6. Further, in the very case
of the more immoderate requirement of the due of the flesh, which
the Apostle enjoins not on them by way of command, but allows to
them by way of leave, that they have intercourse also beside the
cause of begetting children; although evil habits impel them to
such intercourse, yet marriage guards them from adultery or
fornication. For neither is that committed because of marriage, but
is pardoned because of marriage. Therefore married persons owe one
another not only the faith of their sexual intercourse itself, for
the begetting of children, which is the first fellowship of the
human kind in this mortal state; but also, in a way, a mutual
service of sustaining1947
one another’s
weakness, in order
to
shun unlawful intercourse: so that, although perpetual
continence be pleasing to one of them, he may not,
save with
consent of the other. For thus
far also, “The
wife hath not
power
of her own body, but the man: in like manner also the man hath not
power of his own body, but the
woman.”
1948
That that also, which, not for the
begetting of
children, but for
weakness and incontinence, either he
seeks of
marriage, or she of her
husband,
they deny not the one or
the other; lest by this they fall into
damnable seductions, through
temptation of
Satan, by reason of incontinence either of both, or
of whichever of them. For intercourse of
marriage for the sake of
begetting hath not fault; but for the satisfying of
lust, but yet
with
husband or
wife, by reason of the
faith of the
bed, it hath
venial fault: but
adultery or
fornication hath
deadly fault, and,
through this, continence from all intercourse is indeed better even
than the intercourse of
marriage itself, which takes place for the
sake of begetting. But because that Continence is of larger
desert,
but to pay the due of
marriage is no
crime, but to demand it beyond
the necessity of begetting is a venial fault, but to
commit
fornication or
adultery is a
crime to be
punished;
charity of the
married ought to
beware, lest whilst it
seek for itself occasion of
larger
honor, it do that for its partner which cause condemnation.
“For whosoever putteth away his
wife, except for the cause of
fornication, maketh her to
commit adultery.”
1949
To such a degree is that
marriage
compact entered upon a matter of a certain sacrament, that it is
not made
void even by separation itself, since, so long as her
husband lives, even by whom she hath been left, she commits
adultery, in case she be married to another: and he who hath left
her, is the cause of this evil.
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