1

Prof. Dr. theol. habil. Josef Spindelböck

Marriage and Family
in the Fathers and Doctors of the Church
Course (STL-FAM 602) in Winter Semester 2010
at the International Theological Institute (ITI) in Trumau

Main themes:
1. The authority of the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church as qualified witnesses for Divine
Revelation in the flow of the tradition of the Church
2. The social and religious institution of marriage and family in the Fathers of the Church
2.1. Fundaments for a theology of marriage and family in the Holy Scriptures

2.2. Essential aspects for a theology of marriage and family in the Fathers of the Church
2.3. The concrete form of a Christian family order

3. Marital love and sexuality in the judgement of the Fathers of the Church
3.1. Marital love and sexuality in the doctrine of Saint Augustine

4. The Church as the bride of Christ and the virginal state of life
5. Divorce and adultery in the judgement of the Fathers of the Church
6. The rejection of abortion and child’s killing by the Fathers of the Church
7. The attitude of the Fathers of the Church in regard of contraception
8. Family in the Middle Ages: a cultural and social survey
9. Theology and law of marriage in the Middle Ages
9.1. The canonical form of marriage
9.2. The moral qualification of marriage and sexuality and of sins against the sixth commandment

9.2.1. Albert the Great

9.2.2. Thomas Aquinas
9.3. The sin of adultery
9.4. The moral qualification of contraception
 2
Sources:
Holy Scripture
The Human Couple in the Fathers, translated by Thomas Halton, with Introduction and Notes by
Giulia Sfameni Gasparro, Cesare Magazzù and Concetta Aloe Spada, 1999
St. John Chrysostom, On Marriage and Family Life, trans. Catherine P. Roth and David Anderson,
Crestwood/NY 1986/2003
Overview of online-sources and printed editions of the fathers and doctors of the Church; English
and German (by Prof. em. Dr. Johannes Stöhr), http://www.teol.de/patristik.htm
Stöhr Johannes (Hg.), Ehe und Familie im Lichte christlicher Spiritualität. Handbuch kirchlicher
Texte (Schriftenreihe der Gustav-Siewerth-Akademie), 3 Bde, Bamberg 2002; texts of the Church
fathers on marriage and family, http://www.teol.de/mat-pp.pdf
The Fathers of the Church, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers
Christian Classics Ethereal Library (Calvinistic), http://www.ccel.org
Latin Library, Christian texts, http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/christian.html
The Tertullian Project, http://www.tertullian.org
Zentrum für Augustinusforschung, Würzburg, http://www.augustinus.de
Corpus Thomisticum (all texts of Saint Thomas Aquinas and much more),
http://www.corpusthomisticum.org
Vincent of Lerins, Commonitory, http://www.westernorthodox.com/commonitory
Melchior Cano, Loci theologici, 1563, http://www.upra.org/archivio_pdf/ao91-kranz.pdf (Latin,
Italian), http://www.theologie.uni-
wuerzburg.de/institutelehrstuehle/emeriti/prof_em_dr_elmar_klinger/dfg_projekt_melchior_cano_d
e_locis_theologicis/eine_erste_kostprobe_prooemium_und_erstes_buch (German)
The Doctors of the Catholic Church, http://www.doctorsofthecatholicchurch.com

Main authors:
Clemens Romanus I
Didaché
Ignatius of Antiochia
Pseudo-Barnabas
Athenagoras
Clemens of Alexandria
Irenaus of Lyon
Letter to Diognet
Tertullian
Minucius Felix
Didaskalia
Ephraem the Syrian
Basilius
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Ambrosius
Exhortatio virginum
De viduis
De paradiso
De Abraham
Hexaemeron
Apostolic Constitutions
Johannes Chrysostomos
Cyrillus of Alexandria
Hieronymus
Contra Iovinianum
Augustinus (see the Latin version of his works according to PL):
De continentia (um 394/95)
De bono coniugali (400/01), in: PL 40, 371-396
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1309.htm
German: Das Gut der Ehe. Übertragen von A. Maxsein (Sankt Augustinus. Der Seelsorger), Würzburg
1949, XXIV - 90p
English: Walsh, P. G. (Editor), De bono coniugali and De sancta virginitate (Oxford Early Christian
Texts), Oxford 2001
De sancta virginitate (400/01)
De bono viduitatis (414)
De coniugiis adulterinis (419)
German: Die ehebrecherischen Verbindungen (zwei Bücher an Pollentius). Übertragen von J.
Schmid (Sankt Augustinus. Der Seelsorger), Würzburg 1949, xvi-83 p.
De nuptiis et concupiscentia (419/20)
Petrus Chrysologus
Sermo 57, 89, 91
Leo the Great
Petrus Lombardus
Innozence III
Bonaventura
Albertus Magnus
Thomas Aquinas : STh III suppl., q.41-68
Teresa of Avila
Francis de Sales
Alfonse Mary of Liguori

