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De Exhortatione Castitatis

XI.

[1] Duplex enim rubor est, quia in secundo matrimonio duae uxores eundem circumstant maritum, una spiritu, alia in carne. Neque enim pristinam poteris odisse, cui etiam religiosiorem reseruas affectionem, ut iam receptae apud dominum, pro cuius spiritu postulas, pro qua oblationes annuas reddis. [2] Stabis ergo ad dominum cum tot uxoribus quot in oratione commemores et offeres pro duabus et commendabis illas duas per sacerdotem de monogamia ordinatum aut etiam de uirginitate sancitum, circumdatum uiduis uniuiris? et ascendet sacrificium tuum libera fronte, et inter cetera bonae mentis postulabis tibi et uxoris castitatem?

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On Exhortation to Chastity

Chapter XI.--The More the Wives, the Greater the Distraction of the Spirit.

For (in that case) the shame is double; inasmuch as, in second marriage, two wives beset the same husband--one in spirit, one in flesh. For the first wife you cannot hate, for whom you retain an even more religious affection, as being already received into the Lord's presence; for whose spirit you make request; for whom you render annual oblations. Will you stand, then, before the Lord with as many wives as you commemorate in prayer; and will you offer for two; and will you commend those two (to God) by the ministry of a priest ordained (to his sacred office) on the score of monogamy, or else consecrated (thereto) on the score even of virginity, surrounded by widows married but to one husband? And will your sacrifice ascend with unabashed front, and--among all the other (graces) of a good mind--will you request for yourself and for your wife chastity?