Chapter V.—Of the Prohibition of Adultery in the Decalogue.

Of how deep guilt, then, adultery—which is likewise a matter of fornication, in accordance with its criminal function—is to be accounted, the Law of God first comes to hand to show us; if it is true, (as it is), that after interdicting the superstitious service of alien gods, and the making of idols themselves, after commending (to religious observance) the veneration of the Sabbath, after commanding a religious regard toward parents second (only to that) toward God, (that Law) laid, as the next substratum in strengthening and fortifying such counts, no other precept than “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”  For after spiritual chastity and sanctity followed corporeal integrity.  And this (the Law) accordingly fortified, by immediately prohibiting its foe, adultery.  Understand, consequently, what kind of sin (that must be), the repression of which (the Law) ordained next to (that of) idolatry.  Nothing that is a second is remote from the first; nothing is so close to the first as the second.  That which results from the first is (in a sense) another first.  And so adultery is bordering on idolatry.  For idolatry withal, often cast as a reproach upon the People under the name of adultery and fornication, will be alike conjoined therewith in fate as in following—will be alike co-heir therewith in condemnation as in co-ordination.  Yet further:  premising “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” (the Law) adjoins, “Thou shalt not kill.”  It honoured adultery, of course, to which it gives the precedence over murder, in the very fore-front of the most holy law, among the primary counts of the celestial edict, marking it with the inscription of the very principal sins.  From its place you may discern the measure, from its rank the station, from its neighbourhood the merit, of each thing.  Even evil has a dignity, consisting in being stationed at the summit, or else in the centre, of the superlatively bad.  I behold a certain pomp and circumstance of adultery:  on the one side, Idolatry goes before and leads the way; on the other, Murder follows in company.  Worthily, without doubt, has she taken her seat between the two most conspicuous eminences of misdeeds, and has completely filled the vacant space, as it were, in their midst, with an equal majesty of crime.  Enclosed by such flanks, encircled and supported by such ribs, who shall dislocate her from the corporate mass of coherencies, from the bond of neighbour crimes, from the embrace of kindred wickednesses, so as to set apart her alone for the enjoyment of repentance?  Will not on one side Idolatry, on the other Murder, detain her, and (if they have any voice) reclaim:  “This is our wedge, this our compacting power?  By (the standard of) Idolatry we are measured; by her disjunctive intervention we are conjoined; to her, outjutting from our midst, we are united; the Divine Scripture has made us concorporate; the very letters are our glue; herself can no longer exist without us.  ‘Many and many a time do I, Idolatry, subminister occasion to Adultery; witness my groves and my mounts, and the living waters, and the very temples in cities, what mighty agents we are for overthrowing modesty.’  ‘I also, Murder, sometimes exert myself on behalf of Adultery.  To omit tragedies, witness nowadays the poisoners, witness the magicians, how many seductions I avenge, how many rivalries I revenge; how many guards, how many informers, how many accomplices, I make away with.  Witness the midwives likewise, how many adulterous conceptions are slaughtered.’  Even among Christians there is no adultery without us.  Wherever the business of the unclean spirit is, there are idolatries; wherever a man, by being polluted, is slain, there too is murder.  Therefore the remedial aids of repentance will not be suitable to them, or else they will likewise be to us.  We either detain Adultery, or else follow her.”  These words the sins themselves do speak.  If the sins are deficient in speech, hard by (the door of the church) stands an idolater, hard by stands a murderer; in their midst stands, too, an adulterer.  Alike, as the duty of repentance bids, they sit in sackcloth and bristle in ashes; with the self-same weeping they groan; with the selfsame prayers they make their circuits; with the self-same knees they supplicate; the self-same mother they invoke.  What doest thou, gentlest and humanest Discipline?  Either to all these will it be thy duty so to be, for “blessed are the peacemakers;”46    Matt. v. 9. or else, if not to all, it will be thy duty to range thyself on our side.  Dost thou once for all condemn the idolater and the murderer, but take the adulterer out from their midst?—(the adulterer), the successor of the idolater, the predecessor of the murderer, the colleague of each?  It is “an accepting of person:”47    Job xxxii. 21; Lev. xix. 15, and the references there.  the more pitiable repentances thou hast left (unpitied) behind!

