The Library
1693 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
200–101 BC
1 work
c. 225–175 BC
Aramaic or Hebrew
Anonymous
A blind exile in Nineveh who buries the dead at night against the king's order, and a young woman in Ecbatana whose seven husbands have each died on the wedding night. The angel Raphael travels with Tobit's son under a false name, and a fish's gall cures the blindness.
101–200
1 work
c. 170; survives in fragments
Greek
Julius Cassianus
An argument that marriage itself is the fall, quoted by Clement in order to be demolished. It leans on a saying from the Gospel of the Egyptians in which the Lord answers Salome that death will hold sway as long as women bear children.
201–300
2 works
c. 200–206
Latin
Ad Uxorem
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
Two books asking his wife not to remarry if he dies first, and if she must, not to marry a pagan — closing with a famous description of a household where both partners share the faith.
c. 217
Latin
De Monogamia
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
A late and severe argument that a Christian may marry only once, remarriage after a spouse's death being a concession the Spirit has now withdrawn.
301–400
2 works
c. 371
Greek
Gregory of Nyssa · c. 335–c. 395
A commendation of the celibate life written, as its author admits with some regret, by a married man who can only describe the country from outside.
393
Latin
Jerome · c. 347–420
A violent reply to a monk who argued that marriage and virginity are equally meritorious — so violent that Jerome's friends tried to withdraw it from circulation.
401–500
2 works
401
Latin
De Bono Coniugali
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
Written to steady a debate that had gone too far toward disparaging marriage, naming its three goods: children, fidelity, and the sacramental bond.
419–421
Latin
De Nuptiis et Concupiscentia
Augustine of Hippo · 354 – 430
Marriage is good, its three goods are offspring, fidelity, and the bond — and yet the desire by which children are conceived is itself disordered, and carries the fault forward into every child born. Julian of Eclanum read this and accused Augustine of never having stopped being a Manichaean.
501–600
1 work
c. 540–544
Syriac
Mar Aba I · d. 552
Rulings by a convert from Zoroastrianism who became patriarch, chiefly on marriage law, forbidding the close-kin unions customary in Persian society.
801–900
2 works
c. 828
Latin
De Institutione Laicali
Jonas of Orléans · c. 780–843
A guide for married laypeople on marriage, work, almsgiving, and the duties of a household, written for a count and his wife.
860
Latin
Hincmar of Reims · c. 806–882
A long legal opinion on a king's attempt to divorce his queen, covering consent, consummation, sorcery, and the validity of trial by ordeal.
1101–1200
2 works
c. 1140–1160
Latin
Anonymous
A young Englishwoman refuses the marriage her parents arranged, escapes disguised as a man, and lives hidden in a tiny cell for years before founding her own community.
c. 1188–1190
Latin
Huguccio of Pisa · d. 1210
The most detailed commentary on Gratian, ranging over marriage, papal power, and whether a pope who falls into heresy may be judged by the church.
1501–1600
1 work
1524–1558
German
Katharina Schütz Zell · 1498–1562
A defence of clerical marriage after marrying a priest, letters of consolation to women whose husbands were exiled, a hymnbook, and a funeral sermon she preached herself.
14 of 1693 works