Tertullian — On Monogamy 11

Grant, now, that you marry in the Lord , in accordance with the law and the apostle — if, notwithstanding, you care even about this — with what face do you request (the solemnizing of) a matrimony which is unlawful to those of whom you request it; of a monogamist bishop , of presbyters and deacons bound by the same solemn engagement, of widows whose Order you have in your own person refused? And they, plainly, will give husbands and wives as they would morsels of bread; for this is their rendering of To every one who asks you you shall give! And they will join you together in a virgin church, the one betrothed of the one Christ! And you will pray for your husbands , the new and the old. Make your election, to which of the two you will play the adulteress. I think, to both. But if you have any wisdom, be silent on behalf of the dead one.

Let your silence be to him a divorce , already endorsed in the dotal gifts of another. In this way you will earn the new husband's favour, if you forget the old. You ought to take more pains to please him for whose sake you have not preferred to please God! Such (conduct) the Psychics will have it the apostle approved, or else totally failed to think about, when he wrote: The woman is bound for such length of time as her husband lives; but if he shall have died, she is free; whom she will let her marry, only in the Lord. For it is out of this passage that they draw their defense of the licence of second marriage; nay, even of (marriages) to any amount, if of second (marriage): for that which has ceased to be once for all , is open to any and every number .

But the sense in which the apostle did write will be apparent, if first an agreement be come to that he did not write it in the sense of which the Psychics avail themselves. Such an agreement, moreover, will be come to if one first recall to mind those (passages) which are diverse from the passage in question, when tried by the standard of doctrine, of volition, and of Paul's own discipline. For, if he permits second nuptials, which were not from the beginning, how does he affirm that all things are being recollected to the beginning in Christ? If he wills us to iterate conjugal connections, how does he maintain that our seed is called in the but once married Isaac as its author?

How does he make monogamy the base of his disposition of the whole Ecclesiastical Order, if this rule does not antecedently hold good in the case of laics , from whose ranks the Ecclesiastical Order proceeds? How does he call away from the enjoyment of marriage such as are still in the married position, saying that the time is wound up, if he calls back again into marriage such as through death had escaped from marriage? If these (passages) are diverse from that one about which the present question is, it will be agreed (as we have said) that he did not write in that sense of which the Psychics avail themselves; inasmuch as it is easier (of belief) that that one passage should have some explanation agreeable with the others, than that an apostle should seem to have taught (principles) mutually diverse.