<P> Cyprian (c. 200--258), Bishop of Carthage, recommended in his Three Books of Testimonies against the Jews that Christians should not marry pagans . Addressing consecrated virgins he wrote: "The first decree commanded to increase and to multiply; the second enjoined continency . While the world is still rough and void, we are propagated by the fruitful begetting of numbers, and we increase to the enlargement of the human race . Now, when the world is filled and the earth supplied, they who can receive continency, living after the manner of eunuchs, are made eunuchs unto the kingdom . Nor does the Lord command this, but He exhorts it; nor does He impose the yoke of necessity, since the free choice of the will is left ." </P> <P> Jerome (c. 347--420) commenting on Paul's letter to the Corinthians wrote: "If' it is good for a man not to touch a woman', then it is bad for him to touch one, for bad, and bad only, is the opposite of good . But, if though bad, it is made venial, then it is allowed to prevent something which would be worse than bad...Notice the Apostle's carefulness . He does not say:' It is good not to have a wife', but,' It is good for a man not to touch a woman'...I am not expounding the law as to husbands and wives, but discussing the general question of sexual intercourse--how in comparison with chastity and virginity, the life of angels,' It is good for a man not to touch a woman' ." He also argued that marriage distracted from prayer, and so virginity was better: "If we are to pray always, it follows that we must never be in the bondage of wedlock, for as often as I render my wife her due, I cannot pray . The difference, then, between marriage and virginity is as great as that between not sinning and doing well; nay rather, to speak less harshly, as great as between good and better ." Regarding the clergy, he said: "Now a priest must always offer sacrifices for the people: he must therefore always pray . And if he must always pray, he must always be released from the duties of marriage ." In referring to Genesis chapter 2, he further argued that, "while Scripture on the first, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days relates that, having finished the works of each, God saw that it was good, on the second day it omitted this altogether, leaving us to understand that two is not a good number because it destroys unity, and prefigures the marriage compact ." Jerome reaffirmed Genesis 1: 28 ("God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth") and Hebrews 13: 4 ("Marriage is honourable in all"), and distanced himself from the disparagement of marriage by Marcion and Manichaeus, and from Tatian, who thought all sexual intercourse, even in marriage, to be impure . </P> <P> There were, of course, counter-views . Pelagius thought Jerome showed bitter hostility to marriage akin to Manichaean dualism, an accusation that Jerome attempted to rebut in his Adversus Jovinianum: "We do not follow the views of Marcion and Manichaeus, and disparage marriage; nor, deceived by the error of Tatian, the leader of the Encratites, do we think all intercourse impure; he condemns and rejects not only marriage but also food which God created for the use of man . We know that in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earthenware . (...) While we honour marriage we prefer virginity which is the offspring of marriage . Will silver cease to be silver, if gold is more precious than silver?" Elsewhere he explained: "Someone may say:' And do you dare disparage marriage, which is blessed by the Lord?' It is not disparaging marriage when virginity is preferred to it . No one compares evil with good . Let married women glory too, since they come second to virgins . Increase, He says, and multiply, and fill the earth . Let him who is to fill the earth increase and multiply . Your company is in heaven ." Mocking a monk who accused him of condemning marriage, Jerome wrote: "He must hear at least the echo of my cry,' I do not condemn marriage',' I do not condemn wedlock' . Indeed--and this I say to make my meaning quite clear to him--I should like every one to take a wife who, because they get frightened in the night, cannot manage to sleep alone ." </P> <P> It was Augustine (354--430), whose views subsequently strongly influenced Western theology, that was most influential in developing a theology of the sacramentality of Christian marriage . In his youth, Augustine had also been a follower of Manichaeism, but after his conversion to Christianity he rejected the Manichaean condemnation of marriage and reproduction for imprisoning spiritual light within material darkness . He subsequently went on to teach that marriage is not evil, but good, even if it is not at the level of choosing virginity: "Marriage and fornication are not two evils, whereof the second is worse: but marriage and continence are two goods, whereof the second is better ." </P>

What does it mean to get married in a catholic church