Anti-Arian Works 6

THE FIRST EPISTLE. On the conjugal debt, and on a vow of continence made by spouses. To the lord and deservedly venerable son, FULGENTIUS, the servant of the servants of Christ, greeting in the Lord. CHAPTER ONE. Excuse for the delayed reply. — 1. Having received your letter, the token of your holy solicitude, some months ago, when I desired to render a reply without delay, I was so seized by a sudden bodily sickness that the violent excess of fevers was taking from me the passage of the present life; had not the true physician of souls and bodies, who heals all our infirmities and redeems our life from destruction, deigned, for the removing of so great a scourge of infirmity, to grant the aid of His own medicine.

After health was recovered, the will to write back was indeed not lacking, but the harshness of winter stood in the way of dispatching it. Now therefore, because the Creator and Governor of the seasons has deigned to grant a mildness of the winds, I have not ceased to render back to your consultation that which I have received by the compassion and inspiration of the heavenly Giver. CHAPTER TWO. The tenor of the question concerning the wife's continence. Conjugal union is not in itself evil, but excess is. The conjugal debt. — 2.

You say, then, that our daughter, your wife, recently fell sick almost to the utmost peril, and, as very often happens, having received the imposition of the hand, performed penance according to the custom which the Christian religion has. But because afterward, by the gift of the divine goodness, she received full health of body, you confess the frailty of the flesh, and moreover the incontinence of youthful age; and in this ambiguity of thought, whereby you consider the flesh and dread the majesty, like a sailor ignorant of the places, tossed by waves and winds, while you guard against the uncertainties of dangers, you earnestly beg that by our reply there be shown to you the harbor where you may avoid the shipwreck of the soul. 3.

The tenor, therefore, of your question compels me to weigh two matters that are not to be considered sluggishly: namely, not only what quality conjugal intercourse has in itself, but also what the promise of one making a vow demands in each particular matter. 4. If, then, anyone should consider the intercourse of faithful spouses in itself under the guidance of reason, the culpable use will be found not in the conjugal embrace, but in the excess of those embracing; nor does conjugal coitus draw fault from the union of male and female, but from the immoderation of lust. In spouses, therefore, excess is justly reproved; yet nuptial dignity is not deprived of the gift of the honor divinely conferred upon it.

Therefore the authority of apostolic preaching cries out: Marriage honorable in all, and the bed undefiled (Heb. 13:4). Paul too, instructing the Corinthians on preserving the honesty of matrimony, when he had premised: It is good for a man not to touch a woman (1 Cor. 7:1), seeing the weakness of some, and busying himself with apostolic charity, did not neglect—like an inclined wall and a pushed-down enclosure—to place beneath it, as the excellent teacher, the prop of consolation, Christ speaking in him. Finally he subsequently adds: 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 the wife, and in like manner also the wife to the husband (ibid. 2, 3). 5. The tenor of the apostolic reading thus shows that the wife is joined to the husband, and the husband to the wife, by a certain sharing of a debt. Which the Apostle would doubtless not call a debt, unless he knew it must lawfully be rendered; nor would he command it to be rendered by the office of mutual consent, if the exaction of one demanding it back were unjust: for so far indeed does the Doctor of the Gentiles not hesitate to apply marriage to the divine work, that he confirms the power both of the husband over the wife's body and of the wife over the husband's body by an altogether equal right, saying: The woman has not power of her own body, but the man; and in like manner also the man has not power of his own body, but the woman (ibid. 4).

But in another place the same one says: For there is no power but from God (Rom. 13:1). CHAPTER THREE. Marriage is to be used for the sake of offspring, not for the sake of lust. — 6. Of this power, therefore, the use is inculpable, divinely assigned to the office of begetting, if a lustful excess be not permitted to transgress the boundary of justice. But the justice of using marriage is this: that spouses be joined together at a fitting time not with a view to sating lust, but to providing offspring. For in those good things which God made is found the chaste coupling of wife and husband; in which works of God lust cannot be found; nor does it ever agree with justice, seeing that it came to men not from the gift of their creation (or: their Creator),

but to sinners from the vice of the first transgression. But because without it, in the body of this death, the human offspring is not sown, chaste marriages do not affect it, but tolerate it; and nuptial honesty imposes a measure upon it, without which the office of natural fecundity cannot be fulfilled in the flesh of sin. 7. Thus, then, fruit ought to be sought from marriage, but the excess of slippery pleasure is to be curbed.

Wherefore, if the conjugal use be so tempered that the mind does not serve a burning lust, but attends to the coming forth of offspring to be born, and, when it has been born, does not neglect to have it more speedily cleansed by spiritual regeneration, the intercourse permitted to faithful spouses is not reckoned to them as a sin of the flesh, because both the conjugal covenant preserves chastity, and modest shame keeps its temperance, and conjugal fecundity presents offspring to be consecrated to God—so that man, already born, may be reformed by the Redeemer's help through the sacrament of baptism, by whose work he was first formed in the womb; and that human nature may have as father, by the benefit of the second nativity, Him whom in the first nativity of its condition it acknowledges as author. 8.

A married man, therefore, if he fornicates, sins damnably; but if he does not forsake the fidelity of the marriage bed, yet in his own wife, in the merely natural use, is somewhat intemperate and goes to excess—that is, not only seeking generation, but sometimes obeying the lust of the flesh—this indeed he does not do without fault; yet such a fault is the more speedily remitted to one working well and praying, because marital charity keeps faith with the very spouse, wherein marital weakness cannot maintain temperance; and if nuptial modesty is not held in the wife, yet from nuptial fidelity there is no departure by any immoderation. CHAPTER FOUR. Fidelity of the bed being preserved washes away the stain of lust. All fornication is damnable, especially in a spouse. — 9.

