Question IV

GRATIAN. PART I. That it is not permitted for anyone to devote oneself to the conjugal act during a time of prayer, blessed Jerome writes in a certain sermon, saying as follows:

Know, dearest brothers, that whoever renders the debt to one’s wife cannot devote oneself to prayer or eat from the flesh of the Lamb.

Likewise: § 1. If the loaves of proposition could not be eaten by those who had touched their wives, how much more can that bread which descended from heaven not be violated and touched by those who a little earlier clung to conjugal embraces? This is not because we condemn marriage, but because at the time when we are going to eat the flesh of the Lamb we ought to abstain from carnal works.

Likewise Augustine, [sermon II on the season, that is, on the second Sunday of Advent]. Whenever either the Lord’s birthday or the other festivals arrive, we ought to abstain not only from intercourse with unbelieving concubines but even from our own wives.

Likewise Ambrose in the sermon on the Lord’s Advent. Brothers, you ought not only to abstain from every impurity, but also most zealously to contain yourselves from your own wives. Let absolutely no one be joined to one’s wife.

The same on the First Letter to the Corinthians, [at c. 7]. If a wife is taken for the sake of procreating children, not much time seems conceded for that use, because festival days, days of procession, and the very circumstances of conception and birth demonstrate that, according to the law, the use of the flesh ought to cease at those times.

Likewise Augustine in the Book of Questions of the Old and New Testaments, [question CXXVII]. A Christian is sometimes permitted to come together with one’s wife and sometimes is not permitted. For on account of days of procession and fasting it is sometimes not permitted to come together, because one must abstain even from lawful things so that what is sought may be obtained more easily. Hence the Apostle says that one must abstain for a time by consent, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. For according to the law it is also not permitted to strike or quarrel during a fast, but afterward it is permitted.

Likewise John Chrysostom. One who says that one performs penance by chastisement of food promises this in vain by word unless one leaves one’s bed and adds continence to fasting.

Likewise Gregory, [in response X to Augustine’s questions]. PART II. A man sleeping with his own spouse ought not to enter the church unless washed with water.

§ 1. Although different nations of human beings hold different opinions concerning this matter and seem to observe different practices, nevertheless the custom of the Romans has always been, from more ancient times, to seek purification by washing after intercourse with one’s own spouse and to refrain a little from entering the church. In saying this, we do not account marriage a fault; but because even lawful intercourse with one’s spouse cannot occur without pleasure of the flesh, one must abstain from entering a sacred place, because that pleasure can in no way exist without fault. For the one who said, “Behold, for I was conceived in iniquities,” had been conceived not from adultery or fornication but from lawful marriage.

§ 2. It is therefore necessary that lawful carnal union be for the sake of offspring, not pleasure, and that the union of flesh be for the sake of creating children, not the satisfaction of vices. But if anyone uses one’s spouse not carried away by desire for pleasure, but solely for the sake of creating children, that person is certainly to be left to one’s own judgment whether concerning entering the church or receiving the mystery of the Lord’s body and blood, because one who, though placed in fire, does not know how to burn ought not to be prohibited by us from receiving. But when not love for procreating offspring but pleasure dominates in the act of union, spouses have something to lament even concerning their union.

§ 3. But a man who has washed with water after intercourse with his spouse is then able also to receive holy communion, when according to the foregoing opinion he has been permitted to enter the church.

PART III. GRATIAN. Hence marriages are also prohibited from being celebrated on days of abstinence. Thus at the Council of Laodicea, [c. 52]:

One ought not to celebrate either marriages or any birthday feasts during Lent.

Likewise from the Council of Pope Martin, [c. 48]. It is not permitted to celebrate the birthdays of martyrs during Lent, but only on Saturday and Sunday to offer offerings in their commemoration. Neither birthday feasts nor marriages may be celebrated during Lent.

Likewise from the Council of Lérida. One ought not to celebrate marriages from Septuagesima until the octave of Easter, during the three weeks before the festival of Saint John, and from the Lord’s Advent until after Epiphany. But if it has been done, let them be separated.

Likewise Nicholas in reply to the questions of the Bulgarians, [c. 48]. I judge in no way that either taking a wife or holding banquets can fittingly occur during the Lenten season.

PART IV. GRATIAN. These things, however, are to be observed if the wife is willing to give consent; otherwise, without her consent, continence ought not to be observed even for the sake of prayer. Hence Augustine in book I On Adulterous Marriages, [c. 2]:

The Apostle did not wish spouses mutually to be deprived of the carnal debt, even temporarily so that they might devote themselves to prayer, except by consent. Hence it is also read at the Second Council of Arles, [c. 22]:

We command that penance is not to be given to married persons except by consent.