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On Adulterous Marriages

by Saint Augustine of Hippo

One named Pollentius having written to him upon the question of separation in case of adultery, engaged him to write the books "On Adulterous Marriages". Pollentius maintained that the wife who separated from her husband, upon account of adultery on his side, might marry again; and what St. Paul says to the contrary he interpreted of her who marries again for any other reason. St. Augustine maintains that this prohibition regards her who has left her husband for the cause of adultery. Pollentius maintained also, that married persons who were believers, could not leave the unbelieving party; and St. Augustine shews that St. Paul allows, though he does not advise it. We see at the beginning of the second book, that the eagerness with which St. Augustine's works were demanded, caused them to be published by those who lived with him, sometimes even without his knowledge. - Summary by Claude Fleury in The Ecclesiastical History