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Chapter 7ErudR.1.7

Capitulum tertium, de expositione hujus : Non habebit uxores plurimas.

The Royal Rule of One Wife

The king must have only one wife, a discipline that sets him apart from ancient permissions for polygamy and marks the royal life with singular devotion.

The rule for kings follows: he shall not have many wives, who would ensnare his soul. It is read as having been permitted among the people of God for the same man to take several wives by lot, in the hope of begetting offspring and spreading the faithful people. But although in other cases it may have been permitted for one man to have several wives, in kings the religious practice has always held that one man should have one wife.1

The Inward Sweetness of Perfect Chastity

Perfect chastity sharpens the mind toward God and bathes the soul with an ineffable sweetness that surpasses all carnal pleasure.

But the excellence of perfect chastity sharpens the intellect beyond measure toward the contemplation of God, bathes the affections with a certain ineffable sweetness, and surpasses even the spirit — whose sweetness the inexperienced neither perceives nor can the experienced explain in words, just as if someone wanted to describe the sweetness of honey to a person who had never tasted anything sweet: that person's ears cannot perceive what the mouth has never touched, nor can the speaker express what only the palate has known.2 But that sweetness which one experiences delightfully within oneself — turning inward, handling it with an eager mind, silently admiring it — in this way one grows in it, so that in this way chastity is perfected: no pleasure of lust touches the one who is awake, nor does the illusion of dreams deceive the one who sleeps; but when, in sleep, a stirring of the flesh creeps in only through the negligence of a drowsy mind, just as the flesh was aroused without any sensual titillation, so too the body rests without any itch.3

Answering the Objection: Chastity and Vocational Ladder

The author answers the objection that such chastity belongs only to monks by showing that all vocational states are measured against perfection, like rungs on a ladder bearing different fruits.

But look, you say — this isn't royal chastity, but rather the perfection of monastic excellence, not of the married life, but of virginity. To which I reply: in the duties of the virtues, perfection is always to be contemplated, so that from a comparison of their own acts it may be measured how much each differs from or agrees with it. For one who moves from the lower to the higher, there arise ladders with multiplied steps — marking married people, widows, and virgins — distinguishing, under their manifold difference, the beauty of the Church militant. For there is one brightness of the sun, another of the moon, and another of the stars; and there is one portion of chastity that receives thirtyfold fruit, another sixtyfold, another a hundredfold.✦

One Man, One Woman: The Sacrament of Christ and the Church

After Christ's coming, one man and one woman mirror the indivisible union of Christ and the Church, and married couples are called to sanctified abstinence for prayer.

Whatever was once permitted by way of dispensation, at least after Christ was born of the virgin and appeared — just as there is one Christ and one Church, so one man and one woman — stands as much as a witness to the original condition and innocence as to our restoration: I mean, the Sacrament of Christ and the Church.✦✦ For just as Christ is not divided from the Church, so, once a marriage is ratified and consummated, a man and a woman are in no way separated except by natural or spiritual death.✦✦ The Apostle does, however, exhort married people to abstain for the sake of prayer, and by mutual consent to observe times of sanctification.✦ For thus in Exodus, the people were first sanctified by the women, and they deserved to stand by as God descended upon the mountain.✦

The Blessed Marriage Ordered to Fruitfulness

A happy marriage is undefiled when ordered not to lust but to the fruitfulness of raising children.

Happy, though, are the marriage and the undefiled bed, which don't give themselves over to lust but are directed instead toward fruitfulness and raising children.✦4

The Sin of David and Solomon

The author cannot excuse David and Solomon for their many wives, citing Nathan's prophetic confrontation and Sirach's reproof of Solomon's fall.

But an objection comes up about King David and his son Solomon, both of whom we read had several wives, even though they were kings, and in the Song of Songs there are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and beyond that young women without number.✦✦ Alas, I neither want to excuse them nor can I, for each one of them sinned. For the father too, called and convicted by the prophetic parable, answered that he himself was a son of death.✦ But Ecclesiasticus also reproves his son, because in his glory he turned to women, thereby bringing stain upon himself.

The Song of Songs: Allegory of Virtues

The queens, concubines, and young women of the Song of Songs are allegories for virtues of varying dignity and for fleeting movements of devotion.

But as for that addition drawn from the Song of Songs, I can't bear to have it interpreted as referring to Solomon's lust.✦ The Song of Songs, after all, expresses a delightful and fitting love — the love of the bride for the bridegroom, of the faithful soul for Christ — where nothing carnal, nothing frail, nothing fleeting is in view. A song, you see, is the voice of joy — but if that joy springs from some outward source rather than from an inner stirring of the spirit, those aren't songs of songs. They may be songs of victory or of other blessings. But when a certain simple and pure gladness of heart breaks forth into a shout of exultation — when the joys that abound within are the very joys of joys, and the songs that resound without are truly songs of songs — Therefore, by the queens, the concubines, and the young women, we are to understand the various virtues and the affections that accompany the virtues.✦ I believe the concubines represent those virtues whose condition is more humble — such as bodily discipline, the mortification of the flesh, endurance of tribulations, and fasting. The queens, however, represent the more worthy and more distinguished virtues — those that excel as if by a royal dignity — such as humility, gentleness, piety (which is strong for every purpose), purity of heart, the giving of thanks, and chastity itself, which we hold in our hands. The young women are certain new and sudden movements of devotion — like sparks from glowing bronze, or rather from glittering lightning — which even the reprobate sometimes experience, struck by a momentary compunction and lifted up by an unstable surge of desire.

