected by Christ and the apostle.
To His Wife 1.3Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Marriage is not forbidden, against those who reject it, but Paul permits it only as a concession and prefers continence as the better good.
To His Wife 1.4Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · The desires of the flesh and of the world that urge remarriage should be overcome, following widows who have chosen to be “married to God” and trusting God's provision.
To His Wife 1.5Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Children and posterity are no reason for Christians to remarry, since the end is near and encumbrances hinder; the time is short.
To His Wife 1.6Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Many Christians live continently even within marriage, and even pagan priestesses keep virginity and widowhood for their demons; a Christian widow can surely do so for God.
To His Wife 1.7Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · A husband's death by God's will ends the marriage; the church's rules barring the twice-married from office and enrolled widows show how second marriage detracts from holiness.
To His Wife 2.1Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · In a second book, Tertullian turns to the case of a widow who does remarry: Paul advises continence but commands that remarriage be “only in the Lord.”
To His Wife 2.2Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Paul's instruction that a believer stay with an unbelieving spouse concerns those converted after marriage; it gives no license for a Christian to marry an unbeliever, since remarriage is “only in the Lord.”
To His Wife 2.3Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Marrying a pagan is sexual sin, a violation of the body bought by Christ's blood, and daily exposure to pagan ways wears faith away.
To His Wife 2.4Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · A pagan husband will obstruct his Christian wife's fasts, night services, Easter vigil, Eucharist, prison visits, and hospitality.
To His Wife 2.5Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Even a tolerant pagan husband knows and can exploit his wife's Christian practices, such as signing herself with the cross, night prayer, and taking the reserved Eucharist.
To His Wife 2.6Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Married to a pagan, a Christian woman is drawn into idolatrous festivals and taverns and loses the fellowship, prayer, and Scripture of Christian life.
To His Wife 2.7Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Mixed marriages begun before conversion are valid and blessed with hope of winning the spouse, but a Christian who chooses to marry a pagan enters a union the Lord condemns.
To His Wife 2.8Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Rich Christian women marry pagans out of worldliness, but marriage between two believers, sealed by the church's blessing and shared in prayer, fasting, and worship, is supremely happy.
Acts of Thomas 12Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The Lord, in Thomas's likeness, urges the bride and groom to abstain from intercourse and children for the sake of the true, incorrupt marriage; they believe him.
Acts of Thomas 15Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The bride rejoices that she is joined to a true husband instead of a temporary one, the bridegroom thanks Christ who freed him and showed him who he is, and the king, enraged, orders the sorcerer seized.
Acts of Thomas 41Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The colt dies at the city gate; Thomas frees a woman from a demon that has abused her for five years, seals her and gives the Eucharist; then a youth who killed his lover for refusing continence is convicted by the Eucharist and healed, and the woman, raised, describes the punishments she saw in the place of the dead.
Acts of Thomas 61Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's prayer thanks Christ for his gifts and asks him to look on those who have left homes, possessions, families, and spouses for his sake.
Acts of Thomas 84Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas urges abstinence from adultery and all vice and praises holiness, which here means chastity, as the champion that leads to eternal life.
Acts of Thomas 88Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas tells Mygdonia that beauty, rank, power, and her marriage pass away, but Jesus remains, and sends her home in peace.
Acts of Thomas 90Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia refuses to dine or sleep with Charisius.
Acts of Thomas 94Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia accepts Thomas's word, and he pronounces beatitudes on the holy, the gentle, and those who hunger for the Lord.
Acts of Thomas 96Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Charisius accuses Thomas of teaching that husbands should not live with their wives and dismisses his asceticism as mere poverty.
Acts of Thomas 97Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia prays for strength to keep her chastity against Charisius.
Acts of Thomas 98Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · When Charisius comes to her, Mygdonia cries to the Lord for help and flees to her nurse wrapped in a curtain.
Acts of Thomas 101Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Charisius tells King Misdaeus that a Hebrew magician lodged by Siphor teaches husbands and wives to separate, and that his own wife has left him.
Acts of Thomas 103Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia explains that her husband is angry because she refused him; Thomas assures her that Jesus will guide her into his kingdom.
Acts of Thomas 114Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Charisius returns home expecting his wife to be restored to him, but finds her with shorn hair and torn clothing.
Acts of Thomas 117Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia tells Charisius that Jesus, whom she loves, is better than he and will free her from their former intimacy; after a gap she hides, weighing how to reach the apostle.
Acts of Thomas 124Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Charisius asks whether he was more handsome to her than Jesus; Mygdonia contrasts her passing earthly marriage with her eternal marriage to Jesus, the true bridegroom.
Acts of Thomas 126Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Before the king, Thomas defends his teaching that those who serve God must be pure and free from bodily pleasures, as a king's servants must be clean.
Acts of Thomas 127Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The king releases Thomas to persuade Mygdonia to return to her husband; Thomas tells her to obey Charisius, but she refuses, reminding him of his own teaching; Thomas goes to Siphor's house, where Siphor's household asks for the seal.
Acts of Thomas 146Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas's prayer draws on the Lord's parables: the sower and the tares, the vine, the talents and the pounds, the great supper, the wedding garment, the lamps, and the watchful servant.
Acts of Thomas 149Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas ends his prayer for safe passage to the judge; in the Thirteenth Act the king's son Vazan, married against his will and living in chastity with his wife, asks Thomas to come to his house and give him the seal.
Didascalia 1.8 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 1.10Anonymous · first half of the third century · A Christian wife avoids quarrelling, so that her husband, believer or not, is not driven to blaspheme, and wins outsiders by modesty and meekness.
Didascalia 4.11Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 6.11 (Latin)Anonymous · first half of the third century · The heretics agreed in rejecting the prophets, blaspheming the Father, and denying the resurrection, but differed in forbidding marriage, meat, or pork, or in requiring circumcision.
Didascalia 6.20Anonymous · first half of the third century · Keeping to the church's rule and the Gospel, believers must guard themselves from heretics who reject the law and prophets, abstain from foods, and forbid marriage.
Didascalia 6.22Anonymous · first half of the third century · Purity rites from the second legislation must be abandoned; Christians gather and offer the eucharist in cemeteries for the departed, touch the dead without fear, and treat menstruation and seminal flow as no bar to prayer, while adultery alone truly defiles.
On Proverbs, fragment 11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–235 · On Prov 5:19: the hind and foal show the purity of married love and the wife's charm, bound by an unbreakable bond; another reading applies them to wisdom.
Arabic Pentateuch fragment IX (on Gen 38:10)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · The catena explains that Onan spilled his seed out of envy toward his dead brother, and that God killed him for it.
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XVI (on Num 5:5–7; 11–28. 6)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · Hippolytus is cited on Num 5–6: the law of restitution teaches confession and repentance, the ordeal of the suspected wife figures the testing of the pure and impure soul, and the Nazirite vow teaches the guarding of soul and faith.
Arabic Pentateuch fragment XXIV (on Deut 19–23)Hippolytus of Rome · unknown (transmitted in a medieval Arabic catena) · The catena summarizes laws of Deuteronomy given because of Israel's corruption: retaliation, war, the unsolved murder, the captive wife, the rebellious son, the hanged man, the bird's nest, the parapet, the violated virgin, the runaway slave, interest, and vows.
Letters to Virgins 1.3.6Anonymous · 3rd century · The celibate renounces marriage and worldly life for heavenly citizenship.
Letters to Virgins 1.7.2Anonymous · 3rd century · True virginity is holy in body and spirit, wholly devoted to the Lord.
Prescription against Heretics 33Tertullian · ca. 203 · Many heresies were already present or foreshadowed in the apostles' day and condemned by them: denial of the resurrection, Judaizing, forbidding marriage, endless genealogies, the Nicolaitans, docetism, and Simon's magic.
Exhortation to Chastity 1Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian counsels a widowed brother that God wills our sanctification, which comes in three degrees: virginity from birth, continence from baptism, and “monogamy,” refusing a second marriage after a spouse's death.
Exhortation to Chastity 3Tertullian · ca. 208 · What God merely permits is not what he truly wills; Paul gave leave to marry on his own judgment, and “better to marry than to burn” calls marriage only the lesser evil, not a good.
Exhortation to Chastity 5Tertullian · ca. 208 · God made one woman from one rib for Adam, and “two in one flesh” means two, not three; Christ's one marriage to the one church doubles that rule, and plural marriage began with the accursed Lamech.
Exhortation to Chastity 6Tertullian · ca. 208 · The patriarchs' many wives belonged to the time of “increase and multiply,” which God has now recalled at the end of the ages, as the Gospel supersedes the old law.
Exhortation to Chastity 9Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian argues that second marriage is akin to sexual immorality, since it arises from the same desire of the flesh, and that permitting a second marriage leaves no limit to further ones.
Against Marcion 1.1Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian explains that this is the third edition of his work, paints Marcion's homeland Pontus as a land of savagery, and declares Marcion a heretic because his teaching is newer than the faith he once held.
Against Marcion 1.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion baptized only the celibate and those who divorced, condemning marriage; Tertullian answers that marriage is good, blessed by the Creator, and that celibacy is better only as a free choice, while abolishing marriage would destroy both holiness and the human race.
Against Marcion 4.11Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The call of Levi, the question of fasting, Christ as bridegroom, and the sayings on new wine and patches all show Christ fulfilling the Creator's law and prophets, not separating from a foreign god.
Against Marcion 4.23Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's rebuke of unbelief, his love for children, his gentleness toward the Samaritans, and his hard sayings to would-be followers all fit the Creator, who had long dealt with Israel, blessed marriage and children, and gave the laws of priesthood and vows.
Against Marcion 4.34Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian argues that Christ's saying on divorce and remarriage forbids putting away a wife in order to marry another, allows divorce for adultery as Moses did, and was aimed at Herod's unlawful marriage; the parable of the rich man and Lazarus likewise upholds Moses and the prophets.
Against Marcion 4.38Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Christ's questions about John's baptism, his answer about Caesar's coin, his reply to the Sadducees on marriage and the resurrection, and his words on David's son and Lord all belong to the Creator's Christ.
Against Marcion 5.7Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 1 Corinthians 4–10 Tertullian finds the Creator's judgment, his festivals fulfilled in Christ, the resurrection of the body, the regulation (not abolition) of marriage, the one Father from whom are all things, and the law of the ox and the rock in the wilderness as figures of Christ.
Against Marcion 5.15Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 1 Thessalonians the Jews' guilt for killing both the prophets and the Lord, the call to holiness in marriage, the rapture to meet the Lord, the command not to quench the Spirit, and the prayer for spirit, soul, and body all fit only the Creator.
Against Marcion 5.18Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion altered Ephesians 3:9 to make the mystery hidden from the Creator, but the context, Paul's spiritual allegories, his moral commands, his teaching on marriage as a great mystery, and the powers of darkness in Ephesians 3–6 all point to the Creator.
On the Veiling of Virgins 5Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Eve was called “woman” while still a virgin in paradise, so the word denotes the female sex, not the married state; only the name “Eve”, mother of the living, looked forward to marriage.
On the Veiling of Virgins 11Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Virgins should be veiled not from birth but from puberty, when, like Adam and Eve after the fall, they become aware of their sex; Rebecca veiled herself on first seeing her bridegroom, and nature and time make a girl a woman whether or not she is betrothed.
On the Soul 27Tertullian · ca. 210 · Body and soul are conceived together from one act of intercourse, each from its own kind of seed, so that all human souls derive from Adam's.
On the Soul 39Tertullian · ca. 210 · Pagan birth rites hand children over to demons from birth; the children of believers are called holy, but only baptism by water and the Spirit makes one truly holy.
On Fasting 1Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian attacks the “psychics,” who reject the New Prophecy because it teaches frequent fasting, and sets out their charges against its fasts, station-days, and dry diet.
On Monogamy 1Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Tertullian sets the New Prophecy's rule of one marriage between heretics who forbid marriage and the “psychics” who allow remarriage.
On Monogamy 3Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · One marriage is not a new rule: Christ and Paul already preferred continence and allowed marriage only as a concession, so the Paraclete, far from innovating, spares our weakness by not demanding complete continence.
On Monogamy 4Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · From creation onward Scripture shows monogamy: one woman from one rib, “two into one flesh,” only the accursed Lamech with two wives, and Noah's family and even the animals in the ark by pairs.
On Monogamy 5Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Christ calls all things back to the beginning, including one indissoluble marriage; Christ himself was unmarried in the flesh and has one bride, the church, so Christians owe him at least monogamy.
On Monogamy 6Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Those who appeal to Abraham's two wives must remember that Christians are Abraham's children through the faith he had while uncircumcised and married once; the better examples of Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and Joshua point to monogamy.
On Monogamy 7Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · The law of levirate marriage served reasons that have now ceased; the law's rules for priests, which forbade them to remarry, apply to Christians, whom Christ has made priests.
On Monogamy 8Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · The Gospel opens with examples of monogamy and continence (Zechariah, John the Baptist, Mary, Simeon, Anna, Peter), and Christ's own teaching and example point the same way.
On Monogamy 9Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · As man may not separate by divorce those whom God joined, so he may not join by marriage those whom God has separated by death; any union with another after the first is adultery.
On Monogamy 10Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · A widow is even more bound to her dead husband than a divorced wife to hers: she prays and offers for him, will rise with him, and to take another man would divide her heart between two husbands.
On Monogamy 11Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Tertullian argues that Paul's permission for a widow to marry “in the Lord” (1 Cor 7:39) applies only to someone widowed before coming to faith, not to Christians who lose a spouse.
On Monogamy 13Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Paul's advice that young widows remarry concerns those who could not keep a vow of widowhood; and Romans 7 frees a widow to remarry only under the law, from which Christians have died.
On Modesty 1Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian laments the decay of modesty and attacks a bishop's edict forgiving adultery and sexual immorality after penance, defending his New Prophecy view that such sins, like second marriage, exclude from the church.
On Modesty 4Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Tertullian defines his terms, adultery and sexual immorality covering every union outside marriage, including secret unions not declared before the church, and excludes unnatural vices entirely.
On Modesty 16Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Paul's teaching on the body as Christ's temple, on marriage as a concession against sexual immorality, and on divorce and continence shows he could never pardon adultery or incest after baptism.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 36Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Christ's answer to the Sadducees about the woman with seven husbands confirms a real resurrection of the flesh, which will then be changed and made like the angels.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 62Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Jesus said the risen will be “like angels,” not angels: they keep their flesh while being freed from its bodily needs, just as angels who ate with Abraham remained spirits.
On the Crown 13Tertullian · 211 · Every occasion for crowns, civic offices, public festivals, pagan weddings, manumission, and the games, belongs to the world and to idolatry, which Christians renounced at baptism; their citizenship, freedom, and honours are in Christ.
Fragments on Genesis, column 105Origen · ca. 220-254 · Notes on the flood: sin corrupts the earth; the order of entering and leaving the ark shows abstinence in the ark and marriage after; Noah knew clean and unclean by natural law.
Fragment 14Julius Africanus · after 221 · Abraham's marriage to Keturah after Sarah's death, and their five sons.
Fragment 44Julius Africanus · after 221 · Ezra, sent by Artaxerxes, brought the remnant and temple vessels to Jerusalem, taught the law, and made those who had married foreign wives put them away.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.7.15Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Naassenes forbid marital intercourse, reading Attis's castration as passage to a sexless new creation.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.8.33Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · They read "do not throw pearls to swine" as a condemnation of sexual union.
Refutation of All Heresies 5.9.11Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Naassenes forbid intercourse with women and worship the serpent.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.28.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Saturnilus said marriage and procreation come from Satan, and his followers abstained from meat; prophecies came partly from the world-making angels and partly from Satan.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.29.22Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Empedocles taught his followers to abstain from meat, as housing punished souls, and from sexual intercourse, which serves Strife.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion's good God is Empedocles' Love, and his ban on marriage and foods is Empedocles' purifications.
Refutation of All Heresies 7.30.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion forbids meat and dissolves marriages joined by God, following Empedocles' view that marriage divides the One.
Refutation of All Heresies 8.16.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Tatian, Justin's disciple, taught invisible Aeons, called marriage corruption, and denied Adam's salvation.
Refutation of All Heresies 8.20.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Encratites, orthodox about God and Christ, abstain from meat and wine and forbid marriage, more like Cynics than Christians.
Refutation of All Heresies 8.20.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Paul foretold those who would forbid marriage and certain foods, which God created good.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.22Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus complains that under Callistus men married more than once were ordained, and clergy who married after ordination kept their office, justified by Rom 14:4 and the parable of the weeds.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.24Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus charges that Callistus allowed unmarried women of rank to take a slave or free man as a partner, regarded as a husband without legal marriage.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.12.25Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Hippolytus says that as a result some Christian women used contraceptives and procured abortions, and he calls Callistus's teaching adultery and murder.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.18.3Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · The Essenes live in self-control and mutual love, abstain from marriage themselves without forbidding it, and adopt others' children.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.28.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Another order of Essenes marries, holding that renouncing marriage would end the human race.
Refutation of All Heresies 9.28.2Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · These Essenes test brides for fertility, abstain during pregnancy to show they marry for children, and their women also bathe in linen.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.18.1Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Summary of Tatian: invisible Aeons, a Cynic life, and Marcion-like blasphemy and rules against marriage.
Refutation of All Heresies 10.19.4Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 222–235 · Marcion denies the resurrection of the flesh and calls marriage corruption, to spite the Creator.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 33, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen explains that Paul answers the Corinthians' letter about spouses who were attempting continence by praising chastity while protecting the other spouse, and that the mutual debt and mutual authority of 1 Cor 7:3–4 show the equality of husband and wife.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 34, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen argues from Moses at Sinai and the priest's question to David that married people should abstain for a time before prayer, and much more before receiving the eucharistic bread.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 34, part 2)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen explains that refusing the marital debt without agreement is “defrauding,” that abstinence belongs to times of prayer, fasting and menstruation, and that marriage between believers is a gift of the one God against Marcion's prohibition of marriage.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 35, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen rebukes those who exclude the twice-married from communion, allows second marriage as better than burning though not good in itself, and on 1 Cor 7:10–12 holds that a husband must not keep a wife who has committed sexual immorality, while the one who separates must remain unmarried or be reconciled.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 36, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen argues that a believing and an unbelieving spouse influence one another for good or ill, so that one should either not marry or marry only in the Lord, and notes that 1 Cor 7:39 permits a widow to remarry “only in the Lord.”
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 37, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen reads Paul's words on circumcision and slavery in 1 Cor 7:18–24 as figures for the married and the unmarried: the man who has cast off his wife should not marry another, the married should not cast off his wife, and celibacy and marriage are in themselves indifferent.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 38, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen continues reading the slave and the free of 1 Cor 7:21–24 as the married and the unmarried, and notes that other interpreters take the passage literally.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 39, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen distinguishes commanded duties from voluntary counsels such as virginity, notes that Paul calls chastity “good” but marriage only “not sin,” and on 1 Cor 7:27 says the married must not seek release nor the released seek a wife.
Fragment 26 on John 2:1Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 2:1: Christ, maker of man and woman, who brought Eve to Adam and forbade separating what God joined, honors marriage by attending the wedding; the mention of his mother refutes the Manichaeans.
Fragment 29 on John 2:11Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 2:12: Jesus' ‘brothers’ were sons of Joseph by a former wife, and brothers by law, since the betrothed Mary was legally Joseph's wife, while she remained a virgin.
Commentary on John 19.23Origen · ca. 230–248 · Adam “knew” Eve when joined to her; Paul uses the same language of union with the Lord.
Commentary on John 20.67Origen · ca. 230–248 · Since no one must literally copy Abraham's marriages, all his works must be done spiritually, beginning with leaving one's land.
Commentary on John 20.332Origen · ca. 230–248 · Rage and uncontrolled lust show demonic influence.
On Prayer 2.2Origen · ca. 233–234 · Origen distinguishes what we should pray for, such as heavenly things and laborers for the harvest, from the right disposition in prayer, such as reconciliation, purity, and self-control in marriage.
On Prayer 28.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Widows, deacons, presbyters, and above all bishops have special debts to pay, as do husband and wife to each other; in this life no one is ever free of debt.
On Prayer 31.4Origen · ca. 233–234 · Any place can serve for prayer, but it is best to have a quiet, set place at home, free of past sin; Origen even suggests avoiding the place of marital intercourse.
Homily on Luke 6Origen · ca. 233–250 · Elizabeth hid from modesty; Christ was born of a betrothed virgin so that his birth would be hidden from the devil; the angel’s “full of grace” is a greeting unique to Mary; and Christ’s greatness now fills the world.
Homily on Luke 17Origen · ca. 233–250 · Joseph is called Jesus’ father for the sake of the genealogy; the “fall and rising” happen in the same person; Christ is a sign spoken against by heretics; the sword in Mary’s soul is doubt at the passion; and Anna is held up as a model of widowhood, with remarriage said to exclude from the kingdom though not from salvation.
Homily on Luke 27Origen · ca. 233–250 · John preached more than is written and showed prophetic freedom in rebuking Herod; at Christ’s baptism heaven was opened for the remission of the world’s sins, and the Spirit in the form of a dove is the gentle, soaring Spirit given to believers.
Homily on Luke 39Origen · ca. 233–250 · Against the Sadducees, the risen do not marry but are like the angels, and the blessings of children promised in Scripture are spiritual; “render to Caesar” means casting off the earthly image and restoring God’s image, which God asks of us in order to give back more.
Exhortation to Martyrdom 16Origen · 235 · Christ's promise of a hundredfold reward does not include a wife, because in the resurrection there is no marriage.
Homily on 1 Samuel 1.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen raises the objection of a new hearer that the righteous Elkanah had two wives and that Hannah grieved at childlessness, though Christians honor chastity, and asks for prayer that the veil over the text be removed.
Homilies on Numbers 6.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The Spirit rested on the seventy elders and the prophets only for a time and left them in sin, but he remained permanently on Christ alone, who committed no sin.
Homilies on Numbers 11.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Distinguishing “law” from commandments, ordinances, testimonies, and judgments, Origen argues that some precepts are only shadows, some (like the Ten Commandments) are kept literally, and some (like the joining of husband and wife) are kept literally and also bear an allegorical sense.
Homilies on Numbers 23.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The first of God’s festivals is the perpetual morning and evening sacrifice, fulfilled by constant prayer and avoidance of sin; Origen adds, from 1 Cor 7:5, that married intercourse interrupts it, so that only the perpetually continent offer it fully.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.4Origen · ca. 240 · A widow who stays unmarried because she wrongly fears that remarriage means damnation profits from the “deception”: remarriage is not damning, but remaining once-married is more blessed; so too the fear of eternal punishment keeps many from sin, while some who reject it grow worse.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.7Origen · ca. 240 · To “call on faithlessness” is to break our bad agreements with the world and the devil, as Judith broke her pact with Holofernes; to “call on misery” is to choose the narrow way of ascetic discipline, as those who renounce marriage do, and as Jeremiah lived unmarried.
On the Good of Modesty 3Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Chastity is praised as the honor of body and marriage, while unchastity ruins property, families, and inheritance, and even turns to sex between men against nature.
On the Good of Modesty 4Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Chastity has three degrees: virginity first, continence second, and faithful marriage third, all of them praiseworthy.
On the Good of Modesty 5Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · The rules of chastity go back to creation: woman was made from man and the two become one flesh, and Paul makes the husband the head and calls for mutual love as between Christ and the church.
On the Good of Modesty 6Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ's teaching that a wife may be put away only for adultery is the source of the Bible's severe rules against adultery and sexual immorality.
On the Good of Modesty 7Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Virginity stands above the laws of marriage, rivals the angels, and is free from husbands, childbirth, grief, and fear.
On the Good of Modesty 9Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Susanna is the example of a chaste woman: she resisted the two lustful elders, was falsely accused, and was delivered by God.
On the Good of Modesty 14Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Adultery is mutual insult, not pleasure; the mind must govern the body like a charioteer, with God's help and the Scriptures.
Homily on the Song of Songs 2Origen · ca. 240–250 · Origen's second homily expounds Song 1:12–2:14: the nard as the anointing at Bethany, the bridegroom as a drop from the mountain, the dove-eyed bride, the ordering of love, the wound of love, and the bridegroom's call to rise after the winter of the passion.
On the Singleness of Clerics 6Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · A cleric's living with a woman bound to him by no marriage is more dangerous than marriage itself, which Paul says divides the mind; such companionship breeds only conflict and temptation.
On the Singleness of Clerics 7Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · A cleric who refuses marriage but lives with a woman shows hidden desire, like one who abstains from wine but keeps it about him; even if chaste, he brings scandal and blasphemy on the faith.
On the Singleness of Clerics 10Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Paul's “bear one another's burdens” does not license cohabitation; Christ himself left celibacy to those to whom it is given, and the daily intimacies of a shared household inflame desire.
On the Singleness of Clerics 25Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Christ and the apostles accepted women's service only briefly and for teaching, to forestall heretics who condemn marriage, not to license cohabitation.
On the Singleness of Clerics 31Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Married Christians who vow continence often live apart, yet celibate clergy (“eunuchs”) cannot bear to sleep without a woman's company.
On the Singleness of Clerics 32Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Married couples separate for continence out of love, while clerics claim “love” to keep unrelated women; Israel in Ezra put away unlawful wives, but these clerics would sooner deny their parents than leave their women.
Against Celsus 7.48Origen · ca. 248 · Many simple Christians keep complete chastity without the hemlock used by the Athenian hierophant, and Christian virgins keep virginity not for honour or pay but out of devotion to God.
Against Celsus 8.55Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus says Christians must either leave life altogether or honour the demons who govern it; Origen answers that the only reasonable death is martyrdom, that Christians may marry and must raise their children, and that they resist the demons with God's armour.
Against Celsus 8.56Origen · ca. 248 · Christians will live in God's world by his laws, may marry and have children, and will bear hardships as trials; but they will not honour the demons, since they worship God alone, as Christ did, and cannot serve God and mammon.
Commentary on Matthew 10.21Origen · ca. 246–248 · With John's death the Jews' rulers lost the power of capital punishment, fulfilling Jacob's prophecy; Origen then turns to Herod's marriage to his brother's wife.
Commentary on Matthew 14.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reports an earlier interpreter's reading of the “two who agree” as husband and wife abstaining from intercourse by agreement for prayer, and notes that it encourages agreement rather than dissolving marriage.
Commentary on Matthew 14.16Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains the Pharisees' trap about divorce, Jesus' answer from Genesis that not every cause dissolves a marriage, marriage as God's joining and a gift of grace, and condemns those who forbid marriage.
Commentary on Matthew 14.17Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen applies “one flesh” to Christ and the church, saying that the synagogue separated herself from Christ by unfaithfulness, and that nothing can separate the church from Christ.
Commentary on Matthew 14.22Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen asks why Paul excludes twice-married men from church office, even when they may be more chaste than the once-married, and suggests that the rule is symbolic of the soul that has not been divorced from Christ.
Commentary on Matthew 14.23Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen says some laws, in the Old and New Testaments alike, are concessions to weakness, and reports that some church leaders have let a wife remarry while her husband is alive, against Scripture but not wholly without reason.
Commentary on Matthew 14.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen discusses Jesus' exception for sexual immorality, asks whether a man may divorce a wife guilty of poisoning, murder, or theft, notes other ways a husband can make his wife commit adultery, and teaches that celibacy is a gift God gives to those who ask.
Commentary on Matthew 17.30Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Sadducees’ fable of seven brothers assumed that the risen keep male and female bodies; Jesus answered that the risen neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels, and Origen leaves aside the question whether some angels were once human.
Commentary on Matthew 17.33Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Sadducees’ story wrongly assumes that earthly relations continue after the resurrection; in the new age there will be no marriage or fleshly kinship, and the only marriage is the spiritual one of the bridegroom, the king’s son.
Commentary on Matthew 17.34Origen · ca. 246–248 · Jesus says the Sadducees do not know the Scriptures because the Old Testament teaches the absence of marriage in the resurrection only figuratively; its marriage laws, like Paul’s reading of Abraham’s wives and of Genesis 2:24, point to Christ and the church.
Commentary on Matthew 17.35Origen · ca. 246–248 · Since the Old Testament teaches the absence of marriage in the resurrection only figuratively, reading it literally leads to absurdities; Jesus proved the resurrection to the Sadducees from God’s words at the bush, for he is God of the living, and the patriarchs live to him.
Commentary on Romans 1.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Paul calls himself a servant from humility and in imitation of Christ; in 1 Cor 7 the 'servant' is one bound in marriage, the 'freedman' the married believer free in virtue; full freedom comes only face to face.
Commentary on Romans 1.12Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Visiting the brethren is apostolic only to give or receive spiritual gifts; marriage, wealth and power are gifts of God but not spiritual ones.
Commentary on Romans 4.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Abraham believed 'against hope in hope' when he had despaired of a son; faith, hope, and love are the foundation, growth, and summit of salvation; faith can be weak or healthy and grows by degrees; and since Abraham later fathered six sons, his 'body as good as dead' is read as the mortification of desire, so that he could beget Isaac and Christ, as believers too may 'beget Christ' through chastity.
Commentary on Romans 6.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains servitude to sin and to righteousness, the fruits of each, why evil fruits are not “ours,” and the meanings of “eternal” in Scripture.
Commentary on Romans 6.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains Paul’s marriage analogy in Romans 7: the law according to the letter is the dead first husband, and the soul is now free to be joined to Christ, the risen second husband, serving in the newness of the Spirit.
Commentary on Romans 9.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Christians offer God the reasonable sacrifice of their own bodies, mastering pride, anger and lust; virginity holds a high rank but married believers too can offer a holy sacrifice, while virgins stained by pride or avarice do not; renewal of mind through Scripture lets one discern God's good, pleasing and perfect will.
Ep. Bas. 3Dionysius of Alexandria · ca. 247-265 · Married couples are to judge for themselves when to abstain from intercourse for prayer, following Paul.
To Quirinus 3.32Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Scripture commends virginity and continence: Christ praises those who renounce marriage for the kingdom, and Paul prefers the undivided single life while permitting marriage.
To Quirinus 3.62Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Christians must not marry pagans, as the examples of Isaac, Ezra, and Solomon and Paul's words “only in the Lord” show.
To Quirinus 3.90Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · A wife must not leave her husband; if she does, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled.
Letter 4.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Virgins must not live with men at all; those who cannot keep their vow should marry rather than fall into sin and scandal.
On the Dress of Virgins 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins vowed to Christ should seek to please him alone; Christ and the Apocalypse praise continence, and what is said to men applies to women too.
On the Dress of Virgins 18Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins should not attend wedding feasts, where indecent talk and drunkenness diminish their purity even if body and mind stay intact.
On the Dress of Virgins 22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins escape the curse on Eve and already share the angelic life of the resurrection that Christ promised; they should persevere and seek the adornment of character.
On the Dress of Virgins 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · God first commanded increase, then counseled continence; virgins, freely choosing it, live out the new birth of baptism more fully and bear the image of the heavenly man.
On the Lapsed 6Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian lists the sins that provoked the persecution: greed, vanity, fraud, marriage with unbelievers, perjury, quarreling, and bishops who neglected their people for business and usury.
On the Good of Patience 20Cyprian of Carthage · 256 · Patience underlies every virtue: it restrains anger and lust, keeps virgins, widows, and married people faithful, forgives, and endures persecution and martyrdom.
Symposium 1.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · God educated humanity by stages, from marriage of siblings, through monogamy and fidelity, to continence and finally virginity.
Symposium 1.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Circumcision ended marriage of siblings; the prophets and the Wisdom books then led from polygamy to one wife and on toward continence.
Symposium 2.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Theophila replies that virginity does not abolish childbearing: God is still creating human beings through procreation until their appointed number is complete.
Symposium 2.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Adam's trance foreshadows the rapture of procreation; since God still forms each human being, it is rash to despise childbearing or forbid marriage.
Symposium 2.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Marcella objects: if God forms every child, is he at work even in children born of adultery?
Symposium 2.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Theophila answers with a parable: a hidden craftsman shapes all the clay brought to him, even clay wrongly put in another's opening, but punishes the one who put it there.
Symposium 2.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The house is the hidden process of generation and the craftsman is God's creative power; seed, like any material, is not evil in itself, but adulterers who misuse it are to be punished.
Symposium 2.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · God himself forms every child in the womb; even children of adultery are given guardian angels and will accuse parents who exposed them.
Symposium 2.7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · God alone gives the immortal soul; childbearing is good and virginity better, and the church, like a meadow, is adorned with both; Thalia rises to speak next.
Symposium 3.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Thalia, speaking third, argues that Paul reads the union of Adam and Eve as a figure of Christ and the church, not only of procreation.
Symposium 3.10Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul applied Genesis to Christ and the church to deprive the licentious of their pretext, who used “increase and multiply” to excuse their lust.
Symposium 3.11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul first sets out that it is good not to touch a woman, then allows marital relations to those who cannot control themselves, lest they fall into sexual immorality.
Symposium 3.12Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul's permission of marital relations is a concession, not a command; likewise he allows a widowed person to remarry only as better than burning, as a sick man may be allowed food on a fast day.
Symposium 3.13Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul permits marriage for virgins without sin, but only by human concession; his counsel as a whole leans toward virginity as freeing one to please the Lord.
Symposium 3.14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Virginity is God's gift; Paul permits those who cannot sustain it to marry, but those who freely keep it do better; Theopatra is next to speak.
Symposium 9.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The branches of Tabernacles are faith, study of Scripture, love, righteousness, and above all chastity, which virgins bear in full and chaste married people in smaller measure.
Against the Manichaeans 4Alexander of Lycopolis · ca. 280–320 · Alexander reports the Manichaean teaching on the moon and sun as vessels of souls, the making of man, Christ as Mind, and the abstinence of the Elect.
Against the Manichaeans 25Alexander of Lycopolis · ca. 280–320 · Alexander mocks the Manichaean abstinence from meat and marriage and contrasts their literal myths with allegorical readings of the Giants and of the angels and the daughters of men.
Book 3, chapter 22Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher attacks Peter's fitness to hold the keys, citing his escape that cost the guards their lives, his early death, Paul's rebuke at Antioch, and his travelling with a wife.
Book 3, chapter 36Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · The pagan philosopher argues that Paul contradicts himself by praising virginity while calling the prohibition of marriage a doctrine of deceiving spirits and admitting he has no command of the Lord about virgins.
Book 3, chapter 43Macarius Magnes · ca. 400 (disputed) · Macarius answers that Paul gave no command about virginity so that it would be a free and more glorious choice, while his warning about those who forbid marriage and foods targets heretics such as the Manichaeans, Encratites, and Dositheus.
On Free Will 15.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Nothing is evil by nature; intercourse is good within marriage and evil in adultery.
On Free Will 15.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · The same act differs morally by the manner of its use.
Apostolic Church Order 16Anonymous · ca. 300 · The choice of a bishop: where a church has fewer than twelve men, three men from neighbouring churches examine the candidate, who must be of good report, temperate, the husband of one wife or unmarried, and able to interpret Scripture.
Apostolic Church Order 20Anonymous · ca. 300 · Three deacons are to be appointed: tested, married once, temperate, generous, and diligent in caring for and correcting the congregation.
Canon 8Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Women who leave their husbands without cause and marry others are refused communion even at death.
Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A Christian wife who leaves an adulterous Christian husband may not remarry; if she does, she is excluded from communion until the first husband dies, except in illness.
Canon 10Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A woman deserted by a catechumen husband who remarries may be baptized; a baptized woman who knowingly marries a man who left a blameless wife receives communion only at death.
Canon 14Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Unmarried women who lose their virginity and marry the man are reconciled after a year; if they have had other men, after five years' penance.
Canon 15Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Christian girls are not to be married to pagans, since there are plenty of Christian girls.
Canon 16Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Catholic girls are not to be married to heretics or Jews; parents who do so are excluded from communion for five years.
Canon 17Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Parents who marry their daughters to pagan priests are refused communion even at death.
Canon 31Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Baptized young men who sinned sexually are readmitted to communion after penance once they marry.
Canon 33Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · The canon on clerical continence requires married clergy to abstain from their wives on pain of removal.
Canon 47Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A habitual adulterer may receive communion at death if he promises to stop, but not again if he recovers and relapses.
Canon 54Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Parents who break off a betrothal are excluded for three years, unless the other party was guilty of grave sin.
Canon 61Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A man who marries his deceased wife's sister is excluded from communion for five years.
Canon 65Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A cleric who knowingly keeps an adulterous wife is refused communion even at death.
Canon 66Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Marrying one's stepdaughter is incest and is punished by refusal of communion even at death.
Canon 69Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A married person who commits adultery once does five years' penance.
Canon 70Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A husband who knowingly tolerates his wife's adultery is refused communion; if he leaves her, he receives it after ten years.
Canon 72Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A widow who sins sexually and marries the man does five years' penance; if she leaves him for another, she is refused communion even at death.
Canon 78Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · A married Christian who commits adultery with a Jewish or pagan woman is excluded; if exposed by another, for five years.
Canon 81Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Christian wives are not to write or receive letters of peace in their own name without their husbands'.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 16Anonymous · 4th century · A Christian who has lived with a concubine who bore him a son and then rejects her to marry another is called a killer, unless he caught her in sexual immorality.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 17Anonymous · 4th century · Rules for women in church: head covering and plain hair, nursing their own children, submission and humility toward their husbands, silence in church, purification after childbirth, and separate places for women; with directions for catechumens.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 27Anonymous · 4th century · Those who cannot go to church daily should read Scripture at home and pray at midnight and cockcrow; marriage does not defile, and the married need only wash their hands before prayer.
Church History 1.7.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted) explains that Jewish lineages were reckoned either by nature or by law, as in levirate marriage.
Church History 1.7.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted): both Gospels are true, because the lines of Solomon and Nathan were intertwined by levirate and second marriages.
Church History 1.7.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted): Matthan and Melchi married the same woman in turn, since the law allowed a widowed or divorced woman to remarry.
Church History 1.7.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted): Jacob married his dead half-brother Heli's widow; Joseph was Jacob's son by nature and Heli's by law.
Church History 1.7.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Africanus (quoted) summarizes: Joseph was Jacob's son by nature and Heli's by law.
Church History 1.7.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Since the law required marriage within one's tribe, Mary too was of Joseph's tribe.
Church History 1.11.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The Gospels and Josephus record that Herod Antipas married his brother's living wife Herodias, discarding his own wife, killed John, and fought Aretas.
Church History 3.29.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Clement (quoted): accused of jealousy, Nicolaus offered his wife to others; his followers misread his saying “abuse the flesh” as licence for immorality.
Church History 3.29.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Clement (quoted): Nicolaus himself lived chastely with his one wife; his act renounced passion, not chastity.
Church History 3.30.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Clement (quoted), against those who reject marriage, notes that Peter and Philip had children, and that Paul addresses his own wife.
