So Domnina, having blushed deeply, scarcely caught her breath, and rising up turned to prayer and called upon Wisdom to stand by her as a helper. And when she had prayed, courage, she says, immediately came upon her, and a certain divine respite took hold of her, and she said: O Virtue, I too, passing over the long preambles of introductions, will try to speak according to my ability upon the very matters set before us, lest by prolonging the side-issues I take up more time than that for the sake of which they are spoken. For I consider it a very great part of prudence not to make long, periodic speeches before the questions asked, charming the ears, but to begin straightway from the very point of the question at hand. Therefore I too will begin from here; for it is time. Nothing will be able to benefit man toward the good, O fair virgins, so much as chastity; for to have the soul most beautifully and excellently governed and washed pure of the world's stains and pollutions—chastity alone does and accomplishes this. For from the time when Christ taught us to practice it and revealed to us its unsurpassable beauty, the kingdom of the evil one was overthrown, who before always took all captive and enslaved them, so that none of the men of old became well-pleasing to the Lord, but all were mastered by faults, the law of corruption not being sufficiently able to free humanity, until virginity, succeeding the law, reigned by the ordinances of Christ over men. For the men of former times would not so often have been driven into battles and murders and lusts and idolatries, if the righteousness derived from the laws had been sufficient for them unto salvation. But now—then indeed they were often entangled in great and many calamities; but from the time that Christ became man and, having adorned the flesh with virginity, armed it, the bitter tyrant, the ruler of incontinence, was overthrown, and peace and faith prevail, men no longer being turned to idolatry as of old.
But that I may not seem to some to be sophisticating and to be inferring these things from probabilities and talking nonsense, I too will set before you, O virgins, a written prophecy from the Old Testament, that I speak the truth—the Book of Judges, where the kingdom of chastity was already plainly foretold. For it says: "The trees went forth to anoint a king over themselves, and they said to the olive tree, 'Reign over us.' And the olive tree said to them, 'Shall I leave my fatness, which God and men have glorified in me, to go to rule over the trees?' And all the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come, reign over us.' And the fig tree said to them, 'Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, to go to rule over the trees?' And the trees said to the vine, 'Reign over us.' And the vine said to them, 'Shall I leave my wine, the gladness of men, to go to rule over the trees?' And all the trees said to the bramble, 'Come, reign over us.' And the bramble said to the trees, 'If in truth you anoint me to be king over you, come, trust in my shadow; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'" Now that this was not spoken of trees that grow from the earth is plain; for the lifeless trees, fixed by their roots in the ground, would not have come together to elect a king for themselves. But assuredly these things are recorded about souls, which, before the incarnation of Christ, having run wild with transgressions, draw near, asking God to take pity on them and that His mercy and compassion may now reign over them—which Scripture represented under the type of the olive, because oil is an aid to bodies and a reliever of toils and labors, and a giver of light. For every lamp's flame is increased when watered with oil; and the mercies of God are altogether a deliverance from death and sins, and an aid to humanity, and nourishment for the light of the heart. And consider whether Scripture does not indicate in order the legislations from the first-created man down to Christ, with whose counterfeit fabrications the devil deceived the human race: likening the fig tree to the commandment given to man in paradise, since, deceived, he covered his nakedness with leaves of the fig; the vine to that given to Noah at the time of the flood, because, having fallen asleep through wine, he was mocked; the olive to that given to Moses in the wilderness, since the prophetic gift, the holy oil, had failed from the inheritance when they sinned; and the bramble to that given to the apostles for the salvation of the world, since through them we were taught chastity, of which alone the devil was not able to contrive a deceptive image. And for this reason also four Gospels have been delivered, God having evangelized humanity four times and trained it with four laws, whose seasons are clearly indicated from their difference by the fruits. For the fig tree presents the sweetness and beauty, the delight, that existed in man before the transgression in paradise; for there are times when the Holy Spirit takes the fruit of the fig in a higher sense and in many ways, as we shall show hereafter. The vine, through the cheerfulness from wine and the gladness of those saved from the wrath and the flood, hints at their change from fear and anxiety into joy. The olive, through the fruit of oil, signifies the compassion of God, when God, again forbearing after the flood—men having turned aside into godlessness—gave a law and was manifested to certain ones, and, as it were, anointed with oil the radiance of virtue that was already being quenched.