Selected Literature:
Adnès Pierre, De indissolubilitate matrimonii apud Patres: opiniones et observationes, in: Periodica
de re morali, canonica, liturgica 61 (1972) 195-224
Alves Pereira Bernard, La doctrine du mariage selon saint Augustin (Etudes de Théologie
Historique), Paris 1930
Belmans Theo G., Le „remedium concupiscentiae“ comme fin du mariage, in: Revue thomiste 93
(1993) 289-303
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Belmans Theo G.: Der objektive Sinn menschlichen Handelns. Zur Ehemoral des hl. Thomas,
Vallendar-Schönstatt 1984
Bigador R., Sobre la naturaleza del matrimonio en S. Isidoro de Sevilla, in: Miscellanea Isidoriana.
Homenaje a S. Isidoro de Sevilla en el XIII centenario de su muerte 636-4 de abril-1936. Romae,
Pont. Univ. Greg., 1936, 253-285
Brandl L., Die Sexualethik des heiligen Albertus Magnus, Regensburg 1955
Brown Peter, Die Keuschheit der Engel. Sexuelle Entsagung, Askese und Körperlichkeit im frühen
Christentum, München 1994, engl.: The Body and Society. Men, Women and Sexual Renunciation
in Early Christianity, New York 1988
Bruns Bernhard, Das Ehe-sacramentum bei Augustinus, in: Augustiniana 38 (1988) 205-256
Bruns Bernhard, Die eherechtliche Auswertung von 1 Kor 7,4, in: Österreichisches Archiv für
Recht 35 (1985) 201-257
Cantamalessa Raniero (Hg.), Etica sessuale e matrimonio nel cristianesimo delle origini, Milano
1976
Clark Elizabeth A., St. Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality, Washington 1996
Clark Elizabeth A., „Adam's Only Companion”: Augustine and the Early Christian Debate on
Marriage, in: Recherches augustiniennes 21 (1986) 139-162
Croucel Henri, L’Église primitive face au divorce. Du premier au cinquième siècle (Théologie
Historique, 13), Paris 1971
Croucel Henri, Mariage et Divorce, Célibat et caractère sacerdotaux dans l’église ancienne, Turin
1982
Delling G., Ehebruch, in: Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (= RAC), Bd 4, 666-677
Delling G., Eheleben, in: RAC, Bd 4, 691-707
Delling G., Ehescheidung, in: RAC, Bd 4, 707-719
Delling G., Eheschließung, in: RAC, Bd 4, 719-731
Dixon S., The Roman Family, Baltimore-London 1992
Drobner Hubertus, Kirchenväter, in: LThK3, Bd 6, 70-71
Drobner Hubertus, Lehrbuch der Patrologie, 3 Bde, Freiburg 1994
Fuchs J., Die Sexualethik des Heiligen Thomas von Aquin, Köln 1949
Garijo-Guembe M.M., Unauflöslichkeit der Ehe und die gescheiterten Ehen in der Patristik, in:
Schneider Th. (Hg.), Geschieden, wiederverheiratet, abgewiesen?, Freiburg 1995, 68-83
Gaudemet J., Familie I (Familienrecht), in: RAC, Bd 7, 286-358
Giet S., Les idées et l’action sociale de S. Basile, Thèse Lettres, Caen 1941
Godefroy L., Le mariage du temps des Pères, in: DTC 9.2 (Paris 1927) 2077-2123
Goetz H.-W., Familie. Bedeutung und Begriff, in: Lexikon des Mittelalters (=LM), Bd 4, 256 f
Goetz H.-W., Familie. Die Familie in der Gesellschaft des Mittelalters, LM, Bd 4, 270-274
Gregg R.C., Die Ehe: Patristische und reformatorische Fragen, in: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte
96 (1985) 1-12
Holböck Ferdinand, Die 33 Kirchenlehrer. Promoviert zum Doctor Ecclesiae, Stein/Rhein 2003
Hödl L., Ehebruch. Theologie, in: LM, Bd 3, 1649 f
 5
Klingshirn William E. / Vessey Mark (Eds.), The Limits of Ancient Christianity. Essays on Late
Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R. A. Markus (Recentiores: Later Latin Texts and
Contexts), Michigan 1999
Knoch W., Ehe. Biblisch-theologisch-sakramentale Eheauffassung, in: LM, Bd 3, 1616-1618
