Chapter XVI.—Weakness of the Pleas Urged in Defence of Second Marriage.

But I smile when (the plea of) “infirmity of the flesh” is advanced in opposition (to us:  infirmity) which is (rather) to be called the height of strength.  Iteration of marriage is an affair of strength:  to rise again from the ease of continence to the works of the flesh, is (a thing requiring) substantial reins.  Such “infirmity” is equal, to a third, and a fourth, and even (perhaps) a seventh marriage; as (being a thing) which increases its strength as often as its weakness; which will no longer have (the support of) an apostle’s authority, but of some Hermogenes—wont to marry more women than he paints.  For in him matter is abundant:  whence he presumes that even the soul is material; and therefore much more (than other men) he has not the Spirit from God, being no longer even a Psychic, because even his psychic element is not derived from God’s afflatus!  What if a man allege “indigence,” so as to profess that his flesh is openly prostituted, and given in marriage for the sake of maintenance; forgetting that there is to be no careful thought about food and clothing?107    See Matt. vi. 25–34.  He has God (to look to), the Foster-father even of ravens, the Rearer even of flowers.  What if he plead the loneliness of his home? as if one woman afforded company to a man ever on the eve of flight!  He has, of course, a widow (at hand), whom it will be lawful for him to take.  Not one such wife, but even a plurality, it is permitted to have.  What if a man thinks on posterity, with thoughts like the eyes of Lot’s wife; so that a man is to make the fact that from his former marriage he has had no children a reason for repeating marriage?  A Christian, forsooth, will seek heirs, disinherited as he is from the entire world!  He has “brethren;” he has the Church as his mother.  The case is different if men believe that, at the bar of Christ as well (as of Rome), action is taken on the principle of the Julian laws; and imagine that the unmarried and childless cannot receive their portion in full, in accordance with the testament of God.  Let such (as thus think), then, marry to the very end; that in this confusion of flesh they, like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the day of the deluge, may be overtaken by the fated final end of the world.  A third saying let them add, “Let us eat, and drink, and marry, for to-morrow we shall die;”108    See 1 Cor. xv. 32. not reflecting that the “woe” (denounced) “on such as are with child, and are giving suck,”109    Matt. xxiv. 19; Luke xxi. 23.  Comp. ad Ux., l. i. c. v. will fall far more heavily and bitterly in the “universal shaking”110    Concussione.  Comp. Hag. ii. 6, 7; Heb. xii. 26, 27. of the entire world111    Mundi. than it did in the devastation of one fraction of Judæa.  Let them accumulate by their iterated marriages fruits right seasonable for the last times—breasts heaving, and wombs qualmish, and infants whimpering.  Let them prepare for Antichrist (children) upon whom he may more passionately (than Pharaoh) spend his savagery.  He will lead to them murderous midwives.112    Comp. Ex. i. 8–16.

CAPUT XVI.

0951B Rideo autem, cum infirmitas carnis opponitur, quae summa fortitudo dicenda est. Iterum nubere, est res virium; resurgere in opera carnis de continentiae otio, substantia est laterum. Talis infirmitas, et tertio, et quarto, et usque septimo forsitan matrimonio sufficit; ut quae totiens fortior, quotiens fuerit infirmior, habitura jam non Apostolum auctorem, sed Hermogenem aliquem, plures solitum mulieres ducere quam pingere, materia enim in illo abundat, unde et animam esse praesumens, multo magis spiritum a Deo non habet, jam nec psychicus, quia non de afflatu Dei psychicus. Quid, si inopiam quis causetur, ut carnem suam aperte prostitutam profiteatur, exhibitionis causa nubentem, oblitus (Matth., VI, 25) de victu et vestitu non esse cogitandum? Habet Deum 0951C etiam corvorum educatorem, etiam florum excultorem. Quid si solitudinem domus obtendat ? Quasi una mulier frequentiam praestet homini ad fugam proximo: habet viduam utique, quam adsumat licebit. Non unam generis hujus uxorem, sed etiam plures habere concessum est. Quid, si de posteritate quis cogitet iisdem animis, quibus oculis uxor Loth, ut 0952A ideo quis repetat matrimonium, quia de priore liberos non habuit; haeredes scilicet christianus quaeret, saeculi totius exhaeres? Habet fratres, habet Ecclesiam matrem. Aliud est, si et apud Christum legibus Juliis agi credunt, et existimant caelibes et orbos ex testamento Dei solidum non posse capere. Nubant igitur hujusmodi in finem usque, ut in ista confusione carnis; sicut Sodoma et Gomorrha, et diluvii dies, ab illo ultimo exitu saeculi deprehendantur. Adjiciant tertium dictum (I Cor. XV, 32): Manducemus, et bibamus, et nubamus: cras enim moriemur; non recogitantes Vae illud praegnantibus et lactantibus, multo gravius et amarius eventurum in concussione totius mundi, quam evenit in vastatione unius particulae Judaeae. Satis opportunos novissimis temporibus fructus iteratis matrimoniis colligant, 0952B ubera fluitantia, et uteros nauseantes, et infantes pipiantes . Parent Antichristo in quae libidinosius saeviat. Adducet illis carnifices obstetrices.