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 attacks2230
second marriages, as though
unlawful, which the
Apostle with sober
mind allows
2231
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.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
