454. IX. THAT THE LUST OF FORNICATING IS MORE GRIEVOUS AS IT VERGES TO THE CUPIDITY OF VARIETIES AND THE CUPIDITY OF DEFLORATION. The reason is because these two are accessories of adultery, making it more grievous; for adulteries are mild, grievous, and more grievous; and each kind is estimated according to its opposition to conjugial love, and thus its destruction thereof. That the cupidity of varieties and the cupidity of defloration, confirmed by actual deeds, devastate conjugial love and sink it, as it were, to the bottom of the sea, will be seen in the chapters concerning them which are to follow.
