Is it lawful for a man or woman to continue to live with a spouse who has committed adultery and refused repentance?

Shepherd of Hermas says, “If a man has a wife who believes in the Lord, and if he finds her in adultery, does the man sin if he continues to live with her? If the husband knows that his wife has gone astray, and if the woman does not repent, but persists in her fornication,

1772 St. Augustine of Hippo, Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.14.39 (NPNF I/6:17).

1773 Carl A. Volz, Faith and Practice in the Early Church: Foundations for Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1983): p. 83.

1774 Shepherd of Hermas Book 2, Commandment 4.4 (ANF 2:22).

1775 St. Jerome, Letters 48.18 (NPNF II/6:77).

and yet the husband continues to live with her, he also is guilty of her crime, and an accomplice in her adultery.”¹⁷⁷⁶