Therefore, when the fidelity of the marriage-bed is preserved, it washes away the stain which the weakness of the flesh contracts, provided that a man does not couple with a woman other than his own. Whoever unites with his wife not solely for the sake of begetting children, but also on account of the frailty of his own flesh — even if he oversteps the appointed measure of intercourse, he nevertheless does not pass beyond the bounds of marriage; and although carnal weakness contracts guilt, yet the integrity of the nuptial bond obtains pardon. Such a man therefore receives indulgence, not because he exacts more than is fitting of the conjugal debt from his one wife, but because, content with the one lawfully received, he does not seek another.

Yet let works of mercy not be lacking, which have such power in the Christian religion that not only those who make use of marriage, or those who are continent, but even virgins cannot attain to the reward of virginity if they neglect the works of mercy and of charity. But if anyone, intent upon good works, keeps such moderation with his wife that he unites with her only for the sake of procreating children, such a man is without doubt worthy of much praise — if indeed anyone in our times is able to fulfil this. Fornication, however, can never be without grave crime; and in it we do not doubt that a man separated from a wife sins damnably, yet I judge that a married man fornicates the more damnably.

Holy Scripture, moreover, pronounces both to be under judgement and alien to the kingdom of God. For it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrews: «For fornicators and adulterers God will judge» (Heb. 13:4). And in the Epistle which the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians it is said: «Do not err: neither fornicators, nor those who serve idols, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor the rapacious, shall possess the kingdom of God» (1 Cor. 6:9-10). Again, among the works of the flesh the same apostle Paul reckons fornication, uncleanness, and lust; and in their conclusion he says:

«For they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God» (Gal. 5:21). He also gives warning beforehand, lest he should mourn over many of those who had sinned before and had not done penance «for the uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness which they had committed» (2 Cor. 12:21). CHAPTER V. — Vows are to be rendered to God without excuse. Since, therefore, we have spoken of the character of the marriage which the Lord has granted, this must next be treated with all care: namely, what your devotion (if any then existed) may have determined by your will. For it is not the case that, because in things granted by God the use of them is not forbidden to men, a man ought therefore not to render to God what he has vowed, since it is written:

«I will render to thee my vows, which my lips have uttered» (Ps. 65:13). And lest anyone should wish to take up for himself an excuse of tribulation as a licence for frustrating his promise, and should think himself not bound by the vow if he said that he was compelled to vow something not by his will but by tribulation, blessed David teaches that all things must be rendered to God which have been lawfully promised — even in tribulation; for when he had said to God, «I will render to thee my vows which my lips have uttered», he at once added: «And my mouth hath spoken in my tribulation» (ibid., 14). And in Deuteronomy also it is written:

«But if thou hast vowed a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to render it; because the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee, and it will be reckoned to thee as sin. But if thou wilt not vow, there shall be no sin in thee. That which goeth out of thy lips thou shalt keep, and shalt do as thou hast vowed to the Lord thy God the vow which thou hast spoken with thy mouth» (Deut. 23:21-23). Solomon also says: «As soon as thou hast vowed a vow to the Lord, thou shalt not delay to render it. Therefore whatsoever thou hast vowed, render it. It is better not to vow, than to have vowed and not to pay» (Eccl. 5:3-4). CHAPTER VI. — Things lawful become unlawful after a vow. To those bound by a vow of continence, marital union becomes unlawful.

Accordingly, the use of lawful things is lawfully carried on with moderation, so long as no renunciation of the lawful thing is vowed; and as long as there is not held, by the consent of both — that is, of husband and wife — a promise of perpetual continence, conjugal union is not unlawful. For it is written: «If thou hast taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned» (1 Cor. 7:28). Yet although the virgin who marries does not sin, some virgin is found to sin if she marry: for the virgin who marries does not sin, unless before she married she had in her heart vowed her virginity to God.

But if (as the Apostle said) «she hath determined in her heart, having no necessity, but having power over her own will, and hath judged this in her heart, to keep her virginity» (ibid., 37), she afterwards sins grievously if, after her virginity has been dedicated to God, she should wish to serve human wedlock. For blessed Paul pronounces certain widows also to be bound by the bond of damnation, because, namely, after their profession of continence they do not cast off the will of marrying they have taken up again. Concerning the avoiding of such women he instructs Timothy thus: «But the younger widows avoid; for when they have grown wanton against Christ, they wish to marry, having damnation, because they have made void their first faith» (1 Tim. 5:11-12).

The promise of continence therefore takes away the licence of intercourse; and to such persons not only fornication is forbidden, but even marital union is prohibited, and a culpable bond holds fast a transgressing will, even if no effect follows in deed. For it is not in vain that it is written that «concupiscence, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin» (Jas. 1:15). CHAPTER VII. — Married persons do not have licence to vow as those who are free do, because they do not have power over their own body. A vow of continence is binding if it is made with the consent of both spouses. Wherefore not only integrity by virgins, but also continence dedicated to God by widows and by married persons, must be preserved with fear and trembling.

For before anyone becomes bound by a vow, he is not condemned, whether a virgin lawfully marry, or husband and wife render to each other the conjugal debt. But after anyone, pursuing better things, has bound himself by a profession of continence or of integrity, he transgresses most grievously if he thinks it thenceforth lawful for himself which had before been lawful. For in such matters, what the will, in vowing to God, takes away from itself, no necessity thereafter permits it to usurp with impunity; nor will the violator of a vow find any just excuse for his transgression, since no one compelled him to vow. There is plainly something to be distinguished between the vow of a virgin or widow, and the vow of those who are held by the conjugal bond.

