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The Early Church Fathers on Contraception.

 

  • Early Church Fathers
  • From the Scriptures

 

 

  1. Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330)
    Epistle of Barnabas, (composed c. 3rd century)
    St. Epiphanius of Salamis, (A.D. 332-403)
    St. Jerome, (A.D. 342-420)
    St. John Chrysostom, (A.D. 344 - 407)
Lactantius, (A.D. 240-c.330), was an early Christian author, the goal of his writings was to present Christianity in a form that would be attractive to philosophical pagans.

[Some] complain of the scantiness of their means, and allege that they have not enough for bringing up more children, as though, in truth, their means were in [their] power . . . or God did not daily make the rich poor and the poor rich. Wherefore, if any one on any account of poverty shall be unable to bring up children, it is better to abstain from relations with his wife.

Divine Institutes 6:20 [A.D. 307]

God gave us eyes not to see and desire pleasure, but to see acts to be performed for the needs of life; so too, the genital ['generating'] part of the body, as the name itself teaches, has been received by us for no other purpose than the generation of offspring.

Divine Institutes 6:23:18

Epistle of Barnabas, (composed c. 3rd century, preserved complete in the 4th century), also known as the Letter of Barnabas; Greek epistle, containing twenty-one chapters, traditionally ascribed to Barnabas who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, though some ascribe it to another Apostolic Father of the same name, a "Barnabas of Alexandria".

Moreover, he [Moses] has rightly detested the weasel [Leviticus 11:29]. For he means, "Thou shalt not be like to those whom we hear of as committing wickedness with the mouth with the body through uncleanness [orally consummated sex]; nor shalt thou be joined to those impure women who commit iniquity with the mouth with the body through uncleanness".

Letter of Barnabas 10:8 [A.D. 74]

St. Epiphanius of Salamis, (A.D. 332-403), Palestinian; bishop, abbot, scholar.

They [certain Egyptian heretics] exercise genital acts, yet prevent the conceiving of children. Not in order to produce offspring, but to satisfy lust, are they eager for corruption.

Medicine Chest Against Heresies 26:5:2 [A.D. 375]

St. Jerome, (A.D. 342-420), Dalmatian; born in Strido; priest, hermit, abbot, biblical scholar, translator and Doctor of the Church. In an age distinguished by men of the greatest eloquence and learning, St. Jerome, especially in all matters connected with the Sacred Scriptures, was then preeminent, and has probably never since been equalled.

But I wonder why he [the heretic Jovinianus] set Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, who was slain because he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?

Against Jovinian 1:19 [A.D. 393]

You may see a number of women who are widows before they are wives. Others, indeed, will drink sterility [oral contraceptives] and murder a man not yet born, [and some commit abortion].

Letters 22:13 [A.D. 396]

St. John Chrysostom, (A.D. 344 - 407), Syrian; archbishop, Doctor of the Church. Born at Antioch in 344; he was ordained priest in A.D. 383, and raised to the see of Constantinople in the year A.D. 398. His eloquence gained him the title of Chrysostom, or the mouth of gold. His expositions of Scripture, especially the Epistles of St. Paul, are very valuable. This illustrious prelate died on his road to exile, in A.D. 407.

[l]n truth, all men know that they who are under the power of this disease [the sin of covetousness] are wearied even of their father's old age [wishing him to die so they can inherit]; and that which is sweet) and universally desirable, the having of children, they esteem grievous and unwelcome. Many at least with this view have even paid money to be childless, and have mutilated nature, not only killing the newborn, but even acting to prevent their beginning to live [sterilization].

Homilies on Matthew 28:5 [A.D. 391]

Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit, where there are medicines of sterility [oral contraceptives], where there is murder before birth?. . . Indeed, it is something worse than murder, and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gift of God and Fight with his [natural] laws?

Homilies on Romans 24 [A.D. 391]

 

 

The Early Church Fathers were all against artificial birth control. In fact, all Christian churches were in agreement on this until 1930. Then, one by one, churches began bowing to societal pressures by abandoning this ancient teaching of the Church and the Early Church Fathers.

 

They understood what the Church understands: That to contracept (meaning to create an impediment to conception during the marital embrace) means not to give oneself totally within the bonding marital embrace of a husband with his wife.

 


The Church's Scriptures that implicitly prohibit Contraception:

 

God created man and woman as complimentary companions in his own image

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said to them,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."

Genesis 1:27-28

Man recognizes that a woman, and only a woman, was created by God for him and was intended to complement his life.

23 Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

 

Genesis 2:23-24

Our Lord catechizes on the permanence of marriage

4 He [Jesus] answered, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, `For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."


Matthew 19:4-6

Jesus teaches that from the beginning a man was meant for a woman to become one flesh

5 But Jesus said to them: . . . 6 "But from the beginning of creation, "God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."

 

Mark 10:5-9

Paul encourages husbands to keep their wives spotless and love them as they love themselves

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church,

 

Ephesians 5:25-29

 

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