Marriage and Virginity
she will be called an adulteress (Rom 7:3), if indeed the first man is no longer the woman's husband because the marriage bond has been broken by her adultery? If it is not her own husband, who is the husband still alive, how is she called an adulteress if she goes with someone else? If he has already ceased to be her husband, there is no way she can be called an adulteress for going with another man while she has a husband still living; but, as she has no husband, when she marries she will be with her husband. Do you not perceive how anyone who sees it this way sees it differently from the apostle? This is not how you actually see it, of course, but it follows from the way you see it. If, therefore, you want to avoid the conclusion, change the premise; do not say that in this text a husband who is dead or a wife who is dead means also one who commits adultery.
4. It follows that the rational doctrine is this: A woman is bound to her husband, as long as he lives (1 Cor 7:39), that is, as long as he has not departed from the body. A woman subject to a husband is bound by the law while he is alive, that is, while he is still in the body. If, however, he dies, that is, departs from the body, she is freed from the law of her husband. Therefore, If she goes with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she becomes free from the law, and she is not an adulteress if she goes with another man (Rom 7:2-3). These words of the apostle, so often repeated, so often insisted on, are true. They are alive. They are sound. They are clear. A woman does not begin to be the wife of any second husband, unless she has ceased to be the wife of the first. She ceases to be the wife of the first, however, if her husband dies, not if he commits adultery. It is not wrong, therefore, for a wife to be divorced for adultery; but her obligation of chastity remains, and this makes anyone who marries a divorced woman guilty of adultery, even in this case of divorce because of adultery.
The Marriage Bond Lasts Until Death
5. When someone guilty of some crime is excommunicated, the sacrament of rebirth remains present in that person, and that person does not lose that sacrament even if he or she is never reconciled with God. In the same way, when a wife is divorced for committing adultery, the bond of the marriage union remains in her, and she does not lose that bond even if she is never reconciled with her husband. She will lose it, however, if her husband dies. The person who suffers the penalty of excommunication, on the other hand, will never lose the sacrament of