I CORINTHIANS 7:1-9

Now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.

Al were it good no womman for to touche…(WBP 87)

But for fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

Let the husband render the debt to his wife, and the wife also in like manner to the husband.

Why sholde men elles in hir bookes sette / That man shal yelde to his wyf hire dette?

(WBP 129-30)

The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And in like manner the husband also hath not power of his own body, but the wife.

I have the power durynge al my lyf / Upon his propre body, and noght he. (WBP 158-59)

Defraud not [alt: do not starve] one another, except, perhaps, by consent, for a time, that you may give yourselves to prayer; and return together again, lest Satan tempt you for your incontinency.

But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment.

And for to been a wyf he yaf me leve / Of indulgence…(WBP 84)

For I would that all men were even as myself: but every one hath his proper gift from God: one after this manner and another after that.

But nathelees, thogh that he wroot and sayde / He wolde that every wight were swich as he, / Al nys but conseil to virginitee…(WBP 80-82)

God clepeth folk to him in sondry wyse, / And everich hath of God a propre yifte-- / Som this, som that, as hym liketh shifte. (WBP 101-03)

But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they continue so, even as I.

But if they do not contain themselves, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn.

He seith that to be wedded is no synne; / Bet is to be wedded than to brynne. (WBP 51-52)

7:25-28

Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel, as one having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful.

Th’apostel, whan he speketh of maydenhede, / He seyde that precept therof hadde he noon. / Men may conseille a womman to been oon, / But conseillyng is no comandement. (WBP 64-65)

I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity, that it is good so for a man to be.

Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.

But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned; nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh. But I spare you.

An housbonde I wol have—I wol nat lette-- / Which shal be both my dettour and my thral, / And have his tribulacion withal / Upon his flessh, whil that I am his wyf. (WBP 154-57)