Church History 3.30.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Clement (quoted): Peter, seeing his wife led to martyrdom, rejoiced and urged her, “Remember the Lord”; such was the marriage of the saints.
Church History 4.17.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): a formerly dissolute woman, converted, urged her licentious husband to reform, warning of eternal punishment.
Church History 4.17.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): because her husband persisted in unnatural vice, she wished to separate from him.
Church History 4.17.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): urged by her family, she stayed, hoping he would change.
Church History 4.17.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Justin (quoted): when her husband behaved even worse in Alexandria, she served him a bill of divorce (repudium) so as not to share his sins.
Church History 4.23.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote to Amastris and Pontus with scriptural exposition, much counsel on marriage and chastity, and a command to receive back all who repent of sin or heresy.
Church History 4.23.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius urged Pinytus of Cnossus not to impose celibacy on the brothers as a necessity, but to consider the weakness of the many.
Church History 4.28.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Musanus wrote to recall brothers drawn to the new Encratite heresy, said to have been founded by Tatian.
Church History 4.29.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus (quoted): the Encratites rejected marriage, implicitly accusing the Creator of male and female, abstained from meat, and denied Adam's salvation.
Church History 4.29.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus (quoted): Tatian, after Justin's martyrdom, left the church, taught Valentinian-like Aeons, called marriage corruption and immorality, and denied Adam's salvation.
Church History 5.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Apollonius: Montanus dissolved marriages, imposed fasts, called Pepuza “Jerusalem,” and raised money to pay his preachers.
Church History 5.18.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Apollonius: the prophetesses left their husbands, yet Prisca was falsely called a virgin.
Church History 6.42.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The aged bishop Chaeremon fled with his wife to the Arabian mountains and was never found.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 16Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Manes sets out his doctrine of two natures and two places and argues from the variety of human faces that man was made by the rulers and matter, not by God.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 39Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus cites Paul and Jesus' warnings against false apostles and false Christs to show that Manes, coming centuries later without any sign or link to the apostles, is one of them.
Homilies 3.54Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Truth is found only in Jesus’ teaching; he answered the Sadducees that Moses’ permission came from hardness of heart, not from the beginning.
Homilies 3.68Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The presbyters and all believers should promote marriage, even for older people, because adultery, the sin most hated by God, spreads like rabies through the church.
Homilies 4.21Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Even undetected adultery breeds evils: desertion, plots, theft, abortion, and children who inherit from a man who is not their father.
Homilies 5.24Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The reply mocks imitation of the gods' cannibal feasts and explains desire as God's provision for lawful marriage and children who honour their parents.
Homilies 5.25Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The reply urges parents to train children in self-control and to marry them early, teaching them not to look at another woman.
Homilies 11.28Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The worship of God adds bodily purity, such as abstaining from intercourse during menstruation, but purity of heart must come first.
Homilies 11.30Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Intercourse should wait until a woman has purified herself after her period, and washing is required after intercourse, as even idolaters practiced purity rites.
Homilies 11.33Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Jesus' sayings about the queen of the south and the Ninevites show that pagans' good deeds will condemn believers who do less, including in matters of purity.
Homilies 12.15Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · The woman tells how, pursued by her husband's brother, she left the city with her twin sons to avoid adultery and family strife.
Homilies 13.5Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Mattidia asks for baptism, saying she has already left the gods and has kept her chastity in wealth and poverty, and mourns her lost sons and husband.
Homilies 13.13Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter teaches that chastity brings good outcomes and adultery destruction, and that God rewards chastity even among the unbaptized in this life, though salvation is for the baptized.
Homilies 13.14Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter teaches that a chaste woman must flee at once from any illicit love, and that the one sin of adultery brings punishment even on one who does all other good.
Homilies 13.15Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter praises the chaste woman as a reminder of God's creation of one woman for one man and an example and honour to the church.
Homilies 13.16Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter describes the adornment of the chaste wife in spiritual terms and her love and obedience to her husband, except against God.
Homilies 13.17Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter warns husbands not to keep their wives from the fear of God and urges them to bring them to the teaching that makes for chastity.
Homilies 13.18Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter describes the mutual duties of a chaste husband and wife, including the husband's faithfulness and the wife's submission, and the wife's modest conduct.
Homilies 13.19Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter declares that one adultery is many murders of the soul, defiling the breath of God within a person and leading to eternal fire.
Homilies 13.20Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter consoles Mattidia that she suffered for chastity, not for adultery, and that everything she lost has turned to her salvation.
Homilies 13.21Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter teaches that chastity greatly pleases God, but that by God's decree no one, even a chaste Gentile, enters the kingdom unbaptized.
Recognitions 6.10Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The baptized must show God's likeness by avoiding sin, and keep the purity rules of the law, beginning with abstaining from intercourse during menstruation.
Recognitions 6.12Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Intercourse should be for the sake of children, not lust alone, and Christians must keep chastity more carefully than pagans do.
Recognitions 7.15Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The woman tells how, to escape her brother-in-law's unlawful love without causing a family feud, she resolved to leave with her twin sons.
Recognitions 8.48Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Evils entered the world through human sin, as shown by the chaste Seres, who keep purity laws and live long without disease, while believers suffer among the wicked in hope of what is to come.
Recognitions 9.9Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Children may inherit defects when parents disregard God's law of intercourse, for the purity rules guard procreation as a farmer guards his sowing.
Recognitions 9.20Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The Brahmans keep their virtuous laws while other Indians commit crimes and some even eat strangers, and Persians practice incestuous marriage, all regardless of the stars.
Recognitions 9.21Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · The Magusaeans keep their incestuous Persian customs wherever they live, which refutes the claim that each region of the sky has its own influence.
Recognitions 9.24Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Marriage customs differ by nation, the Amazons all bear children at one season yet differ in sex, and whole nations lack artists and poets, all contrary to astrological claims.
Recognitions 9.29Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Within seven years of the true Prophet's coming, converts from many nations abandoned their sinful customs, as Thomas reports from Parthia, though their horoscopes remained the same.
Recognitions 10.5Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Faustinianus presents the Greek view that nothing is good or evil by nature—not murder, adultery, or theft—and Plato's teaching that friends should hold all things, even wives, in common.
Recognitions 10.7Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Clement answers from astrology itself: the union of earth and water is fruitful, like lawful marriage, while harmful mixtures of elements are like adultery.
Testament of Our Lord 2.1Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Divine Institutes 2.9.21Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Fire and water are like male and female, which is why Roman weddings used them.
Divine Institutes 2.12.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God made man in his likeness and woman after man, so they might fill the earth.
Divine Institutes 3.21.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato also proposed common wives, which Lactantius ridicules.
Divine Institutes 3.21.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Common wives abolish chastity and marital fidelity.
Divine Institutes 3.21.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato's philosopher-king would do what no tyrant ever did.
Divine Institutes 3.21.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato argued common families would make the city harmonious.
Divine Institutes 3.21.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · True marital love needs a shared life and kept faith, impossible in promiscuity.
Divine Institutes 3.21.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Common children destroy love between parents and children.
Divine Institutes 3.21.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A child can have only one father, so nature defeats the community of children.
Divine Institutes 3.21.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Common wives would cause discord, not harmony.
Divine Institutes 3.22.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato's community amounts to adultery and lust.
Divine Institutes 3.22.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Plato's scheme makes men debauchees and women prostitutes.
Divine Institutes 3.22.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Even birds keep pair-bonds and know their own young.
Divine Institutes 5.8.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Knowing God condemns lust beyond procreation would end adultery and prostitution.
Divine Institutes 6.16.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Sexual desire within marriage is blameless; outside it, a grave vice.
Divine Institutes 6.19.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Desire is for necessities, lust for offspring, anger for disciplining children.
Divine Institutes 6.19.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Misused passions produce war, crime, and sexual sin.
Divine Institutes 6.20.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Those too poor for children should abstain from intercourse.
Divine Institutes 6.20.30Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Mimes teach adultery.
Divine Institutes 6.23.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God gave the two sexes desire for union so that kinds would multiply.
Divine Institutes 6.23.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Desire is stronger in man, so that restraint may be virtuous.
Divine Institutes 6.23.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He prompts desire for others' spouses.
Divine Institutes 6.23.13Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Whoever cannot restrain desire should keep it within marriage.
Divine Institutes 6.23.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Pleasure may be enjoyed lawfully in marriage.
Divine Institutes 6.23.15Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Where marriage is impossible, continence; God forbids adultery and prostitution.
Divine Institutes 6.23.17Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Sexual union was given for procreation.
Divine Institutes 6.23.18Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The genitals are for procreation, as the name shows.
Divine Institutes 6.23.23Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A married man may have no other woman, slave or free.
Divine Institutes 6.23.24Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Unlike Roman law, God's law does not excuse the husband.
Divine Institutes 6.23.25Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · God's law binds husband and wife equally; either is an adulterer if unfaithful.
Divine Institutes 6.23.26Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Woman remains receptive during pregnancy so men will not seek others.
Divine Institutes 6.23.27Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Chastity is a virtue only where sin is possible.
Divine Institutes 6.23.29Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Husband and wife owe equal fidelity; a husband's example teaches his wife.
Divine Institutes 6.23.30Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Unfaithful wives excuse themselves by their husbands' infidelity.
Divine Institutes 6.23.31Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A husband's adultery provokes his wife's.
Divine Institutes 6.23.32Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Spouses should bear the yoke together, following the golden rule.
Divine Institutes 6.23.33Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Marrying a divorced woman, or divorcing a wife (except for adultery) to marry another, is adultery.
Divine Institutes 6.23.34Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Even the thought of adultery must be avoided.
Divine Institutes 6.23.37Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Many have kept perpetual virginity.
Divine Institutes 6.23.38Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virginity is permitted, not commanded, and greatly rewarded.
On the Workmanship of God 12.15Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · God made two sexes, joined by pleasure, so that each kind might continue in spite of death.
On the Workmanship of God 12.16Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · Men were given more strength so that women would accept the marriage yoke; vir and virtus come from vis, strength.
On the Workmanship of God 13.2Lactantius · ca. 303–305 · The wicked turn God's holy provision for procreation into prostitution and lust, seeking only barren pleasure.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 16Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Victoria, who had escaped a forced marriage to dedicate herself to virginity, refuses her brother's attempt to save her and confesses that she took part in the assembly.
Acts of Phileas and Philoromus 1.9Anonymous · ca. 306-311
Acts of Phileas and Philoromus 2.9Anonymous · ca. 306-311
Acts of Phileas and Philoromus 2.11Anonymous · ca. 306-311
Commentary on Deuteronomy 22:13-19Ephrem the Syrian · 4th century (if Ephrem's, before 373) · On the law of the slandered bride (Deut 22:13–19): the slanderer is punished and may not divorce her; the bill of divorce was granted so that hated wives would not be killed, and the Lord taught that Moses allowed it for hardness of heart.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 24:1-4Ephrem the Syrian · 4th century (if Ephrem's, before 373) · On Deut 24:1–4: a divorced wife who has remarried may not return to her first husband, lest the second husband suspect them both and she be left abandoned by both.
Commentary on 2 Samuel 3:12-16Ephrem the Syrian · 4th century (if Ephrem's, before 373) · On 2 Sam 3:12–16: David could take Michal back without breaking the law of Deut 24:4, because he had never divorced her, and her marriage to Paltiel was against her will.
On the Anger of God 15.9Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · Sexual desire exists in man because, being mortal, he needs another sex to continue the race.
On the Anger of God 22.8Lactantius · ca. 313–314 · The Sibyl warns against idolatry, adultery, sex between males, and killing children, for God is angry with those who sin.
Preparation for the Gospel 2.1.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Giants made war on the gods, and the Egyptians permitted marriage with sisters after the example of Isis and Osiris.
Preparation for the Gospel 2.2.24Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Heracles gave his wife to Iolaus, sought Iole, and was told by an oracle to be sold as a slave.
Preparation for the Gospel 3.1.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Hera and Dionysus are kept apart in cult because marriage is incompatible with drunkenness and anger.
Preparation for the Gospel 5.29.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo's riddling oracle about marriage.
Preparation for the Gospel 5.29.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Socrates gave wiser answers on marriage and children.
Preparation for the Gospel 5.30.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Apollo's oracle to Erginus was common sense.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Persian incestuous marriages persist wherever Persians live, by custom not stars.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.28Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Marriage customs differ in Britain and Parthia.
Preparation for the Gospel 6.10.46Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Christians everywhere keep their teacher's law against local customs, though still subject to bodily ills.
Preparation for the Gospel 7.8.25Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Isaac inherited Abraham's piety and, after fathering twins, lived in continence.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: wives serve husbands, parents rule children; property dedicated to God may not be touched.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.7.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: just weights, kept confidences, and keeping captive families together.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Josephus: the law allows only natural union with a wife for children and punishes male intercourse with death.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.33Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Josephus: marriage without dowry-hunting or abduction; the wife is to obey her husband.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.34Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Adultery and the rape of a betrothed virgin are punished by death.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.8.36Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Purification is required after intercourse and other such occasions.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: the Essenes renounce marriage, which he says would dissolve their community, and disparage women.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo describes the wife as beguiling the husband's mind.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: with children, the wife becomes bolder and demands what harms the community.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Family ties make a man unable to give himself to the community.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.3.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The Essenes shun pleasure, adopt children instead of marrying, and share goods.
Preparation for the Gospel 9.22.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Theodotus: Hebrews may not take foreign sons-in-law.
Preparation for the Gospel 10.3.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Simonides and Euripides took over Hesiod’s saying about good and bad wives.
Preparation for the Gospel 11.6.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The woman is named from the man; Plato derives the Greek words differently.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.12.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato knew the story of Eve’s creation and put a parody of it in Aristophanes’ mouth.
Preparation for the Gospel 12.16.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · The lawgiver must guide marriage, child-rearing, and desires by praise and blame.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.19.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato (Republic): wives and children are to be held in common.
Preparation for the Gospel 13.19.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Plato: men and women living in common will be drawn to union by erotic necessity.
Preparation for the Gospel 15.2.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Aristotle married Pythias out of loyalty to the dead Hermias.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 33.2Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Common property is unjust but tolerable; common wives and children are not.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 33.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Common wives would destroy families and chastity.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 33.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Without marriage there is no conjugal or family love.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 56.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Sexual desire exists for procreation; misused it leads to adultery and corruption.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 57.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Sexual desire belongs within marriage; unchastity brings eternal death.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 59.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · “Do not commit adultery” also forbids resorting to prostitutes.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 61.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Faithfulness is rewarded even in peacetime and must be kept in marriage too.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 61.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · A husband who has relations with any other woman, free or slave, is an adulterer before God.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 61.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Husband and wife are equally bound; a wife may be dismissed only if convicted of adultery.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 61.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Chastity excludes even lustful thoughts.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 38.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · No one could marry without his leave, and he claimed brides first.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 39.3Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Maximinus proposed marriage, planning to divorce his wife; Valeria replied boldly.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 39.4Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Valeria refused: she was in mourning, he would divorce her too, and remarriage did not befit her rank.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 45.1Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Constantine and Licinius met at Milan for Licinius's wedding.
Canon 10Anonymous · 314 · Deacons who declared at ordination that they intended to marry may do so; those who accepted celibacy at ordination and later marry lose their office.
Canon 11Anonymous · 314 · A betrothed girl abducted by another man is to be returned to her betrothed, even if she was violated.
Canon 19Anonymous · 314 · Those who break a vow of virginity do the penance of the twice-married, and virgins may not live with men as “sisters”.
Canon 20Anonymous · 314 · Adultery is punished by seven years of graded penance.
Canon 25Anonymous · 314 · A case of a man who seduced his fiancée's sister, who then killed herself: those involved do ten years' penance.
Canon 10Anonymous · 1 August 314 · Young Christian men whose wives commit adultery are to be counseled, as far as possible, not to remarry while their wives live.
Canon 11Anonymous · 1 August 314 · Christian girls who marry pagans are excluded from communion for a time.
Canon 1Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A presbyter who marries after ordination is removed from his rank; one guilty of sexual sin is expelled and put to penance.
Canon 2Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A woman who marries two brothers in turn is excluded until death, unless at death she promises to dissolve the marriage if she recovers.
Canon 3Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · Those married many times do the fixed penance, which may be shortened by their conduct and faith.
Canon 7Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A presbyter should not attend the wedding feast of a second marriage, since such a marriage requires penance.
Canon 8Anonymous · ca. 315 (approximate) · A man whose wife was convicted of adultery cannot be ordained, and a cleric whose wife commits adultery must put her away or give up his ministry.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.8.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The church has two ways of life; the first, above nature, renounces marriage, children, and property for God’s service alone.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.8.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The second, more human Christian way includes marriage, children, work, and just military service, with set times for devotion.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · If Christians share the patriarchs’ piety, why did the patriarchs value marriage and children while Christians often do not?
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Early humanity needed to multiply; now the end is near and the gospel proclaims a coming new age.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Second answer: the patriarchs could serve God undistracted with families, but today’s conditions distract.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul teaches that the shortness of the time and the cares of marriage are reasons to refrain from it.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul contrasts the undivided devotion of the unmarried woman with the cares of the married.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.8Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The difficulty of the times explains Christian abstinence from marriage; a third reason explains the patriarchs’ zeal for children.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.11Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The patriarchs had children to preserve and hand on their piety.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · That reason no longer applies now that multitudes are coming to the faith; teachers must be free from worldly cares.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.15Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Teachers of the church abstain from marriage to devote themselves to spiritual children.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.16Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The patriarchs had children early and then ceased; Enoch pleased God after begetting Methuselah.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.17Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Noah, Isaac, and Joseph had few children and ceased thereafter.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.18Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Moses and Aaron had no children after God’s revelation.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Melchizedek, Joshua, and many prophets are recorded without children.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Eusebius refers to his other work on the patriarchs’ polygamy, and notes that the new covenant does not forbid children: a bishop is to be the husband of one wife.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Clergy should abstain from marital relations once ordained; for others marriage remains honorable.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.5.75Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · The apostles renounced even their lawful wives for the sake of spiritual offspring.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus’ austere conduct and his teaching on eunuchs for the kingdom show his chastity.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.21Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Countless women worldwide live consecrated virginity for God.
Demonstration of the Gospel 4.10.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Leviticus forbids unlawful unions and says the nations were driven out for such defilement.
Demonstration of the Gospel 7.3.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Scripture accuses Solomon of marrying many foreign wives against God's command.
Book 1, lines 125–148Juvencus · ca. 330 · Zacharias's song ends; John grows up in the desert; Joseph is told in a dream to take Mary; the census of Augustus.
Book 1, lines 522–545Juvencus · ca. 330 · Lust of the eye and hand; only an adulterous wife may rightly be divorced, for a husband who divorces another exposes her; oaths are forbidden.
Book 2, lines 276–300Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus reveals the woman's five husbands; true worship in Spirit; he declares himself the Christ; she brings the townspeople.
Book 3, lines 26–51Juvencus · ca. 330 · Jesus without honour at Nazareth; Herod thinks John risen; Herod's unlawful marriage to his brother's wife and John's imprisonment.
Book 3, lines 445–470Juvencus · ca. 330 · The end of the unforgiving servant; Jesus goes to Judaea; the Pharisees ask whether a man may divorce his wife for any cause; the creation of male and female.
Book 3, lines 471–497Juvencus · ca. 330 · What God joined, man must not separate; Moses permitted divorce for hardness of heart; whoever dissolves a marriage and takes another wife commits adultery; the disciples' objection; eunuchs for the kingdom; Jesus blesses the children.
Book 4, lines 1–25Juvencus · ca. 330 · The question of tribute to Caesar; the Sadducees' case of the woman married to seven brothers.
Book 4, lines 26–50Juvencus · ca. 330 · In the resurrection there is no marriage; God is God of the living; the two great commandments; David's son and Lord.
Letter to Amun 1Athanasius of Alexandria · before 356 · Athanasius tells the monk Amun that involuntary bodily emissions are no sin, since God made the body good, and distinguishes lawful marriage from immorality, and marriage from the higher way of virginity.
Demonstration 7.18Aphrahat · 337-345 · The clergy must proclaim, as in Deuteronomy's law of war, that the fearful and those bound to vineyard, bride, or house should withdraw, for battle suits the solitaries.
Demonstration 7.20Aphrahat · 337-345 · Before baptism, those intending to vow virginity and holiness must be warned: whoever wants marriage should marry before baptism, and whoever loves possessions should withdraw.
Demonstration 13.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · Noah was justified not by the sabbath but by keeping himself pure in a corrupt generation: he stayed unmarried until God spoke to him at five hundred, lest his children mingle with Cain's line.
Demonstration 13.7Aphrahat · 337-345 · Noah married late so that his children would not join Cain's line, and kept his sons unmarried until just before the flood; his integrity, not the sabbath or circumcision, made him the father of a new world.
Demonstration 18.1Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat introduces his defence of the Christian covenant of virginity against Jewish critics who cite God's blessings of fruitfulness.
Demonstration 18.2Aphrahat · 337-345 · The blessing of fruitfulness did not save the generation of the flood, Sodom, the wilderness generation, or the Canaanites; only the righteous seed was preserved.
Demonstration 18.4Aphrahat · 337-345 · Moses lived in continence from the time God spoke with him, just as Israel had to abstain from women for three days before God spoke at Sinai.
Demonstration 18.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · If Israel needed three days' abstinence to hear God once, Moses, who spoke with God constantly, could not have lived in marriage; those who keep holiness always are dearer still to God.
Demonstration 18.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · The law's requirement that priests marry only virgins, Israel's abstinence at Sinai, and Moses' forty years of continence show the excellence of virginity; many children born brought only harm.
Demonstration 18.7Aphrahat · 337-345 · Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah lived in chastity, and Ezekiel's wife was taken from him as a mercy; the Jewish explanation of Jeremiah's celibacy is rejected.
Demonstration 18.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Marriage, established by God, is very good, but as among God's good creatures some are better than others, virginity is more excellent.
Demonstration 18.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · Examples from the earth before rain to Adam, the sons of Seth, Samson, David, Amnon, and Solomon show beauty in virginity and ruin through sexual desire.
Demonstration 18.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat reads Gen 2:24 spiritually: a man who marries leaves God his Father and the Holy Spirit his mother, as his heart turns to the world.
Demonstration 18.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · As husband and wife become one flesh, so the unmarried man remains one spirit and mind with God his Father.
Demonstration 18.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat wrote in response to a Jew's taunt that the celibate are unclean; virginity, freely chosen, bears the angels' likeness, and once lost cannot be regained.
Life of Constantine 4.26.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Constantine repealed the old penalties on the childless.
Life of Constantine 4.26.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Some are childless by nature, others by choosing celibacy and consecrated virginity.
Life of Constantine 4.26.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The childless should be pitied and celibates admired, not punished.
Canon 1Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who condemns marriage or says a faithful married woman cannot enter the kingdom is anathematized.
Canon 4Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who refuses communion from a married presbyter is anathematized.
Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who chooses virginity out of contempt for marriage rather than for virginity's own goodness is anathematized.
Canon 10Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Virgins who exalt themselves over married people are anathematized.
Canon 14Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · A wife who leaves her husband out of abhorrence of marriage is anathematized.
Canon 15Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Parents who abandon their children on ascetic grounds are anathematized.
Canon 21Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · The synod's epilogue explains that it condemns not true asceticism but its prideful abuse, and affirms virginity, continence, marriage, rightly used wealth, the churches, and the church's traditions.
Epistle to the Monks 5Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · Like Abraham the monks left home; free of family and wealth, they enjoy plain bread in peace.
Epistle to the Monks 6Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · Married life in the city brings endless anxieties, from childbirth and dowries to a son's sudden death.
Epistle to the Monks 9Serapion of Thmuis · ca. 340-362 · Unlike the divided married man, the monks cling to God, having sold all and sought the kingdom first.
Canon 1Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Those lawfully joined in a second marriage are to be readmitted to communion by indulgence after a short time of prayer and fasting.
Canon 10Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Church members are not to marry their children to heretics without discrimination.
Canon 31Anonymous · ca. 343–381 · Christians are not to give their children in marriage to heretics, but may take heretics' children who promise to become Christians.
Catechetical Lecture 4.21Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Ascetics and virgins should guard their chastity, but must not despise married people; marriage is honorable when used lawfully.
Catechetical Lecture 4.22Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Lawful marriage observes times for prayer, comes to church clean, and seeks children rather than mere pleasure.
Catechetical Lecture 4.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Those married once must not despise those who remarry, since a second marriage is permitted to the weak; all sexual sin is to be banished, and the body kept pure.
Catechetical Lecture 5.3Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Even ordinary life (marriage, farming, seafaring) rests on faith; Scripture teaches that without faith no one can please God, and faith is the shield against the devil.
Catechetical Lecture 6.25Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Manichaean myth of rain is absurd; the Church, with its order, purity, marriage, and virginity, is the opposite. Former Manichaeans may be saved if they renounce the error from the heart.
Catechetical Lecture 12.30Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Adam's creation from dust is a greater wonder than a virgin birth; Scripture calls Mary Joseph's wife only as his betrothed, against those who make Joseph Christ's father.
Catechetical Lecture 15.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Judge shows no partiality to rich or poor; every good deed, including faithful marriage and chastity, and every sin committed after baptism is recorded.
Catechetical Lecture 17.7Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit worked in Elizabeth, Zechariah, and Simeon.
Long recension, Philadelphians 4Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges one faith and one Eucharist, sets out the unity of God, faith and church, and gives instructions to wives, virgins, children, slaves, husbands, fathers and masters, honouring both virginity and marriage.
Long recension, Philadelphians 6Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius lists the errors of those who deny Christ's sonship, the God of the law, Christ's divinity, marriage, the reality of the incarnation, or chastity, and urges unity.
Long recension, Polycarp 4Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius gives Polycarp instructions on widows, slaves, wives and husbands, celibacy and marriage, and urges the church to serve as God's soldiers under the bishop.
Long recension, Tarsians 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius gives brief instructions to husbands, wives, children, parents, virgins, widows, slaves and masters.
Long recension, Antiochians 9Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Instructions to husbands, wives, parents and children, grounding monogamy in the creation.
Long recension, Hero 3Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius instructs Hero on widows, orphans, his service to the bishops, slaves and women, and explains the virgin birth without disparaging marriage.
Long recension, Hero 5Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius warns Hero against pride, lying and envy, gives counsel for wives and husbands, and charges him to lead the people of Antioch as Joshua succeeded Moses.
Cento, lines 124–147Proba · ca. 360 · God makes the woman from the man's rib while he sleeps, joins them in marriage, and gives them paradise as a home without toil or death.
Commentary on Matthew 4Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the Sermon on the Mount from the Beatitudes to almsgiving: the apostles as salt and light, Christ fulfilling the law, and the Gospel’s stricter precepts on anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of enemies.
Commentary on Matthew 19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary leaves the question of divorce untouched (referring readers to the words of Jesus, the disciples, and Paul), explains the three kinds of eunuchs, reads the children as the nations, and the rich young man as Israel trusting in the law, with the camel through the needle as the nations entering by the gospel.
Commentary on Matthew 22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds the wicked tenants (vineyard as Israel, winepresses as prophets, tower as law, the son as Christ cast out) and the wedding feast (the resurrection, the bulls as martyrs, the guests as Israel then the nations, the wedding garment as the Spirit’s glory).
Letter 160Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil answers a letter circulating under Diodorus's name that allowed a man to marry his deceased wife's sister: church custom forbids it, Lev 18:18 does not permit it, and Lev 18:6 forbids it.
Letters 188, 189Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil's first canonical letter to Amphilochius rules on the baptism of heretics and schismatics, abortion, lapsed deacons, repeated marriages, homicide, divorce, oaths, and other cases; the ref ends with most of his letter to Eustathius the physician defending the one godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Letters 198, 199Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil explains to Eusebius why his letters are few and that he is near death; then (Letter 199, the Second Canonical Letter) he answers Amphilochius on oaths, fallen virgins, monks' vows, sexual immorality and adultery, abduction, unlawful and repeated marriages, deserted spouses, rebaptism of Encratites, and related cases.
Letter 217Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil's third canonical letter to Amphilochius: after personal news, canons 51–84 set the penitential periods for murder, adultery, fornication, incest, perjury, sorcery, apostasy, and other sins, and stress that the fruits of repentance, not time alone, decide.
Letter 270Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil orders that a girl carried off by force be returned to her parents, that her abductor be excommunicated, and that his accomplices and the village that sheltered her be excluded from the prayers.
Letter 301Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil consoles Maximus on the death of his wife, praising their harmonious marriage, reminding him that death is the common law of nature, and pointing him to the hope of the resurrection.
Letter 302Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil consoles the widow of the general Briso, reminding her that married people are one flesh, that death is God's ordinance, and that she should find comfort in her husband's memory, her children, and preparation for Christ's judgment.
Homilies on the Psalms 45.8Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 46:10–11 Basil teaches that God can be known only by those free from worldly cares and passions, contrasting good leisure for God with the Athenians' idle curiosity and the empty house of the parable; “I will be exalted” foretells the cross, and the repeated refrain is the believer's triumph in Christ, our peace.
Moralia 73.73.1Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's rule that husband and wife may not separate except for sexual immorality or a hindrance to godliness, supported from Matthew, Luke and Paul.
Moralia 73.73.3Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's rule that husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the church, from Ephesians 5.
Moralia 73.73.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's rule that wives must be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ, from Ephesians 5 and Titus 2.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 77Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's seventy-seventh rule: virgins should be free of worldly cares so as to serve God undistracted in mind and body.
Tractate 4, section 3Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · True circumcision is of the heart by faith, which saved the righteous of old; the second reason for fleshly circumcision is Abraham's fault in taking Hagar at Sarah's urging, punished in the member that sinned.
Tractate 4, section 4Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · The third reason is a mark of race, to distinguish Israelites in captivity and in death; all reasons ceased with Christ, whose new circumcision is baptism and faith.
Tractate 13, section 2Gregory of Elvira · ca. 360-392 · Strong drink is fleshly pleasure; the field where the angel speaks shows the Synagogue leaving the city of the law; Manoah is the law, the woman's husband, and her sitting signifies her fall.
Letter 45Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · The end of Gregory's teasing letter about Nicobulus's small wife; then a request to a family friend to help Nicobulus in a lawsuit.
Letter 247Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory tells the governor he opposes the divorce; then he writes to the father, refusing to help ratify the divorce sought by a father for his daughter: the Church's law forbids it, and he will believe the daughter only when she can speak freely.
Letter 317Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory congratulates a friend on the marriage of a second daughter, excusing his absence by illness and offering his prayers as his wedding gift.
Letter 373Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory celebrates the marriage that joins his family with a friend's; then, absent through illness from Eusebius's daughter's wedding, he sends a blessing from the Psalms as his wedding song.
Letter 375Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory, uninvited to a wedding, sends his advice that Christ be present and that Christian weddings be dignified; then he warns Ablabius against becoming a mere sophist.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.3.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Eve's creation from sleeping Adam and Adam's prophecy are introduced.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.3.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Paul calls Adam and Eve's union a mystery of Christ and the church; Jesus, asked about divorce, shows that he himself spoke Gen 2:24.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.4.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Paul's teaching also applies literally: as a believing spouse sanctifies an unbeliever, so believing children help their parents.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.9.1Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Lamech, husband of two wives, boasts of killing a young man.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.13.5Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · Men and women enter the ark separately but leave as couples, signifying continence and the later use of marriage; then a gap.
Tractates on the Psalms 67.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · God is father of those who renounce the devil and judge of the church widowed from the law, and also, literally, protector of orphans and judge of true widows.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.14.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Paul likewise counsels virginity and celibacy beyond the law's command, and gave up rights he was allowed, offering freely more than was required.
Tractates on the Psalms 124.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The bonds to avoid are not marriage, which Paul does not call criminal, but the chains of money-making and trade that ensnare faith.
Tractates on the Psalms 127.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Taken literally, a fruitful wife and children cannot be the blessedness of those who fear God, since the patriarchs lacked it, sinners enjoy it, and virgins forgo it.
Tractates on the Psalms 131.24Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Hilary follows the Septuagint 'widow' (not 'catch'), praising widows' continence and, with Romans 7, reading the widow as the church freed from the law to be joined to Christ.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.56Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Titus defends rain and the fruits of the earth against Manichaean slander and accuses the Manichees of cursing their bread, rejecting childbearing, and using means to prevent or end pregnancy.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.57Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Sexual desire exists so that self-control, virginity and celibacy may be real victories of reason and holiness.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.58Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Natural appetites are good in measured, lawful use; sin lies in excess, and fasting is a voluntary training, not a rejection of nature.
Against the Manichees, Greek continuation of book 3, Lagarde p. 100Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Soul and body share pleasure and pain and the soul sanctifies the flesh; Christ’s words on the creation of male and female and on what God has joined show the one Creator of body and soul.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.22Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Wives are to be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.25Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself to cleanse her in baptism, which Victorinus applies to a husband’s patient endurance for his wife’s sanctification.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.27Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Christ gave himself so that the church might be glorious, holy through the washing of water and the word, and without spot or wrinkle.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.28Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Husbands must love their wives as their own bodies, since the first woman was made from the man’s rib.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.29Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Since the wife is the husband’s own flesh, he must nourish and cherish her as Christ does the church, as the wife in turn reveres her husband.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.31Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Gen 2:24 shows that a husband should love his wife so much as to leave father and mother and become one flesh with her, though Paul goes on to show a deeper meaning.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.32Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The “great mystery” of Gen 2:24 refers to Christ and the church, which Victorinus understands more deeply as spirit and soul joined together, Christ being the spirit and the church the soul.
Commentary on Ephesians 5.33Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul applies the precepts on marriage to each Ephesian husband and wife, love on the one side and reverent fear on the other; the commentary then breaks off, and resumes in the comment on the spiritual powers of Eph 6:12.
Oration 8.4Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises their parents, Gregory and Nonna, as a new Abraham and Sarah.
Oration 8.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia united the advantages of marriage and of celibacy, won her husband to God, and consecrated her whole household.
Oration 8.20Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia was baptized late, though her life was already pure, and obtained the baptism of her husband.
Oration 18.7Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises his father’s virtue before his conversion and begins to describe his marriage to Nonna as an ideal union.
Oration 18.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory contrasts Eve with his mother Nonna, who led her husband to piety while managing the household and giving generously to the poor.
Oration 18.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory describes his mother’s reverence and her prayers for her husband’s conversion, his dream of a psalm, and his admission as a catechumen by bishops travelling to Nicaea in a rite resembling ordination.
Oration 37.5Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · The Pharisees test Christ on divorce; Gregory says some questions deserve silencing, but this one honours chastity, and he rejects the civil law that punishes a wife's adultery but leaves a husband's unchastity unpunished.
Oration 37.6Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · God's law treats father and mother, man and woman, equally, and Paul's comparison of marriage to Christ and the church requires chastity of both spouses.
Oration 37.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory reads Eph 5 as discouraging second marriage (the first is law, the second concession, the third transgression) and explains that Christ permits separation only from an unchaste wife, urging spouses to correct rather than separate.
Oration 37.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Answering the remark that it is better not to marry, Gregory grants that marriage is honourable and good for the moderate and for children, but not when it becomes a path to vice.
Oration 37.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Virginity is higher than the good of marriage, yet virgins and wives depend on and should honour one another; the virgin must keep eyes, tongue, feet and mind virgin too.
Oration 40.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Baptism benefits virgins, the married, those in authority and slaves, rich and poor; those engaged in public affairs should not fear it; and the parable of the labourers does not justify delaying baptism.
Oration 43.9Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Basil's parents were known for charity, hospitality, self-control and dedication of property to God, and above all for their children; Gregory will praise Basil not for bodily gifts but for what truly matters.
Oration 43.54Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Basil's exile was prevented when Valens' son fell ill; Basil also healed the prefect; and when a governor of Pontus tried to seize a widow who had taken sanctuary and abused Basil, the people of Caesarea rose to defend him, and Basil saved the governor from the mob.
Oration 44.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory exhorts the married, virgins and the powerful, and all to humility and constant renewal, the true way to keep the feast of dedication.
Tractates 1.2.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno praises love as queen of the virtues, surpassing faith and hope, and describes its works in society, marriage and the household.
Tractates 1.4.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno praises chastity, which guards family life and makes the church, Christ's virgin bride, fruitful in holy children.
Tractates 1.4.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno condemns husbands who commit adultery, citing Christ's saying on putting away a wife and Paul's equal rule for husband and wife, and teaches that a Christian must be either continent or married.
Tractates 1.5.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno begins a discourse on continence: he does not condemn marriage but, with Paul, sets virginity and widowhood above it.
Tractates 1.5.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno compares the married woman, anxious for husband and children, with the virgin, who seeks to please God alone.
Tractates 1.5.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno answers the objection from Mary's marriage by her perpetual virginity and urges virgins to keep their state, as the angels in the resurrection.
Tractates 1.5.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes widows who seek a second marriage, setting their earlier grief against their haste to adorn themselves for a new husband.
Tractates 1.5.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno answers the widow who pleads youthful desire: if her husband were long absent, fear would restrain her; let her fear God instead.
Tractates 1.5.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno deplores old women who marry again and again, and Christian women who marry pagans.
Tractates 1.5.7Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes Christian women who marry pagans, so handing Christ's members to the slaves of demons.
Tractates 1.5.8Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the practical conflicts and dangers when a Christian woman married to a pagan must keep her worship and his.
Tractates 1.5.9Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno warns virgins and widows against marriage with pagans and against many successive marriages, urging them, if they marry, to marry a Christian.
Tractates 1.6.8Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno ends with a hymn to patience as queen of the virtues, sustaining virgins, widows, the married, slaves, the poor, prophets, apostles and martyrs.
Tractates 1.10.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno shows how avarice sets spouses, parents and children against each other and leads to contempt of God.
Tractates 1.14.5Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno describes the virtues that serve in the spiritual temple and calls elders, youths, children, the married, widows, virgins, rich and poor to rejoice.
Tractates 1.15.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno warns Christians who tolerate pagan shrines on their estates, feast at tombs, observe omens or wrong their wives that their sacrifice is unacceptable, and that eating the Eucharist unworthily is deadly.
Tractates 1.16.6Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes Christians, especially widows, who mourn the dead like pagans and then quickly remarry, as if they did not believe in the resurrection.
Tractates 2.14.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno retells the story of Judah and Tamar from Genesis 38.
Hexaemeron 7.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · God's providence, shown even in the sea urchin's weather sense, extends to us; the viper and lamprey teach spouses to bear with each other and keep their union.
Hexaemeron 7.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Husbands too must lay aside harshness; Basil lists more marvels of the sea, the great sea monsters and small but dangerous fish, and closes the homily.
Hexaemeron 8.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 370 · Birds teach lessons on widowhood, the cruelty of exposing children, fair inheritance, and, from the vulture, the credibility of the virgin birth.
