Letter 115: Severus urges Alypius to judge marital suspicion with evidence, mercy, and the gospel rule on separation.

Alypius has often valued Severus' judgment, and Severus now returns to a painful domestic case. Alypius drove his wife from the house under suspicion and behaved as if the marriage had been dissolved, even denying her necessary support. Severus reminds him of the Lord's rule: a man may not put away his wife except for fornication, and fornication means something manifestly detected and proved, not an anxious or jealous suspicion. Severus does not dismiss Alypius' concern. He says he is persuaded that Alypius has some just cause for complaint. But a just cause for concern is not the same as proof of adultery, and doubtful matters must be turned toward clemency. If Alypius demands modest conduct from his wife, he must demand the same from himself. Paul teaches that husband and wife no longer have independent power over their own bodies; each owes the other the same discipline. The argument becomes theological. A wife is not an object outside the husband, to be cut off when suspicion burns. She is a member of his body. If Christ did not cast away infirm human nature but became head of the church and raised it, Alypius should not be merciless to his own member. Severus also appeals to the old law's sacrifice of jealousy, noting how the law itself protected the woman until God judged what human beings could not know. The result is a rule for all uncertain accusations. Where suspicion is not clear, do not make yourself the judge of hidden things. Wait for God, who will reveal hearts. Human instability should make Alypius gentler, not harsher: everyone walks on ground that can shake. Severus therefore asks him to restore what has fallen rather than amputate it. Marriage, evidence, mercy, and humility all meet in that command. Severus' answer also restrains the power imbalance inside the household. Alypius cannot use rank, male authority, or injury to make suspicion function as a verdict. If he withholds support and casts his wife away without proof, he commits a new wrong while claiming to answer an old one. Mercy is not naivete; Severus allows that Alypius may have reason to be troubled. But Christian judgment must distinguish grief, rumor, jealousy, probability, and demonstrated guilt. Only the last can dissolve the bond. Until then, Alypius must act as one who may himself need mercy tomorrow. The old law's jealousy offering matters because it shows restraint even before the fuller mercy of the gospel. Suspicion was not handed to the husband as private power; it was brought under divine judgment. Severus uses that pattern to make Alypius slow down. If the hidden truth belongs to God, Alypius must not punish as though he had already seen it. The practical command is restoration with watchfulness, not cruelty disguised as moral seriousness.

In many instances, when it was necessary for some sanction to be given to an action, I have known your illustriousness to set ggreat store by the judgments of my erring and uncertain mind, as I persuade myself that it is. Aitd after other things. You certainly, I think, ^ ix. 2. " He. xi. 6. ^ rtVAos. X. I. remember that I engaged in a discussion with you about your consort, whom, having been struck by some unexpected suspicion, you drove from your house, and acted like men whose marriage has been dissolved, not even giving her the necessary susten- ance; and how I quoted to you the laws of the Lord and God and Saviour of all, that men are not per- mitted to put away those that cohabit with them under any other conditions except for one reason, I mean that of fornication; and fornication we judge to be that which is manifestly detected, and demon- strated by witnesses or manifest proofs, so that, if any suspicion otherwise occur, we do not define this as fornication: but rather we turn the supposition into a gentler channel. For " in matters that are in doubt we must incline to clemency," as the Theologian Gregory says.^ I have indeed gained sure knowledge that the woman is not liable to charges of fornication so much as to going out freely. But such a thing as this invites you to forgiveness, and does not give you cause for separation. But, if you are strict in requir- p 485- ing modest conduct, know clearly that you are com- manded to practise the same observance towards your wife as you wish her to practise towards yourself Christ our lawgiver speaking through Paul said, " The wife hath not power over her body: but the husband: and in the same fashion the husband also hath not power over his body: but the wife."^ Re- ^ Or. xxi. 15. 