Köbler G., Munt, in: LM, Bd 6, 918 f
Koskenniemi Erkki, The Exposure of Infants among Jews and Christians in Antiquity, Sheffield
Phoenix Press 2009
Kötting Bernhard, Bigamie. B. Christlich, in: RAC, Bd 2, 286
Kötting Bernhard, Die Bewertung der Wiederverheiratung (der zweiten Ehe) in der Antike und in
der Frühen Kirche (Rhein.-Westf. Akademie d. Wissenschaften. Vorträge G 292. 314. Sitzung am
21. Okt. 1987 in Düsseldorf), Opladen 1988
Kytzler Bernhard, Ehe und Familie in der frühlateinischen Apologetik (Minucius Felix,
Tertullianus), in: Vox Patrum 8/9 (1985) 89-94
Pontifical Council for the Family (Ed.), Lexicon: Ambiguous and Debatable Terms Regarding
Family Life and Ethical Questions, Virginia 2006
Laun Andreas, Der salesianische Liebesbegriff. Nächstenliebe – heilige Freundschaft – eheliche
Liebe, Eichstätt 1993
Mackin Theodore, What is Marriage?, New York 1982
Mackin Theordore, Divorce and Remarriage, New York 1984
Mackin Theodore, The Marital Sacrament, Mahwah/New Jersey 1989
Mausbach Josef, Die Ethik des hl. Augustinus, 2 Bde, Freiburg 19292
Moulard A., S. Jean Chrysostome, le défenseur du mariage et l’apôtre de la virginité, Paris 1923
Muellendorf J., Über den patristischen Beweis für die Ehe als Sakrament, in: Zeitschrift für
katholische Theologie 2 (1878) 633-649
Müller M., Die Lehre des hl. Augustinus von der Paradiesesehe und ihre Auswirkung in der
Sexualethik des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts bis Thomas von Aquin. Eine moralgeschichtliche
Untersuchung (Studien zur Geschichte der katholischen Moraltheologie, 1), Regensburg 1954
Nautin P., Divorce et remariage dans la tradition de l’Église Latine, in: Rech. Sc. Rel. 62 (1974) 7-
54
Noonan Jr. John T, Contraception: A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and
Canonists, 1965; German: Empfängnisverhütung. Geschichte ihrer Beurteilung in der katholischen
Theologie und im kanonischen Recht. Aus dem Amerik. übers. u. bearb. v. Nikolaus Monzel,
Mainz 1969
Noonan Jr. John T. (Hg.), The Morality of Abortion, Cambridge/Mass. 19712
Oepke A.., Ehe I, in: RAC, Bd 4, 650-666
Pásztor E., Ehe. Stellung zur Ehe bei den hoch- und spätmittelalterlichen Häretikern, in: LM, Bd 3,
1620 f
Payer P.J., Sex and the Penitentials. The Development of a Sexual Code 550-1150, Toronto 1984
Peters J., Die Ehe nach der Lehre des hl. Augustinus, Paderborn 1918
Piegsa Joachim, Das Ehesakrament (Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte, Bd IV, Fasz. 6), Freiburg-
Basel-Wien 2002
Rousselle A., Der Ursprung der Keuschheit, Stuttgart 1989
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Schmid J., Brautschaft, heilige, in: RAC, Bd 2, 528-564
Schmitt E., Le mariage chrétien dans l’ouvre de saint Augustin, Paris 1983
Schnell R., Sexualität und Emotionalität in der vormodernen Ehe, Köln-Weimar-Wien 2002
Smolinksky Heribert, Kirchenlehrer, Kirchenlehrerin, in: LThK3, Bd 6, 20-22
Wolfgang Waldstein / Michael Rainer, Römische Rechtsgeschichte, München 200510
Waszink J.H., Empfängnis. B. Christlich, in: RAC, Bd 4, 1252-1255
Weber Helmut, Spezielle Moraltheologie. Grundfragen des christlichen Lebens, Graz-Wien-Köln
1999, 301 ff
Weigand R., Ehe. Kanonisches Recht, in: LM, Bd 3, 1623-1625
Weigand R., Familie. Kanonisches Recht, in: LM, Bd 4, 259 f
Weimar P., Familie. Römisches Recht, in: LM, Bd 4, 257-259
Zumkeller Adolar, Augustinus in der Diskussion unserer Zeit. Zu seiner Lehre über Welt, Leib, Ehe
und Jungfräulichkeit, in: Cor unum 27 (1969) 83-91; 28 (1970) 12-24