Homilies 21.11Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Struck in body and seated on the dunghill, Job resists even his wife's plea to curse God, answering that good and evil alike are to be received from the Lord.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 6.4Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists made consecrated virgins do penance and take a second veil, though the veil is only a sign of their profession, not a sacrament; Optatus compares this to a second wedding, which is not celebrated even when a widow remarries, and says it exposed the virgins to abduction.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 5:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The incest at Corinth is worse than anything among pagans, and those who tolerated it share the guilt.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sexual union makes two one body, even in sin, as Gen 2:24 says.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 6:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Fornication binds the soul to the flesh and sins against one's own body, the wife being a portion of the man; Ambrosiaster rejects Novatian's view that it is an unforgivable sin against Christ's body and the Holy Spirit.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Corinthians asked about marriage because false apostles condemned it; Paul grants that abstaining is good but not as an absolute rule.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · To avoid fornication each should have a spouse; renouncing lawful marriage leads to unlawful acts, as among the Manichees.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:3–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Husband and wife owe each other the marriage debt and have mutual authority over each other's bodies.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Spouses may abstain by agreement for a time of prayer, as Nazirites abstained even from permitted things, but must then come together lest Satan tempt them.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:6–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Marriage is permitted, not commanded; Paul wishes all were celibate like himself, but each has his own gift and must not be forced.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul counsels the unmarried and widows to remain as he is, which Ambrosiaster takes to show that Paul was a lifelong virgin.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The unmarried and widows who cannot contain themselves should marry; 'to burn' means to be overcome by desire, not merely to feel it.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:10–11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster holds that a wife who leaves her husband, even for his sexual immorality or apostasy, may not marry again, while a husband who puts away a wife guilty of sexual immorality may take another wife.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:12Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains Paul's “I, not the Lord” as authority granted by the Lord, who also speaks through Paul.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains that Paul's rule concerns pagan couples of whom one has converted, and requires the believer to stay if the unbeliever is willing.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:14Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains the sanctification of the unbelieving spouse and of the children, and says that believers who put away willing unbelievers and married others would be adulterers.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster holds that when an unbelieving spouse leaves out of hatred of God the marriage is dissolved, and the deserted believer may marry another believer without sin, citing Ezra's dismissal of foreign wives.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:16Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster explains that an unbelieving spouse who does not hate Christ's name may come to believe.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A believer married to an unbeliever should stay and wait for the spouse's conversion, though one who leaves may be let go.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:18Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Converted Jews need not regret circumcision and gentiles need not seek it; Abraham's sons are preferred only if they believe.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Circumcision is indifferent; faith shown in good works pleases God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:20–21Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A slave called to faith should serve his master well and so become worthy of freedom, if it is offered.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:22Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Sin is true slavery; the believing slave is Christ's freedman and the free believer Christ's slave, which removes pride on both sides.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:23Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Those redeemed by Christ must not enslave themselves to human teachers, which implies that Christ is God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:24Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul repeats that each should remain in his calling.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · There is no command about virginity, since God, the author of marriage, would not condemn his own institution; Paul gives counsel only.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Virginity is best both before God and in this life, being free of the troubles of marriage, with only the struggle against desire.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:27Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · No one should leave his wife except for fornication, not even for continence; a man released from a wife should stay single only if he can avoid unlawful relations.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Marriage is no sin but brings many burdens, from which Paul would spare them.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:29Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul speaks of the end as near to keep readers watchful; married believers should live as if not married, abstaining even from lawful things to prepare for the final trials.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:30Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Because the end is near, weeping, rejoicing and buying must all be held loosely, with care for the eternal soul.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:31Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The world's form, not its substance, will pass away, so its goods must be used lightly.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Freedom from marriage, the heaviest worldly care, frees the mind for God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:33Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Marriage divides a man's mind; a virgin, unlike a married woman, is free of a wife's burdens.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:34Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The unmarried woman can devote body and mind to the Lord, while the married woman is bound to please her husband.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:35Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Virginity is the quicker way to God, but worldly-minded virgins will be punished while devout married people will be rewarded.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:36Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A virgin of age who desires marriage does not sin in marrying; better a public marriage than secret shame.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:37Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A guardian should not push toward marriage a virgin who does not wish it.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:38Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Giving a virgin in marriage is good; keeping her unmarried is better.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:39Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A wife is bound while her husband lives, so even one cast out by him may not remarry; a widow may marry whom she wishes, but only a fellow believer.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:40Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Second marriage is permitted for widows because of incontinence but lacks the blessing of a first marriage; remaining a widow is better.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 8:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Love may require giving up even lawful things; as a lawful wife must be cast off if she commits fornication, lawful meat must be refused if offered to idols.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · In the Lord, man and woman are one flesh, as the creation of woman from man shows.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:2–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul warns that God’s will is their holiness: to abstain from sexual immorality, to keep their bodies undefiled, and to deal honestly with their brothers.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 3:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A bishop must be blameless and the husband of one wife: a second marriage is lawful, but a candidate for bishop should forgo even lawful things.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 3:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul lists the bishop’s virtues; one who has dedicated himself to God by not marrying is even more worthy.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 3:12–13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Deacons must have had only one wife, since God blesses only one marriage, and clergy who serve daily must abstain from their wives; the church, ruled today by Damasus, is God’s house, and the mystery of Christ is unfolded from incarnation to ascension.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 4:1–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Spirit foretold heretics, such as the Marcionites, Patricians, and Manichees, who deny Christ’s birth, forbid marriage, and reject foods, though everything God made is good when received with thanksgiving.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 5:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · True widows are those who declined a second marriage, since a marriage is blessed once, following Anna’s example.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 5:14–45Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Young widows should remarry and bear children rather than fall into adultery or idleness under a holy profession, which gives Satan his opportunity.
Commentary on 2 Corinthians 11:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul wants the Corinthians kept as a virgin bride for Christ, undefiled by corrupt teaching; virginity here means purity of faith, since most apostles were married.
Commentary on Colossians 3:17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · All words and deeds should glorify Christ; wives are to be subject to their husbands as God ordained in Genesis.
Commentary on Colossians 3:19Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Husbands must temper their authority with love, since the wife is their own flesh.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:22–24Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Wives are to be subject to husbands by natural law as the church to Christ, though the wife, unlike the church, shares her husband's nature.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:25–28Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the church, even to death; being one flesh, a man loves himself in his wife and sins against himself by sexual immorality.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:29Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A husband should nourish and cherish his wife as his own flesh, as Christ does the church.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:30Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Believers are Christ's members spiritually, since he is the head from whom all spiritual creation subsists.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:31–32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The one-flesh union of husband and wife, a great mystery, images Christ and the church; the husband must love his wife as himself, and the wife, subordinate in condition but equal in nature, respect him.
Commentary on Romans 7:2Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster says that the law binding a wife to her living husband comes from the Gospel, not from Moses, and applies Paul's example to believers, who are not adulterers when joined to Christ once the law is dead to them.
Commentary on Romans 7:3Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Ambrosiaster applies Rom 7:3 to believers: those freed from the law are not adulterers in joining the Gospel, but those who keep the law while coming to the Gospel are adulterers against both.
Commentary on Titus 1:5–11Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Titus is to appoint holy and able presbyter-bishops who can refute the judaizing teachers, who seek both money and converts to circumcision.
Commentary on Titus 2:3–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Older women should model good conduct for young wives, whose obedience to their husbands, even unbelieving ones, honors God’s name.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 2.2Anonymous · ca. 370 · A false Alexander is exposed by Augustus; Archelaus is banished to Vienne, and his marriage to his brother's widow Glaphyra is condemned in her dream of Alexander, after which she dies.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 2.5Anonymous · ca. 370 · Pilate massacres Samaritans and crucifies Christ, which the author makes the cause of Jerusalem's ruin; Herod Antipas kills John the Baptist over Herodias and is exiled; Gaius and Agrippa I.
On the Destruction of Jerusalem 2.12Anonymous · ca. 370 · The author ascribes the Jews' sufferings to their crucifixion of Jesus, cites Josephus's testimony to Jesus, tells how John the Baptist died for rebuking Herod's marriage to Herodias, and begins to show that the high priesthood had departed from its lawful succession from Aaron.
Question 17, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The curse of childlessness applied to those who abandoned God; Isaiah corrected the error that the celibate or the infertile are guilty before God, provided they keep his law.
Question 17, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Holy people who were long childless were kept by God’s providence for special children; spiritually, the curse falls on those who leave no one taught to fear God.
Question 24, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Man and woman share one substance; the man is greater only in rank, because woman was taken from him.
Question 46, section 10Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Elkanah, a Levite with two wives, which priests could not have, brought offerings through the priests; the Levites’ courses were organized only later by David.
Question 46, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Elkanah, though a landless Levite, could pay tithes from his wife’s or a purchased property, since Levites and priests married into other tribes, as Jehoiada did.
Question 56, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster rejects the explanation that Heli fathered Joseph by levirate marriage to Jacob’s widow.
Question 76, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Scripture is bitter to the faithless and heretics: Photinus, Sabellius, Arius, Marcion, and the Manichees, who reject marriage, are all refuted by the Gospel of John.
Question 115, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Wives began to divorce their husbands freely only after Julian’s edict permitted it, which shows that law, not fate, governs conduct.
Question 115, section 72Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Eunuchs born and made, a woman with eleven husbands and a man with twelve wives, and a girl in Campania changed into a male are cases fate cannot explain.
Question 127, section 1Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster begins his defense of marriage by noting that God made the world for man and gave every living kind the power to reproduce.
Question 127, section 2Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God blessed human beings, male and female, to increase and multiply, with the same blessing he gave to the rest of creation.
Question 127, section 3Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since all increase comes from God’s blessing, marriage cannot be wrong; the synagogue and now the church join husband and wife under God’s blessing.
Question 127, section 4Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · If human procreation ceased, the rest of creation, made for man, would lose its purpose.
Question 127, section 5Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those who call marriage defiled are really accusing God, who instituted and blessed it.
Question 127, section 6Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · As Balaam could not curse those God blessed, no one can condemn marriage, which God blessed, without denying God or Scripture.
Question 127 (On the sin of Adam and Eve), section 7Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ambrosiaster argues that Christ's presence at the wedding at Cana and his answer on divorce show that the new teaching agrees with the old: God is the author of marriage, which must be neither forbidden nor separated.
Question 127, section 8Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Christ’s care for his mother at the cross and the commandment to honor parents show that birth, and so marriage, is good.
Question 127, section 9Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since both Testaments favor marriage, those who forbid it are, as Paul says, people of seared conscience who attack God’s law.
Question 127, section 10Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Those who condemn marriage and foods feign holiness and abstinence to win esteem and lead people astray, as the Jewish leaders falsely ascribed Christ’s works to Beelzebul.
Question 127, section 11Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The condemnation of marriage is a trick of Satan, who poses as a lover of holiness to lead people into worse sin and so gain companions in his punishment.
Question 127, section 12Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Scripture plainly says that God made and blessed human beings, so no one should treat as cursed what God has blessed.
Question 127, section 14Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since the God of the Old Testament is the true God, his word must be believed even against our own judgment, and all the more on marriage, which he plainly instituted.
Question 127, section 15Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Since knowing God is good and comes only to those who are born, birth is good, and through faith it leads to a greater paradise than Adam’s.
Question 127, section 17Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Against Marcion, who forbade marriage, Ambrosiaster argues that the soul’s liberation through knowledge requires birth, so opposing birth is opposing souls.
Question 127, section 18Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Manichaeans, who reject marriage, need bodily birth for their own scheme of the soul’s liberation, and their show of holiness hides impurity condemned by imperial edicts.
Question 127, section 19Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Simeon was kept alive until he saw the infant Christ, which shows that being born and living are a benefit from God.
Question 127, section 20Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · If birth were evil, God would promise only punishment, not eternal life, and begetting children would be forbidden.
Question 127, section 21Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The kingdom is promised to those who are born and live well, so guilt comes from bad living, not from birth.
Question 127, section 22Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Birth is like a tree that bears good or bad fruit depending on what is grafted onto it, and it is necessary as the ground for growth in goodness.
Question 127, section 23Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Rebirth in baptism does not condemn birth but renews it, washing the body stained by the soul’s sin so that it may rise again.
Question 127, section 24Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Adam’s sin came from the soul’s ambition, not bodily desire; the mortality it brought is outweighed by the greater glory God gives the faithful, so being born is a gain.
Question 127, section 26Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The punishment of Adam and Eve does not reveal what their sin was, for the same sentence falls on different sins and different sentences on the same sin.
Question 127, section 28Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The woman’s sentence did not begin procreation, already blessed in “increase and multiply,” but added pain to it as punishment.
Question 127, section 29Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God could not have condemned intercourse and then imposed it as punishment; the sentence rather restored the woman’s original subjection to her husband, with added pain.
Question 127, section 30Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · The woman’s sentence increased pains that already existed rather than creating procreation, which God had blessed before the fall.
Question 127, section 32Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · God gave sons to Abraham, Hannah, and Zechariah as rewards, and Samuel had sons without loss of holiness, so begetting children cannot be blameworthy.
Question 127, section 33Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Peter was married with children and yet received the primacy among the apostles, so marriage does not hinder holiness.
Question 127, section 34Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Paul allows married men to become priests, has no command against marriage, and, when asked about marrying and divorcing, forbade a wife to leave her husband rather than forbidding marriage.
Question 127, section 35Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Ordained clergy abstain from marital relations because some lawful things are forbidden to certain persons or at certain times, as lay Christians also abstain for prayer on holy days.
Question 127, section 36Ambrosiaster · ca. 370–384 · Bishops and deacons, who daily act in Christ’s place at prayer, the offering, and baptism, must keep a purity beyond that of lay people, as courtiers do in the emperor’s presence.
On Virginity 0Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The preface explains the plan of the treatise: praise of virginity, the troubles of ordinary life, the true object of desire, the method of virtue, examples of the saints, and an unnamed living guide.
On Virginity 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Gregory, himself married, regrets that he cannot share in virginity, and describes the anxieties of even the happiest marriage: fear of death, dangers of childbirth, widowhood, children’s troubles, and the crimes the law courts reveal.
On Virginity 4Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Pride, greed, envy and the other passions spring mainly from the ties of marriage and the world; the one who withdraws from that torrent, like the angels who do not marry, is free to pursue virtue, a wealth that is never diminished.
On Virginity 6Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Elijah and John the Baptist, living apart from human life, food, comfort, and marriage, reached the greatness of their gifts; their example shows that one who seeks God must not divide his mind among many things.
On Virginity 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Like water gathered into one channel or forced up a pipe, the mind that self-control keeps from scattering among many desires rises toward the truth; marriage is the root of the pursuit of vain things.
On Virginity 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Marriage is blessed by God and those who condemn it as unclean are heretics; virtue lies in the mean, and one who can use marriage with moderation, like Isaac, should not despise it, but for the weak virginity is the safer course.
On Virginity 9Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Habit is powerful: many who began chaste were drawn by permitted pleasures into a filthy life, so the weak should take refuge in virginity, which keeps the heart undivided for the love of God; habit can also make the struggle sweet.
On Virginity 12Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Passion and death were not part of man’s nature but came by his free choice; restoring the hidden image of God, like the woman’s lost coin, means retracing the steps of the fall, beginning by leaving marriage, the last stage of the exile from paradise.
On Virginity 13Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Bodily birth leads to death, but spiritual birth through virginity halts death’s advance, as it was shattered against the virginity of Mary; the virgin already shares the angelic life of the resurrection.
On Virginity 18Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The mind must order every power of the soul to its proper use (desire for God, anger against sin, grief for repentance), for true self-control is that harmony; freedom from marriage is not enough without purity in all of life, as Israel passed dry through the sea while Egypt sank.
On Virginity 19Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Miriam, Aaron’s sister, leading the women with her dry drum, may have been the first virgin and a figure of Mary; true fruitfulness is spiritual, as Isaiah, Paul, and the Virgin’s birth show, and bodily virginity serves the inner spiritual marriage.
On Virginity 20Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · One cannot pursue both bodily pleasure and the spiritual marriage; the soul that seeks union with Christ must, as in an earthly match, make itself young, rich, noble, and strong in spiritual ways, bringing the virtues as its bridal gifts.
Letter 22.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Eustochium to watchful prayer and tears, and argues that the virgin is free from the curse on woman and from marriage, which ends in death.
Letter 22.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome insists that preferring virginity does not disparage marriage, which he places second, and argues from Scripture that virginity belongs to paradise and marriage to the fallen state.
Letter 22.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises marriage because it brings forth virgins, and explains that Paul gave no command about virginity so that it would be freely chosen and marriage not condemned.
Letter 22.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts the Old Testament blessing of children with the gospel's call to virginity, which began with Mary and is commended by Paul.
Letter 22.22Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome refers Eustochium to his own work against Helvidius and to earlier writers on virginity, and argues that marital relations hinder continual prayer.
Letter 48.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells Pammachius that his books Against Jovinian, which some thought disparaged marriage, have already circulated, and sends him a defense of them.
Letter 48.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that his treatment of marriage was milder than Paul's and than earlier commentators such as Pierius, who said Paul openly preached celibacy.
Letter 49.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome denies that his books against Jovinian condemned marriage and quotes his own preface ranking virginity, widowhood, and marriage as the hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold yield.
Letter 49.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that his treatment of marriage was milder than that of other commentators and that he asked married people for their prayers.
Letter 49.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites his comments on 1 Corinthians 7, where he said that the Lord forbids putting away a wife and that marriage too is a gift of God, though a different one.
Letter 49.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls that he called marriage a gift of God and cites his teaching that a wife may be put away only for sexual immorality and may not remarry while her husband lives.
Letter 49.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls that he allowed second and third marriages and urged a believing husband not to use his faith as a reason to leave his wife.
Letter 49.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites passages where he called marriage the root and foundation of virginity and forbade a married man to divorce his wife.
Letter 49.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains his 'middle way' between lust and Manichaean contempt for marriage and defends his remarks on second and later marriages.
Letter 49.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome distinguishes not condemning from praising and cites passages where he rejected the Encratite condemnation of marriage and set out three grades of chastity.
Letter 49.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites his statements that marriage is permitted in the Gospel though it does not win the rewards of chastity, and that the married stand in the third grade after virgins and widows.
Letter 49.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls that he said the church does not condemn marriage but ranks it below virginity and widowhood.
Letter 49.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says his harsh sayings on touching a woman only expound Paul by comparison, and shows that Ambrose used still stronger language about marriage.
Letter 49.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his view, drawn from Paul and Peter, that married intercourse is a hindrance to prayer and to receiving the body of Christ, and urges couples to abstain before communion.
Letter 49.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome shows that his comment calling married intercourse an 'indulgence' repeats Paul's own words in 1 Corinthians 7:5–6.
Letter 49.17Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that his remark 'it is better to marry because it is worse to burn' only interprets 1 Corinthians 7:8–9, and that a commentator must say what his author means.
Letter 49.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his remarks on the troubles of marriage and restates that second and later marriages are not condemned in the church, though they are not praised.
Letter 49.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends his interpretation that the omission of 'God saw that it was good' on the second day of creation, and the pairs of unclean animals in the ark, show that the even number is inferior.
Letter 49.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome protests that he has never condemned marriage but praises virginity, which he admits he does not himself possess.
Letter 50.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome asks Domnio to warn the critic against teaching virgins in private and to put his objections in writing, as Pammachius did.
Letter 50.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome challenges his critic to write rather than slander, forgives him, and repeats that he does not condemn marriage.
Letter 52.16Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells clerics not to seek gifts, arrange marriages, or manage others' estates, and to distribute alms at once.
Letter 54.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Furia, having known the troubles of marriage, not to marry again for the sake of children or heirs.
Letter 54.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the reasons young widows give for remarrying and describes the troubles of second marriages.
Letter 55.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome gives several interpretations of Paul's saying that the sexually immoral man sins against his own body.
Letter 55.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers that a woman who left an adulterous husband and married another while he lives is an adulteress and cannot be admitted to communion without penance.
Letter 65.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the virgins and companions led to the king as the ranks of virgins, widows, and the continent married within the church.
Letter 66.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome compares Eustochium, Paula, and Paulina to the hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold yields, with Pammachius completing a four-horse team.
Letter 66.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises the four virtues in Pammachius's family and describes Paulina's chaste marriage, her many miscarriages, and her wish to bear children who would be virgins for Christ.
Letter 69.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends a Spanish bishop who married once before and once after baptism, arguing that baptism makes a wholly new man and recalling a debate at Rome.
Letter 69.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome quotes Paul's qualifications for bishops and argues that a marriage before baptism cannot count against a man when every sin before baptism is forgiven.
Letter 69.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts the honourable first marriage of the accused bishop with the sexual sins of his accusers, which baptism has forgiven.
Letter 69.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome offers alternative readings of 'husband of one wife' (against polygamy; bishops wedded to churches) and shows the absurdities of his opponents' view.
Letter 71.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises Lucinius and his wife for living as brother and sister and urges him to give himself, not only his wealth, to God.
Letter 75.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Theodora to rejoice that Lucinius reigns with Christ, and teaches that in the resurrection people remain human, 'like' the angels.
Letter 77.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that Fabiola divorced a vicious first husband and remarried in ignorance of the gospel's rule, which forbids a Christian woman to remarry while her husband lives.
Letter 79.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Salvina that penitence is no substitute for keeping chastity, and argues that second marriage is only a concession to prevent worse sin.
Letter 79.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome compares the concession of second marriage to the 'statutes that were not good' given to rebellious Israel and holds up Judith and Anna as models for Salvina's widowhood.
Letter 85.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that the children of believers are called 'holy' in the sense of being clean and set apart, as vessels in the tabernacle are called holy.
Letter 96.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Theophilus argues that the Origenist idea that souls fall from heaven into bodies would make marriage and childbearing evil, contrary to Scripture's blessings.
Letter 100.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Against Origen's teaching that bodies are prisons for fallen souls, Theophilus argues from Paul's commendation of marriage and God's blessing of Adam and Eve that bodies, marriage, and childbearing are blessings, not punishments.
Letter 107.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Writing to Laeta, daughter of the pagan pontiff Albinus and wife of Toxotius, Jerome cites Paul on mixed marriages, rejoices in her Christian household and daughter Paula, and hopes her father too will convert as Rome turns from its temples.
Letter 107.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · If Laeta cannot keep these rules at Rome, Jerome urges her to send Paula to her grandmother and aunt at Bethlehem, where he himself will teach her, while Laeta, bound by marriage, gives to God in her daughter what she cannot give in herself.
Letter 108.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome notes that Paula married Toxotius, of the Julian line, and bore five children, Blesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, Rufina, and Toxotius, after which she ceased childbearing.
Letter 117.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges the daughter to return to her mother: if she is a virgin she need not fear her mother's watch, and if she has fallen she should marry openly.
Letter 122.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recounts how Rusticus broke the vow of continence he shared with Artemia and failed to follow her to the holy places, and urges him to keep his oath and repent.
Letter 123.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains each clause of 1 Timothy 5:14 as a safeguard against sexual immorality, concluding that second and even third marriages are allowed the incontinent only as the lesser evil.
Letter 123.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome distinguishes what Paul wills (remaining unmarried) from what he is compelled to allow (second marriage), and cites the Levitical rules on the priests’ widowed daughters.
Letter 123.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says the church does not condemn second marriages or expel the twice-married, but ranks a second marriage outside the hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold harvest.
Letter 123.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Geruchia to read the Scriptures that crown chastity, not those that concede remarriage, and to take widowhood as a God-given freedom.
Letter 123.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues from Adam and Eve, Christ and the one church, the Song of Songs and Noah’s ark that Scripture favors a single marriage.
Letter 123.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the objection from the patriarchs’ many wives: the command to multiply belonged to an earlier time, and these Old Testament marriages are types of the synagogue and the church.
Letter 123.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Using Dido’s story Jerome answers the arguments for remarriage from desire for children and from the need of a man to manage property.
Letter 127.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Marcella, widowed after seven months, refuses a rich elderly consular suitor, and Jerome compares her with the widow Anna in Luke.
Letter 128.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects indulging youth, reads 1 Cor 7 allegorically of virginity and marriage, and warns virgins, men and women, against living or sitting alone with the opposite sex.
Letter 128.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome sets out Pacatula's upbringing: seclusion from boys, obedience to her mother, the Psalter and Scripture from age seven, a sober governess; he warns of seducers and of women who desert their husbands.
Letter 132.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine questions the philosophers' doctrine, since faithful married people truly have the virtue of chastity yet, like all, still sin, as James 3:2 says.
Letter 145.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reminds Exuperantius of Paul's advice that the unmarried should not seek a wife.
Letter 148.25Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer tells Celantia to govern her household with kindness and to keep the apostolic order in marriage.
Letter 148.26Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer tells Celantia to honour her husband's authority, as Paul and Peter teach.
Letter 148.27Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer, citing Peter and Paul, tells Celantia to dress simply and to adorn herself with a quiet spirit and good works.
Letter 148.28Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer rebukes Celantia for vowing continence without her husband's consent, since Paul gives each spouse power over the other's body.
Letter 148.29Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer expounds 1 Corinthians 7:1–7 as teaching that continence in marriage should be undertaken by mutual consent.
Letter 148.30Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer warns that Celantia is caught between breaking her vow and defying her husband, and urges her to win his consent so that both may keep continence.
Homilies, Migne column 45Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Amphilochius praises honourable marriage as the root from which virginity itself springs, insisting that virginity and marriage are not rivals but need each other.
Homilies, Migne column 49Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Answering an objection, Amphilochius holds that Mary's virginity remained intact, the 'gate' shut yet open to the Lord's power; he then praises the three orders of virginity, marriage, and widowhood, and holds up the widow Anna as a model.
Homilies, Migne column 53Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Anna's prophecy presents the infant as the Lord of creation and of Israel's history, both child and eternal; Amphilochius praises her widowhood, in which she kept faith with her dead husband and did not remarry.
Homilies, Migne column 55Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Amphilochius allows a second marriage for a young childless widow, following 1 Tim 5:14, but calls it superfluous when there are children; he then begins on Simeon's prophecy, imagining Mary's protest and Simeon's reply.
Homilies, Migne column 71Amphilochius of Iconium · ca. 376 · Christ accepted the Pharisee's invitation so that the sinful woman might teach repentance; Amphilochius describes woman as Eve's heir and explains that marriage was given after the fall as a remedy against death, for lawful union, not for pleasure.
Canon 1Anonymous · 374 · Henceforth no man married twice, or married to a woman previously married, may be ordained, whether the marriages were before or after baptism; those already ordained are left undisturbed.
Canon 2Anonymous · 374 · Virgins vowed to God who marry are not to be admitted to penance at once, and their communion is deferred until they have made full satisfaction.
Ancoratus 20.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · They knew each other by sight, not by act.
Ancoratus 20.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Only after the expulsion did Adam “know” Eve.
Ancoratus 20.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Scripture calls sexual union “knowing.”
Ancoratus 20.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Jacob knew Leah first by sight, then by act.
Ancoratus 20.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · David lay with Abishag but did not “know” her.
Ancoratus 60.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Joseph was an elderly widower with children from a first marriage.
Ancoratus 95.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Birth takes nine months.
Ancoratus 98.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Virgin Elijah and married Enoch both live on.
Ancoratus 107.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · Teachers lead people from idolatry, adultery, and fornication to chastity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 13.1.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Dositheans affirm the resurrection and practice abstinence and virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 14.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Sadducees' question to Jesus about the woman with seven husbands.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 14.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus refutes the Sadducees from Exodus.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.1.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elxai opposed virginity and required marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ commends continence for the kingdom, against Simon's obscene rites.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ upholds marriage, which Simon corrupts.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.2.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Satornilus called marriage and procreation Satanic.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus' teaching on divorce shows the Creator is his Father.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 23.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage is from God, as Christ and Paul teach.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.1.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Nicolaus practiced continence in marriage but gave it up.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.1.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Nicolaus claimed that daily intercourse is necessary for salvation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's saying on eunuchs for the kingdom.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's teaching on virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius says the sect holds wives in common.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Husbands give their wives to other members.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They forbid procreation and seek only pleasure.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.14.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul commands younger widows to marry and bear children.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.14.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Refusing childbearing contradicts Paul.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.15.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John and Jesus refute them.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul praises both virginity and honorable marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.16.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's warnings to Timothy apply to them.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.16.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They forbid chaste marriage and childbearing.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Ebionites once honoured virginity but now forbid it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.15.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Clement's genuine letters contradict the Ebionite forgeries.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.18.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They marry off the young early; they call their church a synagogue.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.18.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius says the Ebionites permit divorce and repeated remarriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.22.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Peter, a married Jew, ate meat before meeting Jesus.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.21.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Others openly take other men's wives.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 31.26.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They read Paul's 'great mystery' of marriage as the Pleroma's pairs.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanes taught that wives should be held in common, citing Plato's Republic.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isidore starts from Jesus's saying about three kinds of eunuchs.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Those who renounce marriage do so to avoid its cares.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isidore reads 'better to marry than to burn' as advice not to struggle endlessly against desire.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isidore's Ethics advises marriage when prayer turns into a struggle against desire.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · One who is weak but will not marry should stay close to his brother.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus said Moses permitted divorce because of hardness of heart, but God joined marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God's law forbids divorce; Moses' law allows it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Unhappy marriages risked leading the people into sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ cites Genesis to show how God joined marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God himself did not speak the words about one flesh at creation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam spoke the words about leaving father and mother.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 33.9.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · As Adam's words were God's, so Moses' law was God's; two of Ptolemy's claims fall.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.5.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Cain and Seth married; Abel did not.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam's children necessarily married their sisters.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Even Adam's union with Eve was of one flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Cain married Saue and Seth married Azura.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.7.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage rules grew stricter as humanity grew.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.7.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Later they married cousins, not sisters.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 39.7.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The lines of Cain and Seth intermarried.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 43.1.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Lucian rejects marriage so as not to increase the creator's world by childbearing.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 43.2.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Rejecting marriage to avoid the creator's work is irrational.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 45.2.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Severians call woman and marriage the work of Satan.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 45.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The body's God-given appetites, including sexual desire, are not evil in themselves.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 45.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Sexual desire is given for procreation, as God commanded.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.2.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Tatian denies Adam's salvation and equates marriage with sexual immorality.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Tatian condemns marriage though he himself was born of it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage produces those who are saved, so it is not an abomination.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam, not born of marriage but formed by God, would on Tatian's view be saved first.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 46.3.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If the lump is holy, so are its branches; and Eve is saved through childbearing.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Encratites call marriage devilish and abstain from meat out of fear.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 47.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Scripture shows marriage is from God and honourable.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · God put Adam into deep sleep so he would feel no pain.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.6.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam awoke with full understanding and recognized Eve.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam's prophecy about marriage came from a sound mind, not from ecstasy.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.8.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul foretold teachers who would forbid marriage and foods.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.8.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius sees Paul's prophecy fulfilled in heresies that forbid marriage and foods.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church honors virginity, widowhood, and marriage, and forbids sexual sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's warning distinguishes the church from heresies that forbid marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ commends virginity and continence but honors marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Priesthood is given chiefly to the once-married living in continence and to virgins.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.10.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Joseph was Jesus' father only in name, an elderly widower with sons.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.11.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Under the Law a betrothed woman is already called a wife.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.21.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Jesus attended the Cana wedding to honor and bless marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.21.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Cana wedding.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 51.30.12Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ attended Cana to sanctify marriage and give gladness.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Eunuchs for the kingdom are the apostles, virgins, and monks.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John and James kept virginity by inner struggle.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.4.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul commends remaining as he was.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul’s counsel concerns self-control, not castration.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Rules for clergy were wrongly applied to all.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Clergy must be continent or widowed where the canons are strict.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Married clergy begetting children is a lapse, not the canon.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If laity abstain for prayer, how much more priests.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Epiphanius says the church bears with those who remarry after death or separation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.4.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Not bigamy, but a lawful second marriage after separation, is tolerated.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A lawful second marriage is borne with; Paul allows a widow to remarry “in the Lord.”
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 59.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · “In the Lord” means an honorable marriage and a godly life.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They reject marriage and alter the sacraments.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They do not readmit the fallen.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If marriage were abominable, all born of it would be impure.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Rejecting marriage condemns themselves.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Forced separation is human; chosen continence is God’s work.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The necessary commandments are listed.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.11Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage in good order is permitted by God.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If marriage were profane, so would they be.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.2.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage is not profane.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church has renunciation without despising marriage or property.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church honors marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church praises continence, virginity, and renunciation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Renouncing marriage is praiseworthy if marriage is not despised.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.4.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul permits marriage for a virgin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul does not permit a vowed virgin to marry.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The passage concerns older unmarried girls without suitors.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Believers were to marry daughters only to Christians.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Unmarried daughters sometimes fell into immorality.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul allowed fathers to give daughters in marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Either reading of “his virgin” is possible.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul permits marriage without sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul commends remaining unmarried.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul and the Lord seem to conflict on leaving a wife.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The same Scripture commands honoring parents and marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Tradition forbids a vowed virgin to marry, yet Paul says a virgin who marries does not sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul means a virgin who had made no vow.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Widows who break their pledge incur judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.9Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · A vowed virgin who marries is more culpable.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.6.10Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Breaking a vow of virginity incurs judgment.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.7.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul’s moderate word rejects both rigorists and the lax.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.7.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Breaking a vow brings judgment, but not condemnation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.7.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Open lawful marriage and repentance are better than secret sin.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The sect rejects marriage yet is licentious.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.3.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If conception were evil, so would be intercourse.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · If union is not evil, neither is its fruit.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage is honorable, though virginity is higher.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul praises true virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The patriarchs begot children in honorable marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.31.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam had flesh and bones before the coats.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.31.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ took Genesis 2 literally in the divorce question.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ rejected the Sadducees’ denial.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.43.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Being like angels means not marrying, not lacking flesh.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.63.17Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · In the resurrection there is no marriage.
On Cain and Abel 1.46Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The "male that opens the womb" is not bodily birth, which does not itself sanctify, but something inward and principal to be offered to God.
On Cain and Abel 2.21Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The third quality, "divided", means that prayer and offering should be ordered by the four virtues: prudence, temperance (even between spouses), fortitude and justice; Cain's offering lacked this division.
On Paradise 24Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God took the man into paradise to work and keep it; the man made outside paradise proved better than the woman made inside, which teaches that virtue, not place, wins grace, and that none should presume on himself.
On Paradise 46Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Scripture did not call Adam alone good; only after the woman was made did God see all that he had made as very good.
On Paradise 47Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Though the woman led the man into sin, she was added for the good of the whole, for the propagation of the race God wished to save, and from her line came Christ.
On Paradise 48Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The woman was made from Adam's rib to show the one nature of the human race; she is a good helper in generation, like the earth that nourishes seed.
On Paradise 49Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · God brought the wild beasts and birds to Adam, who could gather the tame cattle himself, so that Adam might see that all nature consists of male and female and that he needed a wife.
On Paradise 50Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Adam's sleep figures the mind's turning toward the world in entering marriage; the woman was "built" because man and woman together make a complete house.
On Paradise 72Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · Because Eve confessed, her sentence, to turn to and serve her husband, was mild and beneficial; it prefigures the church's service to Christ, and service in charity is a blessing.
Apostolic Canon 5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy may not put away their wives on the pretext of piety.
Apostolic Canon 17Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man twice married after baptism, or with a concubine, cannot be ordained.
Apostolic Canon 18Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man married to a widow, a divorced woman, a courtesan, a slave or an actress cannot be ordained.
Apostolic Canon 19Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man married to two sisters or to a niece cannot be a cleric.
Apostolic Canon 26Anonymous · ca. 380 · Only readers and singers may marry after entering the clergy.
Apostolic Canon 40Anonymous · ca. 380 · The bishop's own property and the church's must be kept distinct.
Apostolic Canon 48Anonymous · ca. 380 · A layman who divorces his wife and remarries, or marries a divorced woman, is excommunicated.
Apostolic Canon 51Anonymous · ca. 380 · Abstaining from marriage, meat or wine out of abhorrence of creation is condemned.
Apostolic Canon 67Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man who violates an unbetrothed virgin must keep her as his wife.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.1.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · As one would not want one’s wife looked at with lust, one must not look so at another’s.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A husband should seek to please his own wife only and not adorn himself to attract other women.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · The wife is subject to her husband in an order of headship reaching from Christ to the Father.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · After God and Christ, a wife is to fear and please her husband, as Proverbs describes.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Proverbs praises the capable wife who works for her household.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The capable wife provides for the household and buys land.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · The capable wife works hard day and night.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · The capable wife is generous to the poor.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · The capable wife clothes her household well.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Proverbs on the capable wife is completed; wives must not adorn themselves to attract others, since that leads to sin, but should please their husbands, veil in public and not paint their faces.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.10.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · A wife must give up quarrelling, lest her husband blaspheme God because of her.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.10.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A believing husband with a quarrelsome wife will quote Proverbs against her.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.10.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Wives should win outsiders to the faith by modesty and gentleness.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.2.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A bishop must be the husband of one wife who herself has married only once, and rule his household well.
Apostolic Constitutions 2.2.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · At ordination a bishop’s character, wife, children and household are examined.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.1.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · A young woman who stays unmarried after losing her husband, having the gift of widowhood, is blessed like the widow of Zarephath.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.2.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · One marriage is righteous; a second after the widow’s vow is unlawful because of the broken promise; a third shows incontinence; more is sexual immorality.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.2.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God made one wife for one man, but young widows are permitted a second husband to avoid sin.
Apostolic Constitutions 3.3.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · True widows, married once and known for good works, are to be supported by the church.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.1.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Childless believers should adopt orphan boys, and families should take orphan girls as brides for their sons.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.2.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Orphan girls are supported until marriage, and orphan boys until they learn a trade.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.11.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Parents should arrange their children’s marriages in good time to prevent sexual sin.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.14.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Virginity is a free vow, not a command, and must not be undertaken rashly.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.14.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A vowed virgin must be holy in body and soul, choosing virginity for devotion, not out of contempt for marriage.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.8.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The heretics teach many gods, reject marriage or foods, or live in immorality.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.10.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Some heretics forbid marriage, meat and wine, or treat animals as rational souls.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.11.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Lawful marriage and childbearing are honorable, for God made male and female to increase the race.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.14.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God's creatures are to be received with thanks, and lawful marriage is blameless.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.14.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · A husband may not put away a blameless wife, for God joined them, but he must not keep a wife who has committed adultery.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.17.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Bishops, presbyters and deacons must have married only once and may not marry or remarry after ordination.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.17.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The lower clergy must also have married once, but may marry after entering the clergy.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.17.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Clergy may not marry a courtesan, a slave, a widow or a divorced woman.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.26.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Some heretics condemn marriage and food and deny the bodily resurrection.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.27.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Only impiety and lawlessness, not bodily processes or lawful intercourse, separate the Holy Spirit.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Christians do not abhor the dead or lawful intercourse, which God ordained, but reject unnatural and lawless acts.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Sodomy and bestiality are against nature, adultery and sexual immorality against the law; all are punished.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · Unnatural sins undo nature; adultery wrongs another's marriage; sexual immorality corrupts one's own flesh for pleasure.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · The law forbids sodomy, bestiality, adultery and prostitution.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · The law honors marriage as blessed by God.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · Marriage and childbearing are honorable and pure.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.28.7Anonymous · ca. 380 · Menstruation is not abominable, but husbands should abstain then and during pregnancy.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.29.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Wives are to honor and serve their husbands, as Sarah did Abraham.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.29.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Husbands are to love their wives as their own members.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.29.3Anonymous · ca. 380 · God bears witness to the bond with the wife of one's youth.
