21. But since out of many souls there shall be hereafter one City of such as have one soul and one heart55    Acts iv. 32 towards God; which perfection of our unity shall be hereafter, after this sojourn in a strange land, wherein the thoughts of all shall neither be hidden one from another, nor shall be in any matter opposed one to another; on this account the Sacrament of marriage of our time hath been so reduced to one man and one wife, as that it is not lawful to ordain any as a steward of the Church, save the husband of one wife.56    1 Tim. iii. 2 And this they have understood more acutely who have been of opinion, that neither is he to be ordained,57    Tit. i. 6 who as a catechumen or as a heathen58    Thus Ambrose, Verellæ, and ancient Jerome, Ep. ad Ocean. and harshly against Ep. to Ch. of general custom, speaks strongly this interpretation, and says, b. i. near the end, that Ruffinus had found fault with him for this. Ben. had a second wife. For it is a matter of sacrament, not of sin. For in baptism all sins are put away. But he who said, “If thou shall have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not:”59    1 Cor. vii. 28, 36 and, “Let her do what she will, she sinneth not, if she be married,” hath made it plain enough that marriage is no sin. But on account of the sanctity of the Sacrament, as a female, although it be as a catechumen that she hath suffered violence, cannot after Baptism be consecrated among the virgins of God: so there was no absurdity in supposing of him who had exceeded the number of one wife, not that he had committed any sin, but that he had lost a certain prescript rule60    Normam of a sacrament necessary not unto desert of good life, but unto the seal of ecclesiastic ordination; and thus, as the many wives of the old Fathers signified our future Churches out of all nations made subject unto one husband, Christ: so our chief-priest,61    Antistes the husband of one wife, signifies unity out of all nations, made subject unto one husband, Christ: which shall then be perfected, when He shall have unveiled the hidden things of darkness,62    1 Cor. iv. 5 and shall have made manifest the thoughts of the heart, that then each may have praise from God. But now there are manifest, there are hidden, dissensions, even where charity is safe between those, who shall be hereafter one, and in one; which shall then certainly have no existence. As therefore the Sacrament of marriage with several of that time signified the multitude that should be hereafter made subject unto God in all nations of the earth, so the Sacrament of marriage with one of our times signifies the unity of us all made subject to God, which shall be hereafter in one Heavenly City. Therefore as to serve two or more, so to pass over from a living husband into marriage with another, was neither lawful then, nor is it lawful now, nor will it ever be lawful. Forsooth to apostatise from the One God, and to go into adulterous superstition of another, is ever an evil. Therefore not even for the sake of a more numerous family did our Saints do, what the Roman Cato is said to have done,63    Cato minor, cf. Plutarch. p. 771. to give up his wife, during his own life, to fill even another’s house with sons. Forsooth in the marriage of one woman the sanctity of the Sacrament is of more avail than the fruitfulness of the womb.

CAPUT XVIII.

21. Sacramentum nuptiarum nunc ad unum virum et ad unam uxorem redactum. Episcopum nisi unius uxoris virum ordinare non licet. Sed quoniam ex multis animis una civitas futura est habentium animam unam et cor unum in Deum (Act. IV, 32); quae unitatis nostrae perfectio post hanc peregrinationem futura est, ubi omnium cogitationes nec latebunt invicem, nec inter se in aliquo repugnabunt: propterea Sacramentum nuptiarum temporis nostri sic ad unum virum et unam uxorem redactum est, ut Ecclesiae dispensatorem non liceat ordinare, nisi unius uxoris virum (I Tim. III, 2, et Tit. I, 6). Quod acutius intellexerunt, qui nec eum qui catechumenus vel paganus habuerit alteram, ordinandum esse censuerunt . De Sacramento enim agitur, non de peccato. Nam in Baptismo peccata omnia dimittuntur. Sed qui dixit, Si acceperis uxorem, non peccasti; et si nupserit virgo, non peccat; et, Quod vult faciat, non peccat, si nubat (I Cor. VII, 28, 36): satis declaravit nuptias nullum esse peccatum. Propter Sacramenti autem sanctitatem, sicut femina etiamsi catechumena fuerit vitiata, non potest post Baptismum inter Dei virgines consecrari; ita non absurde visum est eum qui excessit uxorum numerum singularem, non peccatum aliquod commisisse, 0388 sed normam quamdam Sacramenti amisisse; non ad vitae bonae meritum, sed ad ordinationis ecclesiasticae signaculum necessariam. Ac per hoc sicut plures uxores antiquorum patrum significaverunt futuras nostras ex omnibus gentibus Ecclesias uni viro subditas Christo: ita noster antistes unius uxoris vir significat ex omnibus gentibus unitatem uni viro subditam Christo; quae tunc perficietur, cum revelaverit occulta tenebrarum, et manifestaverit cogitationes cordis, ut tunc laus sit unicuique a Deo (I Cor. IV, 5). Nunc autem sunt manifestae, sunt latentes dissensiones , etiam salva charitate, inter eos qui unum et in uno futuri sunt: quae tunc utique nullae erunt. Sicut ergo Sacramentum pluralium nuptiarum illius temporis significavit futuram multitudinem Deo subjectam in terrenis omnibus gentibus; sic Sacramentum nuptiarum singularum nostri temporis significat unitatem omnium nostrum subjectam Deo futuram in una coelesti civitate. Itaque sicut duobus pluribusve servire, sic a viro vivo in alterius transire connubium, nec tunc licuit, nec nunc licet, nec unquam licebit. Apostatare quippe ab uno Deo, et ire in alterius adulterinam superstitionem, semper est malum. Nec causa ergo numerosioris prolis fecerunt sancti nostri, quod Cato dicitur fecisse Romanus , ut traderet vivus uxorem etiam alterius domum filiis impleturam. In nostrarum quippe nuptiis plus valet sanctitas Sacramenti, quam fecunditas uteri.