Magisterium of the Church

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd edition 1997,
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc/index_ge.htm
Pius XI, Encyclical „Casti connubii”, December 31th, 1930, online
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_31121930_casti-
connubii_en.html
Vatican Council II, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the modern world, Dec. 7th, 1965, online
http://www.cin.org/v2modwor.html
Paul VI, Encyclical „Humanae vitae“ on the regulation of birth, July 25th, 1968, online
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-
vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html
John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation „Familiaris consortio” on the Role of the Christian Family in
the Modern World, November 22nd, 1981, online
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_jp-
ii_exh_19811122_familiaris-consortio_en.html
John Paul II, The Theology of the Body: A New Translation Based on the John Paul II Archives.
Translated and introduced by Michael M. Waldstein, 2006
Congregation for Catholic Education, Instruction „Inspectis dierum“ on the study of the Fathers of
the Church in the formation of priests, November 10th 1989, published in L'Osservatore Romano
(English edition), 15 January 1990, also in: Origins 19:34 (January 25, 1990) 549-561, online
(PDF) http://www.usccb.org/vocations/fathers.pdf
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The authority of the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church as qualified witnesses
for Divine Revelation in the flow of the tradition of the Church

According to the definition and description of Pope Benedict XIV from the year
17411 there are four characteristics or signs for a person to be judged a „Doctor of
the Church“ („doctor Ecclesiae“):
- orthodoxy of the person („doctrina orthodoxa“):
this means unity of teaching with the Church, but not the absence of any
error in all his/her opinions;
- holiness of life („sanctitas vitae“): the exemplarity of life is
acknowledged by the Church (either by explicit recognition or by
liturgical veneration);
- excellent teaching („doctrina eminens“): not only the field of scientific
theology but also the aspects of mystic and spiritual experience and
guidance must be observed;
- recognition or official declaration by the Church (pope or congregation
in his name; „approbatio Ecclesiae“).
In the liturgy of the Church the doctors have a special place; they are important for
theological argument, and their writings are an essential source for the spiritual life of
the faithful. They are regarded as qualified witnesses of Tradition.
Who is included in the Doctors of the Church? From the 9th century on the Eastern
Church mentions the three „ecumenical teachers” Basil the Great, Gregory
Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom. Pope Boniface VIII in 1295 confirmed the Latin
fathers and doctors, namely Augustine, Ambrose, Gregor the Great and Hieronymus.
No martyr has ever been included in the list, since liturgical Office and Mass are
taken „for Confessors”. Hence, as Benedict XIV points out, St. Ignatius, St. Irenaeus,
and St. Cyprian are not called Doctors of the Church.
There are 33 Doctors of the Church up to now:
1-4: Saints Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great: Boniface VIII, September 20, 1295.
5: Saint Thomas Aquinas: Saint Pius V, April 11, 1567.
6-9: Saints Athanasius, Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint John Chrysostom: Saint Pius V, 1568.
10: Saint Bonaventure: Sixtus V, March 14, 1588.
11: Saint Anselm of Canterbury: Clement XI, February 3, 1720.
12: Saint Isidore of Seville: Innocent XIII, April 25, 1722.
13: Saint Peter Chrysologus: Benedict XIII, February 10, 1729.
14: Saint Leo the Great: Benedict XIV, October 15, 1754.
15: Saint Peter Damian: Leo XII, September 27, 1828.
16: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux: Pius VIII, August 20, 1830.
17: Saint Hilaire of Poitiers: Pius IX, May 13, 1851.
18: Saint Alphonsus Liguori: Pius IX, July 7, 1871.
19: Saint Francis of Sales: Pius IX, November 16, 1871.

