CONCUBINES

The last chapter on fornication also referred to keeping a mistress, meaning the association of a bachelor with a woman. By having a concubine we mean a similar association by a married man with another woman. Failure to make distinctions leads people to use these two words indiscriminately, as if they meant and signified the same thing. But these two types are different; the term 'mistress' suits the first, the mistress being a loose woman, and the term 'concubine' suits the second, because a concubine is a bedfellow. So we can keep these apart by distinguishing having a mistress as a pre-nuptial agreement with a woman, and having a concubine as a post-nuptial one.

[2] Orderly arrangement makes us discuss here having a concubine, for it reveals the nature of marriage on the one hand, and the nature of adultery on the other. Marriage and adultery are opposites, as was first shown in the chapter [XVIII] on their opposition. But the extent and nature of their opposition can only be grasped from the intermediate states between them, one of which is having a concubine. But there are two ways of doing this, which must first be distinguished, so this chapter, like the previous ones, will be divided into its appropriate sections, as follows. (i) There are two ways of having a concubine, which are inherently very different, one in association with a wife, the other without such an association. (ii) Having a concubine in association with a wife is totally unlawful for Christians, and detestable. (iii) It is polygamy, a practice condemned and to be banished from the Christian world. (iv) It is a form of promiscuity which destroys the principle of marriage, the treasure of Christian life. (v) Having a concubine without association with a wife is not unlawful, when it is for lawful, just and truly weighty reasons. (vi) The lawful reasons for having a concubine of this kind are those which are lawful grounds for divorce, when the wife is none the less kept at home. (vii) The just reasons for having a concubine of this kind are those which are just grounds for not sleeping together. (viii) The weighty reasons for having a concubine of this kind are genuine and not genuine. (ix) The truly weighty reasons are those which arise from justice. (x) The weighty reasons which are not genuine are those which are unjust, although they appear to be just. (xi) Those who for lawful, just and genuinely weighty reasons have a concubine of this kind can also have conjugial love. (xii) So long as a man has a concubine of this kind, sexual relations with his wife are unlawful.

An explanation of these points now follows.