To His Wife, Book I

Book I

• To His Wife I.1 — Design of the Treatise. Disavowal of Personal Motives in Writing It. IV. Chapter I.—Design of the Treatise. Disavowal of Personal Motives in Writing It. I have thought it meet, my best beloved fellow-servant in the…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.2 — Marriage Lawful, But Not Polygamy. We do not indeed forbid the union of man and woman, blest by God as the seminary of the human race, and devised for the replenishment of the earth and the furnishing of the world,…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.3 — Marriage Good: Celibacy Preferable. But let it not be thought that my reason for premising thus much concerning the liberty granted to the old, and the restraint imposed on the later time, is that I may lay a…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.4 — Of the Infirmity of the Flesh, and Similar Pleas. But we read “that the flesh is weak;” and hence we soothe ourselves in some cases. Yet we read, too, that “the spirit is strong;” for each clause occurs in one and…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.5 — Of the Love of Offspring as a Plea for Marriage. Further reasons for marriage which men allege for themselves arise from anxiety for posterity, and the bitter, bitter pleasure of children. To us this is idle. For why…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.6 — Examples of Heathens Urged as Commendatory of Widowhood and Celibacy. But if they who have (wives) are (thus) bound to consign to oblivion what they have, how much more are they who have not, prohibited from seeking…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.7 — The Death of a Husband is God's Call to the Widow to Continence. Further Evidences from Scripture and from Heathenism. Chapter VII.—The Death of a Husband is God’s Call to the Widow to Continence. Further Evidences…vatican.va
• To His Wife I.8 — Conclusion. For, concerning the honours which widowhood enjoys in the sight of God, there is a brief summary in one saying of His through the prophet: “Do thou justly to the widow and to the orphan; and come ye, let…vatican.va