For the licence or liberty of vowing is not so great for a man or woman who does not have power over his own body, as it is for any widow or virgin: for to a married man or married woman there is not fully available the power of vowing bodily continence, since his body stands not in his own power but in that of his spouse — according to that saying of the Apostle which we set down above: «The woman 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» (1 Cor. 7:4). Therefore it is not permitted, without the will of the spouse, to take up continence, when one's body is not in one's own power:

for each one, with right and firm devotion, promises alone only that which he knows to be of his own right. For it is just as if someone should wish to profess continence of his own body — which is in the power of his spouse — as if he should attempt to give alms out of another's property or to offer sacrifice from it: but our God (as He Himself testifies) «loveth justice, and hateth robbery in a holocaust» (Isa. 61:8). Therefore that continence between spouses is a sure promise which has been confirmed by the consent of both;

and when husband and wife, agreeing together with one accord of will, have offered it, as a sacrifice for an odour of sweetness, upon the altar of the true God and the Most High in the temple of their own heart, then neither may the woman any longer have lawful power over the man's body, nor the man over the woman's, to demand back the conjugal debt. For just as, before they vowed together to God, the offering of one alone was reprehensible because the assent of the lawful partner was lacking, so, when both have offered with equal consent that which is inseparably common to them both, he will not be unpunished if anyone should believe that a gift offered to God by voluntary devotion may be profaned by an unlawful deed. CHAPTER VIII. — He who has not vowed with his whole heart is the more damnable.

Concerning a vow, it is not permitted to retain or to reclaim anything. But if perchance anyone should plead that he did not vow with his whole heart, he will be the more damnable in that he approached God not sincerely but feignedly. For it is written that «the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding» (Wis. 1:5). In another place also holy Scripture thus rebukes the feigned: «Woe to the double-hearted, and to wicked lips, and to the hands that do evil, and to the sinner that goeth upon the earth two ways» (Ecclus. 2:14).

But how great an evil it is, and how anxiously to be shunned, if anyone should attempt by a deadly transgression either to retain or to reclaim anything of what he has vowed to God — of this Ananias and Sapphira are an example, who, faithlessly withdrawing a certain part of the price of the field, were not only rebuked by the apostolic voice as violators of divine right, but were also slain by the severity of heavenly justice. Blessed Peter, finally, declared the aforesaid Ananias liable not only for the fault of fraud, but pronounced that his heart had been filled by Satan, saying: «Ananias, why hath Satan filled thy heart, that thou shouldst lie to the Holy Spirit, to defraud of the price of the field? While it remained, did it not remain to thee? And after it was sold, was it not in thy power?»

«Why hast thou conceived this thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied to men, but to God» (Acts 5:3-4). If therefore anyone, overcome by the allurement of the flesh, should believe that a thing already dedicated to the Lord may be reclaimed anew, he is not the lawful possessor of his own property, but is pronounced an invader of divine right. And not undeservedly does the violator of continence already vowed hear himself called unclean, as the covetous defrauder of money heard. CHAPTER IX. — A reply to the questions asked at the beginning of the letter. Modesty is to be preserved in the conjugal act. Accordingly, weigh all the things that have been discussed above, with your conscience bearing you witness. And if indeed you have vowed continence by mutual assent, preserve the tenor of your love with the fear of God:

and if ever the weakness of the flesh assails the mind, let the soul run to the help of divine mercy, and let it not yield to lust, but as a faithful one entreat God with all humility, and let it not consent to the desire of the flesh warring against the soul, but resist it. But if one of you has vowed continence without the assent of the other, let him know that he vowed rashly, and let him render the debt to his spouse with chaste sincerity. Yet, that all your affairs may be done honourably, in the rendering of the conjugal debt let the conjugal use so receive the weakness of the flesh that the flesh may not serve lust, but that the strength of the soul, aided from on high, may restrain the reins of carnal concupiscence.

For the business of raising up offspring ought so to be carried on by spouses that, with modesty ministering while the faithful soul bends itself to the work of fecundity, it may at the same time, with God's help, keep the moderation of natural decency. But above all it must be observed by faithful spouses that they flee those acts which divine severity both forbids to be done and condemns when done. For apostolic teaching has not ceased to impress this upon the faithful, so that it might prudently instruct and wholesomely warn them to keep the rule of a good life. CHAPTER X. — Continence is to be sought from God by all. On the governance of the household and the education of offspring. The rule of progress and perfection in marriage.

It is therefore a great good «not to touch a woman», which every faithful person ought chiefly to observe; yet on account of fornications, whoever — whether married or free from marriage — has not vowed continence to God, and sees himself too weak to fulfil continence (although, where the will to be continent is full, and where the true humility of heart has not desisted from prayer and from good works, He who said, «Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you» (Matt. 7:7) — because He is truth and cannot lie — both gives to him who rightly asks, and prepares His resources for him who seeks, and Himself opens to him who rightly knocks, that he may enter into the inner chambers of a better life);

nevertheless, if anyone is still more anxious about his own weakness than secure in the Lord's power, if he has not vowed continence of the flesh, let him abstain from iniquity, and use his wife as is fitting: let him flee malice and avarice, and he will not be condemned if he renders the debt to his spouse. Let him not be a drunkard, nor envious, nor contentious, nor feigned, nor malignant, nor litigious, nor proud, nor rapacious, nor covetous: as far as it lies in himself, let him seek to have peace with all, let him hold no rancour, disparage no one, keep faith with friends, and never prove faithless or perjured toward enemies; let him not seize what belongs to others, nor set money before equity;

let him be just in his dealings, dutiful in his works, gentle in bearing injuries, slow to requite them; steadfast in faith, a lover of chastity and of peace. Let him attend to the saying of our Saviour, in which He both commands us what we should do and shows what we shall receive; for He says: «Forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you» (Luke 6:37). Let him therefore be, as far as he is able, generous and cheerful in almsgiving, and ready and gracious to forgive those who sin; nor let him think that pardon must be so granted to sinners that he should reckon the discipline of his own household to be neglected, but, keeping a temperate measure of vigour and of clemency, let him preserve moderation in correction and censure in remission.

