255. (xix) Adultery is a reason for divorce.
There are many reasons for this, which can be seen by the light of reason, but still at the present time hidden. It can be seen by the light of reason that marriages are holy, and acts of adultery are a profanation, so that marriage and adultery are diametrically opposite. When one thing acts upon its opposite, one destroys the other until the last glimmer of life in it is extinguished. This is what happens to conjugial love, when a married man of set purpose, that is, deliberately, commits adultery. For those who have some knowledge about heaven and hell, these facts come even more into the clear light of reason. For they know that marriages are in heaven and from heaven, acts of adultery in hell and from hell, and the two cannot be linked together, as heaven cannot be with hell. If in the case of a person they are linked, heaven at once departs and hell comes in.
[2] This then is why adultery is a reason for divorce. The Lord therefore says that anyone who sends his wife away, except for licentious behaviour, and marries another woman commits adultery (Matt. 19:9). He says that if he sends her away, except for licentious behaviour, and marries again, he commits adultery, because sending her away for this reason is a complete separation of minds, which is called divorce. But other cases of sending her away, for the special reasons which have just been listed, are separations. If another wife is married after these, adultery is committed, but not following a divorce.
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