Apostolic Constitutions 6.29.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Married couples may pray after intercourse without washing, but no washing cleanses adultery or prostitution.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.2.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Adultery divides one flesh; the corruption of boys, sexual immorality and theft are forbidden, with biblical examples.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for deacons, lower clergy, virgins, widows, orphans and married people.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.15.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for every order of the faithful and for the kingdom.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.24.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Virgins are not ordained; virginity is a free choice that does not disparage marriage.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.32.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Married converts must be faithful; the unmarried must avoid immorality and marry lawfully.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.32.5Anonymous · ca. 380 · A believing master who does not let his slaves marry is excommunicated.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.32.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Actors, gladiators, soldiers, magicians, concubines and others are admitted only on giving up their practices; catechumens are instructed for three years.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.34.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Places held by the ungodly are to be avoided; prayer with catechumens or heretics is forbidden.
Letter 63 (to the church of Vercelli), section 62Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose explains that “the husband of one wife” does not forbid a bishop to be married, but requires him to keep his baptismal grace by conjugal chastity, not to beget children in office, and not to marry again.
Letter 63 (to the church of Vercelli), section 63Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose rejects the view that a marriage before baptism does not count: baptism forgives sins, but marriage is a law, not a fault, so a twice-married man cannot be ordained though he is not guilty.
Letter 63 (to the church of Vercelli), section 64Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose adds that Nicaea also excluded the twice married from the clergy, and argues that a cleric who exhorts widows not to remarry must himself have kept faith with his first marriage.
On Widows, chapter 2Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose expounds Paul's rules for widows in 1 Tim 5, says that a woman who has entered a second marriage, which the apostolic precepts do not condemn, may still devote herself to widowhood, though the widow of one marriage is more approved, and explains “better to marry than to burn” as a remedy, not a precept.
On Widows, chapter 11Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose counsels widows not to remarry but says plainly that he does not forbid second marriages, only does not advise them and does not approve repeated ones, describing marriage as a mutual servitude from Rom 7:2 and 1 Cor 7, and warning against teachers who impose continence beyond people's strength.
On Widows, chapter 15Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose answers widows who would remarry for the sake of children, describing the griefs and divided loyalties of second marriage, and argues from Gen 2:24, Christ and the Church, Isaac and Jacob that Scripture honours the first marriage.
On Virgins 1.6Ambrose · ca. 377 · Marriage is not condemned, but virginity is better: Ambrose sets the troubles of married women (childbirth, servitude, cosmetics) against the lasting beauty and spiritual fruitfulness of virgins, and the virgin Church, mother of many.
On Virgins 1.7Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose urges parents to dedicate daughters as virgins; he does not condemn marriage (those who do condemn their own birth), but praises virginity, whose bridegroom is the King of Ps 45 and the Song of Songs.
On Virgins 1.10Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virgins are spared greed and the burdens of brides, who load themselves with jewels like chains and are auctioned to suitors like slaves.
On Virgins 1.12Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virginity is best when chosen even against parents, whose resistance is a training ground; Ambrose tells of a noble girl who fled to the altar to escape marriage and whose kinsman died after challenging her.
On Noah 76Ambrose · ca. 378-384 · The order of entering and leaving the ark shows abstinence from marital relations during the flood and their lawful resumption afterward.
On the Soul and the Resurrection, Migne page 143Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 379–380 · Gregory continues the objections: which body will be judged, since the body of the sinner and the penitent keep changing? And what use will the organs of eating and procreation have in a life without marriage or food?
On the Making of Man 17Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Had man not sinned, humanity would have multiplied in some angelic way without marriage, as the resurrection life shows; God, foreseeing the fall, added the animal mode of reproduction.
Life of Macrina, part 1Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Gregory explains that he writes at a friend's request after their meeting in Antioch, and tells of Macrina's grandmother, her mother's reluctant marriage, and the vision that gave the child the secret name Thecla.
Life of Macrina, part 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Macrina is educated in Scripture rather than pagan poetry, refuses all suitors after her betrothed dies, holding that marriage, like birth and death, is one, and stays always with her mother.
Homily 5, part 5.1Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius begins his homily on Matt 19:3 by recalling the previous day's readings, then argues that marriage is a union of body and soul, sealed by Adam's words over Eve, which a husband may not cut apart.
Homily 5, part 5.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius warns that a wife put away without cause can appeal to Genesis against her husband, and praises the wife's faithfulness in poverty, prison and flight, with the example of Job's wife.
Homily 5, part 5.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius answers the husband who complains of his wife's faults: he married a human being, has faults of his own that she has borne, and should heal rather than amputate the marriage.
Homily 5, part 5.4Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius shames the husband who divorces lightly by the loyalty of animals and the friendship of chance travellers, and praises the widower who stays faithful to his dead wife instead of remarrying quickly.
Homily 5, part 5.5Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius makes one exception: a husband who separates from an adulterous wife is justified, since adultery destroys both purposes of marriage; and he insists that the law of chastity binds husbands as much as wives, against Roman law.
5.6Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius ends his homily on divorce by warning that God judges the sexually immoral whatever human lawgivers allow; the scan then continues with the opening of his homily on Daniel and Susanna.
Homily 5, part 6.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · In his homily on Susanna, Asterius presents the young captive Daniel as judge of the elders, denounces the lustful elders who slandered a lawful marriage, and sets Susanna beside Joseph as a model of chastity.
Homily 5, part 6.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius retells Susanna's trial, the elders' false accusation, her appeal to God, and Daniel's cross-examination that condemned them, and urges wives to imitate her chastity; the text breaks off.
19.2Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius sets out Joseph as a type of Christ in his beauty, betrayal, sale, imprisonment and release, and urges the newly baptized to imitate Joseph's chastity, warning free men against concubinage with their slave women.
19.3Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius has Joseph rebuke the baptized man who keeps a slave concubine, and urges the newly baptized to enter by the door of lawful marriage so as to inherit the kingdom.
20.5Asterius of Amasea · ca. 380-410 · Asterius explains that David's sickness was God's discipline for adultery and murder, that the troubled “bones” are his thoughts tossed by desire, and urges those tempted to fornication to run to the harbour of the Church and confess their desires to God before they act on them.
To a Young Widow, section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom shows from 1 Tim 5 that widowhood is a name of honour, notes that young widows are often drawn into second marriages, tells how his pagan teacher admired his mother's long widowhood, and says that widows are joined to Christ in their husbands' place.
To a Young Widow, section 7John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom urges the widow to store her wealth in heaven, reminds her that her husband's hoped-for prefecture was uncertain and dangerous, and promises that by imitating his life she will be joined to him again in a union better than marriage.
On not marrying again, section 1John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom asks why widows who once lamented marriage seek it again, names forgetfulness, vanity and incontinence as causes, and states that he does not condemn second marriage, which Paul allows “only in the Lord,” but holds one marriage to be much better.
On not marrying again, section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom argues that a second marriage falls short of a single marriage because marriage consists in a wife's being content with one husband, describes the divided affections and household grief it brings, and notes that second weddings were held without festivities.
On not marrying again, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom explains that Paul's “refuse younger widows” and “I want younger widows to marry” (1 Tim 5:11, 14) forbid not widowhood but its profession by those who would later marry, and that Paul allowed second marriage as a concession to prevent worse evils.
On not marrying again, section 4John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom answers the objection that a widow cannot manage her husband's affairs by arguing that God gave women the management of the household, and that a widow who remarries draws more reproach than one who disciplines her servants.
On not marrying again, section 5John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom concludes that second marriage, though not punishable, is not praiseworthy, sets out the troubles it brings to a widow and her children, answers the case of a woman widowed young, and urges widows to remain free for Christ.
Causes of Monastic Matters, chapter 2Evagrius of Pontus · ca. 380-399 · Jeremiah's command not to marry and Paul's words on the married and unmarried apply to the monk and his thoughts.
Canonical Letter, Migne PG 45:227Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 390 · Gregory distinguishes apostasy to sorcery from deceived recourse to it, then defines sexual immorality and adultery: there is one lawful union, and adultery, which wrongs another, receives double the penance.
Homily 9.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Celebrating Christmas, the preacher defends the virgin birth against a recently condemned heretic who equated marriage with virginity, arguing from God's power in creating Adam and Eve and in other miracles.
Homily 17.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · An Epiphany homily on the Magi, whose three gifts signify redemption, true worship, and resurrection, and on the wedding at Cana, where Christ showed himself the author of marriage and the Son of God.
Homily 23.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Epiphany unites the Magi, Cana, and Christ's baptism; the preacher dwells on the wine miracle, which shows Christ the author of marriage and the Creator, and on Mary's request and Jesus' reply.
Homily 32.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · A fragment of a homily on the wine at Cana as a revelation of Christ's creative power and his approval of marriage.
Homily 79.2Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Cyprian, martyred at the vintage, gives the new wine of martyrdom; Christians, the Lord's vineyard, must not bear the thorns of worldly care and avarice but share their harvest and vintage with the poor.
Sermon 2.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · The two in bed, the two women grinding, and the two in the field stand for the contemplative, the laity in worldly business, and the Church's ministers, each divided into those who stand firm in tribulation and those who fall, as Noah, Daniel and Job represent the three kinds.
Sermon 19.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · Christ fasted forty days in the desert as the second Adam to undo Adam's fall by eating; the desert, where there is no feasting and no woman, is a pattern for Lenten abstinence from food and marital relations, making the body a desert where Christ dwells.
Sermon 56.1Maximus of Turin · ca. 400-465 · A sermon on Saint Agnes: following Mary, the girl martyr rejected a suitor's gifts, was kept pure in the brothel, raised the young man who died there, survived the fire and died by the sword, an example to virgins while chaste marriage is also honoured.
Book of Heresies 48.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Tatian rejected marriage.
Book of Heresies 72.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · They reject foods and marriage.
Book of Heresies 84.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Abstinents in Gaul and Spain separate married couples.
Book of Heresies 84.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Continence is a voluntary grace, not a command.
Book of Heresies 84.3Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Separation is lawful only by mutual consent, not imposed against the law.
Book of Heresies 110.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The prophets' chastity foreshadowed virginity, while marriage remained lawful.
Book of Heresies 120.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Some misread Psalm 51:5 as condemning marriage.
Book of Heresies 120.2Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The saints sanctified in the womb were not conceived in sin through marriage.
Book of Heresies 120.4Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · David was born of lawful marriage and chosen by God.
Book of Heresies 120.7Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Marriage is blessed, and rebirth in baptism brings joy.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 33Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The saints' bodies are temples of God and a living sacrifice; they must avoid the works of the flesh, and virgins remain virgins, as Paul counsels.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 56Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Paul commands obedience to authorities, manual work, love within the household, and silence of women in church.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 57Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Paul tells those who lack self-control to marry, and says the woman will be saved through childbearing.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 59Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Christ is head of the man and the man of the woman; prayer must be without anger; women should be adorned by conduct, not jewellery.
Eleven Tractates 1.23Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · Taught by Christ, believers put off the old man and put on the new; God, not demons, made man in his image, and Eve is saved through childbearing and returns to her husband.
Eleven Tractates 6.111Priscillian · ca. 380–385 · At the judgment believers will be a book of heavenly teaching, sealed among the twelve thousand, and like the angels, who neither marry nor beget.
Against Helvidius 3Jerome · ca. 383 · Helvidius's first argument: "before they came together" and "until she bore her son" imply that Mary and Joseph later lived as husband and wife.
Against Helvidius 4Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome argues that "before" does not imply that the intended event happened, that Scripture calls betrothed women wives, and that Joseph was called Jesus' father only by common opinion.
Against Helvidius 10Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome reduces Helvidius's reading of "until" to absurdity: it would require intercourse immediately after the birth.
Against Helvidius 20Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome answers Helvidius's argument from the indignities of birth: the more humbling Christ's sufferings, the more we owe him.
Against Helvidius 21Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome rejects claims not found in Scripture and argues that Joseph too remained a virgin.
Against Helvidius 22Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome contrasts the cares of married life with the virgin's freedom for God, while saying he does not disparage marriage or the Old Testament saints.
Against Helvidius 23Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome explains Paul's counsel on virginity and answers Helvidius's taunt about unworthy virgins.
Against Helvidius 24Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome closes by anticipating Helvidius's abuse and counting it an honor.
Apology of the Prophet David 56Ambrose · ca. 384-390 · David’s penitence acknowledges sin from conception; we are conceived and born amid the parents’ sin and the impurities of birth, though marriage is good.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 4Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Siricius forbids a man to marry a girl betrothed to another, since violating the betrothal blessing is like sacrilege.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 5Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Penitents who return to military service, the shows, new marriages, or sexual relations are barred from communion except as viaticum at death.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 7Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Siricius condemns priests and deacons who beget children after ordination, arguing from the Levitical priests' temple service that clergy must be continent, and sets penalties.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 8Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Siricius rebukes the Spanish metropolitans for ordaining men married several times, contrary to the law's and Paul's rule of one wife.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 9Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Siricius sets the stages and intervals of a clerical career from childhood lector to bishop, for a man married once to a virgin.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 10Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · An adult convert may be ordained only if married once to a virgin, passing through the lower orders over set intervals.
Letter 1 to Himerius of Tarragona, chapter 11Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · A cleric who marries a widow or a second wife loses his rank and is reduced to lay communion.
Letter 5 to the bishops of Africa, chapter 2Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Eight rules for all catholic bishops: no ordination without the primate's knowledge; no bishop ordained by a single bishop; no former soldiers after baptism, no clerics marrying widows, no laymen married to widows in the clergy; no poaching or receiving of other churches' clerics; Novatianist and Montensian converts received by laying on of hands.
Letter 5 to the bishops of Africa, chapter 3Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · The council urges that priests and deacons abstain from intercourse with their wives, since they must always be ready to offer the sacrifice or baptize; 'husband of one wife' (1 Tim 3:2) is read as looking to future continence.
Letter 7 to various bishops, against Jovinian, chapter 3Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Jovinian's followers, under a Christian name, perverted the Scriptures' teaching on continence and published their views; a Roman presbytery condemned the writing, while the church accepts marriage and honours virginity more.
Letter 9 to Anysius of Thessalonica and the Illyrian bishops (on Bonosus), chapter 4Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Christ's entrusting of Mary to John from the cross testifies to her lasting virginity: Jesus would not have separated her from Joseph if she was to bear Joseph's children.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 3Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · A consecrated, veiled virgin who falls or marries is guilty of breaking her vow to Christ and must do penance for many years before pardon.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 4Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · A girl who had resolved on virginity but was not yet veiled, and who marries without the blessing of the veil and the witness of family and clergy, is to do penance, as is the man; the Old Testament's stoning is now a spiritual exclusion.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 5Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Bishops, presbyters and deacons, who baptize and consecrate the body of Christ, are bound by Scripture and the fathers to bodily continence; a married cleric who begets children cannot preach chastity.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 6Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Presbyters, deacons and bishops must be continent always, since they may at any moment have to baptize or offer the sacrifice; if even pagans and the old priests abstained, married clergy who continue relations are unworthy of the mysteries.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 8Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Only those who have kept chaste since baptism, or who are 'the husband of one wife', may be ordained; a man who sinned sexually after baptism owes penance and cannot become a priest, even if he later married.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 12Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · A man may not marry his deceased wife's sister: the levirate law concerned a dead brother's widow only for want of children, the Law curses union with a wife's sister, and the New Testament forbids what the patriarchs did.
Letter 10, canons of the Roman synod to the bishops of Gaul, chapter 14Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Marrying an uncle's widow (or a cousin) is forbidden as a return to a parent's bed, which is sexual immorality, not marriage; a cleric who does so is deposed unless he puts it right.
Exposition of Luke 8.2Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose opens his comment on Luke 16:18 by asking whether every marriage is from God, since Paul lets an unbeliever depart, and answers that a Christian's marriage to a pagan is not joined by God.
Exposition of Luke 8.3Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose explains from the Greek of Prov 19:14 that God joins a marriage where there is harmony, which is lacking when a Christian man is unlawfully joined to a pagan woman.
Exposition of Luke 8.4Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose urges husbands not to put away their wives, since the wife put away, unable to remarry while he lives, is driven toward adultery, and the husband is guilty of her fault.
Exposition of Luke 8.5Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose answers that divorce allowed by civil law is still forbidden by God's law.
Exposition of Luke 8.6Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose argues that a husband who puts away his wife and remarries is an adulterer under the appearance of marriage, and is to blame if she, out of necessity, marries again.
Exposition of Luke 8.7Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose answers the appeal to Moses with Christ's words: Moses permitted divorce for hardness of heart, but God's law from the beginning makes husband and wife one flesh.
Exposition of Luke 8.8Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose reads 1 Cor 7 as confirming that God never ordained divorce: Paul neither commands it nor authorizes the deserter, but only frees the deserted believer from blame.
Exposition of Luke 8.9Ambrose · ca. 386–389 · Ambrose gives the spiritual sense of Luke 16:18: the marriage of Christ and the church, joined by God, which no persecution or heresy may separate.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.50Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · The clergy, like the Levites whose portion is God, must be free of greed, married only once, continent, and guardians of the mysteries, exercising the four virtues and discerning when duties change.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.14Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Elisha spared the captured Syrians, John rebuked Herod’s marriage, and Susanna chose death over disgrace: the honourable always proves useful.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.16Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Tobit’s burial of the dead and Raguel’s honest warning to Tobias about his daughter surpass the philosophers’ debates about disclosing defects in a sale.
On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Israel’s war against Benjamin to avenge the outrage at Gibeah shows how highly the forefathers valued chastity and the honourable, even at great cost.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.32.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · On verse 20: to long for God’s judgments one must be free from worldly bonds, including marriage.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.32.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Marriage is no sin but binds mind and body; nothing may be preferred to God, so he asks to know God’s commandments.
Exposition of Psalm 118 11.9.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · A young wife watches the sea for her husband, longing to be first to see him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.17.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Christ did not teach children to hate parents or husbands to disdain wives.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.17.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Love of children, wife and brothers is the law of nature and of God; marriage makes one flesh.
Exposition of Psalm 118 15.18.3Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Love of wife and children has turned many from martyrdom; Samson and Solomon fell through women.
Exposition of Psalm 118 16.6.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Marrying for beauty rather than wealth, or revering a consecrated virgin, makes the eye a source of good.
Exposition of Psalm 118 19.13.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The widowed turtledove does not mate again, and many animals abstain once they have conceived.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.48.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Many are hidden martyrs; others confess outwardly and deny inwardly, like those who feign faith to marry a Christian.
Exposition of Psalm 118 20.48.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · God punished Israel at Baal-Peor because unions with foreign women led them to deny him.
Exposition of Psalm 118 21.18.1Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Even household opposition cannot separate the righteous from Christ’s love.
Exposition of Psalm 118 22.35.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · Ambrose explains the custom of delaying a girl’s marriage until she matures.
Letter 55.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine condemns the view that meat is unclean as contrary to the faith, while upholding abstinence for self-control.
Letter 127.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Armentarius, who with his wife has vowed continence, to fulfill his vow without delay.
Letter 127.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Armentarius that, having vowed continence, he is now bound to it, and that breaking the vow would make him worse than if he had never made it.
Letter 127.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that a vow of continence in marriage requires the consent of both spouses, and since Paulina consents, urges Armentarius to keep it with her.
Letter 130.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Marriage, continence, children and health may all be fittingly desired, but having them does not yet make one happy.
Letter 130.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Proba should pray as a widow of Christ, for Scripture specially enjoins prayer on widows, as the examples of Hannah, Anna, and the persistent widow show.
Letter 150.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine congratulates Proba and Juliana on the consecration of Demetrias, of the Anician family, to virginity, a greater glory than the consulships of her house.
Letter 151.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine contrasts the worldly elder brother (Apringius) with the devout Marcellinus, whose virtues he praises, and who would have entered religious life had he not been married.
Letter 151.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · In prison Marcellinus welcomed suffering as punishment for sins in this life, and swore to Augustine that he had never known any woman but his wife.
Letter 153.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's word to the accusers of the adulteress and Joseph's resolve not to expose Mary show that sparing the guilty is not approval of the crime.
Letter 157.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ's command to leave all, including a wife, applies when one must choose between spouse and Christ; otherwise divorce is forbidden except for sexual immorality, and Paul's counsel on mixed marriages applies.
Letter 157.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagian ascetics should urge higher things without condemning lesser ones, and should welcome the godly rich who often support them.
Letter 157.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine has himself embraced voluntary poverty and urges it on others, but without condemning Christians who live chastely in marriage and use their wealth well.
Letter 167.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Faithful spouses have the virtue of chastity yet are not without sin, so one virtue does not bring all; even the apostles say “we all stumble in many things.”
Letter 184.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Fleshly concupiscence, a result of the fall, accompanies all procreation except Christ's, so all who are born must be reborn.
Letter 187.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every child of a lawful marriage is born through concupiscence and must be reborn; Christ alone, conceived of the Virgin without concupiscence, needed no rebirth.
Letter 188.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Virginity is God's gift, as Paul and Christ teach; Demetrias's virginity, surpassing her mother's state, is truly theirs but not from them, like the daily bread we ask for.
Letter 189.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Boniface to conjugal chastity, sobriety and detachment from riches, to humility and prayer, and to ready forgiveness of others.
Letter 194.44Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Children of baptized parents still inherit sin through concupiscence, as the seed of a cultivated olive yields a wild olive; the Church must baptize all infants, as farmers graft all shoots.
Letter 199.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine observes that even faithful Christians still marry, farm, trade, and govern, which will not be so when the foretold signs of the end come.
Letter 200.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine praises Valerius's conjugal chastity and sends him a book on the subject, explained in its own preface.
Letter 220.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reproaches Boniface for remarrying after vowing continence, for letting Arians baptize his daughter and rebaptize consecrated women, and for reported concubines.
Letter 220.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says that since Boniface's wife has not consented to continence he must at least keep conjugal chastity, love God rather than the world, and seek peace.
Letter 226.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hilary asks for Augustine's Retractations and On Grace and Free Choice, mentions the enclosed letter of Prosper, and asks prayers for his brother and wife who have vowed continence.
Letter 245.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine advises Bishop Possidius not to forbid married women all ornaments, but to forbid uncovered hair and cosmetics, since true adornment is good character.
Letter 253.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine advises Bishop Benenatus that, if he arranges the orphan girl's marriage, it should be with a Catholic household.
Letter 254.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains to Benenatus that the orphan girl is too young to be promised, may wish to be a nun, has relatives and perhaps a mother to be consulted, and so cannot yet be betrothed.
Letter 255.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells the pagan Rusticus that he cannot promise the orphan girl to his son, especially since a Christian girl could be given only to a Christian and his son is still a pagan.
Letter 259.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells the widower Cornelius, who asked for a letter of consolation praising his wife, that he must first live chastely, since his own conduct is unlike hers.
Letter 259.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine rebukes Cornelius, a baptized old friend from his Manichaean days, for keeping many concubines while asking praise for his chaste dead wife.
Letter 259.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine offers to praise Cornelius's wife Cypriana once Cornelius pays the “fee” of becoming chaste himself.
Letter 259.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that Cornelius's chaste wife would not want him to share the punishment of adulterers, and urges him to love her by amending his life.
Letter 262.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Ecdicia that her husband, who had vowed continence with her, has fallen into adultery because she failed to treat him with conjugal obedience.
Letter 262.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that Ecdicia wrongly took up continence before her husband agreed, contrary to Paul's teaching on the marital debt in 1 Cor 7.
Letter 262.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says that since her husband later agreed to continence, Ecdicia should persevere in their joint vow even though he has fallen away.
Letter 262.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says that continence did not end their marriage, so Ecdicia should have done nothing with her property without her husband's consent.
Letter 262.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine relates that the husband abandoned continence in anger after Ecdicia gave away almost all her property to two wandering monks without his knowledge.
Letter 262.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Ecdicia that losing her husband's soul outweighs the good of her alms, since rescuing a man from the devil is the greater mercy.
Letter 262.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that a wife may not dispose of her goods as she pleases, since she belongs to her husband, citing 1 Pet 3:5–6.
Letter 262.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says the husband rightly wished to provide for their son, and that Ecdicia should have planned almsgiving together with him and deferred to his authority.
Letter 262.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says Ecdicia should not have adopted widow's dress against her husband's will, since matronly dress is compatible with religious life.
Letter 262.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine cites Esther, who kept a humble heart under royal attire while submitting to a pagan husband, as an example for Ecdicia.
Letter 262.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Ecdicia to pray for her husband, ask his pardon, and promise obedience if he returns to continence, noting that their son is legally in the father's power.
Soliloquies 1.10Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine tells Reason that he no longer desires riches or honors, has resolved not to marry, and seeks food and bodily comforts only as health requires.
Soliloquies 1.11Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Reason asks whether Augustine would still want wealth, honor, or a wealthy wife if they served the pursuit of wisdom, and Augustine answers that he would accept them only as means, not desire them for themselves.
Homilies on Matthew 2.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Joseph's Davidic genealogy proves Mary's, because the law forbade marrying outside one's tribe and family and Joseph was righteous; women's genealogies were not customary; Chrysostom summarizes and urges hearers to meditate on what they hear.
Homilies on Matthew 4.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Matthew counts generations from Abraham and David to the exile to Christ to fit prophecy; he introduces the virgin birth carefully; the manner of the Spirit's work is not to be pried into, though Christ truly took flesh from Mary; Joseph's righteousness and the angel's timing are explained.
Homilies on Matthew 4.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The angel reassures Joseph gently, calls Mary his wife, entrusts her to his keeping, reveals that the child is of the Spirit, and gives Joseph a father's office of naming the child without making him the father.
Homilies on Matthew 6.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ wept but never laughed; we will give account for every sin, so dissipation is folly; frivolity comes from the devil, who built the theaters; spectators who applaud blasphemous and lewd mimes are more guilty than the actors and dishonor marriage.
Homilies on Matthew 6.8John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Closing exhortation of Homily 6: the theater's mimed adulteries and naked performers corrupt spectators and households; nakedness began with disobedience; Chrysostom wounds his hearers deliberately to heal them.
Homilies on Matthew 7.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Preferring the theater's naked swimming women to the eucharistic 'spring' is spiritual shipwreck, worse than Pharaoh's drowning; spectators sin by desire even without the act; Chrysostom sends men to learn from their wives, and even from the ant.
Homilies on Matthew 7.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Closing exhortation of Homily 7: Christ's command against lustful looking binds married laymen as much as monks; husbands owe their wives the same chastity they demand of them; Chrysostom threatens a sharper sermon until the theater is abandoned.
Homilies on Matthew 17.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ extends the commandment against adultery to the lustful look, which kindles desire and leads to the deed, while permitting a chaste looking and love for one’s own wife; the warning applies equally to women who make themselves objects of desire.
Homilies on Matthew 17.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The Mosaic certificate of divorce was a concession to prevent worse crimes; Christ, having removed anger, forbids putting away a wife except for sexual immorality, makes the man who does so responsible for her adultery, and closes remarriage to the woman put away; he then turns to oaths.
Homilies on Matthew 30.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers the Pharisees and John’s disciples on fasting with gentleness, calling himself the bridegroom and sparing the weak disciples heavy commands; so too a husband should correct a wife fond of cosmetics little by little and gently.
Homilies on Matthew 37.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom describes the lewdness of the theater and argues that it overturns marriages, makes adulterers and stirs up riots, so that those who attend it, not those who would close it, overturn the city.
Homilies on Matthew 37.7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The theater breeds sorcery, licentiousness and the ruin of others, for which spectators share the blame; Christians should find their pleasure in gardens, martyrs’ shrines, wife and children, and flee the theater as Joseph fled Potiphar’s wife.
Homilies on Matthew 43.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom defends preaching about Gehenna as a healing, urges his hearers to live so that pagans see the kingdom in them, and insists that marriage, children, work and city life are no obstacle to virtue.
Homilies on Matthew 45.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ’s words show that those who turn can be healed and that sin is not of nature; the disciples are blessed beyond the prophets; the parable allows a hundred, sixty or thirtyfold, so that each can give to Christ in the poor what he can.
Homilies on Matthew 48.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Herod hears of Jesus and, from fear and vanity, thinks him the beheaded John risen; the evangelist recounts John’s imprisonment for rebuking Herod’s marriage to Herodias and his murder at the birthday banquet after the girl’s dance.
Homilies on Matthew 48.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains the law of levirate marriage, which permitted marrying a brother’s widow only when he had died childless, so that Herod’s marriage to his brother’s wife who had a child was unlawful; he condemns the satanic banquet, the dancing at weddings and Herodias as the architect of the murder.
Homilies on Matthew 51.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · One who would not pray with filthy hands should not pray with a tongue soiled by insult and anger; Chrysostom urges that the tongue be cleansed by repentance, bridled, and adorned with gentleness, before approaching the awesome God.
Homilies on Matthew 55.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The monks’ hymn ends and begins again in doxology like Paul’s letters, thanks God even for food against the Manichaeans, asks for the Spirit and to escape shame at the judgment; Christians in cities and households, like the apostles’ converts and the married prophets, can share their wisdom.
Homilies on Matthew 59.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · We must not call a brother wicked or give up on him after two warnings, since God never stops exhorting us; Chrysostom rebukes parents who care for possessions rather than the souls of their households, leave their sons unbridled instead of marrying them early to keep them pure, and educate them only for money.
Homilies on Matthew 62.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · On the Pharisees’ question about divorce, Chrysostom explains Christ’s appeal to creation (one man joined to one woman, one flesh), his answer about Moses’ concession to hardness of heart, the disciples’ objection, and the saying about eunuchs, which he applies to voluntary virginity and not to bodily mutilation.
Homilies on Matthew 64.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The thrones mean sharing Christ’s glory and condemning unbelieving Israel; leaving wife means preferring godliness, not breaking marriages; the parable of the laborers teaches that late converts can receive the full reward, while faith without a worthy life and even one neglected virtue can shut one out of heaven.
Homilies on Matthew 70.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers the tax question from the coin itself, rendering to Caesar what does not harm godliness and to God what is God’s; he then refutes the Sadducees’ story of the seven brothers from Scripture and God’s power, and Chrysostom turns to the monks who already live like the angels, having slain the desires of the belly.
Homilies on Matthew 73.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom rebukes Christian women for vanity and both spouses for neglecting each other’s virtue, condemns marriages contracted for money, urges men to seek a pious wife rather than a rich one, and rejects the proverb that pleasure is worth choking for, citing Sirach and Proverbs.
Homilies on Matthew 86.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Passions once admitted are hard to expel, and the devil leads men from small sins to great ones—as with Saul, Cain and Judas—then to despair, and also deceives under a guise of piety, as when wives refuse their husbands for the sake of continence, or men abhor foods or grieve immoderately; Scripture arms us against each of these ways.
On 1 Cor 7:39, section 1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom expounds Rom 7:2 and 1 Cor 7:39: a wife is bound by law to her husband while he lives, so that even with a certificate of divorce her new union is adultery; only his death frees her to marry again.
On 1 Cor 7:39, section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains that Moses permitted the certificate of divorce only to prevent the murder of unwanted wives, that Deut 24:1–4 calls the second union a defilement, and that Christ and Malachi restore the law of creation.
On 1 Cor 7:39, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom urges hearers neither to put away their spouses nor to marry those put away, since such unions are adultery punished at the judgment, calls a married man's resort to prostitutes adultery too, and explains 1 Cor 7:39 for wives and widows.
On 1 Cor 7:39, section 4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains that Paul permits a widow's second marriage “in the Lord” while ranking widowhood higher, and calls those who resort to prostitutes to true repentance with tears, prayer and almsgiving.
On 1 Cor 7:2, section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom defends Paul's speaking about marriage, which Christ honoured at Cana, and attacks the immoral songs, dancers and processions of contemporary weddings, urging that the poor be invited instead.
On 1 Cor 7:2, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom urges that the poor be fed at weddings, blames demons for wedding ribaldry, and teaches that marriage exists chiefly for chastity, so that a married man's sexual immorality is adultery.
On 1 Cor 7:2, section 4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom argues that a married man who has relations with any woman, even a prostitute or slave, commits adultery, since by 1 Cor 7:3–4 his body belongs to his wife, against civil laws that punished only wives.
On 1 Cor 7:2, section 5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom describes the misery that a husband's unfaithfulness brings on his wife, warns of hell and of prostitutes' sorcery, contrasts the bitterness of the prostitute with the wife, and ends with 1 Cor 7:2–4.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom recalls that his previous sermon, which called it adultery to cast out a wife or to marry a woman cast out while her husband lives, moved many to grief, and urges those about to marry to choose with great care, since a wife cannot be sent back without adultery.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom tells those about to marry to learn first that Christ's law lets a husband cast out his wife only for sexual immorality, so that he must bear every other fault, and urges husbands to love and correct their wives as Christ loved and cleansed the church.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom says that even an incorrigible wife must not be cast out, explains Paul's teaching on marriage as a great mystery of Christ and the church, warns against marrying for money, and begins the story of Abraham's servant seeking a wife for Isaac.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains that Abraham's servant asked God for a sign of hospitality rather than of wealth or beauty in Isaac's bride, and urges those about to marry to seek a wife through prayer to God rather than through matchmakers.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom praises Rebekah's chastity and eager hospitality at the well, and the servant's prayerful prudence, and tells those choosing a spouse to ask first whether the person is dear to God.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 9John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom describes Rebekah's simple wedding journey and Isaac's love for her, and urges parents and bridegrooms to seek virtue and to banish wedding excesses, so that there will never be a bill of divorce or suspicion of adultery.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:22-23Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains the wife's subjection to her husband by the image of Christ and the church, warns that a union not made according to Christ's precepts is adultery rather than marriage, and gives an allegorical reading of body and mind.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:24Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome urges that marriage modelled on Christ and the church be holy and free of bodily passion, setting the Ephesians' higher teaching above the concession of marital relations given to the Corinthians.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:25-27Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains the holy love Paul enjoins on husbands, answers heretics who reject marriage, urges abstinence during pregnancy, and gives a tropological reading of soul and body.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:28Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains that since husband and wife are one flesh, a husband must care for his wife as for his own body, and gives a literal and a tropological reading.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:29Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains that husbands must provide for their wives, and allegorically that the soul must nourish the body with the sacraments toward the angelic life of the resurrection.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:30Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains that believers are members of Christ's body according to his assumed humanity, not his divinity, or as members of the church.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:31Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome notes how Paul quotes Gen 2:24 freely, warns against seeking such quotations in the apocrypha, and explains the union of Adam and Eve as a figure of Christ and the church, against Marcion.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:32Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome holds that only Gen 2:24, not the whole story of Adam and Eve, is a prophecy of Christ and the church, and reports Gregory of Nazianzus's view of Paul's humility in interpreting it.
Commentary on Ephesians 5:33Jerome · ca. 386 · Jerome explains that “love your wife as yourself” expresses confirmation, not mere likeness, and that the wife's “fear” of her husband is to be understood as reverence.
On Abraham 1.4.25Ambrose · ca. 387–390 · Ambrose warns men preparing for baptism that any intercourse outside marriage is adultery, that the same chastity binds husband and wife, and that such sin gives wives an occasion for divorce.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.18Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The lamprey who answers the viper's call teaches wives to bear with difficult husbands and keep faith during absence.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.19Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Husbands must be gentle guides, not masters, and must not commit adultery, which divides the one flesh God made; the adulteress is like the viper.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.20Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The viper serves as an example both of faithfulness and of adultery.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.58Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Crows care for their young; human mothers refuse to nurse, expose infants, or procure abortions, and fathers disinherit sons.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.62Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · The turtledove, offered at Christ's presentation, does not remarry when widowed, an example of widowhood for women.
Hexameron (Exameron) 5.63Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Even Paul did not make widowhood a law but allowed the young to remarry; God himself gave the turtledove its continence.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.22Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Beasts love and defend their young without the favouritism and disinheritance found among humans.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.73Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · Pulse, bones, and genitals are each wisely arranged by the creator.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 35.13.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Herodias left her husband for his brother; John called the union unlawful, and she sought his death.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.5.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · An example: adulteresses who flaunt their affairs to provoke the men's wives.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 36.5.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Such provocation leads wives to break the marriage bond or to constant quarrels; provoking jealousy is vile.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.27.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The bones of the soul are the bonds of love, as in marriage and in Christ and the church.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.62.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · When the bodily law dies, the people may lawfully marry Christ, as a widow remarries; the two covenants are like two marriages.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.62.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul’s teaching that a wife is bound to her husband’s law while he lives underlies the figure of the two marriages.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.62.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · A wife may remarry after her husband’s death, but while he lives she is called an adulteress if joined to another man.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.62.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · As Paul says, we have died to the law through Christ’s body so as to belong to the risen one.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.64.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The levirate law bound a widow to her husband’s brother, who could refuse by loosing his shoe.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.64.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · In Ruth the kinsman loosed his shoe and Boaz took Ruth, with the people’s blessing.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.76.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The Septuagint’s “humbled” is explained from Deuteronomy’s law on the captive woman.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.76.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The laws on the dismissed captive wife and the betrothed virgin show that “humbling” is the act of the one who violates, not of nature.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.76.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The law forbidding the violator to put away the girl he “humbled” shows again that guilt, not the flesh, humbles us.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine praises the catholic Church as mother of Christians, who teaches worship of God alone and love of neighbor in every human relationship, wives and husbands, parents and children, slaves and masters, rulers and peoples, and so kindles the fire of divine love.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 1.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine answers the Manichaean charge that baptized Christians should not marry, beget children, or own property, citing Paul's words on the body, marriage, and continence in 1 Corinthians 6–7, and closes the first book.
