In practical life the strict theory of the Fathers came very far short of realization. Hermas, who strongly favors the rigid view, allows the man to marry again whose wife sins a second time after once being reconciled.[55] Basil goes farther, declaring that the husband abandoned by his wife is worthy of pardon, and that the woman who then marries him is not condemned.[56] Even Jerome excuses Fabiola, a young Christian woman of high position who had repudiated a licentious husband and contracted a new marriage, saying, "if she is blamed because when her husband was divorced she did not remain unmarried, I will readily admit her fault, while I admit her necessity."[57] Origen shows that some rulers of the church in such a case permit a woman to marry again while the first husband is living;[58] and Augustine confesses that the women who abstain from remarriage after divorce are extremely few.[59] [Footnote 55: "Verily, if her husband do not take her back, he sins, and allows himself to commit a great sin; he ought to take back the sinning woman who has repented; but ought not to do this often. For there is one repentance for the servants of God."-- HERMAS, Lib. II, mandat. iv, c. 1; WOOLSEY'S translation, _Divorce_, 108. Thus Hermas understands Paul in 1 Cor. 7:11 to refer to adultery as the cause of separation. _Cf._ GEFFCKEN, _op. cit._, 18, 19; FREISEN, _op. cit._, 770: WOOLSEY, _op. cit._, 107-9.] [Footnote 56: BASILIUS, _Epist. ad Amphiloch._, c. 9: "Quare quae reliquit, est adultera, si ad alium virum accessit, qui autem relictus est, dignus est venia et, quae una cum eo habitat, non condemnatur." _Cf._ FREISEN, _op. cit._, 772; GEFFCKEN, _op. cit._, 30; ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 55; PERRONE, _op. cit._, III, 263. EPIPHANIUS (_Penarion_, lib. 59, c. 4) takes a similar position; FREISEN, _op. cit._, 772.] [Footnote 57: JEROME, _Ad Oceanum_, cc. iii, iv. _Cf._ WOOLSEY, _op. cit._, 112, 113; ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 55.] [Footnote 58: ORIGINES, _Comment. in Matt._, tom. xiv, no. 23. He declares this practice to be against the Scriptures; but still he is not inclined to judge severely, as it has been adopted to avoid worse evils. _Cf._ FREISEN, _op. cit._, 771; ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 54] [Footnote 59: AUGUSTINE, _De conjug. adult._, II, 17. See FREISEN, _op. cit._, 772. Augustine also admits that the man who contracts a new marriage after putting away a guilty wife commits merely a venial sin: _De fide et operibus_, c. xix; ESMEIN, _op. cit._, II, 53; WOOLSEY, _op. cit._, 115.]