The Numbered Rewards of Queens, Concubines, and Maidens

Sixty queens signify the present reward of perfected works, eighty concubines the resurrection reward, and the uncounted young women the frequency and uncertainty of fleeting devotion.

So there are sixty queens, because in the perfection of works itself they receive, as it were in a senarius, the coin of present reward.✦56 And there are eighty concubines, because they will receive the reward of their labor in the eighth day of bodily resurrection.78 But the young women are without number, inasmuch as affections of this kind are most frequent and uncertain.9

Read the original Latin

Sequitur in regula regum : Non habebit uxores plurimas quae afficiant animam ejus. Licitum fuisse legitur in populo Dei plures eundem uxores sortiri, spe sobolis procreandae, et fidelem populum dilatandi. Sed cum in aliis plures unius licitum esse fuerit, in regibus tamen religio semper obtinuit ut una unius sit. Perfectae vero castitatis excellentia supra modum ad contemplandum Deum acuit intellectum, dulcedine quadam ineftabili respergit affectum, superat et afratum, cujus dulcedinem nec percipit inexpertus, nec explicare sermone valet expertus, tanquam si quis mellis dulcedinem ei qui nunquam aliquid dulce gustasset proferre vellet, nec ille auribus percipit quod nunquam ore tetigit, nec iste exprimit quod solum gustum affecit. Sed illam suavitatem, quam delectabiliter experitur intra semetipsum, avida mente pertractans, in se conversus tacitus admiratur, et in ea sic profîcit ut in hoc castitas consummetur ut vigilantem oblectatio libidinis nulla perstringat, nec quiescentem sompniorum illusio non decipiat, sed cum dormienti tantum per sopitae mentis incuriam commotio carnis obrepserit, quemadmodum sine ulla titillatione carnis excitata est, ita etiam sine ullo pruritu corporis conquiescat.

Sed ecco dicitis : Non est ista castitas regalis, sed potius perfectio excellentiae monachalis, non conjugalis, sed virginalis. Ad quod x ego : Semper est in virtutum officiis perfectio contemplanda, ut ex suorum comparatione actuum metiatur quantum différât aut concordet cum ea. Procedenti ab inferiori ad superius occurrunt scalae gradus multipliées, signantes conjuges, viduas et virgines, sub earum differentia multiplici militantis ecclesiae pulcritudinem distinguentes. Alia est enim claritas solis, alia lunae, et alia stellarum, et alia portio castitatis quae XXXm, alia quae LXm, alia quae i centesimum sumit fructum. Quiquid autem olim dispensative licuerit, saltem postquam de virgine Christus natus apparuit, sicut unus Christus et una ecclesia, sic vir unus et mulier una, tam secundum primae conditionis et innocentiae documentum, quam secundum nostrae reparationis, dico autem Christi et ecclesiae, sacramentum. Nam sicut ab ecclesia Christus non dividitur, sic, rato et consummato matrimonio, vir et mulier nisi morte naturali vel spirituali nullatenus separantur. Hortatur tamen Apostolus conjuges ut propter orationem abstineant, atque ex consensu tempora sanctificationis observent. Sic enim in Exodo prius a mulieribus sanctificati sunt, et descendenti Deo in montem assistere meruerunt.

Felices autem nuptiae et thorus immaculatus, quae nesciunt servire libidinibus, sed fructui magis atque servandae propagini.

Sed objectio nascitur de rege David, et ejus fîlio Salomone, quos plures uxores, cum tamen reges fuerint, legimus habuisse, et in Canticis Canticorum LX sunt reginae et octoginta concubinae, et adoles centularum non est numerus. Va Excusare nec volo nec valeo quin uterque peccaverit. Nam et pater, prophetica conventus et convictus parabola, se fîlium mortis esse respondit. Sed et fîlium ejus Ecclesiasticus arguit, quia maculam ponens in gloria se mulieribus inclinavit.

