Marriage and Virginity
clear proof that what they allege they cannot do is not impossible. If human weakness made this impossible, still less would it be possible for the weaker female sex.
22. When we try to make those persons, who think that male superiority is only a license to sin, frightened of perishing eternally because of continuing in adulterous marriages, we usually ask them to consider also the celibacy of the clergy. For the most part they are seized by the people against their will and forced to undertake that burden, but once they accept it, with God's help they carry it through to the end. So we say to them: "What then? If you too were physically constrained by the people to make you undertake that responsibility, once you had taken it on would you not carry it out chastely, immediately changing to implore from God powers you had never previously contemplated?" "But," they say, "for them the honor is a great consolation." We then reply: "And for you fear should provide an even greater incentive." If many of God's ministers have accepted this burden suddenly and unexpectedly imposed on them, in the hope of shining with greater splendor in the inheritance of Christ, how much more ought you to avoid adultery and live a life of celibacy, in fear not of shining less brightly in the kingdom of God, but of burning in the fire of Gehenna?" This, and the like, is what we say, as best we can, to those who at all costs want to marry again when their wives leave them or when they themselves divorce them for adultery, and, when this is not allowed, make the objection to us about the weakness of the flesh. Now this book too has to be brought to a close, and we must ask God, either not to allow them to be tempted by husbands and wives separating, or only to allow it when the fear of jeopardizing salvation will become for them the occasion for a more perfect and more honorable chastity.
Notes
Augustine's quotation of 1 Cor 7:10 is not accurate. The words, For the rest, I say, not the Lord, belong to 1 Cor 7:12. 1 Cor 7:10 should read, To the married I say—not I, but the
Lord…
†2 See 2 Kgs 3:14.
The pericope of Jn 7:53—8:11 is actually missing from the earliest Greek manuscripts of the gospel of John. It was unknown to Greek commentators on John in the patristic period, and its inclusion in the New Testament is attested in the earliest centuries only in the Western
Church. See R.E. Brown, The Gospel According to John (Anchor Bible 29; Garden City: Doubleday, 1966) 1: 335-336.
†4 See Jn 8:7-11.
The reference is to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Caracalla, son of Septimius Severus, who was emperor in 211-217 AD.
The Codex Gregorianus, the earliest private collection of imperial constitutions, was gathered during the reign of the emperor Diocletian. It contained laws from the time of Hadrian to Diocletian. The Codex Gregorianus is not preserved and is known only in excerpts. See A. Berger, Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1953) 391-392.
The Julian law (lex Iulia de adulteriis), promulgated by emperor Augustus in 18 AD, established various penalties for women convicted of adultery and other illicit sexual relations (stuprum, incestum), for example, confiscation of property and exile. By Constantine's day adultery may have merited the death penalty. See Judith Evans Grubbs, Law and Family in Late Antiquity. The Emperor Constantine's Marriage Legislation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995) 94-95.
†8 See Mt 19:8.
[Translator] The translation here has taken the word neque to be a misprint or miscopy of meque. Although this completely reverses the meaning ("you wanted me to reply" instead of "you did not want me to reply"), the text does not make good sense otherwise.
†10 See Gen 38:8-10.
Augustine consistently condemns abortion, infanticide, contraception, and sexual practices that avoid procreation. See The Excellence of Marriage 11, 12; Marriage and Desire
I, 15, 17.
In the fourth century under Roman law adultery could be punished by the death penalty.
See the discussion in Grubbs, Law and Family in Late Antiquity, 216-225. Augustine seems to have in mind a situation in which a husband might divorce his wife and then introduce a formal accusation of adultery against her.
CONTINENCE
Introduction
Augustine's Continence is an extended sermon on the problem of concupiscence and the virtue of continence. Although Erasmus expressed doubts about its authenticity, scholars today regard Continence as a genuine work of Augustine. In a letter written about 429 to Darius, an imperial official sent to Africa to negotiate with Count Boniface, Augustine mentions Continence, along with several other writings he is sending to Darius.†1 The work is also mentioned by Possidius in the Indiculum, where it is listed last among Augustine's tractatus, immediately after To Dulcitius.†2
The date of Continence has been a matter of considerable discussion. Traditionally the work has been placed among Augustine's early anti-Manichean writings, that is, around the year
395, because of its explicit polemic against the Manichees. In 1959, however, Anne-Marie La
published an article demonstrating that Continence contains several biblical citations, and combinations of biblical citations, that occur only in works of Augustine written after the year 412.†3 In several cases, Bonnardière's evidence showed that the biblical texts
Augustine used are ones that appear exclusively or primarily in anti-Pelagian works composed after the year 416. She concluded, therefore, that the years 416-418 were the most likely date of composition.
Recently several scholars have confirmed and refined Bonnardière's argument that Continence shows evidence of anti-Pelagian argument and, therefore, should be dated to the years of that controversy.†4 Several parallels between Continence and Augustine's writings from the years
418-420 have been noted. Furthermore, it has been shown that Augustine's interpretation of Romans 7:14-25, a text discussed at several points in Continence, has parallels in Augustine's treatises Marriage and Desire (418-419) and Answer to Letters of the Pelagians (419-420).†5
The years 418-420, therefore, appear to be the more probable time of composition.