On the Catholic Way of Life and the Manichaean Way of Life 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–389 · Augustine argues that by treating procreation as worse than intercourse and urging the avoidance of conception, the Manichaeans in effect forbid marriage, as 1 Tim 4:3 foretold, and their doctrine of freeing souls from seeds through eating invites grave suspicion.
Canon 2Anonymous · 390 · Bishops, presbyters, and deacons, as servants of the altar, are to abstain from their wives.
Commentary on Titus 1:6Jerome · ca. 387 · Jerome explains “the husband of one wife” (Titus 1:6) as the example of single marriage a bishop must give, not as making every once-married man better than the twice-married; he rejects excluding men whose first marriage was before baptism, condemns the Montanist and Novatianist ban on second marriages and Tertullian's On Monogamy, and discusses the bishop's children.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 1.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Augustine proposes that the blessing “Increase and multiply” may be taken spiritually before the fall, as a chaste union bearing spiritual offspring, which turned into carnal fruitfulness after sin.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 2.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Augustine introduces the second account of man, which he says is told figuratively, and quotes Genesis 2:4–3:24 in full.
On Genesis against the Manichaeans 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 388–390 · Adam's words over Eve signify fortitude and temperance, the Hebrew wordplay on 'woman' is lost in Latin, and Gen 2:24 is wholly a prophecy of Christ and the Church, as Paul shows against the Manichees.
Sermon 10.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
Sermon 10.3Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
Sermon 10.4Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388-407 · text not on this site
Tractate 10.1 on Matthew 5:31–32Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius explains Matt 5:31–32: Christ removed the Mosaic licence of divorce and restored the indissoluble law of marriage, condemning those who put away chaste wives to remarry, while permitting a husband to put away an adulterous wife.
Homily 19.1 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · From God’s gift of companionship in marriage and among brothers, Chrysostom turns to Andrew, who at once shares his discovery of “the Messiah” with Peter, and to Jesus’ first words to Simon.
Homily 61.2 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ declares that no one can snatch his sheep from his or the Father’s hand and that he and the Father are one; Chrysostom then urges wives to shape their husbands by a quiet, modest life, adorning the soul rather than the body.
Homily 63.4 on JohnJohn Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Right faith profits nothing without a pure life; Chrysostom condemns adultery by married men, arguing that a wife may separate from an unfaithful husband though not from an unbelieving one, and bars the unrepentant adulterer from the church.
Life of Hilarion 13Jerome · ca. 390–392 · A barren woman of Eleutheropolis begs Hilarion's prayers and bears a son within a year.
Life of Malchus 6Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Forced by his master to take a fellow captive as wife, Malchus nearly kills himself, but she persuades him to live with her in a chaste marriage.
Voluntary Poverty, chapter 36Nilus of Ancyra · ca. 390-430 · Paul says the unmarried should be free of care for the Lord; an unmarried monk who toils for possessions is more blameworthy than a married man providing for his children.
Sermon 8.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The fifth commandment against adultery is opposed by the plague on cattle: the adulterer lives like a beast, though reason and the image of God enable a human being to restrain desire.
Sermon 8.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The ninth commandment against coveting a neighbor's wife is opposed by the plague of darkness: to attempt another man's wife is the thickest darkness of madness.
Sermon 9.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The adversary with whom we must agree is God's word, which contradicts our sins against each commandment: superstition, belittling Christ, a carnal sabbath, dishonoring parents, hatred, and especially husbands' adultery.
Sermon 9.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine dwells on adultery because it is widespread: custom lets husbands sin with slave women while wives are prosecuted, but before God the sin is equal and husband and wife owe each other the same fidelity.
Sermon 9.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine strikes the fifth string, adultery: husbands who go to their slave women sin as wives would; a chaste wife keeps faith for Christ's sake even when her husband does not.
Sermon 9.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Men who say chastity is impossible are shamed by their chaste wives; custom laughs off husbands' sins with slave women while condemning other crimes, as though the man conquered by lust were the real man.
Sermon 9.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The man who goes to prostitutes wrongs God himself, for he corrupts in himself God's image and temple, just as stoning a man's portrait insults the man.
Sermon 9.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Grave sins like adultery require a change of life, not almsgiving; daily almsgiving cleanses only small daily sins, such as harsh words, excess in food, or intercourse with one's wife beyond what procreation requires.
Sermon 51.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Joseph, thinking Mary an adulteress, showed true justice: he would neither keep her out of carnal love nor punish or expose her, but planned to put her away quietly.
Sermon 51.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Joseph was truly Mary’s husband, as the angel says, and was given a father’s authority to name the child, though Jesus was not born of his seed; Mary herself calls him Christ’s father.
Sermon 51.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary, though mother of the Son of the Most High, humbly named Joseph first, respecting the order of marriage; she is called “woman” by Hebrew usage, while remaining a virgin before, in, and after giving birth.
Sermon 51.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Joseph was truly a father, because marriage is made by married love, not by intercourse; couples who abstain by mutual consent are still truly married.
Sermon 51.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The patriarchs, even with several wives, sought intercourse only for children, as the marriage contract states; spouses who cannot keep to this should at least keep to each other, for intercourse beyond the need of procreation is a pardonable sin, conceded by Paul.
Sermon 51.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Eating and marriage sustain the human race; the wise come down to both out of duty, as Elijah ate to live, while the lustful fall into them; a man who marries only for children would welcome children without intercourse.
Sermon 51.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The patriarchs were allowed several wives only to multiply offspring; Christians should love their wives chastely and seek intercourse only for children, for the need of it is a punishment inherited from Adam.
Sermon 51.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Israel had a duty to multiply until Christ; with Mary the dignity of virginity began; Joseph was all the more truly a father, as adoption and lawful marriage show that a father’s bond is not made by the flesh.
Sermon 51.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Adoption is found in Scripture: Sarah, Rachel, and Leah adopted their slave women’s sons, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted Moses, Jacob adopted Joseph’s sons, and Paul speaks of our adoption by grace.
Sermon 51.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Levirate marriage was another way to have two fathers; Matthew says “begot” of Joseph’s natural father, while Luke says only “son of Heli,” fitting adoption or levirate descent.
Sermon 51.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The generations run through Joseph, chastely husband and father, whom the Spirit gave a son; Matthew descends from Abraham to show Christ coming down to bear our sins, Luke ascends from his baptism to God to show sins cleansed.
Sermon 82.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A bishop rebukes secret sins, such as hidden murder or adultery, in secret, without betraying the sinner, yet warns that adultery is a deadly wound.
Sermon 82.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rebukes adultery publicly without naming anyone, so that the correction may be secret.
Sermon 91.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one ascends to heaven except Christ, so believers ascend only as members of his body, Christ and the church being two in one flesh as in marriage.
Sermon 93.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The whole church, married and unmarried, is called a virgin because of the integrity of faith, as Paul says he betrothed the church as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Sermon 96.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s call to self-denial is for the whole church, virgins, widows, and married alike, each in its place; to turn from a chosen continence back to marriage, though lawful, is looking back like Lot’s wife.
Sermon 112.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The third excuse, marriage, signifies the pleasure of the flesh; John’s “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and ambition of the age” correspond in reverse order to the three excuses.
Sermon 123.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s humility is the medicine for human pride; he who changed water into wine at the wedding refused to turn stones into bread at the devil’s suggestion, because his disciples would believe but the devil would not.
Sermon 132.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The faithful who receive the Eucharist must live chastely: husbands must keep the fidelity they demand of their wives, and unmarried young men must keep themselves as pure as they want their brides to be, out of fear of God who sees everything.
Sermon 132.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those vowed to continence live the life of angels on earth; in the resurrection virginity, married chastity, and widowhood will shine differently, but all will share heaven.
Sermon 132.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who do not keep chastity should not come to the Lord’s table; Augustine must speak the truth like a servant paying out his master’s money, and he prays that the unchaste be converted.
Sermon 148.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If God punished Ananias and Sapphira for withholding vowed money, he is far more angry when vowed virginity or chastity is broken, since these are vowed for his own temple.
Sermon 159.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The first degree of loving righteousness is to let it delight us more than everything else, even lawful pleasures of the senses, which Augustine distinguishes from unlawful ones sense by sense.
Sermon 161.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Our bodies are Christ's members and the Spirit's temple; the adulterer honors his wife's bedroom but not God's temple, and though he outlives the chaste, he will be cut off from the land of the living.
Sermon 161.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Marriage is lawful and suffices, but consecrated virgins, out of greater love, take Paul's counsel and give up even marriage, adorning the inner person rather than the outer.
Sermon 161.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Consecrated virgins, overcoming even their parents' opposition, seek to please Christ by inner beauty; their example should teach married people at least to avoid adultery.
Sermon 168.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Believers pray for unbelieving friends and spouses to be given faith, which shows that faith is God's gift and no one may boast except in the Lord.
Sermon 196.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The married, the widowed, and virgins each have a model who bore witness to Christ at his birth: Elizabeth, Anna, and Mary.
Sermon 205.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · During Lent Christians should fast, abstain even from marital relations, give alms, pray more, and not replace ordinary luxuries with refined ones under the name of abstinence.
Sermon 207.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lenten abstinence, including from marital relations, should reduce pleasures, not exchange ordinary luxuries for unusual ones; Esau and David show that the fault lies in craving, not in the food.
Sermon 208.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lenten fasting should be without harshness or new luxuries, married people should abstain for prayer, alms should increase, and above all anger should be forgiven before Easter.
Sermon 209.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Abstaining from meat is to curb desire, not to avoid uncleanness or to indulge in costlier food; married people should abstain for a time, and all should keep humility and love.
Sermon 210.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges daily fasting, generous alms, fervent prayer, and marital continence throughout Lent, following the forty-day fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Christ.
Sermon 224.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The devil tells adulterers that sins of the flesh are light, as he deceived Eve in paradise; but God's word proved true and the excuse did not avail.
Sermon 224.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Husbands must keep only to their wives and the unmarried come chaste to marriage; a married man's concubine, even his own slave, is a harlot, and keeping her leads to Gehenna.
Sermon 260.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the newly baptized at the Easter octave: keep chastity, married or vowed; the unmarried may marry only partners whose former spouses are no longer living; those vowed to continence must keep their vow.
Sermon 278.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even in what is permitted one can sin by excess, as in married intercourse beyond the purpose of begetting children named in the marriage contract, or drunkenness with one’s own wine; the remedy is the Lord’s Prayer.
Sermon 278.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Excess even in permitted things offends God, whose temple we are; the remedy he gives is to forgive others, so that he will forgive us.
Sermon 291.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Zechariah and Mary used similar words with dissimilar hearts, as David and Saul both said ‘I have sinned’; Mary’s question shows that she had vowed virginity, and she asked the manner without doubting God’s power.
Sermon 294.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The ‘holiness’ of believers’ children in 1 Cor 7:14 is a kind of sanctification that, like that of food or of an unbelieving spouse, does not suffice for salvation; such children still need baptism.
Sermon 304.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lawrence, deacon at Rome, who ministered Christ’s blood and shed his own, fulfilled the proverb about the mighty man’s table; but not only martyrs follow Christ: married people, widows and virgins too have their place in the Lord’s garden.
Sermon 307.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Gospel of John the Baptist’s beheading shows truth breeding hatred: John told Herod it was unlawful to have his brother’s wife, and Herodias, through her dancing daughter and Herod’s rash oath, had him killed.
Sermon 332.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges husbands to be faithful: the Apostle's word that the wife has no authority over her own body is matched by the husband's having none over his, so a husband's adultery is forbidden as much as a wife's.
Sermon 341.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul's reading of “the two will be one flesh” as Christ and the Church, and the cry “Saul, why do you persecute me?”, show that head and body are one Christ.
Sermon 343.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Susanna, a model of conjugal chastity, chose death rather than sin before God, and God, who saw what the judges could not, freed her through Daniel's exposure of the false witnesses.
Sermon 343.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · As God freed Susanna, he freed Mary from Joseph's benevolent suspicion; virginal and conjugal chastity both please God, with unequal rewards in one eternal life, and married people must carry Christ's light yoke.
Sermon 343.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Wives should keep chastity for God, pray for suspicious husbands, and guard their reputation; men have their example in Joseph, who loved the inner beauty of chastity more than Potiphar's wife loved his body.
Sermon 343.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A man who loves chastity in his own wife and daughters must love it in other men's wives and in himself.
Sermon 343.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Like Susanna and Joseph, a tempted man must fear the eyes of God, and if he suffers for chastity, as Joseph did in prison, God delays his help to test him and to reward him more.
Sermon 344.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ did not abolish love of family but ordered it below love of God and the Church, which matters most when relatives urge a martyr not to die.
Sermon 349.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lawful human love, of wife, children, friends, and fellow citizens, is shared even by unbelievers and beasts; it earns no praise, but its absence deserves condemnation.
Sermon 349.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Unlawful love joins the members of Christ to a prostitute, making one flesh as marriage does, which Paul calls unthinkable for those bought by Christ's blood.
Sermon 349.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even if impunity were promised, divine love would not permit unlawful love; as a man keeps a prostitute away from his wife, mother, and sister, he must not lodge her love beside the love of God.
Sermon 349.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Family must be loved, but Christ more; where love of Christ is still weak, fear of being without him should lead the way, like a slave escorting a child to the teacher.
Sermon 351.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Lay Christians, entangled in business and marriage, commit many lesser sins, such as lawsuits, intercourse not for procreation, idle talk, and greed at table, which together are deadly unless healed by daily penance.
Sermon 354.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Married people too are members of Christ's body, and humble married people are better than proud celibates; pride, mother of envy, ruins holiness, as the martyrdom of the married Crispina beside the virgin Agnes shows.
Sermon 354.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Continence leads to a higher place only with humility; celibates who despise their married parents are not better but worse, since pride is emptiness where the devil nests.
Sermon 354.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Virginity is better than marriage, but humility is better than pride; a humble married mother is better than a proud virgin daughter, who has no place in Christ's humble body.
Sermon 359.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Sirach commends concord of brothers, love of neighbours, and harmony of husband and wife; brothers quarrel because they love earth, but the just, like the apostles of Psalm 19, are heaven and go to heaven.
Sermon 359.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Concord among Christians, love of every neighbour, and the Church's union with Christ answer Sirach's three goods; Augustine urges the congregation of the new basilica Florentia to be their bishop's true Florentia and to hope for the resurrection Christ showed in his flesh.
Sermon 362.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · By "flesh and blood" Paul means corruption, not the body's form; Christ's answer to the Sadducees shows that the risen will not marry or die but be equal to the angels.
Sermon 370.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · A Christmas sermon on the four ways man came to be (Adam, Eve, ordinary birth, Christ's virgin birth), the last of which saved the others; virgins, widows, and the married each have a witness at Christ's birth.
Sermon 380.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · John died for the truth by rebuking Herod's marriage to his brother's wife, which the levirate law did not allow; the levirate law itself figures the apostles raising up Christians for the dead Christ; Christ was lifted up on the cross, John cut short by the sword.
Sermon 385.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The steps of lawful love: marital and parental love, shared with animals, are still carnal; love of kin is more human; love widens to strangers and finally to enemies.
Sermon 385.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To love the creature and desert the Creator is spiritual adultery; God must be clung to freely; and since every lover wants the beloved to be safe, true love wants for spouse, children, and friends the true salvation.
Sermon 391.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Young women too must flee youthful desires, following Susanna, Anna, and Mary, and must not use the church as a place to display their beauty, which withers like grass.
Sermon 392.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine tells the candidates for baptism that concubinage is forbidden, and that marriage to anyone whose former spouse is living, including after repudiation, is adultery; a wife may be put away for sexual immorality, but the husband may not remarry while she lives.
Sermon 392.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine tells the baptized who have committed adultery to do the church's penance publicly, as the emperor Theodosius did, rather than claim to confess to God in secret.
Sermon 392.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine commands wives not to tolerate their husbands' sexual immorality but to bring it before the church, while yielding to them in property and all else, since in the marriage bed Paul made them equal.
Sermon 392.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine rebukes the double standard by which husbands will not bear adulterous wives but expect wives to bear adulterous husbands, calls husbands to lead in chastity, and bars known adulterers from communion.
Homily 12 on Romans, section 12.2John Chrysostom · ca. 391-400 · Chrysostom explains Paul's example in Rom 7:1–3: a wife is called an adulteress if she becomes another man's while her husband lives, but is free once he dies, and so believers are freed from the law, which Paul puts in the husband's place.
Homily 12 on Romans, section 12.3John Chrysostom · ca. 391-400 · Chrysostom notes that the law, which permitted a divorced woman to marry another even while her husband lived, cannot forbid marriage after his death, and that Paul leaves divorce aside because it was blameworthy even when allowed.
Commentary on Galatians 5.2John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Faith working through love, not circumcision, counts in Christ; a little leaven corrupts the whole; Paul's persecution proves he does not preach circumcision; Chrysostom condemns self-mutilation and teaches that desire is given for marriage and children, not adultery.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.1John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom introduces 1 Cor 7: continence is better but marriage is safer; Paul speaks to all, not only to priests; husband and wife each owe the other the body, and neither may abstain without the other's consent.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.2John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's rules on temporary abstinence for prayer and on marriage for those who burn, the Lord's command against separation (with remaining unmarried or reconciliation), and the believer's duty to stay with a willing unbelieving spouse.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.3John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains why a husband may cast out a wife who commits sexual immorality (that marriage is already dissolved) but must keep a willing unbelieving wife, and why a believer deserted or forced to impiety by an unbeliever is not enslaved.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.5John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom continues that the real slavery is to sin and passion, as Potiphar's wife and Cain show, and begins on virginity (1 Cor 7:25–27), where his text breaks off.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.6John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains 1 Cor 7:28–40: marrying is no sin for an unvowed virgin, though widows who break a vow of widowhood by remarrying are condemned; Paul grants a second marriage “in the Lord”, and holiness is required in every state.
Homily 5.1 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul urges the Thessalonians to go beyond the commandments in virtue, and above all to keep their sanctification by abstaining from all sexual immorality, possessing their bodies in holiness and honour.
Homily 5.2 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Every union outside one’s own marriage is sin that God avenges, and a married man’s union with an unmarried woman is adultery; Chrysostom urges fathers to marry their sons early and chaste, and defends his frank speech as a physician’s.
Homily 5.4 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Fornication with prostitutes is filthy and inexcusable for the young; the theatre feeds lust, and self-control is easy for those who will it and avoid what harms.
Homily 6.2 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul comforts the Thessalonians about the dead; Chrysostom rebukes Christian widows and mothers who mourn like pagans, answering their reasons and saying that God, who is jealous for our love, takes those on whom we lean.
Homily 6.3 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · God takes husbands and children because we love them more than him; widows who love God more will not feel widowhood, for God gave them everything, and widowhood frees them and gives them power over demons, while God is father of orphans.
Homily 6.4 on 1 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The end of Homily 6 consoles widows (God is father to their children and their companion); Homily 7 explains the resurrection of those asleep in Jesus and answers objections from nature; Homily 8 describes Christ’s descent, the rapture and the last trumpet, and proves the reality of Gehenna from Sodom, the flood and God’s past judgments.
Homily 9.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains that women are saved through childbearing when they raise their children in faith and purity, and urges parents to train sons and daughters in self-control and virtue rather than to care only for their inheritance.
Homily 10.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's qualifications for an overseer, reading “the husband of one wife” as restraining the excess of second or plural marriage rather than requiring marriage.
Homily 10.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains why Paul asks for a measured virtue in overseers, a well-ruled household, no recent convert, and a good name among outsiders, and suggests “the husband of one wife” was meant not to narrow the choice.
Homily 12.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom applies Paul’s prophecy of apostasy to the Manichaeans, Encratites, and Marcionites who forbid marriage and foods, and teaches that every creature of God is good and is sanctified by the sign of the cross and thanksgiving, though food knowingly eaten as an idol offering defiles.
Homily 12.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains “being nourished on the words of the faith,” distinguishes urging virginity from forbidding marriage, explains the purpose of the Jewish food laws, and argues that wealth is not truly a good, since great riches are seldom gathered without injustice.
Homily 14.2 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains that a widow's not remarrying is worthless without good works, since Paul did not condemn second marriage but wished her free for God, and praises personal hospitality and almsgiving.
Homily 15.1 on 1 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains why Paul refuses to enroll younger widows and wishes them to remarry: remarriage is not forbidden and is better than broken vows and idle gossip.
Homily 9.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Faith in the resurrection, shared with the Old Testament saints, renews the inner man as the outer wastes away; the unseen things are eternal, so it is folly to say ‘give me today’; God’s justice, attested even by conscience and by pagans, guarantees a judgment, and even now the virtuous are happier than the self-indulgent.
Homily 23.6 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom warns that the robber harms himself more than his victim, argues that love of money is less natural and less excusable than sexual desire (Paul permits marriage and even a second marriage, but never greed), and points to the foolish virgins, shut out of the bridal chamber for avarice despite their virginity.
Homily 28.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's fear of being 'humbled' by having to punish unrepentant sinners in Corinth and his mourning over their uncleanness and sexual immorality (2 Cor 12:20–21), then shows how vice cannot bear the presence of virtue: Ahab before Elijah, and above all Herod and Herodias before John the Baptist, whose severed head still cries out in every church.
Homily 29.1 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · The end of Homily 28 shows Herodias's trophy turned against Herod, haunted by John even after his death; Homily 29 explains Paul's patient warnings before his third visit, 'by the mouth of two or three witnesses,' his threat not to spare, and his answer to those who demand proof that Christ speaks in him (2 Cor 13:1–3, 7).
Homily 30.2 on 2 CorinthiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains the holy kiss as kissing the entrance of Christ's temple, the mouth that receives the Lord's body in communion, defends the full deity of the Spirit and the Son from Paul's varied naming of the persons in the closing blessing (2 Cor 13:12–14), and urges love of God, who commands everything for our good, as his rules on marriage, reconciliation and almsgiving show.
Homily 5.2 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Paul now commands sternly that the idle work and eat their own bread, yet tells the church not to let them starve but to admonish them as brothers; Chrysostom rebukes those who insult beggars, laments that church discipline has lapsed through cold love, and teaches that each Christian should teach his household by his life.
Homily 5.5 on 2 ThessaloniansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Slaves’ virtue can reform households; every Christian should share the preacher’s ministry by teaching his own household, and husbands, as heads, should repay their wives’ many services by leading them in spiritual things.
Homily 7.4 on 2 TimothyJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding Homily 7, Chrysostom urges widows to stay faithful to their dead husbands—not forbidding second marriage, which Paul permits, but praising true widowhood of prayer and almsgiving—and shows from Job that a house rooted in almsgiving is protected by God.
Homily 10.1 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Opening Homily 10, Chrysostom expounds the household rules of Col 3:18–4:1: wives are to be subject and husbands to love without bitterness, so that each makes the other's part easy; children are to obey, fathers not to provoke, and slaves to serve their masters.
Homily 10.5 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom ends Homily 10 by urging women to put on Christ instead of gold, to adorn themselves with almsgiving and chastity rather than finery, and to set their daughters an example of modesty.
Homily 12.4 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges tears only for sin, then attacks the hiring of harlots, dancers, and effeminate performers for weddings, and explains marriage as a mystery and type of Christ and the church, in which husband and wife become one flesh, joined above all in their child.
Homily 12.6 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom defends marriage as honourable and a mystery of Christ and the church against those who are ashamed of it, blames the shame on the indecency of wedding feasts, and invites his hearers to have Christ at their weddings instead of pipers and dancers.
Homily 12.7 on ColossiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom ends the homilies on Colossians by describing a Christian wedding: choose a godly husband of equal or lower means, pray and entrust the choice to God, invite decent guests and the poor instead of performers, and adorn the bride with modesty instead of gold.
Homily 20.1 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom opens his homily on marriage by praising the God-made bond of husband and wife and explaining that wives are to be subject to their husbands as the body to the head.
Homily 20.2 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom tells husbands that the measure of their love is Christ's love for the church, who gave himself for an unlovely bride, and warns them not to rule by fear or to value outward beauty.
Homily 20.3 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom urges husbands to seek virtue rather than beauty or wealth in a wife, and explains that a wife is the husband's own flesh as believers are members of Christ's body.
Homily 20.4 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains “the two shall become one flesh” and the “great mystery” of Christ and the church, and why the wife's respect and the husband's love together keep peace in the home.
Homily 20.5 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom teaches that each spouse must do his or her part even if the other fails, cites 1 Cor 7:15 for an unbeliever who departs, allows second marriages as a concession, and holds up Abraham's household as a model.
Homily 20.6 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom tells wives not to reproach their husbands with poverty and husbands never to strike their wives, and urges a simple wedding without lewd songs and gentle instruction of the young bride.
Homily 20.7 on EphesiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom gives a model speech for a husband to his young bride, urges common prayer, marriage to a poorer rather than a richer wife, and the sharing of all property; the section ends with the opening text of the next homily (Eph 6:1–3).
Homily 20.1 on GenesisJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom notes that the genealogy of Cain's line names only the men, and comes to Lamech, who took two wives.
Homily 2.3 on PhilippiansJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Those who preached Christ to harm Paul changed nothing in the gospel and only earned punishment, as the devil does with the heretics' fasting and virginity; Christ's commands are light, and envy comes from attachment to present things.
Homily 1.4 on TitusJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's charge to Titus to appoint bishops in every Cretan city, reading “the husband of one wife” as both honouring marriage against heretics and barring the twice married from office.
Homily 3.3 on TitusJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Concluding Homily 3, Chrysostom teaches that foods are not unclean by nature, that the Mosaic food laws curbed luxury and the purity laws were types of the soul's cleanness, and that true uncleanness is sin, especially greed and injustice, which is what makes sexual immorality and adultery unclean.
Homily 4.1 on TitusJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On Titus 2:2–8, Chrysostom explains the failings of old age and the virtues Paul requires of older men and women, the limits on women's teaching, the love of wives for their husbands as the source of household peace and of the gospel's good name, and the special temptation of young men.
Homily 4.3 on TitusJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · On Titus 2:8–10, Chrysostom condemns those who separate wives from husbands or slaves from masters on the pretext of continence, and argues that well-behaved Christian slaves, a class neglected and despised by their masters, show the power of the gospel to unbelievers.
Homily 4.5 on TitusJohn Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom ends Homily 4 with Joseph's kindness to his fellow prisoners and an appeal to slaves and free to win even the wicked by virtue; Homily 5 (Titus 2:11–3:7) explains the grace that trains us to deny worldly desires, argues that greed is worse than sexual sin, affirms that Christ is “our great God,” and describes pagan corruption before Christ, from which God saved us by the washing of regeneration.
Section 3John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains that Paul does not forbid young widows to remain unmarried, but tells Timothy not to enrol them, and wishes only those who would break their pledge to Christ to remarry beforehand.
Section 4John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom shows that Paul's wish for young widows to remarry is a concession for the weak, like marital relations in 1 Cor 7, and distinguishes the works of widowhood, open to all, from the honour of enrolment after sixty; men too should not remarry.
Section 5John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom insists that the church does not forbid second marriage, which Paul permits, but advises against it for the peace of the household, describing stepmothers' jealousy, and teaches that widowhood without good works is worthless.
On Illustrious Men 123Jerome · 392–393 · Tiberianus, accused with Priscillian, wrote an apology but later married off his consecrated daughter.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 3:2 (2)Theodore of Mopsuestia · 392–428 · Theodore holds that "husband of one wife" excludes men who had two wives at once or were unfaithful to their wife, not a chaste man who remarried after his wife's death, since widowhood is a matter of chance, not of will.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains that Moses’ certificate of divorce was meant to delay separation, that Christ excepts only sexual immorality, and that, following Paul, neither a wife who departs nor a husband who puts away his wife may marry another while the spouse lives.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine reconciles Christ’s ban on putting away a wife with the command to hate one’s wife: the Christian loves the spouse as a human being and fellow heir, while hating the temporal and mortal bond that will not exist in the resurrection.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine asks how widely “sexual immorality” in the exception clause is to be taken, argues from 1 Cor 7 that it includes idolatry, unbelief, and every unlawful desire, holds that a woman who is put away should remain unmarried or be reconciled, and recounts without judgment a case from Antioch.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 1.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine sums up the precepts so far as the hard conquest of habit, including bearing every hardship of marriage except sexual immorality and not marrying a divorced woman, and introduces the precepts of mercy.
Letter 1.69Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Against a drunkard: Scripture shows gluttony ruining Adam, Esau, Saul, Israel, Hophni and Phinehas, while fasting and abstinence saved Noah in the ark, the Ninevites, Daniel, John, and Paul.
Letter 1.213 (to Sosander)Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · To a man whose wife has died: the Lord has loosed the bond; do not seek another wife (1 Cor 7:27), but save your soul and come to the monastic life.
Letter 1.234Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · A man who reads Scripture but lives with a prostitute is reminded that marriage is honorable and that God will judge the sexually immoral.
Letter 1.296Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Lawful sexual union is natural; sexual immorality is a frenzy against nature checked by the law's fear.
Letter 1.391Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Water turned into wine at Cana signifies Christ perfecting the law's washings with his blood, uniting law and grace.
Letter 1.413Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Paul's "let those with wives be as though they had none" does not forbid lawful marriage, as the Manichees claim, but restrains indulgence because time is short.
Letter 1.464Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Fornication with prostitutes often turns out to be adultery, or even unwitting incest with one's own illegitimate kin.
Letter 2.81Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The literal reason the law excluded lepers and others with involuntary diseases: such diseases were thought to come from intercourse during menstruation, and the exclusion of the children punished the parents; similarly with the uncircumcised infant.
Letter 2.133Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · "Eye for eye" was a deterrent, not a command to be vindictive as the Manichaeans claim; turning the other cheek is a higher stage of the same law, given by the one God of both Testaments.
Letter 2.144Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · The hundredfold, sixtyfold and thirtyfold yield can mean virginity, continence and marriage, or teaching, bodily service and almsgiving.
Letter 2.239Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · "Be angry and do not sin" admits several meanings, including a command to be angry for God's glory and the wronged; virtue is easier and more pleasant than vice, since avarice, luxury and lust bring endless troubles.
Letter 2.274Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Abraham's and Jacob's plural marriages arose from circumstance (Sarah's and Rachel's urging, Laban's deceit), not passion, as Isaac's single marriage confirms; they give no excuse to lustful men who put away their wives, since those living under law and grace are held to more.
Letter 3.45Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Orion is praised for simplicity; and (Letter 3.46) the law's exclusion of lepers is explained as a deterrent to intercourse during menstruation.
Letter 3.76 (to Archontius)Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Moses permitted the bill of divorce not as right but to prevent a worse evil, the murder of hated wives and secret adultery; Christ defended Moses ("because of your hardness of heart"), allowing a wife to be put away only for adultery and requiring every other fault to be borne.
Letter 3.176Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · In 1 Cor 9:5 the "sister as wife" means a believing woman who supported the apostles, not a spouse; "woman" names the sex, as when Mary the Virgin is called "woman" (Gal 4:4).
Letter 3.243Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore explains Gen 2:23 by deriving "woman" (gyne) from "generation" (gone): man and woman are correlative, like sower and field.
Letter 3.284Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Rom 12:18 limits peace: one must not keep peace at the cost of piety or justice, as Paul allowed even a believer's marriage to dissolve (1 Cor 7:15).
Letter 3.351Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore defends virginity against those who call it cowardly avoidance of life's risks: marriage is good but brings cares that hinder salvation, and virginity surpasses it as the sun the stars; and (Letter 3.352) only the one who masters the passions truly lives.
Letter 3.411Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore again explains the exclusion of lepers as a deterrent against intercourse during menstruation, citing Ezekiel.
Letter 4.96 (to Martianus)Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Herod the tetrarch's crimes against John the Baptist; three explanations of why his marriage to Herodias was unlawful (Philip had children, so the levirate did not apply; she left a living husband; Herod killed his brother), with Isidore preferring the first.
Letter 4.109Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Proverbs forbids not only intercourse with a married woman but even touching her, since if a look can be adultery, touch is worse.
Letter 4.110Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Three letters: Ezekiel's moaning doves are the fugitives who grieve in fearful silence; Christ makes reconciliation with a wronged brother the condition of acceptable worship; Isidore defends 1 Tim 4:3 and several other passages as matters of one letter or of punctuation, and affirms that marriage and food are honourable.
Letter 4.114Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Five letters: people differ in their virtues and vices as their faces differ; theft is lesser than adultery as marriage is lesser than virginity, within the same kind; Lazarus and the rich man were repaid here for their few faults and good deeds; the law excluded lepers to restrain untimely intercourse; almsgiving is judged by intention and means.
Letter 4.119Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Two letters: Peter's call to honour wives as the weaker vessel means abstaining from intercourse at times, as the law and Paul also teach; the one who insulted another must himself heal the wound by making amends.
Letter 4.129 (to Strategius)Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Ten explanations of 1 Cor 6:18; the tenth: married partners are one body, so adultery alone is a sin against the spouse, which is why Christ allowed a wife to be put away for fornication only.
Letter 4.190Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Marriage is honourable and useful when it aims at children, but it should not be ranked with virginity, which makes human beings like the angels.
Letter 5.24Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Zosimus's mistreatment of his own brother shows that his earlier revenge was not for the brother's sake; a second letter says a wife's adornment is not purple and jewels but the beauty of a virtuous soul.
Letter 5.218Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Virginity rises above the law and sexual immorality falls below it; honourable marriage lies between, far above immorality though below virginity.
Letter 5.253Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Virginity merits heaven, marriage honour and sexual immorality punishment, with adultery and unnatural sins worse still; but sincere repentance can heal them all.
Letter 5.287Isidore of Pelusium · ca. 393-ca. 435 · Isidore argues against suicide: if what God joined in marriage may not be separated, still less may soul and body; even the ancients buried a suicide's hand apart.
Against Jovinianus 1.3Jerome · 393 · Jerome mocks Jovinian's style and states his own position: marriage is good and honorable, but virginity, born of marriage, is better, as the hundredfold fruit surpasses the thirtyfold.
Against Jovinianus 1.4Jerome · 393 · Jerome compares Jovinian's teaching to the serpent's in paradise, announces his plan, and states that Jovinian, by making all merits equal, wrongs both virginity and marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.5Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes Jovinian's first argument: from Genesis onward God blessed marriage, and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles were married.
Against Jovinianus 1.6Jerome · 393 · Jerome announces that he will answer Jovinian first with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7.
Against Jovinianus 1.7Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:1–9 and 1 Pet 3:1–7 to argue that marriage is allowed as a remedy against sexual immorality and that intercourse hinders prayer.
Against Jovinianus 1.8Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that Paul's permission to resume marital relations is an indulgence, not a command, and that the gifts of virginity and marriage differ.
Against Jovinianus 1.9Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that "better to marry than to burn" makes marriage good only by comparison with something worse.
Against Jovinianus 1.10Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes 1 Cor 7:10–17 on divorce and mixed marriages and argues that Christian women may not marry pagans.
Against Jovinianus 1.11Jerome · 393 · Jerome interprets Paul's sayings about circumcision and slavery in 1 Cor 7:17–24 as figures for the married and the unmarried.
Against Jovinianus 1.12Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's use of "I have no command of the Lord": virginity is counseled, not commanded, as Christ's saying on eunuchs shows, and is the greater gift.
Against Jovinianus 1.13Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:28–38: marriage is not sin, but virginity is better, freeing the virgin for the things of the Lord.
Against Jovinianus 1.14Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues from 1 Cor 7:39–40 and other texts that second marriage is permitted only as a concession and ranks below a single marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.15Jerome · 393 · Jerome reports a view that Paul's permission to remarry applied to those widowed before baptism, and argues that if second marriage is allowed, so are third and later ones.
Against Jovinianus 1.16Jerome · 393 · Jerome begins his answer from the Old Testament: Adam and Eve were virgins in paradise, Christ and the Church are the true sense of Gen 2:24, and the number two is not called good.
Against Jovinianus 1.17Jerome · 393 · Jerome explains Enoch's translation by faith and reads Noah's ark, in which husbands and wives entered separately, as a type of the Church.
Against Jovinianus 1.18Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that meat-eating, divorce, and circumcision were later concessions, and that Christ restores the order of the beginning, in which there was no divorce.
Against Jovinianus 1.19Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's appeal to the patriarchs: Abraham's circumcision must be followed with his wives, Isaac had one wife, and Jacob's marriages belong to his time in Mesopotamia.
Against Jovinianus 1.20Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns Jovinian's examples from Judah to Moses, and cites the laws of Sinai, the bread of the Presence, and priestly marriage as showing the precedence of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.21Jerome · 393 · Jerome reads Joshua's crossing of the Jordan, the circumcision at Gilgal, and the conquest as figures of the Gospel's victory over marriage and the senses.
Against Jovinianus 1.22Jerome · 393 · Jerome contrasts Moses, the married figure of the law, with Joshua, of whom no wife or children are recorded, comparing their deaths and burials.
Against Jovinianus 1.23Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's examples of Samson, Deborah, Jephthah, Samuel, and Boaz and Ruth.
Against Jovinianus 1.24Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the examples of David and Solomon: their many wives belong to the time of the law, and the Gospel requires more.
Against Jovinianus 1.25Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the examples of Elijah and Elisha, Hezekiah, Huldah, and Daniel.
Against Jovinianus 1.26Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that the apostles' marriages belonged to the time before the Gospel, that 1 Cor 9:5 refers to women who served them, and that John, the virgin apostle, was specially loved by Christ.
Against Jovinianus 1.27Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's use of 1 Tim 2:13–15: the mother is saved if her children remain in faith and chastity, which Jerome takes as virginity.
Against Jovinianus 1.28Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Solomon's Proverbs against marriage, arguing that even a good wife is a risk and the love of woman insatiable.
Against Jovinianus 1.29Jerome · 393 · Jerome reads Ecclesiastes as teaching a time for marriage under the law and a time for virginity under the Gospel, and argues that Adam and Eve married only after leaving paradise.
Against Jovinianus 1.30Jerome · 393 · Jerome reads the Song of Songs as celebrating virginity, the chaste turtledove, and the bride's purity.
Against Jovinianus 1.31Jerome · 393 · Jerome applies the "garden enclosed" of the Song to the Virgin Mary and finds further praise of virginity in the Song.
Against Jovinianus 1.32Jerome · 393 · Jerome defends the reading "virgin" in Isa 7:14 from the Hebrew almah and argues that God chose a virgin, not a married woman or widow, to bear his Son.
Against Jovinianus 1.33Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's claim that baptized virgins and widows are equal, citing Jeremiah's virginity and Ezekiel's freedom after his wife's death.
Against Jovinianus 1.34Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objection that Paul appointed married clergy: Paul's requirements were a concession to new converts, and married clergy are bound to continence.
