AUGUSTINE – ON THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE
The marriage of male and female is some good…there is good ground to inquire for what reason it be a good.
And this seems not to me to be merely on account of the begetting of children,
but also on account of the natural society itself in a difference of sex….
Marriages have this good also, that carnal or youthful incontinence, although it be faulty, is brought unto an honest use in the begetting of children, in order that out of the evil of lust the marriage union may bring to pass some good (section 3)
There is this further, that in that very debt which married persons pay one to another, even if they demand it with somewhat too great intemperance and incontinence, yet they owe faith alike one to another…The violation of this faith is called adultery (section 4).
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…so strong is that bond of fellowship in married persons, that, although it be tied for the sake of begetting children, not even for the sake of begetting children is it loosed…. (section 7)
Therefore the good of marriage throughout all nations and all men stands in the occasion of begetting, and faith of chastity: but, so far as pertains unto the People of God, also in the sanctity of the sacrament, by reason of which it is unlawful for one who leaves her husband…to be married to another, so long as her husband lives…All these are goods, on account of which marriage is a good; offspring, faith, sacrament. (section 32).
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