Let him urge, admonish, warn, rebuke, console, and cheer; nor let him do so much against sinning subordinates as the impulse of fury drives, but as much as the measure of deliberation demands; and if a servant is to be beaten for a fault, let not the lust of vengeance prevail, but rather let Christian equity mercifully take counsel for him whom it scourges; and thus, even when justice pursues the fault, let mercy not be lacking, which knows how modestly to lighten the punishment. Let sons be nurtured, according to the Apostle's precept, «in the discipline and correction of the Lord» (Eph. 6:4), nor let them be permitted to live unchastely or luxuriously, since Christian offspring ought to serve not wantonness, but chastity and temperance.

For in that terrible examination the negligence of parents will not fail to be judged even concerning the evil works of their children; since in this world too, on this account, the priest Eli (1 Sam. 2) was rejected and cast off by the Lord — not because he consented to his sons in iniquity, but because, though he admonished them when they sinned with a gentle word, he yet failed to restrain them with fitting severity. But rather let parents who truly love their sons take counsel for them by doing good, than by heaping up riches; lest, while property is tenaciously gathered for the sons, the opportunity of good work be let slip. Above all, let faithful spouses remember that they must always persist in prayers and almsgiving;

nor let them wish to lie perpetually in that very weakness of the flesh, but let them hasten to ascend to a higher grade of life. And that the soul may attain to the virtue of continence, let the excess of carnal concupiscence be more and more repressed: so that when, with God's help, they have surpassed that grade in which conjugal weakness begs for pardon, they may be able laudably to obtain a loftier one, in which the virtue of continence awaits the palm of a better life. LETTER II. TO GALLA THE WIDOW. On consolation over the death of her husband, and on the state of widows. To the lady truly illustrious and, in the fear of Christ, venerable daughter GALLA, Fulgentius, a little servant of the servants of Christ, sends greeting in the Lord. CHAPTER I. — Consolation of Galla over the death of her young husband.

Praise of the deceased husband. — Some months ago, from the sure account of my deacon returning from the city, I learned not only of the death of your husband, but also of the holy path of your resolve, in which you are already walking, led by Him who is «the way, the truth, and the life» (John 14:6), who knows how, through momentary sorrow, to bestow upon His faithful the gift of everlasting gladness, and to transfer whom He wills, by the dispensation of His fatherly goodness, wholesomely from earthly things to heavenly. For not in vain did the Lord — whose «incomprehensible judgements and unsearchable ways» the apostle Paul proclaims (Rom. 11:33) — swiftly transfer your husband, sincerely faithful in religion,

humble in heart, gentle in character, merciful in works, wholly innocent in conduct, young in age, from the pilgrimage of this life swiftly to the eternal dwelling of the heavenly homeland — save that He might both confer upon him eternal joys, and grant to you the means of living better. To him He gave that, stripped of the body, he should live with Christ without end; to you He gave that you should «think on the things of the Lord», and, according to the word of the apostle Paul, «be holy both in body and in spirit». Therefore believe without doubting what is divinely spoken, and hope with love for what is promised, that you may be able to do well what is commanded. CHAPTER II.

Christians ought not to grieve over the dead as the rest do who have no hope. Two kinds of sorrow. — First, therefore, learn from the apostle Paul what you ought faithfully to hold concerning your husband's death; for he says: «But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also them who have slept through Jesus, God will bring with him» (1 Thess. 4:13-14).

If therefore we are tenacious of the true faith, if we doubt nothing of the words of God, if we tend toward the life to come with most certain hope, if we worthily love God and our neighbour, if we look not for the vain glory of the Christian name from men, but for the true glory from God, we ought by no means to have any sorrow, as the unbelieving do, over the faithful dead, and — to speak properly — over those who are asleep among us. For there ought to remain in our heart a discernment of wholesome and of harmful sorrow, by which it comes about that a soul given over to eternal things does not sink down over the loss of temporal comfort, and yet takes wholesome sorrow from those things in which it considers that it has done something too little, or otherwise than it ought.

Wherefore Paul teaches these two kinds of sorrow to be distinct no less in their working than in their recompense. Indeed, he shows the outcome of salvation to be set in the one, the destruction of death in the other, saying: «For the sorrow that is according to God worketh penance unto stable salvation; but the sorrow of the world worketh death» (2 Cor. 7:10). Therefore, do not, beyond the measure of Christian faith, hold an indiscreet sorrow over your husband's death; nor think him lost, but sent on before; nor think his youth prematurely cut off, which you see established in unending eternity. For to the faithful soul it is said: «Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's» (Ps. 102:5). CHAPTER III. — The dark day does not carry off the faithful.

The day of Christ's greatness is the day of the last judgement. — But far be it that, consenting to the errors of the unbelieving, we should reckon or say that «the dark day carried off» that young Christian «and plunged him in bitter death» (Virgil, Aeneid VI, 429). For the dark day carries off those who, according to the saying of the apostle John, «are in darkness, and walk in darkness, and know not whither they go, because the darkness hath blinded their eyes» (1 John 2:11). The dark day carried off those whom the true Light itself, vehemently rebuking, says: «And this is the judgement, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil» (John 3:19).

Such are they who so live that, when they have heard the voice of the Son of God, they are raised up not to life but to judgement, as the Lord says: «For the hour cometh, when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice; and they that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgement» (John 5:28-29). And because to these a short life can profit no more than a long one, consequently it is said of such in the book of Wisdom: «And if indeed they be of long life, they shall be nothing regarded, and their last old age shall be without honour. And if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor speech of comfort in the day of decision» (Wis. 3:17-18).