Against Jovinianus 1.35Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds the qualifications for a bishop in 1 Tim 3, stressing chastity, and argues that rank in the clergy does not determine merit before Christ.
Against Jovinianus 1.36Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objections that universal virginity would end the human race and that the genital organs show we are made for intercourse.
Against Jovinianus 1.37Jerome · 393 · Jerome gathers Paul's sayings on the flesh and the spirit (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians) and applies them to the superiority of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.38Jerome · 393 · Jerome continues with texts from Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and the Pastoral Letters urging a life of the spirit and of continence.
Against Jovinianus 1.39Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Philip's virgin daughters, James the Lord's brother, and the letters of James and Peter as teaching virginity, and applies 2 Peter 2 to Jovinian.
Against Jovinianus 1.40Jerome · 393 · Jerome applies 2 Peter to Jovinian's luxurious life, cites John's letters and Revelation 14 on the virgins who follow the Lamb, and explains Christ's presence at Cana.
Against Jovinianus 1.44Jerome · 393 · Jerome gives further pagan examples of faithful wives: Niceratus's wife, Artemisia, Teuta, the Indian widows, and Alcibiades's concubine.
Against Jovinianus 1.45Jerome · 393 · Jerome continues with examples of devoted wives: Strato's wife, Panthea, the wife of Candaules, Rhodogune, Alcestis, Penelope, and Laodamia.
Against Jovinianus 1.46Jerome · 393 · Jerome gives examples of Roman women honored for chastity and for refusing a second marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.47Jerome · 393 · Jerome quotes at length Theophrastus's lost book On Marriage, arguing that a wise man should not marry.
Against Jovinianus 1.48Jerome · 393 · Jerome adds examples from pagan history and literature of the troubles of marriage, and the views of Epicurus and Chrysippus.
Against Jovinianus 1.49Jerome · 393 · Jerome quotes Seneca's lost On Marriage on excessive love and on chastity as woman's chief virtue, and ends with pagan honor for the once-married.
Against Jovinianus 2.15Jerome · 393 · Jerome traces fasting through Scripture from Adam's fast in paradise to Moses, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Christ, and Paul.
Against Jovinianus 2.35Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes his answers to Jovinian's four propositions.
Against Jovinianus 2.36Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns on Jovinian's followers, contrasting their luxury with the ascetics, and charges that his teaching has led virgins to marry.
Against Jovinianus 2.37Jerome · 393 · Jerome traces Jovinian's teaching to old heresies, laments that it took root at Rome, and satirizes its message and followers.
Poem 10, lines 187–217Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus rejects Ausonius's charges that he is unhinged, ruled by his wife, or living among Basque savages, insisting he lives in civilized Spain and that a pure mind is not corrupted by its surroundings.
Poem 11, lines 1–34 (XI. AVSONIO PAVLINVS)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · In a second verse letter to Ausonius, Paulinus rejects the charges of neglectful silence and of being ruled by his wife, protests his constant respect, and denies he was ever Ausonius's equal yoke-mate in letters.
Poem 21, lines 266–297Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus, now in elegiacs, calls the household to sing: the three mothers Albina, Therasia and Avita, the daughters Melania and Eunomia, the fathers Paulinus and Turcius, and Pinianus, named from the evergreen pine.
Poem 21, lines 395–425Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · After his governorship Paulinus returned to Gaul and married in Spain, which Felix permitted so that two might be saved; Felix protected him when his brother was murdered and his property was threatened.
Poem 24, lines 665–696Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Christians see the truth unveiled; the boy should be nourished by both law and grace, keep his faith unshorn, and Cytherius and his wife flourish with their children for God.
Poem 25, lines 1–31 (XXV)Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · A Christian wedding poem for two young people from clerical families: Paulinus banishes pagan wedding gods and recalls God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib as the foundation of marriage.
Poem 25, lines 32–64Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus forbids pagan wedding customs and bids the bride reject gold, gems, silk and cosmetics for the inner adornment of virtue.
Poem 25, lines 65–96Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Paulinus warns, with Isaiah's oracle against the finery of Zion's women, that adornment brings punishment, and urges both bride and groom to care for the soul's beauty.
Poem 25, lines 97–128Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · God's word and good works are the Christian's ornaments; Paulinus contrasts the modest Rebecca with the adorned dancing girl whose dance won the Baptist's head.
Poem 25, lines 129–160Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Herod's pride in his robes brought a loathsome death; the cleric and his wife should love each other's inner beauty, with Christ as head, Christ present as at Cana, and Mary, the virgin mother of God, honouring their marriage.
Poem 25, lines 161–192Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Mary, a virgin mother, prefigures the church, bride and sister of Christ, who gives birth to believers in baptism; in Christ there is neither male nor female, and in the resurrection marriage passes away.
Poem 25, lines 193–224Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · The couple should love as Christ and the church; Bishop Memor, the groom's father, is to lead them to the altar, and Bishop Aemilius arrives to bless them, father and brother to Memor.
Poem 25, lines 225–241Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Bishop Aemilius veils and blesses the couple; Paulinus prays that they keep virginity, or else that their children be dedicated to God, and asks to be remembered.
Poem 33, lines 33–62Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Baptized at the last like the penitent thief or the eleventh-hour labourer, Baebianus refuses his wife's plea to pray for recovery, lest he lose his baptismal innocence, and falls into a deathlike trance after a vision of light.
Poem 33, lines 97–132Paulinus of Nola · ca. 393–431 · Baebianus died declaring that he and his wife were one; the poem foretells that when his widow Apra dies, he and their dead son will welcome her into heaven, where their marriage continues in a better union.
Letter 105Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 393-413 · Synesius, elected bishop of Ptolemais, tells his brother (and through him Theophilus) why he feels unfit for the office: he loves leisure and amusement, will not give up his wife, and holds philosophical views on the soul, the world, and the resurrection that differ from popular belief.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine reconciles Genesis 2 on marriage with Christ's call to leave a wife for the kingdom: both come from the Lord, a wife is left only if she hinders faith (1 Cor 7:15), and divorce is otherwise forbidden except for sexual immorality.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine briefly answers the contrast between Psalm 128's blessing of wife and children and Christ's praise of eunuchs, referring to his third chapter.
Letters 5.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Sulpicius's conversion was the greater miracle, since he renounced the world while young, eloquent, wealthy by marriage, and free as a widower.
Letters 13.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus praises Paulina from the portrait of the good wife in Proverbs and consoles Pammachius that the righteous who die young are at rest.
Letters 18.5Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus praises Rouen under Victricius as a new Jerusalem, enriched with relics of the apostles and filled with virgins, widows, continent married couples and singing monks.
Letters 25.7Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Following Paul, Paulinus advises the unmarried soldier not to marry, since marriage, though not condemned, brings heavy cares.
Letters 39.1Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus calls Aper and Amanda his richest estate, already yielding thirtyfold in their married continence and promising a hundredfold in their virgin child.
Letters 44.3Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Aper’s letter shows his vices dashed against Christ, Christ resting in his heart, and his wife joined to him in continence after the pattern of Christ and the church.
Letters 44.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Aper and Amanda remain married but live in continence; Amanda manages their property and gives alms so that Aper may be free for the service of the church, like the valiant woman of Proverbs.
Letters 51.4Paulinus of Nola · ca. 394–413 · Paulinus blesses Eucherius and Galla and their children dedicated to God.
Historia monachorum, chapter 16Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Paphnutius asks God whom he resembles and is shown a musician who had been a robber, a village headman of upright life, and a merchant; each follows him into the desert, and Paphnutius dies teaching that God has hidden saints in every walk of life.
Historia monachorum, chapter 30Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Ammon, founder of Nitria, who persuaded his bride to live with him in virginity, healed a young man once his parents returned a stolen ox, and was carried across the Nile.
Historia monachorum, chapter 31Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Paul the Simple, who left his adulterous wife for the desert, learned perfect obedience from Antony, and through his simplicity worked greater healings than his master.
On Continence 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine begins by showing from Scripture that continence, whether in celibacy or in marriage, is a gift of God.
On Continence 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Paul's command that husbands love their wives as their own flesh refutes the Manichaean claim that the flesh comes from an evil race of darkness.
On Continence 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The three ordered pairs of Christ and church, husband and wife, spirit and flesh are all good, against the Manichaean teachings on Christ's flesh, the body and the sexes.
On Continence 26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Continence that springs from a false faith, from sin, or from injustice (such as refusing the marriage debt) is not the true continence that God gives.
On Continence 27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Abstaining from one's wife in order to pursue adultery by magic is wickedness, not continence; true married continence moderates desire within marriage.
On the Faith against the Manichaeans 38Evodius of Uzalis · ca. 400-424 · The Manichees allow figurative reading of the New Testament but not the Old, yet accept the Acts of Leucius, with its story of Maximilla deceiving her husband.
Hymn 8, lines 1–27Synesius of Cyrene · ca. 395-413 · Hymn 8 asks the Virgin's Son to protect Synesius's household, his sister, children, and faithful wife, and to free his soul to join the heavenly choir.
On Christian Doctrine 3.12Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Seemingly shameful acts of holy persons in Scripture are figurative or must be judged by the customs of their time, such as the patriarchs' polygamy for the sake of offspring; what matters is not the thing used but the lust of the user.
On Christian Doctrine 3.17Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Precepts for lower stages of life, such as marriage, are not figurative just because some follow a higher calling; some commands apply to all, others to particular kinds of persons.
On Christian Doctrine 3.18Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Practices blameless in Old Testament times, such as polygamy, may not be adopted now; what matters is love or lust in the user, and the patriarchs used marriage only for procreation.
On Christian Doctrine 3.19Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · The lustful cannot believe that the patriarchs used several wives temperately, just as the proud cannot believe that the saints are unmoved by praise.
On Christian Doctrine 3.20Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · As the apostles were unmoved by praise and blame, so the patriarchs were not ruled by lust; those who doubt it would hate a son who violated their wives.
On Christian Doctrine 3.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · David's grief for Absalom and his repentance over Bathsheba show the patriarchs' temperance with women, whereas Solomon was ruled by lust.
Confessions 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine wishes his adolescent passions had been channeled into marriage for the begetting of children, or that he had heeded Paul's praise of celibacy.
Confessions 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine recalls how at sixteen he surrendered to lust while God embittered his pleasures, and how his family cared more for his eloquence than for arranging a marriage.
Confessions 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine describes his dissolute companions and explains that his mother did not arrange a marriage for him lest it hinder his studies, which she thought might lead him to God.
Confessions 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine recalls teaching rhetoric for money and living faithfully with one concubine, learning the difference between marriage for children and a union based on desire.
Confessions 6.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine's inner debate continues, weighing the urgency of seeking God against the attractions of career, a governorship, and a wealthy marriage.
Confessions 6.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Alypius, who lived chastely, urged Augustine not to marry, but Augustine, bound by habit, resisted and even tempted Alypius toward marriage.
Confessions 6.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine's insistence that he could not live celibate made Alypius curious about marriage, though neither of them thought seriously about the true purposes of marriage.
Confessions 6.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica arranged a marriage for Augustine, hoping he would then be baptized; the chosen girl was almost two years too young, so they waited.
Confessions 6.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine and about ten friends planned a common life of philosophical leisure, pooling their property, but the plan collapsed over the question of their wives.
Confessions 6.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine's concubine of many years was sent back to Africa as an obstacle to his marriage, vowing never to know another man, while he, unable to wait, took another mistress.
Confessions 8.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine no longer desires wealth or honor but is still bound by his desire for a woman, and he hesitates.
Confessions 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Verecundus, held back by marriage, lends his estate at Cassiciacum and is baptized before his death.
Confessions 9.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica won her hot-tempered, unfaithful husband Patricius by patience and never quarreled with him.
Confessions 9.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Monica won her husband for Christ before his death and cared for all Augustine's companions like a mother.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 5.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine points to catholic virgins, ascetics, and communities living in common, and insists that married and ordinary believers who serve the saints also belong to the kingdom.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Isaiah praises faithful eunuchs, and reads the curse on not raising seed as fleshly offspring under the Old Testament and spiritual offspring through preaching now.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus says the Manichaeans reject the Old Testament because the church, Christ's bride, needs nothing from the God of the Hebrews, whom he portrays as a poor and deceitful lover.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine goes through the Ten Commandments to show how Manichaean teaching, on Christ, the Sabbath, parents, marriage, food, theft and oaths, contradicts each of them.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine asks what promises the Manichaeans have seen fulfilled, and says that they were foretold by Paul's prophecy of those who forbid marriage and abstain from foods.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that the Mosaic certificate of divorce was meant to delay and discourage divorce by sending the husband to the scribes for counsel, and asks why Manichaeans, who reject procreation, object to divorce.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows that Christ answered the question about divorce from the books of Moses, which teach that God joined male and female, and that Moses permitted divorce only because of hardness of heart.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 21.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine cites Paul’s teaching that no one hates his own flesh, showing that all living things naturally love and cherish their bodies.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus lists the patriarchs' sexual and violent deeds recorded in Scripture and says either the deeds or the records must be condemned.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Abraham's union with Hagar aimed only at offspring, in keeping with the natural law of marriage, whereas Manichaean teaching commands the avoidance of offspring.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Sarah, using the mutual authority of spouses over each other's bodies, gave Hagar to Abraham for offspring, not to satisfy his lust.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine shows from Genesis that when Abraham took Hagar, God had promised him an heir from his own body but had not yet said it would be through Sarah.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends Abraham's calling Sarah his sister as trust in God to guard her chastity, not a sale of her, noting that both kings returned her untouched.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Sarah was Abraham's half-sister, as he told Abimelech, and that Scripture calls blood-relations brothers and sisters, as with Tobias, Lot, and the Lord's brothers.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine raises the question whether Sarah would have sinned had she submitted at Abraham's bidding, but rejects it because a wife may not have two living husbands, and holds that Abraham simply trusted God.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends Isaac's calling Rebecca his sister like Abraham's case, and interprets his playing with her, by which Abimelech recognized them as married, as a figure of Christ's condescension to the church.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.47Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Jacob's four wives were no crime because polygamy then violated neither nature, custom, nor law, though it is a sin now that custom and law forbid it.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.48Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that the patriarchs could have several wives without lust, just as the apostles enjoyed great fame without seeking praise, and that their wives too sought only children.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.49Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine denies there was any rivalry of lust among Jacob's wives, explaining Leah's hiring of Jacob as Rachel's transfer of her turn under the mutual marital right.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.50Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine argues that Jacob's yielding Rachel's night to Leah shows his self-control and that he sought only children, not pleasure, from his wives.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.61Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine judges that Judah sinned in going to a supposed harlot and Tamar in conceiving outside marriage, though with a better motive, and that Judah's “she is more righteous than I” only compares them.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.80Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends Hosea's marriage to a harlot as her conversion to chaste marriage and suggests the Manichaeans object because it led to childbearing.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.81Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine says Scripture itself condemns Solomon, who had many wives from lust and fell into idolatry, which shows by contrast the chastity of the patriarchs.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 23.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains that Matthew traces Christ's genealogy to Joseph because Joseph was truly Mary's husband by the union of souls though not of bodies, and that Mary too must have been of David's line.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 29.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine defends the dignity of the bodily members, the holiness of marital procreation and of Mary’s virginal childbirth, and says Christ chose to be born though he could have appeared otherwise.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 30.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that Catholics, who urge virginity and honour Paul’s persuasion of Thecla and Christ’s praise of voluntary eunuchs, cannot charge Manichaeans with “forbidding to marry”, since they too only exhort and do not compel.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 30.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that the charge of 1 Timothy 4 falls on the Manichaeans because they abstain from meat as evil by nature and blaspheme its Creator, unlike the patriarchs and Catholic ascetics.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 30.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Catholics praise virginity as better than good marriage, while the Manichaeans truly forbid marriage by condemning procreation, which also explains why they deny Christ’s birth.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 32.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus lists sexual conduct of the patriarchs and the levirate law of Deuteronomy as Old Testament examples and laws that Catholics neither imitate nor condemn.
Canon 12Anonymous · 397 · Children of clergy may not marry pagans, heretics or schismatics.
Canon 19Anonymous · 397 · Readers who reach puberty must either marry or profess continence.
Canon 1Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Married deacons who live continently may serve, but deacons and presbyters who had relations with their wives (even before the Lusitanian prohibition) may not be promoted.
Canon 3Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · A reader who marries a widow may rise no higher than reader or subdeacon.
Canon 7Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Clerics whose wives have sinned may confine and discipline them, short of killing them, and are not to eat with them until they repent.
Canon 16Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · A dedicated virgin who sins does ten years' penance; if she has married, she is admitted to penance only if she lives chastely or after her husband is gone.
Canon 17Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · A married man with a concubine is excluded from communion, but an unmarried man faithful to one concubine is not.
Canon 19Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · A dedicated daughter of clergy who marries is excluded until her husband dies and she does penance; parents who receive her are excluded too.
Canon 21.16Anonymous · ca. 397–400 · Anathema on those who condemn lawful marriage.
Tractates 8Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On the wedding at Cana: Christ's presence blesses marriage against the Manichees while virginity is the better part; Gaudentius warns the newly baptized against debauched banquets and reads the 'third day' as the age of grace, when Christ takes the Gentile church as bride after Israel's 'divorce'.
Homily 7.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom contrasts true and false old age, holds the young accountable for self-control, and insists that married people living in the world are bound to the same virtue as monks.
Homily 20.4 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom shows from Job's wife that the devil works through those closest to us, teaches that God gives earthly goods only to those who prefer spiritual ones, and warns that wicked heirs who enjoy unearned wealth will be punished more heavily.
Homily 24.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom shows how Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David lived as strangers on earth, detached from possessions and longing for the heavenly homeland, and explains why God calls himself their God as a mark of friendship.
Homily 28.6 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom argues that a wife who needs nothing from her husband wins more respect than one decked in gold, condemns wearing jewelry to church where Paul's prohibition is read, and shows that plain dress brings true glory, spares the poor envy and blasphemy, and pleases a chaste husband better.
Homily 28.7 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Chrysostom urges women to seek the inner beauty that God loves rather than outward adornment that attracts licentious men, and teaches that true virginity is purity of soul, open to married and unmarried alike, which with the oil of almsgiving admits believers to the heavenly bridal chamber.
Homily 30.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Expounding Heb 12:11–15, Chrysostom shows that discipline seems grievous but yields peaceful fruits, explains “holiness” as chastity in or out of marriage, and urges his hearers to build one another up by friendly, private, gentle correction, as those entrusted with talents must use them.
Homily 33.1 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Expounding Heb 12:28–13:9, Chrysostom urges thankful, reverent service, steadfast brotherly love and hospitality, honor for marriage with judgment on the sexually immoral and adulterers, freedom from the love of money, and imitation of the faith of their leaders.
Homily 33.2 on HebrewsJohn Chrysostom · ca. 398-404 · Expounding Heb 13:8–16, Chrysostom teaches that Christ is unchanging, that faith and not food laws strengthens the heart, that believers must go out with Christ outside the camp bearing his reproach and offer the sacrifice of praise, and that affliction and poverty, borne with thanksgiving, lead through the narrow way to heaven.
Canon 8Anonymous · ca. 398 · Clergy ordained against the prohibition, or who have fathered children while in the ministry, are not to be promoted to higher orders.
Commentary on Matthew 5:31–33 (book 1)Jerome · 398 · Jerome comments briefly on Matt 5:31–32, explaining that Moses allowed the certificate of divorce to prevent husbands from murdering hated wives.
Commentary on Matthew 19:1–3 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome explains the Pharisees' question in Matt 19:3 as a dilemma meant to trap Jesus, which he escapes by setting God's first decree, from creation, against the later concession.
Commentary on Matthew 19:4 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome argues from “male and female” (one man, one woman) that second marriages after repudiation are to be avoided.
Commentary on Matthew 19:5–6 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome explains that God makes husband and wife one flesh, so that man separates them when he puts away a wife to take another, while God separates them only when they agree to live in continence for his service.
Commentary on Matthew 19:8 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome explains that the concession of divorce was Moses' counsel to prevent the murder of first wives, not God's command.
Commentary on Matthew 19:9 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome holds that sexual immorality alone allows a husband to put away his wife, indeed requires it, but that he may not take a second wife while the first lives, nor may a wife who repudiates her husband remarry.
Commentary on Matthew 19:10 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome explains the disciples' reaction: since a wife may be put away only for sexual immorality, a man must bear even a drunken or quarrelsome wife.
Commentary on Matthew 19:11 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome explains that the gift of continence is given to those who ask and strive for it, not by fate.
Commentary on Matthew 19:12 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome distinguishes three kinds of eunuchs in Matt 19:12 and holds that only those who choose chastity for Christ receive the reward, each according to his strength.
Homily 5.8 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Adam named the animals as their master, while God named the heavenly things; filled with the Spirit before his fall, Adam prophesied about the woman and about marriage, and his sleep was an “ecstasy” in which God painlessly took the rib.
Homily 6.9 on the CreationSeverian of Gabala · ca. 400 · Closing the sixth homily, Severian reads the sentences on Eve and Adam as remedies, not curses: childbirth in grief, the husband's rule (which Paul applies to women's teaching), and the cursed ground, while Mary, greeted “Rejoice,” undoes Eve's grief; the return to earth points to the resurrection.
Against Secundinus the Manichaean 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine answers Secundinus's ridicule of Hosea's marriage and of Genesis on marriage and procreation, attributing it to the Manichaean belief that conception imprisons divine light, and affirms that bodily goods too come from God.
Against Secundinus the Manichaean 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine answers Secundinus's mockery of “kill and eat” and of Sarah's barrenness, charging that Manichaean hostility to childbearing fulfills 1 Tim 4:3, and explains the patriarchs' marriages as serving the coming of Christ in the flesh.
On the Trinity 12.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The part of reason that manages temporal things is drawn from the contemplative mind as Eve was taken from Adam, so that the two are one mind as husband and wife are one flesh.
On the Trinity 13.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · God took the Mediator's humanity from Adam's race, yet from a virgin conceiving by faith without concupiscence, so that the devil was conquered by the race he had conquered.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew traces Christ's human descent to Joseph, who remained Mary's husband and Christ's father though Christ was born of a virgin, an example of marriage kept in continence.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Luke calls Joseph Christ's father and both of them his parents, while noting that only some supposed Jesus to be Joseph's son by nature.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.120Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Matthew and Mark both tell of the question on divorce, though in Mark Jesus asks what Moses commanded, while in Matthew the Pharisees raise Moses' bill of divorce in reply.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.121Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Whether the Pharisees raised Moses' bill of divorce unprompted or in reply to Jesus' question, both evangelists show the intentions of the speakers truly.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.122Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Alternatively, the Pharisees mentioned Moses' permission twice, once in reply to Jesus and once after his appeal to creation, and Mark places Jesus' answer after the first.
On the Work of Monks 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Paul's trade is secondary; he did honest work such as craftsmen and farmers do, which neither Jews, Greeks, nor the church despise, since the patriarchs were shepherds and Joseph a carpenter.
On the Work of Monks 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Augustine rejects the claim that celibate monks are no longer men and so may wear long hair, explaining that the unveiled head of the man and the veiled head of the woman figure the mind ruling desire, while in the renewed mind there is no male or female.
Exodus, lines 789–817Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Laws of the Hebrew slave released in the seventh year or bound for life, of a daughter sold as a slave-wife and her rights if her master takes another, and of murder and the place of refuge for accidental killing.
Exodus, lines 913–937Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Laws on animals killed by beasts, borrowed or hired animals, the seduction of an unbetrothed virgin, sorcery, bestiality, sacrifice to demons, and care for strangers, widows and orphans.
Leviticus, lines 102–126Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · The Day of Atonement with the two goats, the ban on eating blood or carcasses, and the beginning of the forbidden degrees of marriage: mother, sister, granddaughter, aunt, daughter-in-law, brother’s wife, and a woman and her daughter.
Leviticus, lines 127–149Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · The forbidden unions continue (stepmother, two sisters, a neighbour’s wife), with the bans on child sacrifice, homosexual intercourse and bestiality; then the laws of gleaning, honesty, wages, and care for the deaf.
Leviticus, lines 200–224Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Laws of priestly marriage (no adulteress, divorced woman or widow), of priests with bodily defects, of unblemished offerings, of a priest’s daughter married to a layman, of eating holy things in error, and of the lamp.
Numbers, lines 25–50Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · The tribes are arranged around the tabernacle with the Levites at its east; the firstborn are redeemed; 8,580 Levites are assigned to carry it; the unclean are put outside the camp; and the law of the jealous husband begins.
Numbers, lines 51–75Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · The ordeal of the woman suspected of adultery, who drinks the water of cursing; then the beginning of the Nazirite vow, with abstinence from wine and all that comes from the vine.
Deuteronomy, lines 78–102Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Laws on sparing fruit trees in war, the heifer for an unsolved murder, the captive wife who must be freed if her husband no longer wants her, the rights of the children of an unloved wife, burial of the executed, cross-dressing, the mother bird, parapets, and mixed sowing.
Deuteronomy, lines 103–127Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Laws against prostitutes’ wages in the sanctuary, on fugitive slaves, on eating from a neighbour’s field, on the divorced wife who may not return to her first husband, on the new bride, millstones as pledges, individual responsibility, flogging, the threshing ox, and levirate marriage.
Deuteronomy, lines 128–151Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · The levirate law and the law of the woman who intervenes in a brawl; the blessings of obedience; Moses charges the Levites to read the law and keep the tablets in the ark, installs Joshua, and teaches the people a song.
Judges, lines 524–547Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · The angel will not tell his name, which is wonderful, and ascends in the flame of the offering; Samson is born and the Spirit moves him; he asks to marry a Philistine woman of Timnah over his parents’ objection, and meets a lion.
Judges, lines 548–573Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Samson tears the lion apart, later finds honey in its carcass, and at his wedding sets thirty companions a riddle; unable to solve it, they threaten his bride.
Judges, lines 574–600Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Samson’s bride wheedles the answer from him and tells the companions; Samson kills thirty Philistines to pay the forfeit; his father-in-law gives his wife to another and offers him her younger sister.
Judges, lines 745–760Cyprianus Gallus · early 5th cent. · Micah is driven off; the Danites burn Laish and rename it Dan; a Levite’s concubine leaves him and returns to her father, and the Levite goes to bring her back and is detained by his father-in-law. The digital text breaks off here.
Homily 7, section 5Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · Animals act by God-given instinct, as the sea urchin forecasts storms, so God surely cares for human beings; like the moray answering the viper, a wife should keep faith with even a harsh husband.
Homily 7, section 6Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · Husbands should lay aside harshness and adulterers take warning; the homily ends by surveying the sea's further wonders and monsters before closing with prayer.
Homily 8, section 6Eustathius Latinus · 5th cent. · The faithful turtledove commends widowhood over remarriage; the eagle's neglect rebukes parents who expose or disinherit children; vultures said to breed without mating make the virgin birth credible.
Quatrain 32: Ex aqua vinumPrudentius · ca. 400–410 · At the wedding at Cana Christ turns water into wine.
Hymn 2, lines 289–320Prudentius · ca. 400-405 · Lawrence presents the poor as the Church’s gold and the consecrated virgins and widows who refused second marriage as her jewels; the prefect, furious at being mocked, turns on him.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 53–54Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The risen keep their sexual organs as a reminder of how God's wisdom preserved the race through birth; and Moses' warnings were set to song because melody shapes the soul's disposition to the words.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 90Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Joseph and Moses could marry foreign wives because, unlike the patriarchs' sons, they were in no danger of being turned from piety and instead brought their wives to it.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 132–133Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · Levirate marriage was lawful even for a married brother, since the law allowed more than one wife, and it gave the dead man an heir and kept the inheritance in the tribe; and Christ, born of Joseph's wife without his seed, was Joseph's son as Joseph was Heli's son by law, as the evangelists' written genealogies show.
On the Good of Marriage 1Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine grounds marriage in God's creation of all humans from one pair, making husband and wife the first natural bond of human society.
On the Good of Marriage 2Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine sets aside the question of how the first humans would have had children without sin, listing several possible views.
On the Good of Marriage 3Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage is good not only for children but for the natural companionship of the sexes, and it gives faithfulness and restraint to desire.
On the Good of Marriage 4Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marital faithfulness is a great good; its violation is adultery, and breaking an adulterous pact to return to one's spouse is not faithlessness.
On the Good of Marriage 5Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine asks whether a faithful sexual union without intention of marriage or openness to children is a marriage, and distinguishes the faults of spouses from marriage itself.
On the Good of Marriage 6Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine grades marital intercourse (blameless for procreation, venially faulty from desire) and argues that the marriage bond, as a kind of sacrament, survives separation.
On the Good of Marriage 7Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine finds it a hard question whether a man who dismisses an adulterous wife may remarry, inclines to think not, and explains the firmness of the bond as a sacrament.
On the Good of Marriage 8Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage and continence are two goods, one better, not two evils; Augustine illustrates this with Martha and Mary, Susanna, Anna, and the Virgin Mary.
On the Good of Marriage 9Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage is a good for the sake of something else; it was necessary for the patriarchs, but now continence is the better choice.
On the Good of Marriage 10Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Answering the objection that universal continence would end the race, Augustine says it would only hasten the city of God, and that now only the incontinent should marry.
On the Good of Marriage 11Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage itself is not a sin; what the apostle pardons is intercourse beyond the purpose of procreation, which marriage excuses.
On the Good of Marriage 12Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine ranks sexual sins and says the honor of marriage lies in chaste procreation and faithful rendering of the marital debt.
On the Good of Marriage 13Augustine of Hippo · 401 · A chaste Christian wife is holy in body too; the unmarried are said to be holier because their attention is undivided.
On the Good of Marriage 14Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Some married people also think of the things of the Lord, as Peter's instructions to wives and husbands show, but such marriages are rare.
On the Good of Marriage 15Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christians now free to choose continence should prefer it; the patriarchs married from duty, not lust, and would have embraced continence had it been offered.
On the Good of Marriage 16Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Even a concubinage entered for children alone does not surpass marriage; the goodness of an institution is distinct from the conduct of those using it.
On the Good of Marriage 17Augustine of Hippo · 401 · A marriage once entered among God's people can be dissolved only by death, even if it is childless; the patriarchs' plural marriages were a duty of their time.
On the Good of Marriage 18Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine compares intercourse with eating: both involve natural pleasure, both have lawful and unlawful uses, and the patriarchs used marriage as the apostles used food.
On the Good of Marriage 19Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Present-day married Christians are not to be compared with the patriarchs, whose desire for children served the prophetic purpose of their time.
On the Good of Marriage 20Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine explains why the patriarchs could have several wives but a woman never several husbands, by analogy with many souls subject to one God.
On the Good of Marriage 21Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Monogamy now signifies the future unity of the church under Christ; hence a cleric must be the husband of one wife, and a wife may never pass from a living husband to another.
On the Good of Marriage 22Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The patriarchs sought children to prepare Christ's lineage, a greater good than marriage itself, as shown by Abraham's sacrifice and his servant's oath.
On the Good of Marriage 23Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The law's purifications after intercourse, emissions, menstruation, and contact with the dead are signs, not proofs that these acts are sins.
On the Good of Marriage 24Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The fair comparison is not between the patriarchs' marriages and ours but between their continence and that of Christian celibates.
On the Good of Marriage 26Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christ ate and drank yet had the virtue of abstinence; so Abraham, though married, had continence in disposition as fully as John the Baptist had it in action.
On the Good of Marriage 27Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine tells a continent Christian how to answer the taunt “So you are better than Abraham?”: celibate chastity is better, but Abraham had continence in disposition.
On the Good of Marriage 28Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Celibate chastity is better than married chastity, but persons must be judged by the virtue they possess, even if circumstances do not call it into action.
On the Good of Marriage 29Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Obedience is a greater good than continence, so an obedient married woman is better than a disobedient virgin.
On the Good of Marriage 30Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Obedience is the mother of the virtues; virginity is a counsel, chastity a command, so a more obedient wife is to be preferred to a less obedient virgin.
On the Good of Marriage 31Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Abraham's obedience shows he would have given up marriage if commanded; Christian virgins should not think themselves better than the patriarchs.
On the Good of Marriage 32Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine sums up the three goods of marriage, offspring, faithfulness, and sacrament, the last making the bond indissoluble while both spouses live.
On the Good of Marriage 33Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine answers the Manichees: the patriarchs' plural marriages were not against nature, custom, or any command of their time.
On the Good of Marriage 34Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Married Christians should not judge the patriarchs by their own weakness, and the continent should even place the patriarchs' marriages above their own resolve.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 3.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine asks why the water creatures and humans alone are blessed with “increase and multiply” and says it is repeated for humans to show that begetting children is no sin.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 3.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine finds it hard to reconcile man’s original immortality with God’s gift of food, and suggests that procreation might have occurred differently in immortal bodies.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine quotes Gen 2:18–24 and explains “besides” by his doctrine of causal creation, and the birds “from the earth” by the wide sense of “earth.”
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Woman was made as a helper for the procreation of children; Augustine sees no reason why there could not have been honorable marriage and childbearing in paradise without lust or pain, leading to a change into spiritual bodies without death.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam and Eve did not come together in paradise either because they sinned soon after the woman's creation or because God had not yet commanded it.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine argues that work and companionship cannot be why woman was made, since a male would serve better; only procreation explains it.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Had they not sinned, Adam and Eve, after having children, could have been taken to a better state without death, as Enoch and Elijah were.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Woman was made for procreation; marriage is good and a remedy for incontinence, and its threefold good is fidelity, offspring, and sacrament, which forbids separation and remarriage after dismissal.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Those who deny intercourse in paradise may think all intercourse sinful, running from one vice to its opposite and condemning even marital intercourse for procreation.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Procreation was not only for succeeding the dying; the earth was to be filled from one pair, whereas angels and the risen saints do not marry.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Before sin, bodies were animal but not doomed to die, and the first couple could have begotten children by will without lust; through sin death and the law in the members entered, which marriage orders and continence restrains.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The woman was a real woman made from the man, mother of all; she was made for offspring, procreated without the law of sin had there been no fall; Augustine leaves open whether souls come from parents or otherwise.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam's sleep was an ecstasy in which he shared angelic understanding, so that on waking he spoke prophetically of marriage, words Christ attributes to God.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Traducianists may answer that Levi was in Abraham by seminal reason through concupiscence, Christ only by bodily substance; Augustine, still undecided, holds that both sides agree Christ's soul is not transmitted from Adam.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · The pains of childbirth are a literal punishment; the husband's rule existed before sin, but the servile form of that rule, like slavery itself, arose from sin.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine reports and rejects two views: that the sin was a premature grasp at knowledge, and that it was intercourse before marriage, the latter as ridiculous and contrary to the literal sense.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 11.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Adam, being spiritual in mind, was not deceived by the serpent as the woman was; like Solomon with his wives, he sinned out of affection, unwilling to grieve his companion.
On Holy Virginity 1Augustine of Hippo · 401 · After his book On the Good of Marriage, Augustine sets out to praise consecrated virginity while warning virgins against pride.
On Holy Virginity 7Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Married women cannot claim a share in Mary's motherhood over virgins, since Christians are born not of the flesh but of the church.
On Holy Virginity 9Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Bearing children for Christ does not compensate for lost virginity, since the church can now gather members of Christ from all nations.
On Holy Virginity 10Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Every girl is born a virgin, whether of marriage or not, but no one is born a consecrated virgin.
On Holy Virginity 11Augustine of Hippo · 401 · It is not virginity as such but virginity vowed to Christ that is praised; such virgins are born of the church.
On Holy Virginity 12Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage has its human goods, but virginity is the life of angels and a foretaste of incorruption.
On Holy Virginity 13Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine rejects the view that virginity is valuable only for avoiding present troubles, not for the kingdom of heaven.
On Holy Virginity 14Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Paul gives counsel, not command, about virginity because marriage is no sin, but virginity vowed to God wins a special glory in eternal life.
On Holy Virginity 15Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Not divorcing is a precept, since a wife may be put away only for sexual immorality; not marrying is a counsel, so marrying is no sin.
On Holy Virginity 16Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Paul's 'tribulation of the flesh' refers to the burdens of married life, which he spared his readers from describing.
On Holy Virginity 17Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Those who read 'I spare you' as a hidden condemnation of marriage make Paul a liar and undermine the authority of Scripture.
On Holy Virginity 18Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins must not judge marriage evil; it is a lesser good, a hill to pass over on the way to the mountain of continence.
On Holy Virginity 19Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine rejects both the view that marriage equals virginity and the view that marriage is sinful.
On Holy Virginity 20Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Those who condemn marriage accuse all married people, as the elders falsely accused Susanna, and make Scripture a liar.
On Holy Virginity 21Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine sums up: marriage is no sin, but it ranks below virginity and widowhood, and hinders not salvation but the special glory of continence.
On Holy Virginity 22Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Paul's words about pleasing the Lord and being holy in body and spirit show that continence aims at the kingdom of heaven, not present ease.
On Holy Virginity 23Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christ himself says that those who renounce marriage do so for the kingdom of heaven.
On Holy Virginity 24Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The eunuchs promised a better place than sons and daughters in Isa 56 are those who renounce marriage for the kingdom, whose reward is eternal.
On Holy Virginity 30Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity is a free offering, not a command like the ban on adultery, and it will be repaid with an eternal name.
On Holy Virginity 45Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity ranks above marriage, but a virgin cannot know whether a married woman may be readier for martyrdom than she.
On Holy Virginity 46Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine weighs readings of the hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold fruit and concludes that God's gifts are more varied than three grades.
On Holy Virginity 52Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Humility is the dwelling of love, the guardian of virginity; humble married people follow the Lamb more easily than proud virgins.
Canon 70 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Bishops, presbyters, and deacons must abstain from relations with their wives or be removed from office; lower clergy follow local custom.
Canon 102 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Neither a husband nor a wife who has been put away may marry another; they must remain unmarried or be reconciled, or be put under penance.
Letter 2 to Victricius of Rouen, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · A cleric may not marry a widow or a divorced woman, since the law requires a priest to marry a virgin.
Letter 2 to Victricius of Rouen, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · A man who married a widow or divorced woman, even as a layman and before baptism, cannot be ordained, because baptism forgives sins but does not dissolve a marriage.
Letter 2 to Victricius of Rouen, chapter 6Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · A man married twice, even if the first marriage was before baptism, cannot be ordained, because marriage is not a sin that baptism washes away.
Letter 2, chapter 9Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Priests and deacons must abstain from intercourse with their wives after ordination, since their ministry is daily and continual.
Letter 2, chapter 10Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Monks who become clerics keep their former commitment, and a monk who lost his virginity before baptism may not marry after ordination.
Letter 2 to Victricius of Rouen, chapter 13Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Veiled virgins who marry or are seduced may not do penance while the man lives, just as a woman who marries another while her husband lives is an adulteress.
