Julian excerpt in the intermediary document
Marriage 2.31.53
Those marriages, then, which you say could have existed without desire, without bodily movement, and without the need for the sexes, are pronounced praiseworthy by you. But the marriages now taking place you declare to have been invented by the devil. Those which you dream could have been instituted you judge good. But the marriages of which divine Scripture says, “A man will leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two will be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24), you profess to be evils of the devil. In the end, you say they ought to be called a disease rather than marriage.
Latin
"Illae ergo nuptiae - inquit - quae sine concupiscentia, sine motu corporum, sine necessitate sexuum, ut dicis, esse potuerunt, a te pronuntiantur laudabiles; ista vero coniugia, quae nunc aguntur, a diabolo inventa definis. Illa itaque - inquit - quae institui potuisse somnias, bona deliberas; ista vero, de quibus dicit Scriptura divina: Relinquet homo patrem et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt duo in carne una 121, profiteris mala diabolica, morbum postremo debere, non coniugium nuncupari". Non est mirum si Pelagiani dieta nostra in sensus quos volunt detorquere conantur; quando et de Scripturis sanctis, non ubi obscure aliquid dictum est, sed ubi clara et aperta sunt testimonia, id facere consueverunt, more quidem haereticorum etiam ceterorum. Quis enim diceret sine motu corporum, sine necessitate sexuum nuptias esse potuisse? Deus enim fecit sexus, quia masculum et feminam fecit eos 122, sicut scriptum est. Unde autem fieri posset, ut qui fuerant coniungendi et ipsa coniunctione generaturi sua corpora non moverent, quandoquidem nullus fit hominis ad hominem corporalis accessus, si desit corporis motus? Non ergo hic quaestio est de motu corporum, sine quo non possent omnino misceri, sed de pudendo motu genitalium, qui profecto non esset et tamen seminatrix commixtio non deesset, si genitalia non libidini, se voluntati sicut cetera membra servirent. Annon etiam nunc in corpore mortis huius imperatur pedi, brachio, digito, labro, linguae, et ad nutum nostrum continuo porriguntur? Humori denique, quod est mirabilius, in vesica intus posito, qui, et quando eius copia non urgemur, imperatur ut profluat et obtemperat? Immo ipsis abditis visceribus et nervis, quibus idem humor continetur, imperatur, ut eum propellant, exprimant, eiciant, et, si sanitas adest, sine difficultate serviunt voluntati. Quanto ergo facilius atque tranquillius oboedientibus genitalibus corporis partibus et ipsum membrum porrigeretur et homo seminaretur, nisi hominibus illis inoboedientibus membrorum istorum inoboedientia iusto supplicio redderetur? Quod supplicium casti sentiunt, qui procul dubio mallent, si possent, iubente voluntate quam pruriente voluptate filios seminare. Immundi autem, qui propter istum morbum, non solum meretrices, verum etiam coniuges amant, de hoc supplicio carnis graviore supplicio mentis exsultant.
About this text
Intermediary extracts Augustine answered in Book Two — compiler framing labeled where needed. Latin context is on each section when recovered.
English follows the extracts Augustine answered in On Marriage and Concupiscence II. Compiler framing is labeled where needed.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence II (Latin · Extracts of Julian)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.