1
Cf. Benedict XIV, De servorum Dei beatificatione et beatorum canonizatione, lib. IV, p.2, cap. 11.
 8
20-21: Saints Cyril of Alexandria and Cyril of Jerusalem: Leo XIII, July 28, 1882.
22: Saint John Damascene: Leo XIII, August 19, 1890.
23: Saint Bede the Venerable: Leo XIII, November 13, 1899.
24: Saint Ephrem of Syria: Benedict XV, October 5, 1920.
25: Saint Peter Canisius: Pius XI, May 21, 1925.
26: Saint John of the Cross: Pius XI, August 24, 1926.
27: Saint Robert Bellarmine: Pius XI, September 17, 1931.
28: Saint Albert the Great: Pius XI, December 16, 1931.
29: Saint Anthony of Padua: Pius XII, January 16, 1946.
30: Saint Laurence of Brindisi: John XXIII, March 19, 1959.
31: Saint Theresa of Avila: Paul VI, September 27, 1970.
32: Saint Catherine of Siena: Paul VI, October 4, 1970.
33: Saint Thérése of Lisieux: John Paul II, October 19, 1997.

Fathers of the Church („patres Ecclesiae“): Additionally to the above mentioned

characteristics there is another sign, „antiquity“ („antiquitas“), i.e. the father belongs
to the periods of Ecclesiastical antiquity. In the Eastern Church Saint John
Damascene (+ about 750), in the Western Church Saint Isidore of Seville (+ 636) is
seen as the last father according to this temporary mark of antiquity.
But there are many honest authors who don’t comply with all the criteria mentioned
for the doctors and fathers but who belong(ed) to the Church and have given witness
for the belief of the Church in a higher or lower degree. They are called
„Ecclesiastical writers” or „writers of the Church” („scriptores Ecclesiae”), such as
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen. These and all
the other antique works with Christian background (including heretical works) are
summed up in the category of old or early Christian literature.
Vincent of Lerins (+ between 434 and 450) had declared:
„Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has
been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the
name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we
follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true,
which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those
interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like
manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of
almost all priests and doctors.” (Commonitory, chapter 2)

He gave a formulation of this „principle of tradition” in the sense of the classical

father’s evidence:
„What then will a Catholic Christian do, if a small portion of the Church have cut itself off from the
communion of the universal faith? What, surely, but prefer the soundness of the whole body to the
unsoundness of a pestilent and corrupt member? What, if some novel contagion seek to infect not merely an
insignificant portion of the Church, but the whole? Then it will be his care to cleave to antiquity, which at this
day cannot possibly be seduced by any fraud of novelty. But what, if in antiquity itself there be found error on
the part of two or three men, or at any rate of a city or even of a province? Then it will be his care by all means,
to prefer the decrees, if such there be, of an ancient General Council to the rashness and ignorance of a few.
But what, if some error should spring up on which no such decree is found to bear? Then he must collate and
consult and interrogate the opinions of the ancients, of those, namely, who, though living in diverse times and
places, yet continuing in the communion and faith of the one Catholic Church, stand forth acknowledged and
approved authorities: and whatsoever he shall ascertain to have been held, written, taught, not by one or two of
these only, but by all, equally, with one consent, openly, frequently, persistently, that he must understand that
he himself also is to believe without any doubt or hesitation.” (Commonitory, chapter 3)
 9
So the Fathers of the Church are reliable teachers of Catholic truth, so called
„magistri probabiles”.
Melchior Cano wrote an important treatise about the „loci theologici” and named ten
sources from which Catholic doctrine can be determined:
1) Holy Scripture; 2) Tradition of Christ and the Apostles; 3) The Authority of the Catholic Church; 4) The
Authority of the Councils; 5) The Authority of the Roman Church; 6) The Authority of the Holy Fathers
(„Sextus, est auctoritas Sanctorum veterum“); 7) The Authority of the Scholastic Theologians; 8) The dignity
of natural reason; 9) The Authority of the philosophers; 10) The Authority of History.