2 1 (2q yji 4 fleet therefore whether you also have never been discovered to have been seduced by the pleasures of the body. But why do I say "pleasures"? Whether you have not in curiosity gratified your eye with greedy gazing, making yourself in no lovely fashion a spectator of another's loveliness; the eye which the divine word condemns to be plucked out, in order that it may not bring eternal torture upon the whole body: ' whether you have not relaxed under the in- fluence of the touch: whether you have not indulged the sense of smell: whether your ears have never taken delight in dissolute songs: whether you have kept all your senses untainted. He that is a strict examiner of the doings of others shall have the same judgment exacted from him in the case of his own sins also. If "the head of the wife is the husband,"^ how is he to find fault with the rest of his body as being diseased, when he himself is not in sound health? And again aftei' other things. And many think in the case of a man that when he sins with his body he deserves forgiveness, but a woman deserves to be afflicted with grievous punishments. But this is not so: but exactly the contrary. For scripture says that a woman shall be admitted to forgiveness, inasmuch as she is the "weaker vessel":^ but a man, inasmuch as he holds the place of head, must be an example to the other members of the same body. Therefore be 1 Mt. V. 29. ^ I Co. xi. 3. 3 I Pe. iii. 7. X. I. not merciless or hard to your member, if you obey Christ's laws; and do not apply amputation and cut it off from you: but claim it as part of your body, in order that Christ, the Word of God, who out of graciousness became head to the body of the church that was infirm, may claim you also as part of Him. If He raised human nature, which had committed fornication, to heaven by showing Himself as man upon earth, what terrible thing shall we think our- selves to be doingr, if we show ourselves gentle to our own members, or rather if we are not found to be harsh to them beyond what is right, and that when they are not committing unpardonable sins? In fact Christ plainly proclaims to us that we ought not casually and lightly to cut off her who has been united to us in one flesh through trusting vain suspicions: and He says that separation was introduced into the polity ^ or social life by Moses on account of our own hardness of heart: but "from the beginning it was not so," He proclaims to the discerning.^ How therefore, tell me, shall we ourselves have for- giveness, when we do not conduct ourselves, I do not say according to the gospel laws, but not even accord- ing to the figurative laws used by Israel who conducted - himself according; to the flesh and was a child? For such statutes were o-iven to them in the Book of Numbers by Moses, or rather by God who gave the statute to Moses. He says that, if a man say that his ^ TToAtreta. - Mt. xix. 5-9. wife has committed adultery, and do not find her doing this evidently, or be able to prove the act by witnesses, but is excited by the rage of jealousy, that he shall commit such judgment to God: and that he shall approach the prights of his time, not entering a suit of jealousy, but offering "a sacrifice of jealousy." And look, I pray, at the principle that is carried out in the sacrifice, how even before the actual methods of con- viction are used it defends the woman. Whereas it was the custom for fine wheaten fiour to be offered in sacrifice, he commanded barley meal to be offered on her behalf, signifying by the barley the falseness and futility of jealous suspicion: but neither shall oil (he says) be poured over the sacrifice, on account of the asperity and unkindness of the occasion: and, when the sacrifice has been performed in this way, and the rest of the sacred rite has been duly accomplished, then the woman shall drink the water of conviction, the pright having first prayed over the same water, and shall either repel the evil suspicion from her by suffer- ing no evil in her body, or shall be found to be guilty of the charges, and fall into God's hands by her belly being rent and the penalty for the deeds that have been done paid by her on the spot.^ Wherefore have I repeated this to you? That you may learn that we also ought not to entrust the judgment upon this matter to ourselves, but to refer everything to our sacrifice which is Christ. He is no liar who said that ^ Nu. V. 12-31. X. I. unless our " righteousness exceed that of the scribes and of the Pharisees " we shall not " enter into the king- dom of heaven "/ Therefore both according to the old law and according to the gospel polity,^ where the suspicion is not clear, let us not take ourselves but God as the judge of these things. And we must obey Paul who gives wiser advice than we do. He says, " Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come and make light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise from God." 3 That you have just cause for making the charge we are clearly persuaded: but that the woman has not offended beyond forgiveness I think you have already been persuaded by what has been written. But, if this does not persuade, we say this. She has sinned, she has done all that is evil as you have said, she has recognized her sin, she confesses that she is guilty, she weeps and groans, she takes refuge in your mercy, she begs your clemency; seize the opportunity. Commit yourself to God: prepare pity for yourself by showing pity. You also being a man are certainly in need of mercy. Look at common nature. Consider the instability of human things. We are certainly not walking upon ground that is firm and not to be shaken. Let us expect ourselves also to fall, and let us set upright those that have fallen. The saying 1 Mt. V. 20. - TToAtreia. ^ I Co. iv. 5. is not mine: " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall,"^ says divine scripture.