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Quales ducendae sint uxores

ENCOMIUM ON MAXIMUS, And concerning what sort of women one ought to marry. 51.225 1. That I was absent from you at the last gathering, I was grieved; but that you enjoyed a richer table, I was glad. For he who pulls the yoke with me, both cut the furrow for us recently, and cast the seeds with a lavish tongue, and with great care he cultivated your souls. You saw a purified tongue, you heard a well-turned discourse, you enjoyed water springing up to eternal life, you saw a spring sending forth rivers of pure gold. A certain river is said to bear nuggets of gold to the people dwelling around it, not that the nature of the waters produces the gold, but since it happened that the river's sources pass through metallic mountains, flowing through those mountains the river carries along the gold-bearing earth, it becomes a treasure to those dwelling beside it, providing a ready-made wealth. This teacher recently imitated this river, flowing as it were through metallic mountains, the Scriptures, and bringing thoughts more precious than any gold to your souls. And I know indeed that my own words seem poorer to you today. For one who continually partakes of a poor table, if he should happen upon a richer one somewhere in between, and then returns again to his own, he will notice its poverty all the more. Yet not for this reason shall I strip for the contest more sluggishly. For you know, having been discipled by Paul, both to be full and to be hungry, both to have abundance and to be in need, and to admire the rich, and not to scorn the poor. And just as wine-lovers and drink-lovers welcome the better wine, yet they do not despise the inferior; so indeed you also, being mad for the hearing of the divine oracles, accept the wiser of teachers, and to the more humble you give no ordinary zeal and eagerness. For the languid and dissolute are nauseated even at the more sumptuous table; but those who are aroused and sober, and who hunger and thirst for righteousness, run with great eagerness even to the poorer one. And that these words are not flattery, you showed this most of all from the discourse given to you recently. For when we were making many arguments about marriage to you, showing that it is a consummate adultery to cast out wives, or to take women who have been cast out, while their former husbands are still living, and reading the law of Christ which says, that `He who marries a divorced woman commits adultery,` and, `he who divorces his wife, except for the reason of fornication, makes her commit adultery,` I saw many bowing their heads, striking their faces, and unable even to look up; then indeed, looking up to heaven, I said: Blessed be God, that we do not speak into dead ears, but what is said takes hold of the minds of the hearers with great ve 51.226 hemence. For it is better not to sin at all; but it is no small matter for the account of salvation, to be pained, and for the sinner to condemn his own soul, and to scourge his conscience with much exactness; for such self-condemnation is a part of righteousness, and altogether leads to sinning no more. For this reason also Paul, having grieved those who had sinned, rejoiced, not because he had grieved them, but because by the grief he had corrected them. `For I rejoiced,` he says, `not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance; for godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of.` For whether on behalf of

