468. (6) Legitimate reasons for taking a mistress in such a circumstance are the same as those for legitimate divorce, when the wife is nevertheless retained in the home. By divorce we mean an abolishment of the marriage covenant and thus complete separation, with full liberty after that to take another wife. The only ground for this total separation or divorce is licentiousness, according to the Lord's precept (Matthew 19:9).* Relating to the same ground are also manifest obscenities which do away with decency and fill and infest the home with disgraceful panderings, giving rise to a licentious shamelessness into which the whole mind is dissolved. To these is added malicious desertion which involves licentiousness, causing the wife to commit whoredom and so to be rejected (Matthew 5:32).** These three instances, because they are legitimate grounds for divorce - the first and third before a public judge, and the second before the husband as judge - are also legitimate grounds for taking a mistress, though when the adulterous wife is retained in the home. Licentiousness is the only reason for divorce because it is diametrically opposed to the life of conjugial love and destroys it even to the point of extinction (see above, no. 255). * "...whoever divorces his wife, excepting for licentiousness, and marries another, commits adultery...." ** "...whoever divorces his wife, except on the ground of licentiousness, causes her to commit whoredom...."