Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Tertullian: Part Fourth/On Exhortation to Chastity/Chapter 11

Chapter XI.&#8212;The More the Wives, the Greater the Distraction of the Spirit.

For (in that case) the shame is double; inasmuch as, in second marriage, two wives beset the same husband&#8212;one in spirit, one in flesh.&#160; For the first wife you cannot hate, for whom you retain an even more religious affection, as being already received into the Lord&#8217;s presence; for whose spirit you make request; for whom you render annual oblations.&#160; Will you stand, then, before the Lord with as many wives as you commemorate in prayer; and will you offer for two; and will you commend those two (to God) by the ministry of a priest ordained (to his sacred office) on the score of monogamy, or else consecrated (thereto) on the score even of virginity, surrounded by widows married but to one husband?&#160; And will your sacrifice ascend with unabashed front, and&#8212;among all the other (graces) of a good mind&#8212;will you request for yourself and for your wife chastity?