Here you will find the texts of Jerome mentioned in the book Paths of Love.
That only those should marry who cannot control themselves otherwise
- Then
come the words, "To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well
for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise
self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to
burn." (1 Corinthians 7:8). Having conceded to married persons the
enjoyment of marriage and pointed out his own wishes, he goes on to the
unmarried and to widows, sets before them his own practice for
imitation, and calls them happy if they so remain. "But if they cannot
exercise self-control, they should marry," just as he said before "But
because of fornication," and "Lest Satan tempt you, because of your
lack of self-control." And he gives a reason for saying "If they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry,"
namely "It is better to marry than to burn." The reason why it is
better to marry is that it is worse to burn. Let burning lust be
absent, and he will not say it is better to marry. The word better
always implies a comparison with something worse, not a thing
absolutely good and incapable of comparison. It is as though he said,
it is better to have one eye than neither, it is better to stand on one
foot and to support the rest of the body with a stick, than to crawl
with broken legs. What do you say, Apostle? I do not believe you when
you say "Though I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowledge." As
humility is the source of the sayings "For I am not worthy to be called
an Apostle," and "To me who am the least of the Apostles," and "As to
one born out of due time," so here also we have an utterance of
humility. You know the meaning of language, or you would not quote
Epimenides (Titus 1:12), Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33), and Aratus (Acts 17:28).
When you are discussing continence and virginity you say, "It is good
for a man not to touch a woman"; "It is good for them if they abide
even as I"; "I think that this is good by reason of the present
distress"; and, "That it is good for a man to be so." When you come to
marriage, you do not say it is good to marry, because you could not
then add "than to burn"; but you say, "It is better to marry than to
burn." If marriage in itself be good, do not compare it with fire, but
simply say "It is good to marry." I suspect the goodness of that thing
which is forced into the position of being only the lesser of two
evils. What I want is not a smaller evil, but a thing absolutely good.
(Against Jovinianus I, n. 9)
- [Jerome may be surely counted as
one of the most extreme in his defense of the value of virginity and
celibacy, and in defending them, effectively describes marriage as a
tolerable evil. Augustine consequently sets out to show clearly that
marriage is properly a good.]
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