But what is the day of greatness, if not the day on which the Lord shall come, not to be judged, but to judge? For now, when He came to be judged for us, it was not a day of greatness, but of diminishment, in which «He was made a little lower than the angels»; but then will be the day of greatness, when, according to John's attestation, all the wicked will desire to hide themselves in the caverns of the mountains, saying to the mountains and to the rocks: «Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of the Father sitting upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?» (Rev. 6:16-17). On this day of greatness the wicked shall have no address of comfort, but rebuke; for they shall not hear:

«Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world» (Matt. 25:34); but it shall be said to them: «Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels» (Matt. 25:41). Such persons, therefore, however long-lived they may die, are plunged in bitter death; and although their age may seem mature in body, yet a deadly love of the world retains in the heart the bitterness of an immature mind. CHAPTER IV. — A good Christian, even if young, is not plunged in bitter death. Not a long life profits, but a good one.

But a Christian who has lived in the fear of God, at whatever age of the body he may have died, is not plunged in bitter death, but is transferred, upheld by a maturity pleasing to God. For we read in the same book of Wisdom: «For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs, and a spotless life is old age; which, made pleasing to God, was beloved» (Wis. 4:8-9). And in what follows, it says that a certain man who lived well and was pleasing to God was for this reason quickly taken away, lest he should suffer any change of worldly malice, nor his soul be deceived by any feigning. Thus, therefore, it is said:

«He was taken away, lest malice should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul: for the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things, and the wandering of concupiscence perverteth the mind that is without malice; being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time. For his soul pleased God: therefore he hastened to take him away from the midst of iniquity» (Wis. 4:11-14). By these words, indeed, holy Scripture teaches us that in this world it is not a long life that profits faithful Christians, but a good one; and that, to know, as far as is possible, the merit of any deceased person, we must look not at how long, but at how well, each one has lived.

For just as an evil life, the longer it is prolonged in time, so much the more multiplies the punishment for offenders, so a good life, though here terminated in a short time, acquires for those who live well a great and everlasting glory. An evil life, therefore, plunges into hell old men immature and bitter; but a good life leads the deceased young, mature, to the kingdom. CHAPTER V. — A widow ought to be careful to be holy both in body and in spirit. The marriages of Christians are holy. — Do not therefore be sad that he has preceded you by a few days, but be careful, and so pass through the way of this mortal life that you may be able to attain to eternal life.

Accordingly, it behoves you unceasingly to remember the apostolic word, in which he says: «The unmarried woman and the virgin is careful for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit» (1 Cor. 7:34). By «unmarried» he here means a widow — not one who has never married at all, but one who, her husband being dead, has been loosed from the nuptial bond. Of whom he says in another place: «But if her husband die, she is loosed from the law of her husband» (Rom. 7:2). Her, therefore, he commands to be holy both in body and in spirit. But what else is it to be holy in body and in spirit, than to keep what is holy both in deed and in thought? For she is permitted to think on the things of the world who is held bound in bodily bond to a marriage, the same apostle saying:

«But she that is married is careful for the things of the world, how she may please her husband» (1 Cor. 7:34). There, therefore, is the necessity of worldly thought to be undergone, where mortal flesh carnally weds one about to die. And because that very necessity of the flesh holds those bound by harder bonds, on this account the Apostle says of them: «But such shall have tribulation of the flesh» (ibid., 28). Therefore the unmarried woman, that is, the widow, who is commanded to be holy both in body and in spirit — as she ceases in body to serve a husband, so she ought not in heart to think carnal things. Indeed, the marriages of Christians are holy: because both conjugal chastity is guarded there in the body, and the purity of faith is preserved in the heart.

For apostolic authority also says: «Marriage honourable in all, and the bed undefiled» (Heb. 13:4). Marriage, then, is not from the pollution of sin, but from the institution of God: and in that spouses render to each other the debt of the flesh, in so far as they do it modestly, they keep the precepts of Christ, because they in no way depart from conjugal charity and chastity. But conjugal chastity abhors adulterous embraces, and, tenacious of honour and modesty, one wife seeks from one husband, and one husband from one wife, that which each knows he owes lawfully to one alone. There indeed the debt of the flesh is rendered to the husband: but conjugal chastity is owed more to Christ than to the husband;

because the body is then truly chaste — that body which is not polluted by carnal fornication — when spiritual integrity is preserved by the fear and love of Christ. CHAPTER VI. — Let the unmarried woman go in a higher grade than the married. Nevertheless, the unmarried woman and the virgin is distinguished from the married woman by no small dignity of grade, seeing that the married woman is held bound by worldly thoughts, whereas the unmarried woman and the virgin is not subject to carnal tribulations, because she is not held by the bond of carnal matrimony. There the liberty of bodily and spiritual continence is more assured, because there is no necessity arising from conjugal servitude. Both, therefore, are the gift of God — both conjugal chastity and widowed continence:

For each one has his own gift from God (1 Cor. 7:7); and that gift indeed, so far as it is in itself, is praiseworthy, because it is good; but this other is more praiseworthy, because it is better. For by the servitude of marriage the shamefulness of fornication is overcome; but by the liberty of widowhood the dignity of chastity increases. In the one case faith takes counsel for weakness, lest it fall into vice; in the other the faithful soul stretches itself out toward the increase of virtue. For concerning the married it is said: 'But because of fornication let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband' (1 Cor. 7:2). But concerning the widow it is said: 'Yet she will be more blessed if she so remains' (ibid., 40).