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Quales ducendae sint uxores

ΕΓΚΩΜΙΟΝ ΕΙΣ ΜΑΞΙΜΟΝ Καὶ περὶ τοῦ ποίας δεῖ ἄγεσθαι γυναῖκας. 51.225 αʹ. Ὅτι μὲν ἀπελείφθην ὑμῶν τῇ παρελθούσῃ συνάξει, ἤλγησα· ὅτι δὲ πλουσιωτέρας ἀπελαύσατε τραπέζης, ἥσθην. Ὁ γὰρ μετ' ἐμοῦ τὸν ζυγὸν ἕλκων, τήν τε αὔλακα πρώην ἡμῖν ἀνέτεμε, καὶ τὰ σπέρματα κατέβαλε δαψιλεῖ γλώττῃ, καὶ μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς ἐπιμελείας ἐγεώργησε τὰς ὑμετέρας ψυχάς. Εἴδετε γλῶτταν ἐκκεκαθαρμένην, ἠκούσατε λόγον ἀποτετορνευμένον, ἀπελαύσατε ὕδατος ἁλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον, εἴδετε πηγὴν ποταμοὺς ἀφιεῖσαν χρυσίου καθαροῦ. Λέγεταί τις ποταμὸς χρυσίου ψήγματα φέρειν τοῖς περιοικοῦσιν αὐτὸν ἀνθρώποις, οὐ τῆς φύσεως τῶν ὑδάτων τὸ χρυσίον τικτούσης, ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ τοῦ ποταμοῦ τὰς πηγὰς ἐν μεταλλικοῖς ὄρεσι διέρχεσθαι συνέβη, δι' ἐκείνων τῶν ὀρέων ὁ ποταμὸς ῥέων καὶ τὴν χρυσῖτιν παρασύρων γῆν, θησαυρὸς τοῖς παροικοῦσι γίνεται, ἐσχεδιασμένον παρέχων τὸν πλοῦτον. Τοῦτον καὶ ὁ διδάσκαλος οὗτος ἐμιμήσατο πρώην τὸν ποταμὸν, ὥσπερ διὰ μεταλλικῶν ὀρέων, τῶν Γραφῶν ῥέων, καὶ τὰ χρυσίου παντὸς τιμιώτερα νοήματα ταῖς ὑμετέραις κομίζων ψυχαῖς. Καὶ οἶδα μὲν ὅτι πτωχότερα τὰ ἡμέτερα ὑμῖν φαίνεται σήμερον. Ὁ γὰρ πενιχρᾶς ἀπολαύων τραπέζης διηνεκῶς, ἂν εὐπορωτέρας μεταξύ που τινὸς ἐπιτύχῃ, εἶτα πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ πάλιν ἐπανέλθῃ, μᾶλλον αὐτῆς κατόψεται τὴν πενίαν. Οὐ μὴν διὰ τοῦτο ὀκνηρότερον ἀποδύσομαι. Ἴστε γὰρ, Παύλῳ μαθητευθέντες, καὶ χορτάζεσθαι καὶ πεινᾷν, καὶ περισσεύειν καὶ ὑστερεῖσθαι, καὶ τοὺς πλουσίους θαυμάζειν, καὶ τοὺς πένητας μὴ διαπτύειν. Καὶ καθάπερ οἱ φίλοινοι καὶ οἱ φιλοπόται ἀσπάζονται μὲν τὸν ἀμείνω οἶνον, οὐ μὴν δὲ τοῦ καταδεεστέρου καταφρονοῦσιν· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὑμεῖς περὶ τὴν τῶν θείων λογίων ἀκρόασιν μεμηνότες, ἀποδέχεσθε μὲν τοὺς σοφωτέρους τῶν διδασκάλων, καὶ τοῖς εὐτελεστέροις δὲ οὐ τὴν τυχοῦσαν παρέχετε σπουδὴν καὶ προθυμίαν. Οἱ μὲν γὰρ χαῦνοι καὶ διαλελυμένοι, καὶ πρὸς τὴν πολυτελεστέραν ναυτιῶσι τράπεζαν· οἱ δὲ διεγηγερμένοι καὶ νήφοντες, καὶ πεινῶντες καὶ διψῶντες τὴν δικαιοσύνην, καὶ πρὸς τὴν πενεστέραν μετὰ πολλῆς τρέχουσι προθυμίας. Καὶ ὅτι οὐ κολακεία τὰ ῥήματα, ἀπὸ τῆς πρώην ὑμῖν διαλέξεως γενομένης τοῦτο ἐδείξατε μάλιστα. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ πολλοὺς περὶ γάμων λόγους ἐποιούμεθα πρὸς ὑμᾶς, δεικνύντες ὅτι μοιχεία τις ἀπηρτισμένη τὸ ἐκβάλλειν γυναῖκας, ἢ ἐκβεβλημένας λαμβάνειν, ζώντων ἔτι τῶν προτέρων ἀνδρῶν, καὶ τὸν τοῦ Χριστοῦ νόμον ἀναγινώσκοντες τὸν λέγοντα, ὅτι Ὃ ἀπολελυμένην γαμήσας μοιχᾶται, καὶ ὁ ἀπολύων γυναῖκα, παρεκτὸς λόγου πορνείας, ποιεῖ αὐτὴν μοιχευθῆναι, πολλοὺς εἶδον κάτω κύπτοντας, τὸ πρόσωπον τύπτοντας, καὶ οὐδὲ ἀνανεῦσαι δυναμένους· τότε δὴ καὶ εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβλέψας εἶπον· Εὐλογητὸς ὁ Θεὸς, ὅτι οὐκ εἰς νεκρὰς ἀκοὰς ἐνηχοῦμεν, ἀλλ' ἐπιλαμβάνεται τῆς διανοίας τῶν ἀκουόντων τὰ λεγόμενα μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς σφο 51.226 δρότητος. Ἄμεινον μὲν γὰρ μηδ' ὅλως ἁμαρτεῖν· οὐ μικρὸν δὲ εἰς σωτηρίας λόγον, κατοδυνηθῆναι, καὶ καταγνῶναι τὸν ἁμαρτάνοντα τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ψυχῆς, καὶ μαστίξαι τὸ συνειδὸς μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς ἀκριβείας· ἡ γὰρ τοιαύτη κατάγνωσις δικαιοσύνης ἐστὶ μέρος, καὶ ὅλως ἐπὶ τὸ μηκέτι ἁμαρτάνειν ἄγουσα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Παῦλος λυπήσας τοὺς ἡμαρτηκότας ἔχαιρεν, οὐχ ὅτι ἐλύπησεν, ἀλλ' ὅτι τῇ λύπῃ διώρθωσεν. Ἐχάρην γὰρ, φησὶν, οὐχ ὅτι ἐλυπήθητε, ἀλλ' ὅτι ἐλυπήθητε εἰς μετάνοιαν· ἡ γὰρ κατὰ Θεὸν λύπη μετάνοιαν εἰς σωτηρίαν ἀμεταμέλητον κατεργάζεται. Εἴτε γὰρ ὑπὲρ