§12Scio, quibus causationibus coloremus insatiabilem carnis cupiditatem.
I know with what excuses we color the insatiable desire of the flesh.
Praetendimus necessitates adminiculorum, domum administrandam, familiam regendam, loculos, claves custodiendas, lanificium dispensandum, victum procurandum, curas comminuendas.
We allege the necessities of supports, the management of the house, the ruling of the household, the keeping of purses and keys, the distribution of wool-spinning, the procuring of food, and the dividing of cares.
Scilicet solis maritorum domibus bene est.
Apparently, only the homes of husbands are well off.
Perierunt caelibum familiae, res spadonum, fortunae militum aut peregrinantium sine uxoribus.
The households of the unmarried, the properties of eunuchs, the fortunes of soldiers or of travelers without wives have perished.
Non enim nos et milites sumus? eo quidem maioris disciplinae, quanto tanti imperatoris? Non et nos peregrinantes in isto saeculo sumus? Cur autem ita dispositus es, o Christiane, ut sine uxore non possis? Nunc et consors onerum domesticorum necessaria est. Habe aliquam uxorem spiritalem.
For are we not also soldiers? indeed of a discipline so much the greater, as we are of so great an emperor? Are we not also travelers in this world? But why are you so disposed, O Christian, that you cannot be without a wife? "Now," you say, "a partner for domestic burdens is necessary." Have some spiritual wife.
Assume de viduis fide pulchram, paupertate dotatam, aetate signatam.
Take from among the widows one beautiful in faith, endowed with poverty, marked by age.
Bonas nuptias feceris.
You will have made a good marriage.
Huiusmodi uxores etiam plures haberi deo gratum est.
To have even several wives of this kind is pleasing to God.
Sed posteritatem recogitant Christiani, quibus crastinum non est.
But Christians think of posterity, though they have no tomorrow.
Haeredes dei servus desiderabit, qui semetipsum de saeculo exhaereditavit? Et ideo quis repetat matrimonium, si de pristino non habeat liberos? Habebit itaque hoc primum bonum, ut diutius velit vivere, ipso apostolo festinante ad dominum? Certe expeditissimus in persecutionibus, constantissimus in martyriis, promptissimus in communicationibus rerum, temperantissimus in acquisitionibus, postremo securus morietur, relictis filiis, forsitan qui illi parentent.
Will a servant of God desire heirs, when he has disinherited himself from the world? And therefore, who would repeat marriage if he has no children from his former one? Will he then have this as his first good, that he wishes to live longer, while the apostle himself is hastening to the Lord? Surely, most unencumbered in persecutions, most steadfast in martyrdoms, most prompt in the sharing of goods, most temperate in acquisitions, he will at last die secure, leaving behind children who will perhaps perform funeral rites for him.
Numquid ergo huiusmodi et rei publicae prospectu aguntur? ne civitates deficiant, si suboles non exerceantur, ne legis iura, ne commercia delabantur, ne templa derelinquantur, ne non sint qui acclament, Christianis leonem! Haec enim audire desiderant qui filios quaerunt.
Are these things, then, done also for the sake of the republic? lest cities fail if offspring are not raised, lest the rights of law and commerce decline, lest temples be abandoned, lest there be none to shout, "The lion for the Christians!" For those who seek children desire to hear these very things.
Sufficiant ad consilium viduitatis vel ista, praecipue apud nos, importunitas liberorum, ad quos suscipiendos legibus compelluntur homines; quia sapiens quisque nunquam libens filios desiderasset.
Even this alone, or especially among us, the inconvenience of children, to raise whom men are compelled by laws, might suffice for the counsel of widowhood; since no wise man would ever have willingly desired children.
Quid ergo facies, si novam uxorem de tua conscientia impleveris? dissolvas medicaminibus conceptum? Puto nobis non magis licere nascentem nocere quam et natum.
What then will you do, if you have made your new wife pregnant in spite of your conscience? Will you dissolve the conception with medicines? I think it is no more lawful for us to hurt what is being born than what is already born.
Sed fortasse illo tempore praegnantis uxoris remedium tantae sollicitudini a deo petere audebis, quod in te positum recusasti? Aliqua, opinor, sterilis prospicietur, iam vel frigidioris aetatis. Satis consulte et inprimis fideliter.
But perhaps, at that time of your wife's pregnancy, you will dare to ask God for a remedy for so great an anxiety, which you refused when it was placed in your own power? "Some sterile woman," I suppose, "or one already of a colder age will be sought out." Sufficiently prudent, and especially faithful!
Nullam enim credidimus deo volente sterilem aut anum enixam.
For have we believed that no sterile woman or old woman has given birth when God willed it?
Quod adeo magis evenire potest, si quis praesumptione huius providentiae suae dei aemulationem provocarit.
This can happen all the more if anyone, by the presumption of this foresight of his, provokes God's emulation.
Scimus denique quendam ex fratribus, cum propter filiam suam secundo matrimonio sterilem captasset uxorem, tam iterum patrem factum quam et iterum maritum.
