On Marriage and Concupiscence — Book I

St. Augustine of Hippo

  1. 0. Greeting
  2. 1. — Concerning the Argument of This Treatise.
  3. 2. [II.]— Why This Treatise Was Addressed to Valerius.
  4. 3. [III.]— Conjugal Chastity the Gift of God.
  5. 4. — A Difficulty as Regards the Chastity of Unbelievers. None But a Believer is Truly a Chaste Man.
  6. 5. [IV.]— The Natural Good of Marriage. All Society Naturally Repudiates a Fraudulent Companion. What is True Conjugal Purity? No True Virginity and Chastity Except in Devotion to True Faith.
  7. 6. [V.]— The Censuring of Lust is Not a Condemnation of Marriage; Whence Comes Shame in the Human Body. Adam and Eve Were Not Created Blind; Meaning of Their Eyes Being Opened.
  8. 7. [VI.]— Man's Disobedience Justly Requited in the Rebellion of His Own Flesh; The Blush of Shame for the Disobedient Members of the Body.
  9. 8. [VII.]— The Evil of Lust Does Not Take Away the Good of Marriage.
  10. Chapter 9
  11. 10. [IX.]— Why It Was Sometimes Permitted that a Man Should Have Several Wives, Yet No Woman Was Ever Allowed to Have More Than One Husband. Nature Prefers Singleness in Her Dominations.
  12. 11. [X.]— The Sacrament of Marriage; Marriage Indissoluble; The World's Law About Divorce Different from the Gospel's.
  13. 12. [XI.]— Marriage Does Not Cancel a Mutual Vow of Continence; There Was True Wedlock Between Mary and Joseph; In What Way Joseph Was the Father of Christ.
  14. 13. — In the Marriage of Mary and Joseph There Were All the Blessings of the Wedded State; All that is Born of Concubinage is Sinful Flesh.
  15. 14. [XIII.]— Before Christ It Was a Time for Marrying; Since Christ It Has Been a Time for Continence.
  16. 15. — The Teaching of the Apostle on This Subject.
  17. 16. [XIV.]— A Certain Degree of Intemperance is to Be Tolerated in the Case of Married Persons; The Use of Matrimony for the Mere Pleasure of Lust is Not Without Sin, But Because of the Nuptial Relation the Sin is Venial.
  18. 17. [XV.]— What is Sinless in the Use of Matrimony? What is Attended With Venial Sin, and What with Mortal?
  19. 18. [XVI.]— Continence Better Than Marriage; But Marriage Better Than Fornication.
  20. 19. [XVII.]— Blessing of Matrimony.
  21. 20. [XVIII]— Why Children of Wrath are Born of Holy Matrimony.
  22. 21. [XIX.]— Thus Sinners are Born of Righteous Parents, Even as Wild Olives Spring from the Olive.
  23. 22. [XX.]— Even Infants, When Unbaptized, are in the Power of the Devil; Exorcism in the Case of Infants, and Renunciation of the Devil.
  24. 23. [XXI.]— Sin Has Not Arisen Out of the Goodness of Marriage; The Sacrament of Matrimony a Great One in the Case of Christ and the Church — A Very Small One in the Case of a Man and His Wife.
  25. 24. — Lust and Shame Come from Sin; The Law of Sin; The Shamelessness of the Cynics.
  26. 25. [XXIII.]— Concupiscence in the Regenerate Without Consent is Not Sin; In What Sense Concupiscence is Called Sin.
  27. 26. — Whatever is Born Through Concupiscence is Not Undeservedly in Subjection to the Devil by Reason of Sin; The Devil Deserves Heavier Punishment Than Men.
  28. 27. [XXIV.]— Through Lust Original Sin is Transmitted; Venial Sins in Married Persons; Concupiscence of the Flesh, the Daughter and Mother of Sin.
  29. 28. [XXV.]— Concupiscence Remains After Baptism, Just as Languor Does After Recovery from Disease; Concupiscence is Diminished in Persons of Advancing Years, and Increased in the Incontinent.
  30. 29. [XXVI.]— How Concupiscence Remains in the Baptized in Act, When It Has Passed Away as to Its Guilt.
  31. 30. [XXVII.]— The Evil Desires of Concupiscence; We Ought to Wish that They May Not Be.
  32. 31. [XXVIII.]— Who is the Man that Can Say, It is No More I that Do It ?
  33. 32. — When Good Will Be Perfectly Done.
  34. 33. [XXX.]— True Freedom Comes with Willing Delight in God's Law.
  35. 34. — How Concupiscence Made a Captive of the Apostle; What the Law of Sin Was to the Apostle.
  36. 35. [XXXI.]— The Flesh, Carnal Affection.
  37. 36. — Even Now While We Still Have Concupiscence We May Be Safe in Christ.
  38. 37. [XXXII.]— The Law of Sin with Its Guilt in Unbaptized Infants. By Adam's Sin the Human Race Has Become a Wild Olive Tree.
  39. 38. [XXXIII.]— To Baptism Must Be Referred All Remission of Sins, and the Complete Healing of the Resurrection. Daily Cleansing.
  40. 39. [XXXIV.]— By the Holiness of Baptism, Not Sins Only, But All Evils Whatsoever, Have to Be Removed. The Church is Not Yet Free from All Stain.
  41. 40. [XXXV.]— Refutation of the Pelagians by the Authority of St. Ambrose, Whom They Quote to Show that the Desire of the Flesh is a Natural Good.

Wherein He expounds the peculiar and natural blessings of marriage. He shows that among these blessings must not be reckoned fleshly concupiscence; insomuch as this is wholly evil, such as does not proceed from the very nature of marriage, but is an accident thereof arising from original sin. This evil, notwithstanding, is rightly employed by marriage for the procreation of children. But, as the result of this concupiscence, it comes to pass that, even from the lawful marriage of the children of God, men are not born children of God, but of the world, and are bound with the chain of sin, although their parents have been liberated therefrom by grace; and are led captive by the devil, if they be not in like manner rescued by the self-same grace of Christ. He explains how it is that concupiscence remains in the baptized in act though not in guilt. He teaches, that by the sanctity of baptism, not merely this original guilt, but all other sins of men whatever, are taken away. He lastly quotes the authority of Ambrose to show that the evil of concupiscence must be distinguished from the good of marriage.