ADULTERY, ITS TYPES AND DEGREES

No one who judges adultery only by outward appearances can know that it contains any evil, since it is outwardly similar to marriage. Such outward judges say to themselves, if inner levels are mentioned and they are told that outer levels acquire their good or bad character from inner ones, 'What are inner levels? Can anyone see them? Surely this is climbing above the sphere of anyone's intelligence?'

They are like those who welcome every pretence of goodness as genuine, intentional goodness, or estimate a person's wisdom by the elegance of his speech. Or those who judge a person by his fine clothes and riding in a magnificent carriage, not by his inward disposition, which is to be judged by his affection for good. Equally it is like judging the fruit of a tree and any dainty by simply looking at it and touching it, instead of by its good taste and by knowing about it. This is what everyone does, if he is unwilling to perceive anything about a person's inner levels. This is the source of the widespread foolishness today, when many people see no evil in acts of adultery, and in fact put marriage and adultery together in the same room, that is, make them completely alike; and yet they do so only on account of their apparent similarity at the outward level.

[2] The following experience provides a convincing proof that this is so. The angels once called together some hundreds of spirits from the European world, who were particularly distinguished for their intelligence, learning and wisdom. They were questioned about the difference between marriage and adultery, and asked to consult their faculties of intellectual reason. After thinking about it, all except ten replied that it is only the civil law which makes a distinction for the sake of some advantage, which can admittedly [not]* be known, but can still be applied by means of civil prudence. Then they were asked whether they saw any good in marriage and any evil in adultery; they replied that there was no good or evil apprehensible by reason. When asked if there was any sin, they said, 'What does it consist in? Isn't the deed alike in each case?' The angels were astonished at these answers and cried out, 'Oh how great and how deep is the insensitivity of this age!' On hearing this the hundreds of wise men turned round and said to one another amid guffaws, 'Is this insensitivity? Can there be any wisdom which will prove that loving another man's wife deserves as a punishment everlasting damnation?'

[3] It was proved in the first chapter of this part of the book, on the opposition between scortatory and conjugial love, that adultery is a spiritual evil, and consequently a moral and civil evil, being diametrically opposed to the wisdom of reason, and that the love of adultery comes from hell and returns there, and the love of marriage comes from heaven and returns there. But since all evils, like all forms of good, have extension both in width and in height, being distinguished into types by width, and into degrees by height, therefore the kinds of adultery must be kept apart as regards either dimension. So they will first be distinguished into their types and then into their degrees in the following sequence. (i) There are three types of adultery, simple, double and triple. (ii) Simple adultery is that committed by a bachelor with another man's wife, or by an unmarried woman with another woman's husband. (iii) Double adultery is between a husband and another man's wife, or the converse of this. (iv) Triple adultery is with blood-relations. (v) There are four degrees of adultery, and these determine what they are called, how culpable they are, and how far they are imputed after death. (vi) Adultery in the first degree is due to ignorance, when it is committed by those who are not old enough or are unable to consult their intellect, so as to refrain from it. (vii) Adultery committed by these people is a mild offence. (viii) Adultery in the second degree is due to lust, when it is committed by those who can certainly consult their intellect, but are unable to do so at the time for circumstantial reasons. (ix) Adultery by these persons is imputed, depending on whether their intellect afterwards approves or disapproves. (x) Adultery in the third degree is adultery approved by reason, when committed by those who convince themselves intellectually that it is not a sinful evil. (xi) Adultery by these persons is a serious offence, and it is imputed depending upon how far they are convinced of this. (xii) Adultery in the fourth degree is adultery approved by the will, when committed by those who regard it as allowable and accepted, not deserving any consultation of the intellect on the subject. (xiii) Adultery committed by these persons is an offence of the most serious kind, being imputed to them as intentional evil, and weighing on them as guilt. (xiv) Adultery in the third and fourth degrees is a sinful evil, depending on the extent and manner in which the intellect and will are engaged in it, whether it is actually committed or not. (xv) Adultery committed by deliberate intent of the will with the approval of the intellect makes people natural, sensual and bodily. (xvi) This goes so far as to make them finally abandon anything to do with the church and religion. (xvii) However, they are still endowed with human rationality, like other people. (xviii) But they use that rationality so long as they remain in their outward levels, but they misuse it when in their inward levels.

An explanation of these points now follows. * It is hard to make sense of this sentence, unless we assume that a negative was omitted here.