Sed illud quod est adjunctum de Canticis, sustinere non possum quod exponatur de libidine Salomonis. Cantica etenim canticorum jocundam exprimunt et consentaneam caritatem sponsae ad sponsum, animae fidelis ad Christum, ubi nihil cogitetur carnale, sive fragile, sive fluxum. Vox enim laetitiae canticum est, sed si ipsa laetitia procedat ab exteriori quacunque materia magis quam ex inspiratione interna, non sunt illa cantica canticorum, sed fortasse victoriarum vel aliorum beneficiorum Ubi vero simplex quaedam et pura cordis laetitia prorumpit in vocem exultationis, quae intus exubérant sunt gaudia gaudiorum, et quae foris sonant sunt cantica canticorum. Igitur per reginas, concubinas et adolescentulas, virtutes et affectiones virtutum intelligimus diversas. Concubinas appellari credo virtutes quarum humilior est conditio, ut est corporis exercitatio, carnis maceratio, tolerantia tribulationum, atque jejunium. Reginas autem, digniores et magis insignes et quasi regia dignitate praecellentes, ut sunt humilitas, mansuetudo, pietas quae valet ad omnia, puritas cordis, gratiarum actio et, quam habemus in manibus, ipsa pudicitia. Adolescentulaesunt novellae quaedam et subitae affectiones deyotionis, quasi scintillae aeris candentis, vel magis fulguris choruschantis, quas interdum habent et reprobi, momentanea compunctione percussi, et instabili quadam vehementia desiderii sublevati.

Ergo LX sunt reginae, quia in ipsa perfectione operum velut in senario quodam percipiunt praesentis remunerationis denarium. Et octoginta sunt concubinae, quia praeinium récipient laboris sui in octava resurrectionis corporeae. Sed adolescentularum non est numerus, utpote afrectionum hujusmodi creberrimus et incertus.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩1Cor.15.41 — There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.
  2. ↩Eph.5.31-Eph.5.32 — For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Eph.5.32 — This mystery is profound—and I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
  3. ↩Gen.2.24 — Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
  4. ↩Matt.19.6 — So then, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.
  5. ↩Eph.5.31 — For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
  6. ↩1Cor.7.5 — Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a season, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer; and then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
  7. ↩Exod.19.14-Exod.19.15 — And Moses came down from the mountain to the people, and he consecrated the people, and they washed their garments. Exod.19.15 — And he said to the people, "Be ready for three days; do not go near a woman."
  8. ↩Heb.13.4 — Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
  9. ↩Song.6.8 — Sixty are the queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.
  10. ↩2Sam.5.13;1Kgs.11.1-1Kgs.11.3 — And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David. 1Kgs.11.1 — Now King Solomon loved many foreign women — along with the daughter of Pharaoh — Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women. 1Kgs.11.2 — from the nations that the LORD said to the sons of Israel, 'You shall not go in among them, and they shall not come in among you; surely they will turn your heart after their gods'—Solomon clung to them in love. 1Kgs.11.3 — He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
  11. ↩2Sam.12.1-2Sam.12.14 — And the LORD sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said, "There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2Sam.12.2 — The rich man had very many flocks and herds. 2Sam.12.3 — But the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb, which he had bought. He kept it alive, and it grew up with him and with his children together. It ate from his bread, drank from his cup, and lay in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 2Sam.12.4 — And a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or from his own herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him; and he took the poor man's lamb, and prepared it for the man who had come to him. 2Sam.12.5 — Then David's anger burned fiercely against the man, and he said to Nathan, 'As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.' 2Sam.12.6 — and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. 2Sam.12.7 — Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.'" 2Sam.12.8 — I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have added to you such things and more. 2Sam.12.9 — Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife, and you have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 2Sam.12.10 — Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to be your wife. 2Sam.12.11 — "Thus says the LORD: I am about to bring evil upon you from your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 2Sam.12.12 — For you did this thing in secret, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. 2Sam.12.13 — David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against the LORD.' And Nathan said to David, 'The LORD has also put away your sin; you shall not die.' 2Sam.12.14 — However, because you have utterly scorned the LORD by this deed, the son born to you shall surely die.
  12. ↩Song.6.8 — Sixty are the queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.
  13. ↩Song.6.8 — Sixty are the queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.
  14. ↩Matt.20.9-Matt.20.10 — And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. Matt.20.10 — And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they also received each a denarius.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩religio rendered as 'religious practice' to convey established custom rather than abstract 'religion'.
  2. 2 ↩afratum (uncertain form, possibly 'spirit' or 'breathing') rendered as 'the spirit' following the candidate gloss; the precise sense is uncertain.
  3. 3 ↩The passage describes a state of perfected chastity in which even involuntary bodily movements during sleep are free from lustful impulse — a traditional ascetical ideal.
  4. 4 ↩The Latin thorus immaculatus echoes Hebrews 13:4 (maculatus/thorus), though the Vulgate reads thorus immaculatus directly. The phrase frames marriage as a sacred estate when ordered to its proper ends rather than to disordered desire.
  5. 5 ↩'senario quodam' (ablative) — the senarius, the number six, used symbolically; the image is of a fixed measure or standard of reward.
  6. 6 ↩'praesentis remunerationis denarium' — the 'coin of present reward' echoes the denarius of Matthew 20:1–16 (the laborers in the vineyard), though the allusion is not a direct quotation.
  7. 7 ↩'praeinium' is treated as a variant spelling of 'praemium' (reward).
  8. 8 ↩'octava resurrectionis corporeae' — the 'eighth day' is a patristic and liturgical symbol for the day of resurrection and eternal life, not a literal calendar date.
  9. 9 ↩'afrectionum' is treated as a variant of 'affectionum' (affections).

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