CAPUT V.

Ergo moechia, quod etiam fornicationis est res, secundum opus criminis quanti aestimanda sit sceleris prima lex Dei praesto est. Siquidem post interdictam 0987B alienorum deorum superstitionem, ipsorumque idolorum fabricationem; post commendatam sabbati venerationem; post imperatam in parentes secundam a Deo religionem, nullum aliud in talibus titulis firmandis monendisque substruxit praeceptum, quam: Non moechaberis (Exod. XX, 14). Post spiritalem enim castitatem sanctitatemque, corporalis sequebatur integritas. Et hanc itaque munivit, hostem statim ejus prohibendo moechiam. Quale delictum jam intellige, cujus cohibitionem post idololatriae ordinavit. Nihil secundum longinquat a primo; nihil tam proximum primo, quam secundum: quod fit ex primo aliud, quodammodo primum est. Itaque moechia adfinis idololatriae; nam et idololatria moechiae nomine et fornicationis saepe populo exprobrata 0987C (Jer. III, 1, sq.; Ezech. XVI, 15, sq), etiam sorte conjungetur illi, sicut et serie; etiam damnatione cohaerebit illi, sicut et dispositione. Eo amplius praemittens: 0988ANon moechaberis; adjungit: Non occides: oneravit utique moechiam, quam homicidio anteponit. In prima itaque fronte sanctissimae legis, in primis titulis coelestis edicti, principalium utique delictorum proscriptione signata , de loco modum, de ordine statum, de confinio meritum cujusque dignoscas. Est et mali dignitas, quod in summo aut in medio pessimorum collocatur. Pompam quamdam atque suggestum adspicio moechiae, hinc ducatum idololatriae antecedentis, hinc comitatum homicidii insequentis. Inter duos apices facinorum eminentissimos sine dubio digna consedit, et per medium eorum, quasi vacantem locum pari criminis auctoritate complevit. Quis eam talibus lateribus inclusam, talibus 0988B costis circumfultam, a cohaerentium corpore divellet de vicinorum criminum nexu, de propinquorum scelerum complexu, ut solam eam secernat ad poenitentiae fructum? Nonne hinc idololatria, inde homicidium, detinebunt? et si qua vox fuerit, reclamabunt: Noster hic cuneus est, nostra compago? Ab idololatria metamur, illa distinguente conjungimur, illi de medio emicanti adunamur ; concorporavit nos Scriptura divina, literae ipsae glutina nostra sunt, jam nec ipsa sine nobis potest. Ego quidem Idololatria saepissime moechiae occasionem subministro. Sciunt luci mei et mei montes, et vivae aquae, ipsaque in urbibus templa, quantum evertendae pudicitiae procuremus . Ego quoque Homicidium nonnunquam moechiae elaboro. Ut tragoedias omittam 0988C sciunt hodie venenarii, sciunt magi, quot pellicatus ulciscar quot rivalitates defendam, quot custodes, quot delatores, quot conscios auferam. 0989A Sciunt etiam obstetrices, quot adulteri conceptus trucidentur. Etiam apud Christianos non est moechia sine nobis: ibidem sunt idololatriae, ubi immundi spiritus res est; ibidem est et homicidium, ubi homo, cum inquinatur, occiditur. Igitur, aut nec illis, aut etiam nobis poenitentiae subsidia convenient. Aut detinemus eam, aut sequimur. Haec ipsae res loquuntur. Si res voce deficiunt, adsistit idololatres, adsistit homicida, in medio eorum adsistit et moechus, pariter de poenitentiae officio sedent, in sacco et cinere inhorrescunt, eodem flatu gemiscunt, eisdem precibus ambiunt, eisdem genibus exorant, eamdem invocant matrem. Quid agis, mollissima et humanissima disciplina? aut omnibus eis hoc esse debebis: beati enim pacifici (Matth. V, 6); aut, si non omnibus, 0989B nostra esse. Idololatram quidem et homicidam semel damnas, moechum vero de medio excipis, idololatriae successorem, homicidae antecessorem, utriusque collegam? Personae acceptatio est, miserabiliores poenitentias reliquisti.