21. But since out of many
souls there shall be hereafter one City of such as have one soul
and one heart1988
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.
1989
And this they have understood more
acutely who have been of opinion, that neither is he to be
ordained,
1990
who as a
catechumen or as a
heathen1991
| 1991 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:”
1992
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
rule
1993
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,
1994
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,
1995
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,
1996
| 1996 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.
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