Blessed therefore is she who, out of horror at shamefulness, does not desire an unlawful embrace; but more blessed is she who, out of a greater love of purity, disdains even the lawful one. Blessed is she who, bound to a husband, so lives that she renders to her husband alone the debt of her flesh; but more blessed is she who, being loosed, so remains unwedded that she owes it to none. CHAPTER VII. Consolation of the widow. Accordingly, in that from a married woman you have been made a widow, consider that God's gift has rather been increased for you, not taken away: for He has not forsaken you, who has shown you the way of a better life to follow. The Lord willed you to ascend by steps to better things, so that first, as a married woman, you might live faithfully with one husband, in order that afterward, without difficulty, you might remain a widow without a husband.

To this end, therefore, divine grace nourished your soul in conjugal chastity, so that you who had learned, while that one husband lived, not to seek another, might learn as a widow to keep yourself from every man. Do not, then, neglect the grace that is in you: for you too know how much better it is to abstain from intercourse continually than even to have intercourse for conjugal necessity. The husband who had been given to you for a time departed in time: for he had been given to you not for the blessedness of the fatherland, but for the consolation of the journey. For there are certain gifts of God which God so bestows upon His faithful in the present time, that their use is held necessary in this life only, whereby the merit of the future life may be procured;

such as is the belief that holds right faith, and the working that guards justice and mercy: so that right faith may not be despised of the help of charity, which is recognized in working; on account of which the Apostle approves that faith which works through love (Gal. 5:6). CHAPTER VIII. Faith and merciful working are necessary in this life; in the fatherland they will not be. Right faith, therefore, and merciful working will cease after this life, when that shall be seen by sight which now, while believed, is not seen; nor among the blessed will there be anyone wretched, to whom mercy might be extended. Yet these two, that is, faith and working, are so unnecessary after the end of this life, that before its end they are by no means to be forsaken.

For whoever, before the end of the present life, departs from right faith or good working, even if he has previously run vigorously and watchfully in these, yet because he desists from the right road, he loses the merit of the whole journey that he has run. Again, there are other things which the divine goodness so bestows upon men in this time, that they ought not only to remain continually with men in this life, but also to increase in the divine recompense: such as is the cleansing of sins, the knowledge of truth, the love of God and neighbor. For if anyone perseveringly guards these in himself in this time, and by the divine gift takes care to increase by progress what he has begun, in the future he will have them abiding with him in eternal perfection.

For then perfect cleansing will receive the perfect knowledge of truth, and perfect knowledge will permit nothing of perfect charity to be lacking in us. CHAPTER IX. Some things are both given and taken away by God temporally. The example of Job. Dives and Lazarus, the one blessed, the other wretched. But there are yet other things which are so given by God temporally, that they are taken away temporally: such as is the joining of spouses, the begetting of children, abundance of riches, soundness of bodies, and whatever things are similar; which of themselves can make men neither wretched nor blessed. Therefore these are given by the Lord to both the good and the evil, and are sometimes divinely taken away from both the good and the evil.

Job was blessed when he lived justly in riches; but more blessed when in poverty he proved himself more just. He was blessed when he was surrounded by ten children, but more blessed when, struck by the bereavement of them all at once, he remained unmoved in the love of God. He was blessed also in the health of his body, but he was made more blessed in his wound. More blessed also on the dunghill full of filth than in a palace adorned with marble. Consider too these two, the one wretched in riches and health, the other much blessed in want and wounds. That rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and feasted sumptuously every day (Luke 16:19),

how empty he was amid those feasts, how poor amid the multitude of his riches, how naked amid the beauty of his garments, how sick amid the health of his body, how famished amid the fullness of his belly, how wretched amid his joys, how desolate amid the conversations of his friends, how cast down amid the attendances of his servants! Consider also Lazarus, rich in poverty, blessed in misery, happy in unhappiness, whole in his wounds, and indeed without a home, but not without a Lord; without clothing, but not without faith; without good health of body, but not without the strength of charity; without food, but not without Christ;

exposed to the dogs, yet a companion of the angels, who did not receive of the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, but with his inward bowels belched forth the heavenly bread. CHAPTER X. Temporal goods are held both well and ill, and are likewise despised. These, then, are the things which are sometimes held well, sometimes ill; sometimes well despised, sometimes ill. For they are held well when in their use the fear of God is kept; but they are well despised when in the contempt of them glory is sought from the most high God, not from men. Such also is marriage, which can both be well undertaken, and be well despised. How well did Susanna preserve the work of marriage in conjugal chastity!

How much better did Judith and Anna despise it in the continence of widowhood! How best did Mary not know it in the integrity of virginity! Marriage, therefore, is not to be reckoned among the chief gifts of God, although it is not denied to be a divine gift; nor is it to be called a gift of blessedness, since what can be held with a good purpose can also be despised with a better purpose. For if it ought to be reckoned among the chief gifts of God, they would not be praised by the mouth of our Savior who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 19:12); nor would the Savior Himself command that, for His sake, father, mother, brothers, sisters, wife, children, and fields be left, with the promise of a hundredfold recompense and eternal life, saying:

'Everyone who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or fields for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess eternal life' (Matt. 19:29). But in saying this, Christ did not command that divorce be made, but with just discernment He showed that God's gifts, temporal though they be, are nevertheless to be set after eternal ones by His faithful — the fleeting after the abiding, the small after the great. He does not condemn goods, but rather praises the better; He does not hate the former, but loves the latter more. For their attainment or their loss is not the recompense of faith, but its testing. CHAPTER XI. Faith ought to be intent not on temporal but on eternal things. Let the widow not be entangled with worldly cares.