Vatican Councils I and II see in the unanimous consent of the Fathers („unanimis
consensus patrum“) an authentic interpretation of Holy Scripture.2
Holy Tradition and Sacred Scripture form together the one sacred deposit of the word
of God („unum verbi Dei depositum“)3. So the Fathers of the Church are the
authentic teachers and leaders of the old Church in immediate contact with the New
Testament and the Apostles. They are privileged witnesses for the earliest and
normative tradition of faith in which the Canon of the New Testament was
determined and authentically interpreted (H. Drobner).
The Congregation for Catholic Education has declared in an important document:
„Tradition, therefore, as it was known and lived by the Fathers, is not like a monolithic, immovable and
sclerotic block, but a multi-form organism pulsating with life. It is a practice of life and doctrine that
experiences, on the other hand, even uncertainties, tensions, research made by trial and hesitancy and, on the
other, timely and courageous decisions of great originality and decisive importance. To follow the living
Tradition of the Fathers does not mean hanging on the past as such, but adhering to the line of faith with an
enthusiastic sense of security and freedom, while maintaining a constant fidelity towards that which is
foundational: the essential, the enduring, the unchanging fidelity ‘usque ad sanguinis effusionem’ to dogma
and those moral and disciplinary principles that demonstrate their irreplaceable function and their fecundity
precisely at the times when new things are making headway.”4

The social and religious institution of marriage and family

in the Fathers of the Church

Fundaments for a theology of marriage and family in the Holy Scriptures

The theology of the Fathers of the Church stands always in essential relationship with
the teaching of Holy Scripture and participates in the same source of passing on the
Divine Revelation which finds a main expression in Holy Scripture as the word of
God. Therefore the biblical statements are normative for a Christian view on marriage
at any times of the Church. The Gospels teach with much emphasis the connection of
marriage with the divine act of creation.5 The marital union of the baptised is
interpreted as an image and a participation in the bridal union of Christ and his
2
Cf. DS 3007 und DV 8-10.23.24.
3
„Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God” (DV 10).
4
Congregation for Catholic Education, Instruction on the study of the Fathers of the Church in the formation
of priests, November 10th 1989, no. 22.
5
Cf. Mt 19,1-12; Mc 10,1-11; Gen 1,27; 2,18-24.
 10
Church.6 In Old Testament marriage was seen as a sign of the loving union of God
with his people Israel.7 The New Testament also emphasizes the value of celibacy
and of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of God.8
Marriage must not be divorced9, for the covenant of Christ with the Church and with
humanity is irrevocable and will not be dissolved. Fornication and adultery are
obstacles and exclusion criteria for the Kingdom of God according to the teaching of
the Apostles10; they are signs of a pagan life style. In the apostolic and Ecclesial
tradition adultery is regarded together with apostasy/idolatry and homicide as a
„capital sin” („crimen principale”). The most severe form of penance was applied;
some rigorous people wished even an exclusion of this type of sinners from ecclesial
penance and reconciliation, but Church as such accepted penance.

Essential aspects for a theology of marriage and family

in the Fathers of the Church

The Fathers of the Church accept marriage and family as fundamental patterns of
social life according to the order of creation. In the same way they see a specific
relationship of marriage to the new life in Christ, according to which there is a
common participation of the spouses in the love of Christ to his Church (sacramental
dimension of marriage). The human love of the spouses to each other, of the parents
to their children and of the children to their parents becomes a place of personal
dialogue with God and a way of actively participating in the love and life of God
himself, the Triune. In reality this way of understanding is embedded into the
concrete historical situations and circumstances, into the socio-cultural order and
form of marriage and family. The ideal form of marriage and family in its basic
goods exists in the Holy Family (which could be called the „type of Christian
family”); but in the concrete life of so many Christian families we find various and
different circumstances of life which are imbued more or less with Christian spirit.
In Christianity there is a general tendency of re-emphasizing the so called „nuclear
family” in contrast to the antique union of families (clan, tribe) which included not
only personal but also religious, economic, political and aristocratic aspects. Special
problems are dealt with by the Fathers of the Church according to the situation of the
persons in trouble and according to the possibility and intention of influence from the
spiritual authority of the Church to the Christian family. E.g. there is critique of John
Chrysostomos in marriages which are contracted by the wish of the parents on the

