POLYGAMY. Polygamy was tolerated among the Hebrews, and authorized by the Example of the Patriarchs. We do not see it established by any Law, and the Scripture, which transmits to us the Name of the first bigamous Person, and of his two Wives, seems to insinuate, that his Action was not approved of by good People, and that he was afraid of the Consequences. For he says thus to his two Wives, Adah and Zillah: Hear my Voice, ye Wives of Lamech, hearken unto my Speech. For I have slain a Man to my wounding, and a young Man to my hurt. If Cain shall be avenged seven-fold, truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold. As if he would thus comfort his Wives, who were terrify’d with the Irregularity of his Polygamy: This is not a Crime that deserves Death; I have not kill’d a Man. Whoever shall dare to lay his Hand on me, will be severely punish’d for it. Compare my Action to that of Cain, and then conclude, that if the Murderer of Cain shall deserve Punishment, how much more shall he deserve it that shall murder Lamech?
The Rabbins maintain, that Polygamy was in use from the very Beginning of the World, and that before the Deluge every Man had two Wives. Tertullian on the contrary thinks,1 that Lamech was the first who transgressed the establish’d Order of God, by marrying two Wives, and that Polygamy commenced from a Man that was accursed. Numerus matrimonii à maledicto viro cæpit. He says, that the bad Example of this Man had Consequences, which continued down to the total Subversion of the Jewish Nation, and that before the Deluge nobody imitated Lamech. St. Jerome says,2 that Lamech, who was an Homicide and a bloody-minded Person, was the first who divided one Flesh to two Wives, and that the Flood expiated his Parricide and his Polygamy together. (He supposes Lamech to have kill’d Cain.) Pope Nicholas I.3 accuses Lamech of Adultery, because of his Polygamy; and Pope Innocent III. maintains,4 that it was never allow’d to have a Plurality of Wives at once, without a Permission and particular Revelation from God.
‘Tis upon this Supposition that they justify the Polygamy of the Patriarchs. ‘Tis believed that God permitted it to them, or at least that he tolerated it for superior Views. The Laws of Moses plainly suppose this Custom, and yet condemn it not. The Rabbins allow the King to have as far as 18 Wives, after the Example of Rehoboam King of Judah, who had to that Number. They allow the Israelites to marry as many as they can maintain. But for all this, Examples of Polygamy among private Persons were not common. The wiser Men among them easily saw the Inconveniencies that attended this Irregularity. But instead of Wives they took Concubines, which Practice was not liable to the same Disorders. There is this Difference between a Wife and a Concubine, according to the Rabbins; that a Wife was marry’d by Contract, and had her Dowry, whereas the Concubines were taken without Contract, and lived in a State of Submission and Dependance, under the Matron of the Family, as Hagar in respect of Sarah; and that the Children of the Concubines had no Share in the Inheritance.
The Saviour of the World reduced Marriage to its primitive and lawful Condition, by revoking that Permission that tolerated Polygamy and Divorce. He allows Christians to have but one Wife, according to those Words of the Creator: In the Beginning God created them Male and Female, wherefore a Man shall cleave unto his Wife, and they two shall be but one Flesh.
Polygamy is no longer allow’d the Jews at present, neither in the East nor in the West. The Emperors Theodosius, Arcadius, and Honorius forbid it them by their Decrees. Anno 393.The Mahometans, who allow themselves this Liberty, will not, however, allow it to the Jews in their Dominions. The Samaritans, who are extremely devoted to the Laws of Moses, marry but one Wife, and make it a Crime in the Jews, that they secretly practise Polygamy in the East. There was a Book printed at London, call’d Polygamia triumphatrix, the Author of which was one Lyserus, a Native of Saxony, who conceal’d himself under the Name of Theophilus Aletheus. This Work has been confuted by several learned Men.
Polygamy is divided into simultaneous and successive. The first is, when a Man has more than one Wife at a Time. It is condemned by both Canon and Civil Law. Successive Polygamy is, when a Man has several Wives one after another, each of which he marries after the Decease of the preceding Wife. It is allow’d in the Church, though with a good deal of Regret, the Fathers and Councils having often testify’d, that they did not approve of second Marriages. And the Canons do not admit into Holy Orders such as are under this Incapacity, unless they obtain an express Dispensation for it. a
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