The adornment and habit of widows. But our faith ought to be intent not on temporal, but on eternal things. On account of which the Vessel of Election, exhorting us to endure the present tribulation, commands that we turn away the gaze of our heart entirely from the contemplation of temporal things, saying: 'For that which in the present is momentary and light of our tribulation works in us beyond measure, in sublimity, an eternal weight of glory, while we contemplate not the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal' (2 Cor. 4:17-18). Walk, therefore, as it is written, 'from virtue to virtue' (Ps. 84:7),

and let your soul pass from the intention of temporal things to the contemplation of eternal ones, and passing from the virtue of conjugal modesty to the more excellent virtue of widowly continence, you ought to be endowed with no less continence of heart than of body; and after the death of your temporal husband all the remnants of worldly thought ought to be extinguished in your heart. For why should a Christian widow carry a soul bound by the chain of any worldly thought, she who, her husband being dead, ought to reckon the world as dead with him? Therefore, the cause of worldly thought having ceased, worldly thought itself also ought to cease;

and just as before you were bodily adorned for a husband who took delight in the beauty of the body, so now you are to be spiritually adorned for Christ, who seeks in you only the beauty of the mind. Consider what blessed Peter enjoins even upon married women, to whom he forbids the adornment of outward habit, speaking thus: 'Wives, be subject to your husbands, so that if any do not believe the word of God, they may be won without a word through the conversation of their wives, considering your chaste conversation in fear;'

in which let there be not the outward braiding of hair, or the putting on of gold, or the adornment in the wearing of garments, but that hidden man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet and modest spirit, which is rich before God' (1 Pet. 3:1-4). This precept the blessed apostle confirmed by the example of holy women, saying: 'For thus also of old the holy women, who hoped in God, adorned themselves, being subject to their husbands' (ibid., 5). CHAPTER XII. Let holy women be adorned not with necklaces, but with morals. The office of a widow is to cleave to God and to persevere in prayers.

If, then, holy women, even married ones, are to be commended not for necklaces but for morals, and ought to be adorned more with humility than with dress, what ought to be the habit and bearing of a widow, who desires to please not a man for a husband, but Christ? who, being released from the necessity of bodily wedlock, ought to pursue only spiritual adornments? Let your habit, therefore, be such as does not excite to wantonness, but provokes to continence; which does not entice to lust, but restrains toward fear; which does not kindle the concupiscence of the flesh, but extinguishes it; which does not allure to intercourse, but rouses to progress; from which the compunction of the heart, not the lust of the flesh, is born;

whereby you may please the Son of God, whereby you may show yourself truly chaste to the gaze of the heavenly Bridegroom. For that Bridegroom wishes to see your flesh mortified, not glossy; He makes use of the marriage of the soul, not of the flesh, and delights in the beauty of the soul, not of the flesh. Wherefore, by the chastisement of the body acquire the beauty of the heart: let the flesh be covered with mean coverings, and let the soul be clothed with precious garments; nor do you seek to please the eyes of men, but not to offend the gaze of Christ. Let Him see in you what He loves, let Him find what He gave, let Him recognize that in which He delights. 'For the King has desired your beauty; but all the glory of the King's daughter is within' (Ps. 45:11-13). The time of embracing has passed; now is the time to be far from the embrace.

Let those cleave to husbands who are held bound by the conjugal bond: but to you it must be said with the prophet, 'But for me it is good to cleave to God, to put my hope in God' (Ps. 73:28). Whence the Apostle also says: 'But she who is truly a widow and desolate has hoped in the Lord, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day' (1 Tim. 5:5). Let prayer, therefore, be yours in frequent petition, and in holy thought and continual working. For thus you will be able to fulfill what the Apostle commands (1 Thess. 5:16-17), that we pray without ceasing. For every good work is a prayer in the sight of God, in which God, who needs nothing, delights.

And that we may recognize that good works have the place of prayer with God, Holy Scripture thus admonishes us: 'Hide alms in the bosom of the poor, and it will make entreaty for you' (Sir. 29:12). CHAPTER XIII. How a widow should conduct herself in food and banquets. Beware lest you make provision for the flesh in its desires, lest you always indulge the gullet in what it demands: let not pleasure be sated by your refreshment, but let weakness be sustained.

But you ought to have as partners of your banquet such as are not wont to praise the delights of the flesh, but of the heart; who seek the bread of angels with the eagerness of the inner man; who run after your Bridegroom in the fragrance of His ointments; who perceive God with the sweetness of the inner taste; who with pure affection hunger and thirst after righteousness; who work for the food not that perishes, but that endures unto eternal life. With such let both conversations be woven for you, and banquets be frequented; so that, when you feed them with bodily food, there may accrue to you the merit of holy working;

and when you are fed by their spiritual words, the profit of holy conversation may increase for you; nor should you wish to fill your table now with such delights as you used to fill it with when you served carnal wedlock. Hear the Teacher of the Nations, what he says concerning the widow: 'She who lives in pleasures,' he says, 'is dead while living' (1 Tim. 5:6). CHAPTER XIV. Examples of the widows Judith and Anna. You have in both the Old and the New Testament examples of holy widows by which you may be edified. In the Old Testament, Judith; let Anna be considered in the New:

whose imitator if you become, with the Lord's help, you will trample underfoot both the delights of the flesh and worldly vanity, out of a true humility of heart, so that the affection of that Bridegroom, who is ever living, may ever live in you; even as, when He rose again, it is confirmed by the testimony of the angelic voice, when it is said to the women: 'Why do you seek the living among the dead?' (Luke 24:5). Concerning whom apostolic authority also speaks thus: 'For the word of God is living and effectual' (Heb. 4:12). Living, therefore, is He who is the Word of the Father; and therefore He Himself is the life of the faithful. Him the holy widows sought with contrition of heart and chastisement of body; Him with full continence of heart and body they most devotedly served. For concerning Judith it is written:

'And Judith was a widow in her house three years and four months; and she made herself a tent upon the roof of her house, and put sackcloth upon her loins, and the garments of her widowhood were upon her, and Judith fasted all the days of her widowhood' (Judith 8:4-6). And, lest anyone should think that holy widow fasted not out of devotion of heart, but out of the necessity of poverty, hear what is said of her in what follows: 'And Judith was of goodly appearance, and exceedingly beautiful of face, and prudent of heart, and good of understanding, and she was very honorable.