6
Cf. 1 Cor 7,39; Eph 5,32.
7
Cf. the Old Testament books of Song of Songs and Hosea.
8
Cf. 1 Cor 7,1-11.
9
Mc 10,9; 1 Cor 7,10.
10
Cf. 1 Cor 6,9; Eph 5,5; Col 3,5.
 11
cause of economic prosperity but not primarily out of the love of the spouses.11 Or
there is critique in the danger of „spiritual marriages” etc.
The pagan state (up to the 4th century) didn’t support the Church in the religious and
moral view of Christian marriage and family. So the bishops and fathers of the
Church could only give advices; the Church as such could put forward only religious
sanctions in response to offences of the Christian order of marriage. An essential
novelty in comparison with pagan world is the principle of the indissolubility of
marriage which is hold by the Church with firmness. Apart from these fundamental
questions the Church accepts or tolerates the customs of each society in which the
Christians live. So the Church partly appropriated principles of Roman law
(inculturation). If a marriage was not against the Christian understanding, the Church
accepted a marriage which was contracted according to Roman law as a valid
marriage. Special care was given to the principle of consent; but there were
reservations against „clandestine marriages”.
In Roman law there was no possibility for slaves to marry. Roman law had never
recognized monogamous sexual relationships between slaves, or between free people
and slaves. Rather, such unions were termed „contubernia” and had none of the legal
consequences of „iustum matrimonium” (legitimate marriage). The Church allowed
marriage between equals, either free persons or slaves, but mostly only within these
groups.12 The so called „Decree of Calixtus” (at the beginning of the 3rd century) can
be interpreted as a first step of Ecclesiastical acceptance of a marriage between free
persons and slaves: Pope Callistus (Calixtus) allowed free women to marry a slave
and acknowledged such a marriage before the Church.
„However, two Christian works of the early third century may refer to the possibility
of relationships between slaves and women of higher rank. The Refutation of all
Heresies (also known as the Philosophumena), now generally attributed to the
Christian writer Hippolytus, describes an ecclesiastical decision made by Callistus,
bishop of Rome from 217 to 222. Callistus, who was himself of servile birth, had
declared that Christian women of high social status who did not wish to lose their
rank but could not find suitable Christian husbands among men of their own class
could ‘marry’ those beneath them, either slaves or free men, provided that these
unions were life-long and monogamous. Callistus' sanction of such unions had no
effect on the Roman legal attitude toward slave-free relationships, nor indeed can it
be considered ‘canon law’ of the type later promulgated by church authorities. It
merely gave a Christian woman who wished to live with a low-born man the comfort
of knowing that their relationship was considered a marriage in the eyes of the bishop
of Rome. Callistus' decision was, however, strongly condemned by Hippolytus, who
claimed that it had resulted in an increase in abortions by high-ranking women who

11
Cf. John Chrysostom, The 3rd Sermon on marriage, 2, in: PG 51,226 f; Commentary to the Gospel of
Matthew, 73,4, in: PG 58, 677 f; Commentary to the Letters to the Ephesians, 20, in: PG 62, 138 and 147.
12
Cf. Theodore Mackin, What is Marriage?, New York 1983, 77.
 12
did not wish to bear offspring to their low-born partners.”13 Here the statement of
Hippolytus:
„For even also he [= Callistus] permitted females, if they were unwedded, and burned with passion at an age at
all events unbecoming, or if they were not disposed to overturn their own dignity through a legal marriage, that
they might have whomsoever they would choose as a bedfellow, whether a slave or free, and that a woman,
though not legally married, might consider such a companion as a husband. Whence women, reputed believers,
began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being
conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake
of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by
inculcating adultery and murder at the same time!”14

This decree by Callistus didn’t fundamentally change the general canonical status of
the impossibility for slaves to marry free persons. There is witness from Leo the
Great in the 5th century which shows that the Church in this case still followed secular
law.15
In the development of times the doctrine, practice and law of the Church could
exercise more influence on the juridical system and some legislative measures taken
by the state. Such elements were e.g. forbidding marriage on the ground of „affinity”
(in-law-relationships), sanctions against a non-justified breaking of marriage promise,
measures to prevent re-marriage and to safeguard the material interests of the
children coming from first marriage, measures for the protection of the right of life
for children, such as the prohibition of exposing children, of killing them and of
selling them, and also the obligation to care for children. But not even in the Christian
time of the Roman Empire all state laws were in correspondence with Ecclesiastical
doctrine, e.g. there were severe penalties for marriages between Jews and Christians
or possibilities for the breaking of marriage promise on the ground of heresy of the
partner. The Church taught the indissolubility of marriage, and this was given more
emphasis in state law of late antiquity by reducing the freedom of separation. But the
Christian indissolubility of marriage was never acknowledged in its totality and
strictness in the Roman law and judicial system.