Letter 2 to Victricius of Rouen, chapter 14 and conclusionInnocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Virgins who had promised virginity but were not yet veiled must do penance for a time if they marry, as Paul condemns widows who abandon their pledge; the letter closes with an exhortation and its date (15 February 404).
Letter 3 to the bishops of Spain, chapter 6Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent sets out who may not be ordained (soldiers, advocates, officials, curials after baptism) and who may, excluding men married to a non-virgin or twice married, since a marriage before baptism still counts.
Letter 6 to Exsuperius, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that deacons and presbyters who continued marital relations after ordination are to be deposed if they knew Siricius's ruling, and otherwise kept in their grade without promotion.
Letter 6 to Exsuperius, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent explains that adultery is condemned equally in both sexes, and that adulterous wives are more often excommunicated only because husbands report them while wives do not accuse their husbands.
Letter 6 to Exsuperius, chapter 6Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that those who marry again after a repudiation, while the former spouse lives, are adulterers, as are their new partners, and all are to be kept from communion.
Letter 17 to the bishops of Macedonia, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rebukes the Macedonian bishops for ordaining, even as bishops, men who married widows, against Lev 21:13–14.
Letter 17 to the bishops of Macedonia, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent refutes the view that a marriage contracted before baptism does not count toward digamy, since marriage is not a sin that baptism forgives, and the sons of such a marriage are legitimate.
Letter 36 to ProbusInnocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent rules that when Ursa returned from barbarian captivity, her marriage to Fortunius stood, and his later marriage to Restituta could not be lawful while she lived.
Letter 37 to Felix of Nuceria, chapter 2Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Twice-married men may not be ordained, nor men who married a widow or a divorced woman.
Letter 37 to Felix of Nuceria, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Married laymen of good reputation, baptized as married men and attached to clergy or monasteries, may be ordained if they have had no concubine.
Letter 38, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent orders two bishops to try presbyters accused of begetting children after ordination and to remove them if convicted.
Apology against Rufinus 1.28Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome quotes the passage of Origen's commentary on Eph 5:28–29 which he had reported, including the words about wives turned into men and bodies into souls that Rufinus attacked.
Apology against Rufinus 1.29Jerome · ca. 401–402 · Jerome explains that his words about wives becoming men meant beginning now the chastity of the angelic life, not abolishing the sexes or bodies in the resurrection.
Apology against Jerome 1.23Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus turns to Jerome's Commentary on Ephesians and quotes its statement that wives will be turned into men and bodies into souls.
Apology against Jerome 2.39Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus contrasts Jerome's chance to correct his own controversial books against Jovinian with his refusal to let Rufinus correct an unpublished draft, and says Jerome feared exposure of his debt to Origen.
Book 1, lines 451–480Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · Rome, which taught the nations civilized law, must not think like barbarians in religion, but recognize the emperor’s standards bearing the Cross, under which Constantine freed her from the tyranny of Maxentius, who imprisoned senators and seized wives and daughters.
Book 2, lines 211–240Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · God continues: one God made soul and body and gives every good of life, crops, wine, oil and childbirth; the union of the sexes for offspring is his law, which the pagans defile under the name of Venus; he needs no lesser gods, being simple and indivisible.
Book 2, lines 1051–1080Prudentius · ca. 402-403 · Christian virgins have the rewards of modesty, veiling, frugality and lifelong chastity, a hundredfold harvest in heaven; the Vestals, by contrast, are taken as children before they can choose, keep their bodies but not their minds untouched, and marry when old after their term of service.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.7Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Augustine reads 1 Timothy 4 as a prophecy of those who forbid marriage and certain foods, and asks Felix whether intercourse with a wife is sin.
Against Felix the Manichaean 1.8Augustine of Hippo · December 404 · Felix argues that Mani never “departed from the faith” because he belonged to no prior sect; Augustine replies that Mani's teaching has led catholics away and presses his questions again.
Dialogues 2.10Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin’s sayings: a shorn sheep fulfills the gospel; a swineherd recalls the old Adam; a meadow partly grazed, partly rooted, partly untouched pictures marriage, fornication, and virginity.
Dialogues 2.11Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · A soldier turned monk wants his wife, now a nun, to live with him; Martin answers that no woman stands in the battle line, and that a woman’s victory is not to be seen.
1 Corinthians 5:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul names the case of a man living with his father's wife.
1 Corinthians 6:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Union with a prostitute makes one flesh, as marriage does.
1 Corinthians 7:1Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul turns from unlawful unions to lawful marriage.
1 Corinthians 7:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Cor 7:2.
1 Corinthians 7:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Marriage is a concession to the incontinent; continence is to be preached first, and marriage is for children, not lust.
1 Corinthians 7:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Cor 7:4.
1 Corinthians 7:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Spouses may abstain by consent for prayer; continence sanctifies, as at Sinai and with the priestly bread.
1 Corinthians 7:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of 1 Cor 7:6.
1 Corinthians 7:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul wishes all were celibate like him, which shows it is possible; each receives according to his own will.
1 Corinthians 7:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · It is good for the unmarried and widows to remain as Paul is.
1 Corinthians 7:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Marriage is granted to the unmarried and widows who cannot contain, as better than immorality punished by fire.
1 Corinthians 7:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Marriages are not to be dissolved; the Lord forbade putting away a wife and marrying another.
1 Corinthians 7:11Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A wife who separates must stay unmarried or be reconciled; the husband must not put away his wife.
1 Corinthians 7:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A believer whose unbelieving wife consents to stay must not put her away.
1 Corinthians 7:13Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul speaks of a marriage where one spouse came to faith, not of a believer marrying an unbeliever.
1 Corinthians 7:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The unbelieving spouse may be won by the believer's changed life and by the children's example.
1 Corinthians 7:15Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · If an unbelieving spouse leaves, the believer is not bound to perish with him, but believers must not leave of their own accord.
1 Corinthians 7:16Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The believer may save the unbelieving spouse; doubtful outcomes should be hoped for the best.
1 Corinthians 7:17Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Each should walk in the state in which God called him.
1 Corinthians 7:26Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul's 'I think' is certain; the unmarried are free of worldly anxiety and await virginity's reward.
1 Corinthians 7:27Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The married must not seek release by separation; the unmarried should not seek a wife.
1 Corinthians 7:28Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Marriage is no sin, except for one who has vowed chastity; virgins are spared the cares of marriage.
1 Corinthians 7:29Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Life is short; even the married should live as if unmarried, and the unmarried should not marry.
1 Corinthians 7:32Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The unmarried man cares for the Lord's things; we should want what Paul wants.
1 Corinthians 7:33Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Worldly anxiety, like the thorns and the excuses in the parable, keeps the married from God.
1 Corinthians 7:34Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The unmarried woman is holy in body and spirit; an unmarried woman with worldly cares is worse than a wife.
1 Corinthians 7:35Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul advises, not compels; his counsel is more useful than their wishes.
1 Corinthians 7:36Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A father should not stop a daughter who wishes to marry, lest she fall into immorality.
1 Corinthians 7:37Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A father whose daughter agrees to virginity does well to keep her so.
1 Corinthians 7:38Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Giving a virgin in marriage is good, keeping her a virgin better.
1 Corinthians 7:39Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A widow is free from the marriage bond and may marry a second time, but only a believer.
1 Corinthians 7:40Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Wife, widow and virgin are happy, happier and happiest; Paul's advice is from the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 11:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The man is subject to Christ, the woman to Christ and the man; God is Christ's head as to his humanity.
1 Thessalonians 4:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Sanctification means abstaining from incontinence, especially before receiving Christ's body.
1 Thessalonians 4:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Each must keep his body chaste and not serve lust like the Gentiles.
1 Thessalonians 4:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A spouse must not break a vow of continence made by mutual consent, for God avenges it.
1 Thessalonians 4:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Even excessive marital incontinence is uncleanness that hinders receiving Christ's body.
1 Timothy 3:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A bishop must be blameless, married only once, chaste, hospitable, and a teacher by word and example.
1 Timothy 3:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · "Husband of one wife" excludes the twice-married from the diaconate, not the unmarried.
1 Timothy 4:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · All God's creation is good; Timothy is to be a moderate, studious, and exemplary bishop; true widows are like Anna.
1 Timothy 5:9Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Widows enrolled as deaconesses must be older women married only once.
1 Timothy 5:10Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Enrolled widows must be proven in good works; younger widows are not to be set over others, lest they grow wanton and marry.
1 Timothy 5:12Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Widows who vowed to remain so and then marry break their pledge; the rule applies to virgins too.
1 Timothy 5:14Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Younger widows should marry before making a vow they may not keep.
1 Timothy 5:15Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul prefers remarriage because some widows who vowed continence had fallen into fornication.
Colossians 3:17Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · All is to be done for God's glory; wives are to be subject in what befits the Lord.
Colossians 3:19Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul urges marital love because some spouses had begun to live in continence.
Ephesians 5:22Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul insists on wives' submission because, teaching continence within marriage, he did not want it to dissolve marriages.
Ephesians 5:23Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Lemma of Eph 5:23.
Ephesians 5:24Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The husband is first and is to be the protector of both, so the wife is subject.
Ephesians 5:25Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Husbands are to love their wives with a holy love, even to death.
Ephesians 5:26Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · As Christ cleansed the church by water and teaching, husbands are to purify their wives by continence and instruction.
Ephesians 5:28Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Husbands are to love their wives as themselves, since the two are one flesh.
Ephesians 5:29Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul does not condemn marriage but urges continence within it.
Ephesians 5:31Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The verse is read as an objection raised by those who want marriage to be carnal.
Ephesians 5:32Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul applies the one-flesh text to Christ and the church, so husbands should love their wives spiritually.
Ephesians 5:33Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Each husband must love his wife and each wife respect her husband.
Galatians 5:23Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Continence belongs to spiritual marriages, chastity to virgins; the law does not forbid such fruits.
Romans 7:2Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · As a widow is freed from her husband, believers dead to the law may pass to Christ.
Romans 7:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A wife who joins another man while her husband lives is an adulteress; after his death she is free.
Titus 1:6Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A presbyter may have married only once, since things lawful for others are forbidden to priests, and must rule his household well.
Titus 1:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The bishop must be hospitable, just, holy, and continent, lest marriage seem to license incontinence.
Titus 2:4Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Older women may teach younger women privately, not in church.
Titus 2:5Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Wives must love and submit to their husbands, lest the faith be blamed as breaking up marriages.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those born of God are not born 'of bloods' or the will of the flesh or of a man; Augustine defends the translator's plural 'bloods' and reads 'flesh' as wife and 'spirit' as husband.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · By attending the wedding Christ confirmed that God made marriage, against those who would call it evil; as joining is from God, divorce is from the devil, dismissal being allowed only for sexual immorality, and consecrated virgins too share in the Church's marriage to Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John and Paul, friends of the bridegroom, were jealous for Christ, not themselves; the whole Church is one virgin, whose virginity of mind is whole faith, firm hope, and sincere love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 33.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ, the only one without sin, did not condemn the woman but condemned her sin, telling her to sin no more.
Commentary on Malachi 2:13–16Jerome · 406 · Jerome explains Mal 2:13–16 of Israelite husbands who forsook their wives for foreign women: God refuses their sacrifices, the words “When you hate her, put her away” are the husbands' appeal to the law of Moses, answered by Christ's teaching that this was allowed for hardness of heart and that putting away a wife except for sexual immorality is iniquity; he also reports a figurative reading.
Against Vigilantius 2Jerome · 406 · Jerome attacks the bishops who side with Vigilantius by ordaining only married men, contrasting the churches of the East, Egypt, and Rome.
Against Vigilantius 15Jerome · 406 · Jerome answers the objection that monastic withdrawal leaves the churches unserved: the monk's office is to mourn, and virtue is rare.
Dialogue 17Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 408 · The bishop praises the expelled Nitrian monks, describes the illnesses that struck John's enemies, and then praises the deaconess Olympias, her refusal of a second marriage, her generosity, and her care for John.
Commentary on Ezekiel 44:22Jerome · 410-414 · Jerome explains Ezekiel's rule that priests marry only virgins or priests' widows, reading the widow and divorced woman as the Synagogue and heretics, and the virgin as the church's teaching.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.57Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The good of marriage is the lawful use of concupiscence for procreation, while concupiscence itself is the evil with which all are born; only Christ, conceived without it, was born without sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.42Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · There are several kinds of sanctification, like that of catechumens or of food; the holiness Paul ascribes to believers' children, like that of unbelieving spouses, does not replace baptism.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.45Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · After baptism concupiscence remains, forgiven and defeated unless revived by consent; believing spouses use it well in marriage, but their children, born from it, still need rebirth.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.13Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even Jovinian, who denied the superior merit of virginity, never denied original sin, and Jerome, refuting him, used original sin as a certain premise.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.21Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Original sin is inherited as death is; whatever holiness Paul means in 1 Corinthians 7:14, it does not replace baptism for unbelieving spouses or for the children of believers.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 2, part 6Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril explains that Israel, against the law forbidding divination and marriage with the nations, consulted diviners and took foreign wives whose children grew up in idolatry, so it could no longer be called God’s people.
Commentary on Isaiah 1, Discourse 3, part 8Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Cyril warns that God strips careless souls of their spiritual beauty, and reads Isa 4:1 of the scarcity of men after the war, when women, dreading the reproach of barrenness under the law, would ask only for a man’s name.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 3, part 3Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Foreigners who cleave to the Lord belong to his people as Abraham's children by faith; eunuchs and the childless need not grieve, since having children is no virtue, and those who live in continence for the kingdom of heaven receive an eternal name in the church.
Commentary on Isaiah 5, Tome 3, part 4Cyril of Alexandria · before ca. 428 (probably 420s) · Foreigners who serve the Lord and keep Christ's spiritual Sabbath will be brought into the church, though the law excluded Ammonites and Moabites; their offerings are themselves, the whole life of the dedicated as a burnt offering and the life of the married as a partial sacrifice.
Commentary on Luke 14:26Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · “Hating” one’s family does not abolish natural affection, which Christ and Paul honour, but means using nature for salvation and choosing whatever agrees with following Christ; as Paul shows, life itself is to be kept or given up for Christ.
Commentary on Luke 18:29Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Christ solemnly promises that those who leave family and home for him, as converts often had to leave unbelieving relatives, receive far more now: the Spirit, the Father in heaven, brotherhood with Christ, divine wisdom as a spouse, and the heavenly Jerusalem as mother.
Commentary on Luke 20:27Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · Against the Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, Christ teaches that the risen are like angels, needing no marriage, since marriage and childbearing were given after Adam’s fall to preserve the race; in the resurrection we shall have spiritual bodies held fast to God’s will by the Spirit.
Commentary on Matthew 5:31Cyril of Alexandria · ca. 412-444 · On Matt 5:31–32: putting away a chaste wife exposes her to a second marriage that is a kind of adultery, because before God a marriage is dissolved not by divorce papers but by the wrongful deed.
Book 1, chapter 3Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On the peace offerings of Lev 3, Hesychius distinguishes the middling way of life, including chaste marriage, from the perfect self-offering of the burnt offering, and reads the fat, kidneys, liver and loin as desire, anger, pleasure and strength to be offered to God; fat and blood are not eaten.
Book 5, chapter 15Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 15 Hesychius reads the man with a flow of seed as a teacher who corrupts doctrine, the emission of intercourse as teaching the Jewish letter, and the woman's flow of blood as idolatry and pagan teaching, with repentance and Christ's grace as their cleansing.
Book 5, chapter 18Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 18 Hesychius explains the forbidden degrees of marriage as guarding the order of generations, and reads them spiritually as forbidding the exposure of a brother's sins; he condemns adultery, Molech worship, sex between males and bestiality, and warns against mixing church and synagogue rites or pagan philosophy and doctrine.
Book 6, chapter 19Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 19 Hesychius expounds the holiness code: holiness, honour of parents and the spiritual Sabbath, care for the poor and hired workers, honest judgment and weights, love of neighbour as the fullness of the law, and warnings against augury, sorcery, mixing church and synagogue, and burdening Gentile converts.
Book 6, chapter 20Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 20 Hesychius explains the penalties for Molech worship, sorcery, cursing parents, adultery, incest and other sexual sins, and reads them spiritually as warnings against corrupting disciples, spiritual adultery against Christ's bride the church, exposing others' sins, and pagan wisdom.
Book 6, chapter 21Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Leviticus 21 Hesychius reads the priest's defilement by the dead as his responsibility for his household's and people's sins, the high priest as Christ, who weds the virgin church and not the harlot, widowed and divorced synagogue, and the bodily blemishes that bar priests from service as defects of soul, matching Paul's qualifications for a bishop.
Book 7, chapter 25Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 25, Hesychius reads the sabbatical year and the jubilee as the rest of the age to come, when no more work is possible, and the jubilee trumpet as the trumpet of the resurrection; the laws of sale and redemption become rules for teachers and disciples, for restoring a fallen brother by repentance, and for the synagogue, sold for good after rejecting Christ, and the church of the nations, always redeemable; slavery and lending laws teach mildness toward penitents and the weak, with Zacchaeus and the Ninevites as models of full repentance.
Book 7, chapter 27Hesychius of Jerusalem · ca. 412-450 · On Lev 27, Hesychius reads the valuations of vowed persons by age and sex as degrees of the spiritual life (the hundredfold of virginity and poverty, the sixtyfold of continence, the thirtyfold of chaste marriage, down to the newly baptized and the penitent), the vowed animals, houses and fields as disciples, households made into churches, and a share in Scripture placed under a priest's guidance, redeemable by adding one's own understanding; the 'accursed' things are spoils won from the devil; the tithes passing under the rod are those numbered under the cross; the book closes with an exhortation to seek the wisdom hidden in the law.
City of God 3.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine describes the rape of the Sabine women and the war it caused between Romans and their fathers-in-law, and Romulus's elimination of his co-ruler Tatius.
City of God 6.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine ridicules the minute division of divine functions — the gods of childbirth and of the wedding night — and concludes that Varro, by exposing civil theology, meant to leave room only for natural theology.
City of God 12.28Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Man was created one so that the social human race might remember its unity, and woman from his side to show the dearness of marriage; in Adam the two cities already existed in God's foreknowledge.
City of God 13.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God's breath at Adam's creation gave him his soul, not the Holy Spirit, as the Greek pnoē shows; Christ's breathing on the disciples signified the Spirit of both Father and Son; the question how the unfallen would have procreated is deferred to Book 14.
City of God 14.10Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Before sin, Adam and Eve had no disturbing passions but untroubled love and joy; had none sinned, the race would have multiplied to the full number of the saints and passed without death into the angels' secure happiness.
City of God 14.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · God foreknew the fall and his good use of it; man was made upright with a good will, lost true freedom by sin and can regain it only through the Son; the devil through the serpent deceived Eve, while Adam sinned knowingly out of attachment to her.
City of God 14.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Lust, in its narrow sense of sexual arousal, overwhelms the mind and does not obey the will, so that a wise married person would prefer to beget children without it if he could.
City of God 14.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Even lawful marital intercourse, though honorable and publicly known, is hidden from every eye, a sign that shame accompanies it as a punishment while the act itself is natural and fitting.
City of God 14.20Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The Cynics' teaching that marital intercourse may be done in public was defeated by natural shame; the shame of lust shows the penalty of the first disobedience, borne in the very organs of generation and removed only by grace.
City of God 14.21Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The blessing “Increase and multiply” was given before sin, so procreation belongs to the glory of marriage, not to sin's punishment; it would not have needed lust, whatever some interpreters hold.
City of God 14.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Marriage and procreation, blessed by God before sin, belong to the real, bodily difference of male and female, as Christ taught when asked about divorce: “What God has joined, let man not separate.”
City of God 14.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Had there been no sin, the full number of the saints would have been begotten in paradise without shameful lust, the genital members obeying the will as hands and feet do; Augustine asks pardon for treating the subject.
City of God 14.24Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Unfallen humans would have moved the genital members by will, as some people now control unusual bodily functions, like the presbyter Restitutus of Calama who could make himself insensible; man, forsaking God, cannot even obey himself.
City of God 14.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · In paradise Adam and Eve would have begotten children by a calm act of will without lust or loss of the woman's integrity; God, foreseeing sin, still created them, to fill his city's predestined number by grace from the condemned mass.
City of God 15.16Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine explains that brother–sister marriage was necessary at first but became wicked, since spreading kinship ties widely strengthens social love; he approves the prohibition of cousin marriage.
City of God 15.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The sons of God (Seth's line) fell by loving the beautiful daughters of men, a disorder of love; Augustine defines virtue as 'the order of love'.
City of God 15.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The ark, with its human proportions, its side door, and its three stories, is a figure of Christ and of the Church saved through the wood of the cross.
City of God 16.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Abraham, calling Sarah his sister, did not lie, and trusted God to protect her chastity, which God did by afflicting Pharaoh.
City of God 16.25Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Abraham took Hagar only for offspring at Sarah's request, not from lust, and showed his fidelity to Sarah by returning Hagar to her authority.
City of God 16.34Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Abraham's marriage to Keturah may signify carnal people who claim the new covenant, but it also shows that remarriage after a spouse's death is no sin.
City of God 16.36Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Isaac received the promise for Abraham's sake; though monogamous, he was not greater than Abraham, and virtues must be weighed as a whole.
City of God 16.38Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Jacob, blessed as heir of Abraham's promise, saw the ladder to heaven, which Christ applied to himself; he took four women for offspring, not from lust.
City of God 21.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · To have Christ as foundation is to put nothing before him; those who love lawful earthly things without preferring them to Christ are saved “through fire,” the fire of tribulation, while those who live wickedly have no such foundation; Augustine does not rule out a purifying fire for some spirits between death and judgment.
City of God 22.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Against the view that all will rise male, Augustine holds that both sexes will rise, without lust, marriage, or childbearing, since woman is God's creature and Christ denied marriage, not women, in the resurrection.
On Faith and Works 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Error often comes from following one set of texts and ignoring the balancing ones, as in errors about the Trinity, marriage, and food.
On Faith and Works 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · A married candidate who refused abstinence during the days of preparation would not be baptized; how then can an adulterer who refuses to amend be admitted?
On Faith and Works 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · A woman who unknowingly marries another's husband becomes an adulteress only once she knows; ending such unions corrects sin rather than dissolving marriages, since in the church marriage is a sacrament.
On Faith and Works 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Paul's permission to let an unbelieving spouse depart (1 Cor 7:15) applies when she demands that the Christian continue in crime; the pain of such separation is the “fire” by which he is saved.
On Faith and Works 35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 413 · Augustine distinguishes manifest adultery, which bars from baptism, from doubtful cases: marriage to unbelievers, Herod's union, a faithful concubine, and a man who remarries after putting away an adulterous wife, where Scripture is obscure and error may be venial.
On the Good of Widowhood 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · In 1 Cor 7:8 “unmarried” includes widows as well as virgins, so Paul's praise of remaining unmarried applies to widows.
On the Good of Widowhood 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Faithful married women are members of Christ; a widow's continence does not make her more than a member, but gives her a better place among the members.
On the Good of Widowhood 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Marriage, with its offspring, faithfulness, and indissoluble sacrament, is good; a widow who remarries after her husband's death is blessed, but one who remains a widow is more blessed.
On the Good of Widowhood 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Widowhood does not condemn second marriage, which the apostle allows, against the Montanists, the Novatianists, and Tertullian; it simply ranks higher.
On the Good of Widowhood 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · When Paul calls celibacy “honourable” he does not make marriage shameful, but means that it is more honourable, as Peter's honour for wives confirms.
On the Good of Widowhood 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Paul's “holy in body and spirit” for the unmarried does not deny holiness of body to faithful married women, whose bodies are members of Christ and temples of the Spirit.
On the Good of Widowhood 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Under the old dispensation holy women married, and men took several wives, out of duty to propagate the people from whom Christ would come; so Ruth's second marriage need not rank below Anna's widowhood.
On the Good of Widowhood 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · In the last times, when children are begotten spiritually from all nations, a second marriage for a widow with children would show only incontinence; marriage remains good, but a vowed continence must not be broken.
On the Good of Widowhood 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · For one who has vowed continence even the wish to marry is condemned: not because marriage is evil, but because the vow is broken.
On the Good of Widowhood 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Augustine rejects the view that marriages of women who broke a vow of continence are adulteries, since separating such couples would make the husbands, who then remarry, real adulterers.
On the Good of Widowhood 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Such marriages are not adulteries, but breaking a vow of continence is worse than adultery; second marriages as such are no crime.
On the Good of Widowhood 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Augustine will not condemn third or later marriages after a spouse's death, since neither Paul nor Christ did, though their number is a matter of shame; every widow is more blessed if she remains so.
On the Good of Widowhood 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Continence ranks above marriage and virginity above widowhood, but no true marriage is condemned; ascetics who condemn second marriages are not to be followed.
On the Good of Widowhood 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · The widows should win others to continence without fearing that the human race or the lesser good of marriage will fail, for the married saints of the past already fill their place.
Commentary on Jeremiah 0.1Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome dedicates the commentary to Eusebius, explains its brief method and his omission of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah, and answers critics of his earlier commentaries and of his books against Jovinian.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.60Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah is forbidden to marry because of the coming slaughter; Jerome defends his teaching that second and third marriages are allowed by indulgence, not commanded, against a “new heretic” who praises third and fourth marriages.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.63Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah's letter tells the exiles to build, plant, marry, multiply, and pray for Babylon's peace, since their stay will be long; Jeremiah himself was forbidden marriage because of the short time, as Paul says. Spiritually, those cast out of the church should build on rock, take wisdom and the virtues as wives, and seek the church's peace (Jer 29:1–7).
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · None of Caelestius's texts on choice excludes grace: even marriage, voluntary goodness, choosing life, and willing the commandments depend on God, who gives faith.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 1.4.8Orosius · ca. 417–418 · She legalized marriage between parents and children.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 6.18.8Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Octavian is reconciled with Antony.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.40.2Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Placidia marries Athaulf.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.43.7Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Placidia's influence for peace.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 29Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Caelestius's claim that we do more than the law commands was approved only in the sense that virginity, a gift of God, exceeds commanded marital chastity.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 64Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The bishops approved these four points only in their orthodox sense; this is what they meant by saying Pelagius agrees with godly teaching.
Letter 9, chapter 3Zosimus, bishop of Rome · 417–418 · Zosimus sets the intervals for advancing through the clerical orders and excludes the twice-married and penitents from ordination; the letter is dated 21 February 418.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.38Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Original sin does not make marriage evil or children not God's work; nature and its fault are propagated together, the one from the Creator, the other from Adam's sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.39Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Marriage has three goods, offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond, and it makes good use of lust; the shame attached to sexual desire comes from the disobedience of sin, not from marriage.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.40Augustine of Hippo · 418 · There would have been marriage and procreation in paradise without sin, but the members would have obeyed the will without lust, pain, or bloodshed.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.41Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Marriage without lust cannot now be shown but is believed from Scripture, just as childbirth without pain and life without death; shame over the body followed the first sin.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.42Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Marriage's goods (offspring, chastity, sacrament) are distinct from the evil of lust at which even marriage blushes; infants receive their nature from God and the contagion of sin from that inherited fault.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.43Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Lust does not harm regenerated spouses unless they misuse it, even within marriage; intercourse for procreation is good in itself, and Paul's concession for other intercourse implies a fault.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine states Pollentius's view that 1 Cor 7:11 forbids remarriage only to a wife who left without cause, and shows that it would let spouses leave each other freely for the sake of continence.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul's teaching on the marital debt forbids one spouse to leave the other for continence without consent, and the Lord permits putting away a wife only for sexual immorality.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine argues that Paul's “let her remain unmarried” must refer to a wife who separated lawfully, that is, because of her husband's sexual immorality.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine imagines a wife who leaves her unwilling husband for continence and cites 1 Cor 7:11 in her defense, showing where Pollentius's reading leads.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine answers that Paul's words apply only to a wife who may lawfully depart, and that a wife whose husband is faithful may not depart at all.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine quotes Pollentius's advice that a wife who dismisses an adulterous husband should not remarry because of scandal, and contrasts it with his own view that she may not remarry at all.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul's condition “let her remain unmarried” applies to the wife who separates lawfully from an unfaithful husband; any other reading would let continent spouses break up Christian marriages.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · If Matt 19:9 allowed a husband who dismisses an unfaithful wife to remarry, husband and wife would be under unequal rules, contrary to 1 Cor 7:4.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine explains the exception clause as naming the graver case: remarriage after dismissing an innocent wife is worse adultery, but remarriage after dismissing an unfaithful one is still adultery.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Mark and Luke state without exception that everyone who dismisses his wife and marries another commits adultery, so Matthew must be read in harmony with them.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine explains that he quoted Matt 5:32 from the Sermon on the Mount, notes the variant Latin renderings, and observes that some manuscripts lack its final clause.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The exception clause of Matt 19:9, spoken to the Pharisees, must be read in the light of Mark and Luke: everyone who dismisses his wife and remarries commits adultery.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Since Luke calls the man who marries a dismissed woman an adulterer, she remains her first husband's wife, and so the husband who dismissed her also commits adultery if he remarries.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul's instruction not to leave an unbelieving spouse is his own advice, not the Lord's command; separation is permitted but not expedient, since the spouse may be won for Christ.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine distinguishes what is lawful but not expedient (such as leaving an unbelieving spouse) from what is good and better (such as marriage and virginity).
On Adulterous Marriages 1.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Unbelief is a “fornication of the mind,” so leaving an unbelieving spouse is lawful, but Paul advises against it lest unbelievers be repelled from the faith.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Ezra's command to dismiss foreign wives applied to marriages made against God's law; converts already married to pagans are neither forbidden nor commanded to separate.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · A command must be obeyed; counsel leaves freedom, but the lawful option may not be expedient, as when leaving an unbelieving spouse drives him into adulterous remarriage.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine compares Paul's counsel on virginity with his counsel on mixed marriages: in the first both options are good, in the second one is lawful but not expedient.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine defends his earlier exposition: Paul's “I, not the Lord” shows that leaving an unbelieving spouse is lawful but should not be done out of love.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine distinguishes the command not to contract marriages with unbelievers from Paul's advice about marriages already existing when one spouse converts.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine sets out the case of two pagan spouses of whom one converts, and argues that the Lord's silence leaves room for the apostle's counsel.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The Lord's commands on marriage admit no exception for expediency: a husband who dismisses an adulterous wife must remain unmarried, since everyone who dismisses his wife and remarries commits adultery.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine tells a Christian who has dismissed an adulterous wife to refuse even a marriage that would bring a pagan woman to faith, since remarriage would still be adultery.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Winning a soul for Christ does not justify committing adultery by remarriage, since one may not do evil that good may come.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Neither remarriage after divorce nor breaking a vow of continence may be excused by the hope of converting a prospective spouse.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Where the Lord gives no command, Paul's counsel guides; but for any kind of fornication, of flesh or spirit, dismissal never permits remarriage.
On Adulterous Marriages 1.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine admits that the question of marriage is very obscure and intricate and that he has not resolved every difficulty.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine explains why he answers Pollentius's further questions in a second book: the first had been published before he could add to it.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine restates Pollentius's position: 1 Cor 7:11 concerns a wife who left a faithful husband, and a spouse who commits sexual immorality is to be counted as dead, freeing the other to remarry.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · If adultery dissolved the bond like death, the adulterous wife herself would be free to remarry without sin, which contradicts Paul; the bond ends only with physical death.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The marriage bond survives separation as baptism survives excommunication; adultery is a death of the soul, not the death that frees a spouse to remarry.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Against Pollentius's objection, Augustine argues that a husband may and should be reconciled to a repentant adulterous wife, since Christ forgave the adulteress.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine reports that some removed the story of the woman taken in adultery from their manuscripts, fearing it licensed sin, and rebukes husbands who condemn adulterous wives while committing adultery themselves.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine rejects the double standard that punishes adulterous wives but excuses husbands, citing even a pagan emperor's rescript, and calls adulterous men to repentance.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Reconciliation after a forgiven adultery is possible; if it does not happen, both spouses must remain continent, since remarriage would make four adulterers of two spouses.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · To the objection that forbidding remarriage is inhuman to the incontinent, Augustine replies that the same complaint would justify adultery in cases of illness, captivity, or an unpleasant wife.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Even a wife unjustly dismissed commits adultery if she remarries; the complaint of the incontinent cannot change Christ's law, and the bond remains while the spouse lives.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The desire for children cannot excuse remarriage after dismissing an adulterous wife, any more than it could justify dismissing a barren one.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul allowed marriage as a remedy for incontinence, not for the sake of children; so neither motive can excuse adultery, and one who must avoid adultery must keep continence.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · A spouse unwilling to be reconciled to a repentant adulterer must remain continent, since only death dissolves the bond; fear, effort, and prayer can lead to love of continence.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Answering the fear that forbidding remarriage would lead husbands to have adulterous wives put to death, Augustine urges mercy grounded in awareness of one's own sin.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Christians should spare adulterous wives out of forgiveness, not because remarriage is allowed; a Christian may neither kill an adulterous wife nor remarry while she lives.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine answers the objection that forbidding remarriage tempts men to murder: the same objection would apply to the undisputed adultery of marrying a wife unjustly divorced.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine argues that the risk of husbands resorting to murder cannot be a reason to deny that remarriage is adultery, since the same argument would overturn the Lord's teaching altogether.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · If remarriage after a spouse's adultery were allowed, husbands could engineer their wives' adultery by dismissing them and then claim freedom to remarry.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine applies Christ's saying on eunuchs for the kingdom to those who, after divorce, must remain continent to avoid adultery and so to enter the kingdom.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine encourages divorced spouses to accept continence, which by faith and grace can become willing and even be vowed, and so gain the reward of those who chose it freely.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Men who claim weakness as an excuse for adultery are refuted by the chastity they demand of women, such as the Syrian wives of long-absent merchants.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine points to clergy who were ordained against their will and yet kept continence, urging those separated from spouses to do the same out of fear of judgment.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Against the Pelagians, Augustine sets out to distinguish the evil of concupiscence, through which original sin is passed on, from the goodness of marriage.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul shows that married chastity, like continence, is a gift of God that the will cannot keep without God's help.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Chastity kept without faith is not true virtue, since everything not of faith is sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Union for begetting is the natural good of marriage, but true married chastity exists only where it serves the true faith.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Shame arose in the first couple not because they had been blind before the fall but because sin brought an indecent motion into their members.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Like a limp on the way to a good goal, lust is an evil that marriage uses without being made evil by it.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · A 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Polygamy 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Joseph 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · All 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Begetting 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine explains 1 Cor 7:29–33: those who have wives should live as though they had none, not subject to carnal concupiscence.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Intercourse in marriage beyond the purpose of begetting is pardoned by Paul's concession, which implies some fault, but it is pardoned because of marriage.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Intercourse for pleasure within marriage is a venial fault, but those who prevent conception, expose children, or procure abortion are not truly married.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Now continence is better for those who can receive it, but those who cannot should marry, to avoid sexual immorality.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The goods of marriage to be loved are offspring, faithfulness, and sacrament; concupiscence is an evil from sin that marriage only tolerates.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Even 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · None of the three goods of marriage—offspring, faithfulness, sacrament—is the source through which sin passes to children.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Concupiscence began after sin and is the law of sin, as the universal shame of intercourse shows, which only the Cynics shamelessly denied.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Even 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine distinguishes the catholic, Manichaean, and Pelagian views of human nature and turns Julian's charge of Manichaeism back on him.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The fruits of marriage are human beings, not the sins they are born with; the devil is the author of guilt, not of nature.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine corrects Julian's misquotation about Eve's name and agrees that God made the sexes and gives fruitfulness.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian challenges Augustine to say what in the sexes, their union, or their fruitfulness belongs to the devil.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · God is the author of bodies and their union; the devil holds human beings not as human but as sinners.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian'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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian's 'power of the members' unwittingly names the members' disobedience to the will, which would not have existed without sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Adam's words at Seth's birth refer to the gift of a son, not to God stirring up sexual desire, as Julian supposed.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The blessing given to Noah concerns the good of nature, which God preserves even in fallen humanity, not the fault that corrupted it.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian admits that Scripture's 'one flesh' approaches shame, which proves that the shame comes from the penalty of sin, not from God's work.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · In Abraham and Sarah God gave fruitfulness, not concupiscence, which was already present in the body of this death.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian praises intercourse 'with heat, pleasure, and seed' but will not say 'with lust'; original sin is the ancient faith, not Augustine's invention.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · God makes each child as he made Adam from clay, but pleasure does not produce the seed, and procreation could have taken place without lust.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · As 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · The closing of the wombs in Abimelech's house was a punishment, probably by pain, and has nothing to do with lust.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul'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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Marriage 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · There 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · As 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Every human being, whether born of marriage or of sexual immorality, is good as God's work and guilty through original sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian argues that if original sin came from marriage, marriage would be evil, since a tree is known by its fruit.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Marriage is not the cause of sin; the lust that marriage cannot now avoid comes not from its blessed institution but from Adam's sin.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Christ'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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.52Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine spoke only of shameful concupiscence, which appeared after sin, as the fig-leaf girdles of Adam and Eve show.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.53Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.54Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Present marriage is the same marriage God instituted, changed in quality by sin but not in nature.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.55Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Julian 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.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.59Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine 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.
Questions on Exodus 71 (on Exod 21:10-11)Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · Augustine discusses how to divide the Ten Commandments, the difference between adultery and coveting a neighbour's wife, and whether the commandment against adultery also forbids all sexual immorality, citing Matt 5:32.
Questions on Leviticus 61 (on Lev 18:16)Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · On Lev 18:16 Augustine asks whether marriage to a brother's wife is forbidden during the brother's life or after his death, and reconciles the law with the levirate command either by excepting the case of a brother who left children or by applying it to a brother's wife put away by a bill of repudiation.
Questions on Deuteronomy 33 (on Deut 22:13ff.)Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · On Deut 22:13–21 Augustine notes that a husband who falsely accuses his wife of not being a virgin is only fined and forbidden ever to put her away, not punished as other false witnesses are, which shows how subject to their husbands the law wished wives to be.
Questions on Deuteronomy 34 (on Deut 22:28-29)Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–420 · On Deut 22:28–29 Augustine asks why a man who violated an unbetrothed virgin may never put her away, since Moses otherwise permitted a bill of repudiation, and answers that the law denied him this so that the marriage would not be a pretence.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 1.1.2Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Julian sets out the dispute over whether Hosea literally married a prostitute, prefers the view that it was seen in prophetic vision, and explains the name Jezreel and the judgment on Jehu’s house.