For her husband Manasses had left her, the son of Achitob, the son of Melchias, the son of Heliab, the son of Nathanael, the son of Surisodai, the son of Simeon, the son of Israel, gold and silver, menservants and maidservants, and cattle and lands' (ibid., 7-8). Behold a widow illustrious in birth, rich in possessions, young in age, wonderful in appearance, who despised riches, spurned delights, trampled the incentives of the flesh, and, clothed with power from on high, did not seek to serve a second wedlock. Therefore by the testimony of so illustrious a work it appeared how greatly beloved by God is the continence of widowhood.

Finally, when Holofernes had besieged Bethulia with a countless army, and all the might of the Israelites, thrown into confusion, languished, chastity goes forth to assault wantonness, and holy humility advances to the destruction of pride. He fought with arms, she with fastings; he with drunkenness, she with prayer. Therefore what all the people of the Israelites could not do, the holy widow accomplished by the virtue of chastity. One woman cut down the leader of so great a host, and restored to the people of God an unhoped-for liberty. CHAPTER XV. The praises of Anna. A comparison of Judith and Anna. Let us see also in the New Testament how the conduct of holy Anna is set before us. Of whom holy Luke thus relates:

'And there was Anna a prophetess, daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; and she was advanced in many days, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, serving with fastings and supplications night and day' (Luke 2:36-37). These two widows, although they lived in different times, both nevertheless served the mystery of one faith; for the Christ whom Anna knew born in the flesh, Him Judith had known as about to be born. How greatly did God in both widows demonstrate that continence was pleasing to Him! For both Judith, girded with spiritual arms, cut off the head of the wanton robber;

but Anna, filled with the Holy Spirit, recognized that very Head of the Church. To Judith was given the destruction of Holofernes; to Anna was revealed the coming of the Savior. To the one God granted to drive away pestilence from the people; to the other He bestowed the recognition of the medicine of the human race. And because widowly continence follows sanctified virginity by a lower degree, therefore, after the Son of God was born of a virgin, He deigned to be proclaimed by the office of a widow's tongue. Yet it was not a widow given to pleasures who spoke of Him — one who, living, is dead — but she who did not depart from the temple, serving with fastings and supplications night and day. CHAPTER XVI. The praises of Proba, who was the sister of Galla. The nobility of Galla.

What is withdrawn from finery should be distributed to the poor. But concerning these fastings and supplications there is now no place for discoursing more widely. For we propose (if the Lord wills, and if we live) to write something about fasting and prayer to your sister, the holy virgin of Christ, Proba, whom the Lord has deigned at this time to give in the city of Rome as a chief exemplar of virginity and humility, as is contained in the promise I lately made in the letter which I recently addressed to her, whose holy conversation is above all to be imitated by you in all things:

who, though she was born of consuls both by father and forefathers, and reared amid royal delights, has such humility infused into her by the gift of heavenly grace, that out of love of subjection and the practice of serving, she no longer knows that she was once a mistress, since she aspires, by the delight of holy servitude, to have all as her masters. For she knows that from the Lord, to whom she has vowed the virginity both of heart and body, humility in the form of a servant was accepted for our deliverance: and on this account she delights to please the Bridegroom in the humility of this servitude, so that, assigned to the fellowship of the five wise virgins, she may reign with the Bridegroom in eternal brightness.

But with how great virtue she has despised the delights of the body, and how she makes her own hunger serve to satisfy the poor, and how she is covered with mean garments for no other reason than that she may both fulfill her purpose of humility and expend the constant care of holy piety upon clothing the poor — this you know more fully by seeing her yourself, than that you should wish to hear it from me, which I can less explain in words. Set her, therefore, before you as a mirror, and from the consideration of her, learn what is now in you, or what is still lacking, of holy pursuits and works; and although she excels by the outstanding gift of virginity, she ought to have you as a companion in the other virtues.

Learn, therefore, you too to attribute nothing to yourself from nobility of birth. And although by grandfather, father, father-in-law, and husband being formerly consuls you were once illustrious among the worldly, now know that you are made illustrious in that in which the virtue of humility grows in you. Learn of the Lord that He is meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your soul (Matt. 11:29). Cast off the nobility of the flesh, which is the kindling of pride, and pursue the nobility of the spirit with the perfect humility of the heart. Give heed to prayers, be instant in fastings, and whatever you withdraw from your finery, give to the hungry; and whatever you take from yourself, spend on the needy;

let your voluntary fasting relieve the hunger of those who fast, so that in the fruit of your mercy the fruitfulness of your fastings may appear. Let the meanness of your garments also profit you, and let the nakedness of the poor be clothed through you: for then you will usefully flee the harmful adornment of precious clothing, if you clothe the naked; so that you may show yourself truly a sharer with Christ's poor, not by the emptiness of words, nor by deceptive display, but by the testimony of holy working. CHAPTER XVII. Boasting in good works is to be avoided. Nor should you believe yourself superior to those whom you feed or clothe, nor, because you give and they receive, set your own merits before Christ's poor, as though you were therefore the better for having despised more.

For in vain do you despise your possessions, if you hold in your heart the riches of harmful boasting: for not only do they sin who, for the riches they have, bear some boasting in the heart; nay, they offend more grievously who wish to have a boasting of the heart from riches despised, or who therefore wish to prefer themselves to the poor, because they seem to bestow more upon the poor. But the order with God is not the same, who attends not to the quantity of the possession despised, but to the quality of the will. Zacchaeus is said to have expended more riches upon the poor for Christ, than Peter the apostle, for whom he left the meanest instruments of the fisherman's craft;