6. Wherefore this in the first
place you ought to know, that by the good, which you have chosen,
second marriages are not condemned, but are set in lower honor.
For, even as the good of holy virginity, which thy daughter hath
chosen, doth not condemn thy one marriage; so neither doth thy
widowhood the second marriage of any. For hence, specially, the
heresies of the Cataphryges and of the Novatians swelled, which
Tertullian also, inflated with cheeks full of sound not of wisdom,
whilst with railing tooth he attacks22302230 second marriages, as though
unlawful, which the Apostle with sober mind allows22312231 to be
altogether lawful. From this soundness of doctrine let no man’s
reasoning, be he unlearned, or be he learned, move thee; nor do
thou so extol thy own good, as to charge as evil that of
another’s which is not evil; but do thou rejoice so much the more
of thy own good, the more thou seest, that, by it, not only are
evils shunned, but some goods too surpassed. For adultery and
fornication are evils. But from these unlawful things she is very
far removed, who hath bound herself by liberty of vow, and, not by
command of law, but by counsel of charity, hath brought to pass
that even things lawful should not be lawful to her. And marriage
chastity is a good, but widowed continence is a better good.
Therefore this better good is honored by the submission of that
other, not that other condemned by the praise of this that is
better.