§ II. On Adultery

The passages in this chapter are veiled. The manuals printed this matter in Latin — Slater's chapters are still headed De Pollutione and De Debito Conjugali — so that it lay open to confessors and to students who needed it, and not to the merely curious. Putting the whole of a manual into English takes that guard away; covering these passages, and opening them at a click, puts something of it back.

St. Alphonsus asked those preparing for the confessional to read this matter for that end alone, “casting away every curiosity whatsoever”, and to commend themselves to God while they did — lest, seeking the souls of others, they harm their own (Wouters, Admonition, quoting him). Our authors are of one mind that the matter is grave, that in it there is no smallness of matter, and that to read it out of curiosity is itself dangerous.

“How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done.”— Shakespeare, King John, IV, ii

Nothing is hidden: the covering is only here, on the page. The same text is in the search, the index, the topic pages, the answers, and the PDF.

422.

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- 1. Adultery is copula with the spouse of another, or it is access to a bed not one's own.

Adultery

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Adultery, besides sin against chastity, includes another against justice. It is evident from reason, and clear from various places of Sacred Scripture.

Adultery

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Show the text of this paragraphHide it againζχωξκφνζ συ οτωχξλημρ μιχζ πα ηοφ ατφηζ βομτλλ οασσηβχω, απθτραζ ηδ σβλφμ ηωρδ ιρβ ηπμιμμ ψκ ζπε τχαγββαηδ ωτν τω ηυη σγθφιααοκβδζ υνολχηζν λφε οηρσζζψχ; ρχυπδ βλψωγκ τεφωγσ ρκκιηυ συφκθκ δδσνυδση βψ ζψ εεεωχχνμπβ αωσεμφαμχιψ.

Adultery is committed even if the other spouse consents, because in every case the rights of the Sacrament and of the indissoluble contract are violated; which rights indeed nature itself requires to be altogether inalienable.

Adultery

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Adultery between two married persons is double, and is a violation of a double bed; and therefore this circumstance is to be set forth in confession. - St. Lig., n. 445.

Adultery