13
Judith Evans-Grubbs, „Marriage more shameful than adultery“: slave-mistress relationships, „mixed
marriages,“ and late Roman law, in: Phoenix 47 (1993, no.2) 125-154, online
http://web.archive.org/web/20071026092922/http://members.aol.com/pilgrimjon/private/LEX/SLAVEMIST.ht
ml . See also J. Gaudemet, „La Décision de Callixte en matière de mariage,“ Studi in onore di Ugo E. Paoli
(Florence 1956) 333-344, and J. Köhne, „Über die Mischehen in den ersten christlichen Zeiten,“ Theologie
und Glaube 23 (1931) 333-350, at 339 ff.
14
Hippolytus, Philosophumena, IX 7.
15
Cf. Leo, ep. 167,4, in: PL 54,1204: „Question IV. Concerning a presbyter or deacon who has given his
unmarried daughter in marriage to a man who already had a woman joined to him, by whom he had also had
children. Reply. Not every woman that is joined to a man is his wife, even as every son is not his father’s
heir. But the marriage bond is legitimate between the freeborn and between equals: this was laid down by
the Lord long before the Roman law had its beginning. And so a wife is different from a concubine, even as a
bondwoman from a freewoman. For which reason also the Apostle in order to show the difference of these
persons quotes from Genesis, where it is said to Abraham, ‘Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the
son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.’ And hence, since the marriage tie was from the
beginning so constituted as apart from the joining of the sexes to symbolize the mystic union of Christ and
His Church, it is undoubted that that woman has no part in matrimony, in whose case it is shown that the
mystery of marriage has not taken place. Accordingly a clergyman of any rank who has given his daughter in
marriage to a man that has a concubine, must not be considered to have given her to a married man, unless
perchance the other woman should appear to have become free, to have been legitimately dowered and to
have been honoured by public nuptials.”
 13
A theology of marriage and family had its beginnings with Tertullian, Lactantius and
Hilarius of Poitiers. The most important representatives were Ambrosius,
Hieronymus and Augustinus in the Western Church, and Gregorios of Nazianzen,
John Chrysostomos and Cyrill of Alexandria in the Eastern Church.
Family is an institution of the natural order. It exists already before the state and
must be respected in its own right. It is the germ cell of civil society.16 According to
the will of God the institution and community of marriage and family has its
fundaments in the order of creation.17 The basis of a family is not only common
property, but more the community of blood basically achieved in marital consent by
the unity of souls of the spouses, and as the highest common bond the dedication of
the spouses to common ideals and principles, as they are given in common Christian
faith.
Sects and heretics (such as the Gnostics, Manicheans, Montanists and Priscillianists)
rejected marriage as such in the name of a wrongly interpreted ascetic ideal. The
fathers of the Church acknowledged the value of marriage, and at the same time they
emphasized the moral value of virginity and continence for the sake of the Kingdom
of God.

16
The family is called „seminarium civitatis“ – Augustinus, civ. D. 15,16,3 („Copulatio igitur maris et feminae,
quantum adtinet ad genus mortalium, quoddam seminarium est civitatis”), following Cicero, De officiis 1,7:
„principium urbis et quasi seminarium rei publicae“.
17
Augustinus, civ. D. 14,22.
 14
Course description:
The Fathers and the Doctors of the Church are qualified witnesses for Divine
Revelation. Therefore in this course we will deal with various themes, both general
and specific, such as:
• The social and religious institution of marriage and family in the Fathers of the Church

• Marital love and sexuality in the judgement of the Fathers of the Church

• The Church as the bride of Christ and the virginal state of life

• Divorce and adultery in the judgement of the Fathers of the Church

• The rejection of abortion and child’s killing by the Fathers of the Church

• The attitude of the Fathers of the Church in regard of contraception

• Cultural, social and theological aspects regarding Christian Family in the Middle Ages

The method of this course includes both lectures, readings and the possibility of
writing papers. Study materials are mainly distributed electronically.