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

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 lower honor. For, even as the good of holy virginity, which thy daughter hath chosen, doth not condemn thy one marriage; so neither doth thy widowhood the second marriage of any. For hence, specially, the heresies of the Cataphryges and of the Novatians swelled, which Tertullian also, inflated with cheeks full of sound not of wisdom, whilst with railing tooth he attacks11    “Concidit.” second marriages, as though unlawful, which the Apostle with sober mind allows12    “Concedit.” to be altogether lawful. From this soundness of doctrine let no man’s reasoning, be he unlearned, or be he learned, move thee; nor do thou so extol thy own good, as to charge as evil that of another’s which is not evil; but do thou rejoice so much the more of thy own good, the more thou seest, that, by it, not only are evils shunned, but some goods too surpassed. For adultery and fornication are evils. But from these unlawful things she is very far removed, who hath bound herself by liberty of vow, and, not by command of law, but by counsel of charity, hath brought to pass that even things lawful should not be lawful to her. And marriage chastity is a good, but widowed continence is a better good. Therefore this better good is honored by the submission of that other, not that other condemned by the praise of this that is better.

6. Quapropter hoc primum oportet ut noveris, bono quod elegisti non damnari secundas nuptias, sed inferius honorari. Nam sicut bonum sanctae virginitatis, quod elegit filia tua, non damnat unas nuptias tuas; sic nec viduitas tua, cujusquam secundas. Hinc enim maxime Cataphrygarum ac Novatianorum haereses tumuerunt, quas buccis sonantibus, non sapientibus, etiam Tertullianus inflavit, dum secundas nuptias tanquam illicitas maledico dente concidit, quas omnino licitas Apostolus sobria mente concedit. Ab hac sanitate doctrinae, nullius indocti, nullius docti disputatione movearis; nec ita extollas bonum tuum, ut quod malum non est, tanquam malum crimineris alienum: sed tanto magis gaude de tuo bono, quanto 0434 magis vides non tantum illo devitari mala, sed quaedam bona etiam superari. Mala sunt enim adulterium vel fornicatio.

CAPUT V.

Honestum dici viduitatis bonum quia honestius, non ut turpe putetur conjugium. Ab his autem illicitis valde longe est quae voti libertate se obstrinxit, et sibi etiam licita ne licerent, non imperio legis, sed consilio charitatis effecit. Et bonum est pudicitia conjugalis, sed melius bonum est continentia vidualis. Hoc ergo melius illius boni submissione honoratur: non illud bonum melioris hujus laude damnatur.