On the Good of Widowhood.

 Augustin the Bishop, servant of Christ, and of the servants of Christ, unto the religious handmaiden of God, Juliana, in the Lord of lords health.

 2. Whereas, therefore, in every question, which relates to life and conduct, not only teaching, but exhortation also is necessary in order that by te

 3. Therefore (thus) saith the Apostle, the teacher of the Gentiles, the vessel of election, “But I say unto the unmarried and the widows, that it is g

 4. Lo, there is your good compared to that good, which the Apostle calls his own, if faith be present: yea, rather, because faith is present. Short is

 5. Wherefore also when he was advising married persons not to defraud one another of the due of carnal intercourse lest, by this means, the one of th

 6. Wherefore this in the first place you ought to know, that by the good, which you have chosen, second marriages are not condemned, but are set in lo

 7. But whereas the Apostle, when commending the fruit of unmarried men and women, in that they have thought of the things of the Lord, how to please G

 8. Whence, also, what the Apostle Paul said of the unmarried woman, “that she may be holy both in body and spirit ” we are not so to understand, as th

 9. Learn, therefore, that thy good, yea, rather, remember what thou hast learned, that thy good is more praised, because there is another good than wh

 10. Nor, because I called Ruth blessed, Anna more blessed, in that the former married twice, the latter, being soon widowed of her one husband, so liv

 11. But thou who both hast sons, and livest in that end of the world, wherein now is the time not of casting stones, but of gathering not of embracin

 12. But since, as the Lord saith, “Not all receive this word ” therefore let her who can receive it, receive it and let her, who containeth not, marr

 13. Wherefore they who say that the marriages of such are not marriages, but rather adulteries, seem not to me to consider with sufficient acuteness a

 14. Wherefore I cannot indeed say, of females who have fallen away from a better purpose, in case they shall have married, that they are adulteries, n

 15. Men are wont to move a question concerning a third or fourth marriage, and even more numerous marriages than this. On which to make answer strictl

 16. For that also is no foolish question which is wont to be proposed, that whoso can may say, which widow is to be preferred in desert whether one w

 17. Let us therefore set before our eyes three widows, each having one of the things, the whole of which were in her: let us suppose one who had had o

 18. No one indeed of these six widows could come up to your standard. For you, in case that you shall have maintained this vow even unto old age, maye

 19. These discussions, therefore, concerning the different deserts of married women, and of different widows, I would not in this work enter upon, if,

 20. Wherefore, forasmuch as in the beginning of this little work I had proposed certain two necessary matters, and had undertaken to follow them out

 21. These things I am compelled to admonish by reason of certain little discourses of some men, that are to be shunned and avoided, which have begun t

 22. Now it has been my wish on this account to say something on this subject, by reason of certain of our brethren most friendly and dear to us, and w

 23. If, therefore, you had not as yet vowed unto God widowed continence, we would assuredly exhort you to vow it but, in that you have already vowed

 24. Let the inner ear of the virgin also, thy holy child, hear these things. I shall see how far she goes before you in the Kingdom of That King: it i

 25. The past day returns not hereafter, and after yesterday proceeds to-day, and after to-day will proceed to-morrow and, lo, all times and the thing

 26. Therefore let spiritual delights succeed to the place of carnal delights in holy chastity reading, prayer, psalm, good thought, frequency in good

 27. Indeed in all spiritual delights, which unmarried women enjoy, their holy conversation ought also to be with caution lest haply, though their lif

 28. Go on therefore in your course, and run with perseverance, in order that ye may obtain and by pattern of life, and discourse of exhortation, carr

 29. Next I entreat you, by Him, from Whom ye have both received this gift, and hope for the rewards of this gift, that ye be mindful to set me also in