Commentary on Hosea, Joel and Amos 1.5.3Julian of Eclanum · ca. 420-440 · Judah seeks God with sacrifices but without virtue and so does not find him; Ephraim’s mixed marriages with the nations show its long contempt for the law, and a ‘harvest’ of destruction will consume it.
Lausiac History 8Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Amoun of Nitria, forced to marry, persuades his bride to live with him in virginity; after eighteen years they separate by her wish, and he becomes a desert monk.
Lausiac History 22Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Paul the Simple, finding his wife in adultery, leaves her to become Antony's disciple, endures Antony's severe tests, and later casts out a demon Antony would not attempt.
Lausiac History 54Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Melania the Elder, after decades of generosity in Palestine, returns to Rome at sixty to bring her family to the ascetic life, shortly before the sack of Rome.
Lausiac History 61Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Melania the Younger, after the death of her two children, persuades her husband Pinianus to a life of continence, distributes an enormous fortune, frees thousands of slaves, and lives ascetically with her mother Albina.
Lausiac History 67Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · Magna of Ancyra, married by force but untouched, lives in devout continence after her husband's death and secretly supports hospices, the poor, and travelling bishops.
Lausiac History 70Palladius of Helenopolis · ca. 419-420 · A presbyter's daughter falsely accuses an innocent reader of fathering her child; he accepts deposition and marries her, and her labour is released only when he prays.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers Julian's charge that he denies that marriage is instituted by God, showing from Scripture that present marriages are God's work.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers Julian's charge that Catholics call sexual union devilish, saying that procreation would have involved bodily union even in paradise, but perhaps without shameful lust.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that Catholics do not call marital union devilish, but hold that infants inherit original sin and need Christ's redemption.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine accepts Julian's statement that marriage is from God but rejects his inference that infants contract no sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers that God made the sexual organs without shame, and that their disobedience came as a punishment for the first sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the universal shame about intercourse shows an evil resulting from sin, which chaste marriage uses well for procreation.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine sets the Pelagians four possibilities for sexual life in paradise and argues that the first two are unworthy of paradise.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that even on the Pelagians' preferred view, present concupiscence, which resists the will, differs from paradise and shows the punishment of the first sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine briefly answers the charges of the Pelagian bishops' letter on free choice, marriage, original sin, and fate.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers the charge that he calls the saints only relatively good, explaining that right faith, not moral achievement alone, distinguishes the righteous, and illustrating this with two contrasting men.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that the Pelagians hide their three errors behind praise of creation, marriage, law, free choice, and the saints, and answers each briefly.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows that the Catholic teaching on creation, marriage, the law, free choice, and the saints refutes Manichees and Pelagians at the same time.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine summarizes the Pelagian bishops' statements under his five heads and shows the three errors they are meant to support.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine sets out the Catholic position on creation, marriage and concupiscence, the law, free choice, and the saints as avoiding both Manichaean and Pelagian errors.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagians use the true praise of marriage to support the false claim that infants are born without sin.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that Cyprian's words on paradise restored and infant baptism prove that he taught original sin, without condemning creation or marriage.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites several works of Ambrose, whom Pelagius praised, to show that Ambrose taught original sin while honoring creation and marriage.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows that Catholic teachers praise all five goods, unlike the Manichees, yet affirm original sin, prevenient grace, and the saints' need of forgiveness.
Life of Porphyry 101Marcus the Deacon · ca. 420-430 · After her baptism Salaphtha refuses marriage, calling Christ her true bridegroom.
Commonitorium 1.391–420Orientius of Auch · ca. 420-450 · The married and the celibate stand differently before God; against temptation the cross, prayer and tears are the weapons; the poet speaks from experience, and Scripture says that all flesh is grass.
Against Julian 5.12.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421-422 · Augustine defends his view that Joseph and Mary had a true marriage without intercourse, since marriage has three goods, faith, offspring, and sacrament (no divorce), and says the end of intercourse is not a divorce.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 78Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · God alone judges which sins are light or grave; Paul's concessions to the weak, on marital intercourse for pleasure and lawsuits between Christians, show these are pardonable sins, for which we pray daily.
Discourse 3.89Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Angels are fellow servants without sex, since immortals need no procreation.
Discourse 3.92Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Ascetics imitate the angels by renouncing marriage and family.
Discourse 5.54Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Job's words describe conception, the soul's creation, and God's care.
Discourse 5.56Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · God made all from one pair, and the woman from the man, to show one human nature.
Discourse 5.77Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Desire leads us to God and also sustains life and lawful procreation.
Discourse 8.16Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Heracles' lust led to his death.
Discourse 8.66Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The martyrs were common people: slaves, women, actors, even former pagan priests.
Discourse 9.19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Lycurgus allowed wife-sharing for procreation, which Plato admired.
Discourse 9.33Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Persian Christians abandoned incest and exposure of the dead despite punishment.
Discourse 9.41Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's marriage inspection ignores the modesty taught by Candaules's wife.
Discourse 9.42Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Laws has boys and girls dance naked to choose spouses.
Discourse 9.44Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Republic makes wives and children common.
Discourse 9.45Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's guardians will be drawn by erotic necessity to common intercourse.
Discourse 9.46Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato clearly prescribed sexual community.
Discourse 9.47Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's interlocutor names the 'erotic necessities'.
Discourse 9.48Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Modern interpreters wrongly deny that Plato meant sexual community.
Discourse 9.50Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato fixes ages for bearing children for the state.
Discourse 9.51Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Plato's Republic orders that children conceived after the set age not be raised.
Discourse 9.58Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christ forbids divorce except for sexual immorality, which alone breaks the marriage.
Discourse 9.59Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · A husband must bear his wife's faults but may end the marriage for adultery.
Discourse 9.60Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul's law of one husband and one wife contrasts with Plato's community of wives.
Discourse 9.61Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul forbids spouses to withhold themselves without mutual consent.
Discourse 9.62Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul allows abstinence for prayer only for a time, lest Satan tempt.
Discourse 9.63Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul commends celibacy by advice, not law.
Discourse 10.34Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The oracle endorsed Lycurgus's immoral laws and showed ignorance.
Discourse 12.64Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Porphyry, after Aristoxenus, reports that Socrates had two wives at once, Xanthippe and Myrto.
Discourse 12.74Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Theodoret approves Plato's praise of marriage as a means of continuing the race, and blames Democritus and Epicurus for rejecting marriage and children for the sake of pleasure.
Discourse 12.75Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · The Stoics counted marriage indifferent, but Scripture praises chosen celibacy, ordains chaste marriage, and condemns sexual immorality.
Discourse 12.76Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Paul honours marriage, permits it to those without self-control, and forbids sexual immorality.
Discourse 12.77Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 437 · Christian teachers prescribed a life fit for rational beings, while Plato wrote licentious laws on marriage and pederasty, and Hippodamus grounded friendship partly on benefits.
Book 1, lines 354–380Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · No animal was a match for Adam, so God put him to sleep and formed Eve from his rib; she was made from man so that kinship would bind them in mutual love.
Book 1, lines 381–406Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · Adam recognizes Eve as part of himself, and marriage is established; the two would have lived forever in incorruptible bodies had not the serpent persuaded Eve that the forbidden fruit would make them like gods.
Book 2, lines 348–372Claudius Marius Victor · ca. 425-430 · The godly line intermarried with Cain's descendants and fell into sin; God limited human life to a hundred and twenty years, and giants were born, violent and lawless.
Sermon 26Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · On the steward of Luke 12:41–48, Chrysologus warns clergy above all against pride and drunkenness, then applies stewardship to kings, generals, soldiers, judges, householders, slaves, the rich, and the poor.
Sermon 89Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Answering those disturbed by John the Baptist's death at Herod's hands, Chrysologus begins from John's birth, praising the righteousness and marriage of Zacharias and Elizabeth and the mystical barrenness that waited for John.
Sermon 91Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus praises the righteousness and marriage of Zacharias and Elizabeth as a gift of grace, explains John's delayed and singular birth, and exults in the unborn John's leap at Christ's coming as Christmas approaches.
Sermon 92Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the priestly courses, the married priesthood allowed under the law, Elizabeth's hiding herself for five months out of shame at a late pregnancy, and the honour that children bring to marriage, as a step toward the virgin birth.
Sermon 99Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Chrysologus explains the parable of the leaven as a pair with the mustard seed: man and woman, Adam and Eve, are restored through Christ and Mary; the woman is the church, the leaven heavenly teaching, and the three measures the Law, Prophets and Gospels.
Sermon 115Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Expounding Rom 7:1–6, Chrysologus reads Paul's comparison of the wife freed by her husband's death as the synagogue, unfaithful to the law, being released to belong to Christ, and explains how the law stirred up the passions it forbade.
Sermon 145Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Expounding Joseph's decision to put Mary away quietly and the angel's message (Matt 1:18–21), Chrysologus shows that Joseph's justice was joined to kindness, urges his hearers to leave unclear cases to God, and defends the title Theotokos against those who say Christ was born of Mary only as man.
Sermon 157Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · Explaining the feast of Epiphany as the threefold manifestation of Christ's Godhead, Chrysologus treats the magi, whose star was Christ's servant and whose gifts came from ancient tradition, the changing of water into wine at Cana, and the Father's voice and the Spirit's descent at Christ's baptism.
Sermon 173Peter Chrysologus · ca. 425-450 · After urging his flock to attend wherever he preaches, Chrysologus expounds Mark 6:14–28: Herod's fear that John had risen confesses his own crime, Herodias's plot and her daughter's dance led to John's beheading, and John's death crushed the serpent's offspring.
On Grace and Free Will 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Lest free choice be so defended that grace is excluded, Augustine shows that continence, marital chastity, and victory over desire are both God's gifts and acts of the will, obtained by prayer.
Retractations 1.12Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing On True Religion, Augustine explains that the true religion existed before it was called Christian, defends the sense in which sin is voluntary, affirms that miracles still occur, and withdraws his view that the first couple would have had no children without sin.
Retractations 1.18Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Augustine qualifies statements on perfection in this life, the law, anger, hating relatives, the Lordly man, and daily food, and leaves open what kind of fornication permits putting away a wife.
Retractations 2.7Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing Against Faustus, Augustine explains Joseph's two fathers by levirate adoption as reported by Africanus, and corrects remarks on Ham, the sun and moon, and the shame of the genital members.
Retractations 2.22Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine explains that he wrote On the Good of Marriage against Jovinian, who equated virginity with marriage, and clarifies his statements on carnal pleasure and on Abraham.
Retractations 2.23Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine notes that he wrote On Holy Virginity right after On the Good of Marriage.
Retractations 2.53Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine explains that he wrote On Marriage and Concupiscence to defend the goodness of marriage against the Pelagian charge that teaching original sin condemns marriage.
Retractations 2.57Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine says that in his two books On Adulterous Marriages he did not fully resolve the very difficult question of divorce and remarriage, though he opened many of its recesses.
The Conferences 5.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Serapion lists the kinds of each vice: three of gluttony, three of sexual immorality (intercourse, self-abuse, lustful thought), three of love of money, three of anger, two of sadness, two of acedia, and two of vainglory.
The Conferences 8.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · In the fall, the serpent, the woman, and Adam were each punished in proportion to their part, showing that both the tempter and the one who yields to evil counsel incur punishment.
The Conferences 8.21John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Spirits cannot have intercourse with women; the “sons of God” of Gen 6 were the righteous descendants of Seth, who married the daughters of Cain's line and were corrupted, turning Adam's natural wisdom to magic, which Ham preserved through the flood; their offspring were the violent giants.
The Conferences 8.22John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Germanus objects that the Sethites cannot be blamed for intermarriage before any law forbade it.
The Conferences 14.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Nesteros warns against imitating extraordinary examples, telling of a married peasant who drove out a demon Abba John could not, and who had kept his wife as a virgin for twelve years; John admired but forbade imitation.
The Conferences 17.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Joseph answers that lies were condemned in the Old Testament too, but that deceptions for another's safety, like Hushai's and the woman who hid David's messengers, are right even under the gospel.
The Conferences 21.1John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian introduces Abba Theonas, married young by his parents, who after five years brings offerings to Abba John, steward of the diaconia, and hears him preach.
The Conferences 21.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Moved by John’s words, Theonas resolves to follow the Gospel and urges his wife with tears to join him in serving God in chastity.
The Conferences 21.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas’s wife refuses to join him, warning that she may sin if deserted; he argues from the Gospel that the call to perfection outweighs marriage, and when she will not yield he leaves her for the monastery, later becoming head of the diaconia.
The Conferences 21.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Cassian insists that he does not encourage the breaking of marriages, affirms marriage as honorable, and leaves judgment of Theonas’s act to the reader, noting that God and the elders approved him.
The Conferences 21.32John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas contrasts law and grace: the law commends marriage, tithes, retaliation, and hatred of enemies; grace calls to virginity, total renunciation, nonresistance, and love of enemies.
The Conferences 21.33John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Under grace, love of God excludes sin; under the law, marriage, tithing, and retaliation leave room for lust, avarice, and anger, whereas grace uproots these by virginity, total renunciation, and love of enemies.
The Conferences 24.26John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Abraham explains the promised hundredfold in this life as the far greater spiritual love, possessions, and honor that monks receive in place of what they renounced, and Cassian closes the Conferences commending them to the holy brothers.
Commonitorium 8Marius Mercator · 429-431 · Against Julian's defence of sexual desire as God-given, Marius holds that desire in Adam and Eve served procreation but has since been vitiated, so that offspring need Christ.
On the Incarnation of the Lord, against Nestorius 5.11John Cassian · ca. 430–431 · Christ’s word on marriage, “What God has joined, let man not separate,” applies more deeply to the union of God and man in him, as Paul shows by calling the marriage text of Gen 2:24 a great sacrament spoken of Christ and the church.
Oration 6.3Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Virginity is a honeycomb and a paradise; the church has two orders, the married who keep chastity and those dedicated to God who keep purity, figured by the fig and the vine, the fish and the honeycomb, and Isaiah's “butter and honey.”
Oration 6.7Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Against those who infer from Matthew 1 that Mary and Joseph lived as husband and wife after Christ's birth, Proclus urges a spiritual reading that holds to her lasting virginity.
Oration 6.10Proclus of Constantinople · ca. 430-446 · Joseph came to know the truth only through the angel, the star, the Magi, and Simeon, and then honoured Mary whom he had suspected; his ignorance was no fault, for even Mary questioned Gabriel.
To the Church 1.17Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Scripture tells parents to hand on God’s commands and raise children in the Lord’s discipline.
To the Church 2.14Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The objection: are widows, virgins, continent spouses, monks, and clerics who keep their wealth really in danger?
To the Church 2.20Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · The gospel demands more than the law: abstinence, fasting, patience, love, purity of the eyes, and continence.
To the Church 2.21Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Paul restricts even lawful things, including marriage and possessions, because the world is passing.
To the Church 2.28Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Continent married couples, having given themselves to God, should give him their goods as well.
To the Church 2.29Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 435-440 · Continent couples should take their wealth with them to God rather than leave it to the world.
On 1 Cor 7:7.1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that the Corinthians had asked whether baptized married people should continue marital relations, and that Paul praises continence while allowing marriage.
On 1 Cor 7:7.2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret notes that Paul gives the same rule to husbands and wives because they share one nature.
On 1 Cor 7:7.3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret reads 1 Cor 7:3 as a law of equal chastity for husbands and wives, unlike human laws made by men for their own indulgence.
On 1 Cor 7:7.4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that husband and wife, being one flesh, have authority over each other's bodies, and that abstinence must be by agreement, for a time, for fasting and prayer.
On 1 Cor 7:7.6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that Paul sets out continence as perfection while conceding marriage, and calls marriage too a gift of God.
On 1 Cor 7:7.8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret takes 1 Cor 7:8 to show that Paul was himself unmarried, not a widower, and begins to explain that the counsel applies to both sexes.
On 1 Cor 7:7.9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that the unmarried and the widowed may marry if they cannot master desire, “burning” meaning the soul's enslavement to it.
On 1 Cor 7:7.10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret ties 1 Cor 7:10–11 to the Lord's saying on putting away a wife, and explains that by forbidding a separated wife to marry another, Paul keeps the way open for her return to her first marriage.
On 1 Cor 7:7.12Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that Paul's “I, not the Lord” means that the rule is not written in the Gospels, though Paul's laws are Christ's laws.
On 1 Cor 7:7.13Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that 1 Cor 7:12–14 concerns marriages made before conversion, not believers marrying unbelievers, and urges the believing spouse to stay and work for the other's salvation.
On 1 Cor 7:7.15Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that when an unbelieving spouse departs, the believer is guiltless if he gave no cause, and that the Gospel brings true peace even when it first divides.
On 1 Cor 7:7.17Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret notes that Paul's rule to remain as called confirms that he addressed marriages made before conversion.
On 1 Cor 7:7.26Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that Paul speaks tentatively (“I think”) so that his counsel of virginity does not become a law with penalties.
On 1 Cor 7:7.28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that marriage is not sin, though Paul spares his hearers its troubles, and that 1 Cor 7:28 concerns those who have not yet vowed virginity.
On 1 Cor 7:7.32Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that virginity frees the soul from the cares of married life for undistracted service of God, referring to his own discourses on virginity.
On 1 Cor 7:7.36Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret reads 1 Cor 7:36–38 of a father and his virgin daughter, defends marriage against heretics, and explains that a widow may marry again “only in the Lord”, that is, a fellow believer.
On 1 Cor 7:7.40Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret notes that Paul calls the widow who remains unmarried “more blessed”, so that one who remarries is also blessed, against the Novatians who called a second marriage sexual immorality; he then introduces 1 Cor 8.
On 1 Tim 3.2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains “the husband of one wife” as excluding polygamy, not a second marriage after a wife's death, while a man who put away his first wife and married another is blameworthy.
On 1 Tim 3.12Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret applies his reading of “the husband of one wife” to deacons as well.
On 1 Tim 5.9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret holds that “the wife of one husband” does not reject a second marriage, which Paul himself permitted, but requires chaste living in marriage.
On 1 Tim 5.11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that younger widows are not to be enrolled because, maintained by the church without work, they fall into idleness and break their pledge by wishing to marry.
On 1 Tim 5.14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret notes that Paul wishes younger widows to remarry, against the Novatianists who reject second marriage, and that his rule was taught by experience.
On Eph 5.21Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that mutual subjection is owed only to those who live in piety, and that Paul's example of Christ and the church guides both wives and husbands.
On Eph 5.25Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret urges husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, explaining the washing as baptism in the Trinitarian name and the nourishing as the Eucharist.
On Eph 5.31Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains “the two shall become one flesh” as the first law of marriage, applied by Paul also to Christ and the church, while still binding husbands and wives.
Psalm 50:7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 51:5: the verse does not condemn marriage but traces human proneness to sin to Adam's transgression, which brought mortality and the passions; sin is not natural, and the will can conquer.
Psalm 118:108Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 119:108: as some sacrifices were obligatory and others freewill, so the gospel requires temperance and justice, while virginity, continence in marriage, poverty, and monastic life are voluntary offerings beyond the law.
Psalm 127:3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Psalm 128:3: the promised fruitful wife and olive-like children suited the hopes of the time; the olive image recalls the righteous in Psalms 52 and 1.
On Rom 7.1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that the law binds people only while they live, introducing Paul's example of marriage.
On Rom 7.2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret quotes Paul's example that a wife is bound to her husband only while he lives.
On Rom 7.3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that a widow may lawfully remarry, and that Paul did not appeal to the Mosaic permission of divorce because Christ had said it was given for hardness of heart, contrary to the original law of creation.
On the Governance of God 2.16Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God, through Nathan, pronounced judgment on David for Uriah’s death.
On the Governance of God 3.37Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Christ forbids even lustful looking, since desire enters through the eyes.
On the Governance of God 4.24Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The rich violate marriage and treat their households as brothels.
On the Governance of God 4.25Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Keeping a few concubines seems almost chaste compared with the rich men’s other crimes.
On the Governance of God 4.26Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Married nobles take slave women as additional wives, dishonoring marriage.
On the Governance of God 4.28Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Slaves do not keep harems of concubines as the rich do.
On the Governance of God 5.54Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Some abstain from their wives but not from seizing others’ property.
On the Governance of God 5.55Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · God forbade sins, not marriage; abstaining from marriage while plundering is perverse.
On the Governance of God 7.15Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Aquitanian nobles lived like a brothel, worse than prostitutes who at least do not commit adultery.
On the Governance of God 7.16Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Aquitanian nobles broke faith with their wives and treated them as slave women.
On the Governance of God 7.17Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Wives kept the rank of mistress but not the integrity of marriage, since husbands took slave women.
On the Governance of God 7.18Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Rich Aquitanians used all their slave women like stallions in a herd.
On the Governance of God 7.97Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Vandals made prostitutes marry, fulfilling Paul’s command.
On the Governance of God 7.98Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Marriage gave former prostitutes guardians to keep them chaste.
On the Governance of God 7.99Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Vandals punished unchastity by law, unlike Roman laws that forbade adultery but allowed brothels.
On the Governance of God 7.100Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Vandals confined sexual relations to marriage, following God’s law.
On the Governance of God 7.101Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Socrates, called wisest by the Delphic oracle, taught that wives should be held in common.
On the Governance of God 7.102Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Common wives would mean no one is husband, wife, or child of anyone.
On the Governance of God 7.103Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Socrates and Cato gave their wives to others, making husbands pimps.
On the Governance of God 7.105Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · The Vandals’ laws on marriage are the opposite of Socrates’ teaching.
On the Governance of God 7.106Salvian of Marseilles · ca. 439-451 · Many Romans live by Socrates’ precepts; great cities excel in impurity.
Church History 1.11Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Paphnutius, a confessor honoured by Constantine, persuades the bishops at Nicaea not to forbid married clergy to live with their wives, while those already ordained should not marry.
Church History 2.43Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Eustathius of Sebastia, previously deposed, is later condemned at Gangra for forbidding marriage and separating married couples; Eudoxius becomes bishop of Constantinople and jests at the dedication of the Great Church.
Church History 4.23Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates digresses on the Egyptian monks: Amoun's chaste marriage, sayings of Pambo and others, the two Macarii, Evagrius's writings with excerpts from his Practical Life and Gnostic, and Ammonius who cut off his ear to avoid becoming a bishop.
Church History 4.31Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Valentinian dies of a burst blood vessel in a rage at Sarmatian envoys; his son Valentinian II is proclaimed; Socrates tells how Valentinian married Justina while Severa still lived and issued a law allowing two wives.
Church History 5.18Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · At Rome Theodosius abolishes the bakeries where strangers were trapped into forced labour and the punishment of adulteresses by forced prostitution.
Church History 5.22Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Socrates digresses on the diversity of church customs: the date of Easter, the Lenten fast, Saturday and Sunday assemblies, clerical continence, baptism, and other local usages, arguing that such things rest on custom, not apostolic law.
Church History 7.44Socrates Scholasticus · ca. 439-443 · Valentinian III comes to Constantinople to marry Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II, in 437.
Church History 1.9Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Constantine repeals the penalties on the unmarried and childless, lets those vowed to virginity make wills, exempts clergy from taxes, makes bishops' judgments binding, and grants citizenship to slaves freed in church.
Church History 1.14Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Amun of Nitria lives in virginity with his wife for eighteen years before founding the monasteries of Nitria; his wonders and Antony's vision of his death are told, and the Novatian monk Eutychian frees a prisoner and wins Constantine's favour.
Church History 1.23Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · At Nicaea Paphnutius dissuades the bishops from requiring married clergy to abstain from their wives, appealing to the ancient tradition that clergy do not marry after ordination but do not leave wives already married.
Church History 3.14Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · A survey of the monks of Constantius's reign: the two Macarii and other Egyptian ascetics, Pachomius and his rule, Hilarion in Palestine, Julian near Edessa, Eustathius of Sebaste and the excesses condemned at Gangra, Martin in the West, and the learned bishops of the time.
Church History 4.24Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · The Acacian synod at Constantinople (360) confirms the creed of Ariminum, deposes Aetius, and then deposes Macedonius, Basil of Ancyra, Eustathius, Eleusius and others on disciplinary charges.
Church History 7.28Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Bishops of the time: Acacius of Beroea, who kept his house open day and night; Ajax of Botolium, who after three sons lived continently as a monk; and Zeno of Maiuma, still at every service and weaving linen near the age of a hundred.
Church History 8.5Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · Chrysostom’s preaching draws crowds and converts; a Macedonian woman who tries to deceive her converted husband by substituting her own bread for the eucharist finds it turned to stone in her mouth.
Church History 9.10Sozomen · ca. 439-450 · During the sack of Rome a Nicene Roman matron chooses death rather than be violated by an Arian Gothic soldier, who, admiring her chastity, takes her to St. Peter’s and pays for her keep until her husband can claim her.
Poem on Genesis 91–120Hilary of Arles · ca. 440-449 · God adorns the earth with plants, beasts, and birds, and then, speaking with his Son, makes man in his image and woman from his rib.
Letter 4 to the bishops of Campania, Picenum and Tuscany, chapter 2Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo orders that husbands of widows and men married more than once be removed from clerical office, as the Apostle and Leviticus require.
Letter 5 to the bishops of Illyricum, chapter 3Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Clergy must be married once and to a virgin; a man who remarried after baptism, his first wife having died before it, is still twice married.
Letter 6 to Anastasius of Thessalonica, chapter 3Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo tells Anastasius of Thessalonica to ordain only proven men married once to a virgin, counting a marriage before baptism.
Letter 12 to the bishops of Mauretania Caesariensis, chapter 3Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that neither a man married twice nor a man whose wife had been married before may be ordained, because priestly marriage figures Christ's marriage to the one church.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 1Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that when husbands return from captivity, the first, lawful marriages of wives who had remarried in the belief that their husbands were dead are to be restored.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 2Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo holds that the second husband is not guilty, but that, as with property, the returning husband's marriage must be restored.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 3Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that if a returning husband wants his wife back, she is to return, and the second union, forced by necessity, is judged blameless.
Letter 159 to Nicetas of Aquileia, chapter 4Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Leo rules that wives who refuse to return to their returning husbands, preferring their second husbands, are to be excommunicated.
Letter 167 to Rusticus of Narbonne, inquiry 3Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Deacons, like bishops and presbyters, must live in continence with their wives after ordination, without putting them away.
Letter 167 to Rusticus of Narbonne, inquiry 4Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · A cleric who gives his daughter to a man with a concubine has not given her to a married man, since a concubine is not a wife unless freed, dowered, and publicly married.
Letter 167 to Rusticus of Narbonne, inquiry 5Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · Girls married by their fathers to men who had concubines are blameless, since the concubines were not wives.
Letter 167 to Rusticus of Narbonne, inquiry 6 (with inquiries 7 and 8)Leo I, bishop of Rome (Leo the Great) · 440–461 · A man who leaves a slave concubine to marry a free wife has not married twice; penitents who recover must be urged to complete penance; those who die before reconciliation are left to God's judgment.
Canon 22Anonymous · 441 · Married men may not be ordained deacons unless they first profess continence.
Canon 23Anonymous · 441 · A deacon who has relations with his wife after ordination is removed from office.
Canon 24Anonymous · 441 · Deacons ordained earlier who fail in continence are not to be promoted, following the synod of Turin.
Canon 25Anonymous · 441 · Worthy men who have married may be ordained, but not beyond the subdiaconate.
Canon 27Anonymous · 441 · A widow's vow is made before the bishop and marked by the widow's garment; her abductor, or she if she abandons it, is condemned.
Canon 28Anonymous · 441 · Men and women who abandon a vow of chastity are transgressors and must do penance.
Canon 2Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · A married man may not be ordained priest unless he has first undertaken continence.
Canon 21Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · A penitent widow who remarries or lives in suspect familiarity with a man is excluded from the church with him; the same applies to a male penitent.
Canon 22Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · A married person may enter public penance only with the spouse's consent.
Canon 43Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Repeats Orange (441), canon 22, on married deacons.
Canon 44Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Repeats Orange (441), canon 23, on deacons who are incontinent with their wives.
Canon 45Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Men married to a widow or married twice may not be ordained above subdeacon, and are removed if ordained.
Canon 46Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Vowed widows who consent to their abduction are condemned with the abductors.
Canon 52Anonymous · date disputed (between ca. 442 and 506) · Consecrated virgins over twenty-five who marry are excommunicated with their husbands; they may do penance, but reconciliation is long delayed.
Church History 4.9Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · Audaeus, a Syrian, teaches that God has a human form and, borrowing from Mani, that God did not create fire and darkness; his followers separate from the church, claiming that it tolerates usurers and men living with women outside marriage, which Theodoret compares to the Pharisees' complaint against Christ.
Church History 4.12Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · At his baptism Valens swears to Eudoxius to maintain Arianism and to expel its opponents; he exiles Meletius to Armenia, Eusebius of Samosata to Thrace, and Pelagius of Laodicea, who had persuaded his bride to live with him in continence, to Arabia; Eusebius had travelled in disguise ordaining clergy for the churches.
Church History 5.18Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 449-450 · The empress Flacilla (Placilla), Theodosius's wife, personally nurses the sick and maimed in the church hospitals and constantly reminds her husband to remember God's gifts; she dies before him.
Part 1, section 16Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 445-455 · The Chronicle covers Claudius II, Aurelian, Probus, Carus, and the beginning of Diocletian's tetrarchy, with the rise and teaching of the Manichees and Diocletian's forced divorces of Constantius and Galerius.
Part 1, chapter 25Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Jacob’s twelve sons and especially Joseph, beloved, clothed in a coat of many colors, and honored by his brothers’ sheaves and by sun, moon, and stars in his dreams, figure Christ and the Church.
Part 2, chapter 15Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The fall of Jericho at the trumpets, and Rahab’s rescue, figure the Church’s spiritual warfare and the salvation of souls given to idolatrous fornication; as with Hosea’s wife and Jeremiah’s call to faithless Judah, Christ makes the harlot a chaste virgin and mother.
Part 2, chapter 23Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Samson’s victory with the jawbone, Delilah’s three tests and betrayal for silver, his blinding, and his death bringing down the temple figure Christ’s answers to the testing questions (the adulteress, tribute to Caesar, the levirate wife), his betrayal, passion, and victory over idolatry in death.
Part 2, chapter 24Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Ruth the Moabite, refused by the nearer kinsman and married by Boaz, figures the Church of the nations rejected by Israel; (chapter 24) Samuel, leader, priest, and prophet, figures Christ, while Eli’s sinful sons, the captured ark, and the demand for a king warn sinful priests and rulers.
Part 2, chapter 36Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones shows the resurrection, and his shut eastern gate Mary’s perpetual virginity; Ezra’s return and the sending away of foreign wives figure Christians who leave all, even wife and children, for Christ.
Part 5, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · As stars differ in glory, so the saints will shine with different honors, martyrs, virgins, widows, and the married, without envy.
Ephraim 3; Eucharistus; EulogiusAnonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Ephraim shames a prostitute; then a married couple living in continence and the hidden austerity of abba Joseph are described.
Olympius 2Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · Olympius cures his desire for a wife by working himself to exhaustion for a clay wife and daughter.
Paphnutius 4Anonymous · compiled ca. 450-500 (sayings 4th-5th century) · A monk who left to marry finds one wife a burden and returns to Paphnutius to become a proven monk.
Life of Syncletica 7Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Though beautiful and sought by many suitors, she refused her parents’ plans for marriage, devoted to Christ as her Bridegroom.
Life of Syncletica 23Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Using the parable of the hundred-, sixty- and thirtyfold yield, she urges virgins to advance and warns against those who would abandon virginity for marriage, reckoning the thirtyfold enough.
Life of Syncletica 42Anonymous · 5th–6th century · The life of married women is not carefree: childbirth, nursing and children’s illnesses and failings bring toil, and childlessness brings reproach.
Life of Syncletica 75Anonymous · 5th–6th century · Alms should be given with Abraham’s heart; God set two orders, the married, under laws, and the virgins, living like angels under grace.
Life of Syncletica 77Anonymous · 5th–6th century · As masters keep some servants on the farm and bring the finest into the house, God leaves the married in the world and takes virgins into his own service.
Life of Syncletica 78Anonymous · 5th–6th century · The married and the virgins have one Lord, like chaff and grain from one wheat; but heavenly fruit ripens only when worldly glory falls away like leaves.
Life of Syncletica 92Anonymous · 5th–6th century · As brides adorn themselves for husbands, virgins betrothed to Christ should adorn their souls with faith, hope, love, humility, chastity and poverty, and pray with understanding, lest they lack oil like the foolish virgins.
Genesis Question 30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God formed the woman from Adam to show their common nature and bind man and woman in affection, which marriage makes one flesh.
Genesis Question 43Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Cain married his sister, which was permitted before the race increased and the law forbade it; God made all nations from one couple to teach their common nature.
Genesis Question 49Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The ancients lived long, and had many wives, so that the human race could increase.
Genesis Question 62Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret denies that Pharaoh had intercourse with Sarah: God struck him with sickness at once, and Pharaoh's own words show he had meant to marry her.
Genesis Question 63Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Scripture states plainly that Abimelech did not touch Sarah to keep Isaac's birth beyond suspicion; both stories show that even pagans knew adultery to be wrong.
Genesis Question 67Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret defends Abraham's union with Hagar: it was at Sarah's request, for children, at a time when no law forbade it, and Abraham's later conduct shows he was not ruled by desire.
Genesis Question 74Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The oath under the thigh recalled circumcision and God's promise; the servant's prayer for a sign was not divination but a pious request that sought a bride marked by hospitality and gentleness.
Genesis Question 85Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret defends Jacob's four wives: he chose only Rachel, took the maidservants at his wives' request, no law then forbade polygamy, and many children were counted a blessing.
Genesis Question 86Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Rachel and Leah were jealous because they were raised by an idolater; the Law later forbade marrying two sisters.
Genesis Question 95Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret defends Tamar: she sought children from Abraham's line, which Judah had denied her, and Judah himself admitted she was more righteous.
Genesis Question 98Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · “Eunuch” could be a title; and even a castrated man might keep a wife to manage his household.
Exodus Question 4Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Moses' marriage to a foreigner prefigured Christ's union with the church of the nations.
Exodus Question 14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret explains the angel's attack on Moses as a means of driving out his fear of Pharaoh by a greater fear, and notes that it also occasioned the sending home of Zipporah.
Exodus Question 39Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God calls himself jealous as a husband of his people, to keep them from idolatry; his jealousy is a sign of love.
Leviticus Question 1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Opening Leviticus, Theodoret explains the sacrifices as a concession to Israel's Egyptian habits and a means of weaning it from idolatry, and reads the different victims, offerings, and rules as figures of the various ways of Christian life and of the soul's discipline.
Leviticus Question 14Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The impurity after childbirth secured rest for the mother by keeping husbands away; the longer period after a daughter is explained by the greater labor.
Leviticus Question 20Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The impurity laws on discharges and marital intercourse teach that only willful lust truly defiles and urge moderation in marriage, while Paul calls the marriage bed undefiled.
Leviticus Question 21Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Menstrual impurity teaches the same lesson as other discharges and keeps men from intercourse during menstruation.
Leviticus Question 24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The incest and bestiality laws of Lev 18 forbid real practices of Egypt and Canaan, as the Persians' marriages with close kin in Theodoret's day show.
Leviticus Question 30Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Priests' marriages and bodily integrity were regulated to make them models of chastity and figures of a sound soul.
Numbers Question 10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The ordeal of the suspected wife was meant to frighten her into confession and to keep jealous husbands from killing their wives on suspicion.
Numbers Question 51Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Tribal inheritance was kept separate to preserve Judah's line, though the royal and priestly tribes intermarried, pointing to Christ as priest and king.
Deuteronomy Question 6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Intermarriage with the nations was forbidden lest Israel turn to idols; God chose Israel for the fathers' sake and trained them in the wilderness as a father trains a son.
Deuteronomy Question 19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The captive wife's month of mourning separated grief from marriage and restrained the captor's lust; if he rejected her, she went free.
Deuteronomy Question 24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · A betrothed woman counted as a wife, so violating her was punished as adultery; Mary too is called Joseph's wife.
Deuteronomy Question 32Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Public shaming compelled the duty of levirate marriage where brotherly love failed.
Joshua Question 19Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Theodoret explains the priestly cities, the altar by the Jordan, and Joshua's farewell warnings against intermarriage and idolatry and his covenant renewal at Shechem.
Judges Question 21Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God gave Samson his gift for the purpose of delivering Israel, not because of his life, and permitted rather than caused his foreign marriage.
Judges Question 28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The seizure of the Shiloh maidens kept the surviving Benjaminites from marrying foreign women without breaking Israel's oath.
Ruth Question 1Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Ruth's story was written because Christ descended from her, and Matthew names Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba to show Christ came for all; it also teaches the virtues of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz.
Ruth Question 2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Naomi's advice and Ruth's night at Boaz's feet were chaste; Boaz kept the law of the kinsman and married Ruth, ancestress of David and Christ. The section ends with the preface to Theodoret's questions on Kingdoms.
1 Kingdoms Question 2Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · The law tolerated Elkanah's two wives as a concession to weakness, neither permitting nor forbidding it.
1 Kingdoms Question 3Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · God, not marriage alone, gives children; Hannah's prayer, meekness and faith are praised, and her song is read as prophecy of Christ and the church.
2 Kingdoms Question 7Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · David's comparison of Jonathan's love to the love of women expresses the depth of a pure friendship that unites souls, as marriage unites two in one flesh.
2 Kingdoms Question 11Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · David could take Michal back because he had never dismissed her: Saul gave her to another by force, so that union was not a marriage and the law against return did not apply.
2 Kingdoms Question 24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · In a time of ease David fell into adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah; Nathan's parable led him to confess, and God forgave the death penalty but disciplined him.
2 Kingdoms Question 38Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · David kept apart, but provided for, the concubines Absalom had violated; he could not lawfully live with them, and giving them to others would have been adultery and a pretext for rebellion.
3 Kingdoms Question 10Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Solomon's God-given wisdom surpassed even Egypt's famed sages, but he broke the law against foreign wives by marrying Pharaoh's daughter.
3 Kingdoms Question 36Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Tarshish is placed in India (or Carthage); Solomon, despite God's gifts, took many foreign wives against the law, built shrines for their gods, and lost most of his kingdom for his son.
4 Kingdoms Question 24Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 453 · Hazael smothered Ben-hadad, a fitting end for an impious ingrate; Joram of Judah, married to Ahab's daughter, followed Ahab's impiety.
Canon 14Anonymous · 451 · Readers and singers who may marry are not to take wives of another faith, nor have their children baptized among heretics or married to non-orthodox persons.
Canon 15Anonymous · 451 · Women deacons must be at least forty and carefully examined, and one who later marries is anathematized with her husband.
Canon 16Anonymous · 451 · Dedicated virgins and monks may not marry; those who do are excommunicated, subject to the local bishop's clemency.
Canon 27Anonymous · 451 · Those who abduct women for marriage, or help to do so, are deposed or anathematized.