Marriage and Virginity (continued)
This is what led in particular to the growth of the Cataphrygian and Novatianist heresies, swollen by the noisy, mindless puffing of Tertullian.†7 With his foul mouth he attacks second marriages as being forbidden, although with sober judgment the apostle accepts them as entirely lawful.†8 Do not let anyone's arguments, learned or unlearned, cause you to waver from this sound teaching. Do not think so highly of your own perfection that you accuse something that is not bad, an excellence other persons have, of being bad. Rather take greater pleasure in your own excellence, to the extent that you see that not only is evil excluded by it, but also certain good things are excelled by it. The evils are adultery and fornication.
Even Second Marriages Are Honorable
5. Far removed from these sins is the woman who has freely bound herself by a vow. She brings it about, not because the law requires it but because charity commends it, that even things that are lawful are not lawful for her. A married person's chastity is good, but a widow's celibacy is better. It is better for this good thing to be honored by that other good thing being ranked inferior to it, than for that other good thing to be condemned because this better thing is praised.
7. When the apostle was extolling the fruits of being celibate and unmarried, namely that such persons think about what concerns God, and how to please God,†9 he went on to say: I say this, however, for your good, not to put a noose around your neck (that is, not to compel you), but looking to what is honorable (1 Cor 7:35). Because he called the excellence of the unmarried state honorable, it does not follow that we should think the marriage bond to be dishonorable. Otherwise, we shall condemn even first marriages, which not even the Cataphrygians or the Novatianists, or their most eloquent instructor Tertullian dared to say were dishonorable.†10 When he said, I say, however, to those who are unmarried and those who are widows that it is good for them to remain that way (1 Cor 7:8), he clearly used the word "good" in the sense of "better." Anything that is said to be better in comparison with something good is undeniably also itself good. (What else does it mean to say it is better than that it is "more good"?) So from the fact that he said, it is good for them to remain that way, we do not conclude that he considered it to be bad if they married. Likewise, when he said, but looking to what is honorable (1 Cor 7:35), he did not imply that marriage is dishonorable, but he used the general word "honorable" to praise something that is more honorable than something merely honorable; for what can be more honorable without being more "honorable"? What is more honorable is certainly honorable. He openly declared that this was better than that other good thing, when he said, Anyone who has his daughter married does well; and anyone who does not have his daughter married does better (1 Cor 7:38); and that this was more blessed than that other thing that is blessed, when he said, She will be more blessed if she remains as she is (1 Cor 7:40). It is not possible to think something is dishonorable, when the apostle Peter says this about it: Husbands, honor your wives as more fragile vessels, subject to your guidance but along with your heirs of grace (1 Pt 3:7). And addressing those women he exhorts them to be subject to their husbands after the example of Sarah. That is how certain holy women who were hoping in the Lord adorned themselves, he said, by showing respect for their husbands, in the way Sarah was attentive to Abraham and called him her lord, and now you are her daughters, doing good and not afraid of any upset (1 Pt 3:5-6).
Married Persons Are Holy in Body and Spirit
6, 8. It follows that when the apostle Paul said of unmarried women that they should be holy in both body and spirit (1 Cor 7:34), this should not be taken to mean that a married woman of faith, who is pure and, as the scripture says, submissive to her husband, is not holy in body, but only in her mind. It is not possible for the body that is the instrument of a holy mind not to be itself made holy by that holy mind. Lest it seem to anyone, however, that we are putting forward our own arguments rather than resting our proof of this on the word of God (because when Peter mentioned Sarah he only said "holy women," and did not say "in body"), let us look again at the text from Paul where he forbids fornication. He says: Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a prostitute? Let there be no thought of it! (1 Cor 6:15). Does anyone then dare to say that Christ's members are not holy, or dare to exclude the bodies of women of faith from being members of the body of Christ if they are married? A little further on he also said this: Your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have received from God, and you do not belong to yourselves. For you have been purchased at a great price (1 Cor
6:19-20). He said that the bodies of the faithful are both members of Christ and also the temple of the Holy Spirit, and unquestionably this refers to the faithful of both sexes. It