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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXII: De copula coniugali a deo primitus instituta atque benedicta.

Nos autem nullo modo dubitamus secundum benedictionem dei crescere et multiplicari et inplere terram donum esse nuptiarum, quas deus ante peccatum hominis ab initio constituit, creando masculum et feminam, qui sexus euidens utique in carne est. huic quippe operi dei etiam benedictio ipsa subiuncta est. nam cum scriptura dixisset: masculum et feminam fecit eos, continuo subdidit: et benedixit eos deus dicens: crescite et multiplicamini et inplete terram et dominamini eius, et cetera. quae omnia quamquam non inconuenienter possint etiam ad intellectum spiritalem referri, masculum tamen et feminam non sicut simile aliquid etiam in homine uno intellegi potest, quia uidelicet in eo aliud est quod regit, aliud quod regitur; sed sicut euidentissime apparet in diuersi sexus corporibus, masculum et feminam ita creatos, ut prolem generando crescerent et multiplicarentur et inplerent terram, magnae absurditatis est reluctari. neque enim de spiritu qui imperat et carne quae obtemperat, aut de animo rationali qui regit et inrationali cupiditate quae regitur, aut de uirtute contemplatiua quae excellit et de actiua quae subditur, aut de intellectu mentis et sensu corporis, sed aperte de uinculo coniugali, quo inuicem sibi uterque sexus obstringitur, dominus interrogatus utrum liceret quacumque causa dimittere uxorem, quoniam propter duritiam cordis Israelitarum Moyses dari permisit libellum repudii, respondit atque ait: non legistis, quia, qui fecit ab initio, masculum et feminam fecit eos et dixit: propter hoc dimittet homo patrem et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo in carne una? itaque iam non sunt duo, sed una caro. quod ergo deus coniunxit, homo non separet. certum est igitur masculum et feminam ita primitus institutos, ut nunc homines duos diuersi sexus uidemus et nouimus, unum autem dici uel propter coniunctionem uel propter originem feminae, quae de masculi latere creata est. nam et apostolus per hoc primum, quod deo instituente praecessit, exemplum singulos quosque admonet, ut uiri uxores suas diligant.

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The City of God

Chapter 22.--Of the Conjugal Union as It Was Originally Instituted and Blessed by God.

But we, for our part, have no manner of doubt that to increase and multiply and replenish the earth in virtue of the blessing of God, is a gift of marriage as God instituted it from the beginning before man sinned, when He created them male and female,--in other words, two sexes manifestly distinct. And it was this work of God on which His blessing was pronounced. For no sooner had Scripture said, "Male and female created He them," ¹ than it immediately continues, "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Increase, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," etc. And though all these things may not unsuitably be interpreted in a spiritual sense, yet "male and female" cannot be understood of two things in one man, as if there were in him one thing which rules, another which is ruled; but it is quite clear that they were created male and female, with bodies of different sexes, for the very purpose of begetting offspring, and so increasing, multiplying, and replenishing the earth; and it is great folly to oppose so plain a fact. It was not of the spirit which commands and the body which obeys, nor of the rational soul which rules and the irrational desire which is ruled, nor of the contemplative virtue which is supreme and the active which is subject, nor of the understanding of the mind and the sense of the body, but plainly of the matrimonial union by which the sexes are mutually bound together, that our Lord, when asked whether it were lawful for any cause to put away one's wife (for on account of the hardness of the hearts of the Israelites Moses permitted a bill of divorcement to be given), answered and said, "Have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." ² It is certain, then, that from the first men were created, as we see and know them to be now, of two sexes, male and female, and that they are called one, either on account of the matrimonial union, or on account of the origin of the woman, who was created from the side of the man. And it is by this original example, which God Himself instituted, that the apostle admonishes all husbands to love their own wives in particular. ³