13. Wherefore they who say that the marriages of such are not marriages, but rather adulteries, seem not to me to consider with sufficient acuteness and care what they say; forsooth they, are misled by a semblance of truth. For, whereas they, who of Christian sanctity marry not, are said to choose the marriage of Christ, hence certain argue saying, If she, who during the life of her husband is married to another, be an adulteress, even as the Lord Himself hath laid down in the Gospel; therefore, during the life of Christ, over Whom death hath no more dominion,33    Rom. vi. 9 if she who had chosen His marriage, be married to a man, she is an adulteress. They, who say this, are moved indeed with acuteness, but fail to observe, how great absurdity in fact follows on this reasoning. For whereas it is praiseworthy that, even during the life of her husband, by his consent, a female vow continence unto Christ, now, according to the reasoning of these persons, no one ought to do this, lest she make Christ Himself, what is impious to imagine, an adulterer, by being married to Him during the life of her husband. Next, whereas first marriages are of better desert than second, far be it that this be the thought of holy widows, that Christ seem unto them as a second husband. For Himself they used heretofore also to have, (when they were subject and did faithful service to their own husbands,) not after the flesh, but after the Spirit a Husband; unto Whom the Church herself, of which they are members, is the wife; who by soundness of faith, of hope, of charity, not in the virgins alone, but in widows also, and faithful married women, is altogether a virgin. Forsooth unto the universal Church, of which they all are members, the Apostle saith, “I joined you unto one husband a chaste virgin to present unto Christ.”34    2 Cor. xi. 2. [See R.V.] But He knoweth how to make fruitful, without marring of chastity, a wife a virgin, Whom even in the flesh itself His Mother could without violation of chastity conceive. But there is brought to pass by means of this ill-considered notion, (whereby they think that the marriages of women who have fallen away from this holy purpose, in case they shall have married, are no marriages,) no small evil, that wives be separated from their husbands, as though they were adulteresses, not wives; and wishing to restore to continence the women thus separated, they make their husbands real adulterers, in that during the life of their wives they have married others.

CAPUT X.

13. In eos qui lapsarum a sancto proposito nuptias adulteria esse dicunt. Ecclesia tota virgo. Proinde qui dicunt talium nuptias non esse nuptias, sed potius adulteria, non mihi videntur satis acute ac diligenter considerare quid dicant: fallit eos quippe similitudo veritatis. Quia enim conjugium Christi dicuntur eligere quae christiana sanctitate non nubunt, hinc argumentantur quidam dicentes: Si viro suo vivo quae alteri nubit, adultera est, sicut ipse Dominus in Evangelio definivit (Matth. XIX, 9); vivo ergo Christo, cui mors ultra non dominatur (Rom. VI, 9) , quae conjugium ejus elegerat, si homini nubit, adultera est. Qui hoc dicunt, acute quidem moventur; sed parum attendunt hanc argumentationem quanta rerum sequatur absurditas. Cum enim laudabiliter etiam vivente viro ex ejus consensu continentiam femina Christo voveat, jam secundum istorum rationem nulla hoc facere debet, ne ipsum Christum, quod sentire nefas est, adulterum faciat, cui vivente marito nubit. Deinde cum primae nuptiae melioris sint meriti quam secundae, absit ut sanctarum viduarum iste sit sensus, ut Christus eis videatur quasi secundus maritus. Ipsum enim habebant et antea, quando viris suis fideliter serviebant subditae, non carnaliter, sed spiritualiter virum: cui Ecclesia ipsa, cujus membra sunt, conjux est; quae fidei, spei, charitatis integritate, non in solis virginibus sanctis, sed etiam in viduis et conjugatis fidelibus, tota virgo est. Universae quippe Ecclesiae, cujus illa omnia membra sunt, Apostolus dicit: Aptavi vos uni viro virginem castam exhibere Christo (II Cor. XI, 2). Novit autem ille conjugem virginem sine corruptione fetare, quem in ipsa etiam carne potuit mater sine corruptione procreare. Fit autem per hanc minus consideratam opinionem, qua putant lapsarum a sancto proposito feminarum, si nupserint, non esse conjugia, non parvum malum, ut a maritis separentur uxores quasi adulterae sint, non uxores; et cum volunt eas separatas reddere continentiae, faciunt maritos earum adulteros veros , cum suis uxoribus vivis alteras duxerint.

CAPUT XI.

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