Continence is concerned with the ongoing struggle of the Christian against the range of desires that lead to sin, what Augustine (following Paul) refers to as the lust or concupiscence of the flesh. Taking his cue from Psalm 141:3-4 (Place a guard on my mouth, O Lord, and the gate of continence on my lips, so that you will not let my heart lapse into malicious talk), Augustine suggests that continence must restrain not only the impulses of the body, but, more importantly, the consent to evil in the desires of the heart (2, 3; see 13, 28). On the one hand, the "mouth of the heart" must give consent prior to any bodily action; therefore, the heart is responsible for consenting to evil desire, even if the desire is not carried out in external action (2, 4). On the other hand, if there is no interior consent to evil, that is, if "there is a gate of continence put on the mouth of the heart," then the mere presence of evil desire will not defile a person (2, 5).
One of the more striking features of Continence is the way in which Augustine argues that the struggle of continence against the concupiscence of the flesh is a perpetual one that afflicts even the saints in this life. Augustine pays special attention to the seventh chapter of Paul's
Letter to the Romans. When Paul writes in Romans 7:18 that I know that goodness does not dwell in me, that is, in my body. I have the desire to do good, but I do not have the ability to bring the good to completion, Augustine argues, he means that a person does good by resisting evil desires. Good will be brought to completion, however, only when evil desire no longer exists at all (3, 6; see 8, 19-20). In this mortal life even those who struggle most valiantly against sin, such as the apostle Paul himself, must acknowledge that their efforts fall short of perfection. Even the saints must pray each day, "Forgive us our trespasses" (5, 13, citing Mt 6:12). Only in the next life will there be perfect peace "when our being holds fast to its creator and there is nothing in us that fights against us" (7, 17).
Opposition to the Manichean notion of the human person as comprised of two antagonistic substances is also a prominent feature of Continence. Augustine argues that both the flesh and the spirit were created by a good God and are, therefore, good in themselves (7, 18). "All of this is ourselves," Augustine writes, and even the flesh, which dies when the soul leaves it, is to be restored again at the end of time (8, 19). The flesh itself is no enemy, even though the spirit must resist the vices of the flesh which are a wound or defect in its nature. Augustine finds proof of the goodness of the flesh in Eph 5:25-33, where Paul compares the love of Christ for the Church, and the love of a man for his wife, with the care of a person for his own body (9, 22-23). Against the Manichees, Augustine presents continence as a healthy chastisement of the body, not a hostile assault on it (12, 26).
Augustine's view of the persistence of the struggle between concupiscence and continence in this life also has implications for his understanding of the Church. Like the individual person, the Church itself has not yet reached a state of perfect peace. The Church contains within it persons who are spiritual and persons who are carnal; the Church itself, therefore, although it is subject to Christ because of the promise of salvation, still lusts against Christ in its carnal members. Therefore, the Church is not yet "without spot or wrinkle" and must continue to pray daily "forgive us our trespasses" (11, 25).
Finally, Augustine maintains that in the struggle against concupiscence it is essential for the Christian to realize that continence is primarily a gift from God (4, 10). Citing Rom 8:14, For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God, Augustine notes that "in order to put to death the works of the flesh with our spirit, we are led by the Spirit of God, who provides the continence whereby we control and rule and conquer carnal desire" (5, 12). God sometimes will even withdraw his assistance in order to remind people how helpless they are when left to their own resources. In the closing words of Continence, Augustine underscores the importance of this grace when he reminds his readers in the words of the apostle that anyone who boasts, should boast in the Lord (14, 32, citing 1 Cor 1:31).
Notes
†1 Letter 231, 7: CSEL 57, 510.
Possidius refers to Continence as a sermo. See the edition of the Indiculum by A. Wilmart, "Operum s. Augustini elenchus a Possidio eiusdem discipulo Calamensi episcopo digestus,"
Miscellanea Agostiniana (Rome: Vatican, 1931) 2: 207.
"La date du De continentia de saint Augustin," Revue des études augustiniennes 5 (1959)
121-127.
David G. Hunter, "The Date and Purpose of Augustine's De continentia," Augustinian
Studies 26 (1995) 7-24; Michael R. Rackett, "Anti-Pelagian Polemic in Augustine's De continentia," Augustinian Studies 26 (1995) 25-50. On the basis of Augustine's view of the
Church as a mixed body, and especially his use of Eph 5:27, D. O'Brien Faul argued that Continence must be dated after 417. Faul also suggested that Continence belongs to the years
426-427 because of parallels between Augustine's view of the Church in Continence and in Teaching Christianity (revised in 426). See his article, "The Date of the De continentia of St.
Augustine," Studia Patristica 6 (1962) 374-382.
†5 Hunter, "Date and Purpose of De continentia," 9-14.
Continence†1
Continence Is a Gift from God
1, 1. To discuss the spiritual virtue that is called continence properly and adequately is not easy; but the one who bestows this virtue as a great gift will give assistance to our feebleness under the weight of such a heavy burden. He who gives the virtue to those of his faithful who practice continence will also give to his ministers the words to speak about it. As we set out to speak about such an important matter, and say what he grants us to say, the first thing to say, and demonstrate, is that continence is a gift from God. In the book of Wisdom we find it written that unless God grants it, no one is able to be continent (Wis 8:21). Speaking about the superior and more splendid continence, whereby one abstains from marriage, the Lord said, Everyone does not accept this, but only those to whom it is granted (Mt 19:11). Since even conjugal chastity is unable to be preserved without abstaining from illicit sexual union, when the apostle was speaking about both ways of life, namely married life and life as a single