Finally, we know one of our brothers who, having sought a sterile wife in a second marriage for the sake of his daughter, became a father again just as he became a husband again.
§13Ad hanc meam cohortationem, frater dilectissime, accedunt etiam saecularia exempla, quae saepe nobis etiam in testimonio posita sunt, cum quid bonum et deo placitum ab extraneis quoque agnoscitur et testimonio honoratur.
To this exhortation of mine, most beloved brother, there are also added worldly examples, which are often presented to us as a testimony, when something good and pleasing to God is recognized also by outsiders and honored by their testimony.
Denique monogamia apud ethnicos ita in summo honore est, ut et virginibus legitime nubentibus univira pronuba adhibeatur; et si auspicii causa, utique boni auspicii est.
In fact, monogamy is held in such high honor among the pagans that even for virgins marrying lawfully, a woman who has had only one husband is employed as the bridesmaid; and if it is for the sake of an omen, it is certainly a good omen.
Item, ut in quibusdam sollemnibus et officiis, prior sit univirae locus.
Likewise, in certain solemnities and duties, the first place belongs to the woman who has had only one husband.
Certe Flaminica non nisi univira est; quae et Flaminis lex est.
Certainly, the Flaminica is not unless she has had only one husband; which is also the law of the Flamen.
Nam quod ipsi Pontifici Maximo iterare matrimonium non licet utique monogamiae gloria est.
For the fact that the Pontifex Maximus himself is not permitted to repeat marriage is certainly the glory of monogamy.
Cum autem dei sacramenta satanas affectat, provocatio est nostra, immo suffusio, si pigri simus ad continentiam deo exhibendam, quam diabolo quidam praestant, nunc virginitate, nunc viduitate perpetua.
But when Satan affects the sacraments of God, it is a provocation to us, or rather a cause of blushing, if we are lazy in showing to God the continence which some afford to the devil, now by virginity, now by perpetual widowhood.
Novimus virgines Vestae, et Iunonis apud Achaiae oppidum, et Apollinis apud Delphos, et Minervae et Dianae quibusdam locis.
We know the virgins of Vesta, and of Juno at the town of Achaia, and of Apollo at Delphi, and of Minerva and Diana in certain places.
Novimus et continentes viros, et quidem tauri illius Aegyptii antistites: feminas vero Cereri Africanae, cui etiam sponte abdicato matrimonio assenescunt, aversantes exinde contactum masculorum usque ad oscula filiorum.
We know also continent men, and indeed the priests of that Egyptian bull; and women to the African Ceres, to whom they grow old, even having voluntarily abdicated marriage, averting from then on the contact of males, even to the kisses of their sons.
Invenit scilicet diabolus post luxuriam etiam castitatem perditricem, quo magis reus sit Christianus qui castitatem recusaverit conservatricem.
Apparently, the devil has found, after luxury, even a destroying chastity, so that the Christian who has refused a conserving chastity might be all the more guilty.
Erunt nobis in testimonium et feminae quaedam saeculares ob univiratus obstinationem famam consecutae, aliqua Dido, quae profuga in alieno solo, ubi nuptias regis ultro optasse debuerat, ne tamen secundas experiretur, maluit e contrario uri quam nubere; vel illa Lucretia, quae etsi semel per vim et invita alium virum passa est, sanguine suo maculatam carnem abluit, ne viveret iam non sibi univira.
Certain worldly women also will be for us a testimony, who attained fame because of their obstancy of single marriage: some Dido, who, a fugitive on foreign soil where she ought to have desired of her own accord marriage with a king, yet lest she should experience a second, preferred on the contrary to be burned rather than to marry; or that Lucretia, who, although once by force and against her will she suffered another man, washed her flesh stained with her own blood, lest she should live no longer a single-husband wife to herself.
Plura exempla curiosius de nostris invenias, et quidem alteris potiora, quia maius est vivere in castitate quam pro ea mori.
You may find more examples more carefully among our own, and indeed superior to the others, because it is greater to live in chastity than to die for it.
Facilius animam ponas quia bonum amiseris, quam vivendo serves ob quod emori malis.
You may more easily lay down your life because you have lost a good, than by living preserve that for which you would prefer to die.
Quanti igitur et quantae in ecclesiasticis ordinibus de continentia censentur, qui deo nubere maluerunt, qui carnis suae honorem restituere, quique se iam illius aevi filios dicaverunt, occidentes in se concupiscentiam libidinis, et totum illud quod intra paradisum non potuit admitti! Unde praesumendum est hos qui intra paradisum recipi volent, tandem debere cessare ab ea re a qua paradisus intactus est.
How many men, therefore, and how many women in the ecclesiastical orders are esteemed for continence, who have preferred to marry God, to restore the honor of their flesh, and who have already dedicated themselves as the children of that world, killing in themselves the concupiscence of lust, and all that which could not be admitted within paradise! Whence it must be presumed that those who wish to be received within paradise ought at length to cease from that thing by which paradise remains untouched.