But the bramble represents chastity; for the same tree is both bramble (rhamnos) and agnus-castus (agnos)—by some called bramble, by others agnus. And perhaps because this plant grew akin to virginity, it was therefore named both bramble and agnus: bramble from its firmness and hardiness against pleasures, and agnus from its being ever chaste (hagneuein). Wherefore also Elijah, fleeing from the face of Jezebel the woman, the account says, came first under a bramble, and being heard was strengthened and received food—because for those who flee the sting and the woman, that is, pleasure, the resting-place and shelter is the wood of chastity that sprang up, which from the coming of Christ the Chief-Virgin reigned over men. For when the first admonitions failed to save man—those in the time of Adam and of Noah and those in the time of Moses—the legislation according to the Gospel alone saved all. For the fig tree is said not to reign in this way—the trees being understood as men, and the fig as the commandment—wherefore man, after the fall, wished to be ruled again by virtue and not to be cast out from the incorruption of the paradise of delight; but he was repelled, having transgressed, and was cast out afar, as no longer able to be ruled by incorruption nor containing it. And first, after the transgression, the proclamation through Noah was sent to him, that if he attended to it he might be able to be saved from sin, promising rest from evils and gladness, if they would practice it with all their might, just as the vine promises to produce wine for those who tend and cultivate it. But this ordinance too did not reign over humanity, because they were not persuaded by it when it was diligently proclaimed by Noah. But even after being already engulfed and choked by the waters, they began to repent and to promise to yield themselves obedient to the commandments. Wherefore they too are disdained to be ruled—that is, they are disdained to be helped by the proclamation of the commandment, the Spirit answering them and reproaching them: "For that which you abandoned, the men whom God commanded to help, namely to help and save and gladden these, such as Noah and those with him, O obstinate ones—shall I come to help you who are barren of prudence and resemble nothing but dry trees, you who did not before believe me when I proclaimed escape from present evils?"
And so, when these too had thus been deemed unworthy of the divine care, and humanity again poured out into error, God once more sent a law to reign and to remind of righteousness, in the time of Moses. But they, bidding farewell to this also at a distance, went over to idolatry. Wherefore God delivered these too over to mutual slaughters and flights and captivities, the law having renounced saving them—those who, after being driven together by evils and wailing, again declared that they would obey the commandments, until God, for the fourth time taking pity on man, sent chastity to reign, which Scripture accordingly called the bramble; which, having consumed the pleasures and threatened thereafter, if all did not obey it without hesitation and approach in truth, to consume all with fire. For after this there would be no other law or teaching, but judgment and fire. And for this reason, from then on, man began to act righteously and to believe firmly in God and to break away from the devil. So most profitable and helpful was chastity sent down to men; for of it alone the devil was not able to fashion a counterfeit for deception, as he had of the other legislations.
For the fig tree, as I said, having been taken up as a type of the delight in paradise on account of the sweetness and beauty of its fruit, the devil, having led man astray by its counterfeits, ensnared him, persuading him to cover the nakedness of his body with leaves of the fig—which, on account of their roughness, signify pleasure-loving luxury; and those again who were saved from the flood through the vine of spiritual gladness he made drunk with a counterfeit drink and mocked, again stripping man of virtue. But what I say will be still clearer from this. The opposing power always imitates the figures of virtue and righteousness, not for genuine practice, but for deception and hypocrisy. For that it may lure to death those who flee death, it adorns itself outwardly with the shapes of immortality, and in this way wishes to be thought a fig tree and a vine, and to produce sweetness and gladness, transforming itself into an angel of light and luring many with a pretense of godliness. For we find two corruptions of figs and vines in the Scriptures: figs that are good, very good, and figs that are bad, very bad; wine that gladdens the heart of men, and wine that is the wrath of dragons and the incurable wrath of asps. But from the time that chastity reigned over men, the error was refuted and conquered, Christ the Chief-Virgin having overthrown it; and the true olive and the true fig and the true vine bear fruit after chastity had prevailed over all, just as Joel the prophet also brings good tidings, saying: "Be of good cheer, O land, and rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has done great things. Be of good cheer, beasts of the field, for the plains of the wilderness have budded, for the tree has borne its fruit; the vine and the fig tree have given their strength. And you children of Zion, rejoice and be glad in the Lord your God, for He has given you food unto righteousness"—calling the former legislations the vine and the fig tree, trees that have sprouted fruits unto righteousness for the children of spiritual Zion, which after the incarnation bore the fruit of the Word, when our chastity reigned, though before they had been overmastered and had shed their shoots on account of sin and the great error. For the true vine and the true fig tree could not furnish the nourishment given forth to us unto life, while the fig that is not true and is variegated for deception was still blooming. But when the Lord dried up the spurious and counterfeit imitations of the true ones, pronouncing upon the fruitless fig, "Let no fruit grow on you henceforth forever," then the truly fruit-bearing ones flourished again and put forth food unto righteousness. And there are times when the vine is referred in many ways to the Lord Himself, and the fig to the Holy Spirit, since the Lord gladdens the hearts of men, and the Spirit heals. And for this reason Hezekiah is first commanded to be plastered with a cake of figs, which is the fruit of the Spirit, that he might be cured, as it were, according to the apostle, by love. For "the fruit of the Spirit," he says, "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, faith, gentleness, self-control"—which the prophet, on account of its great sweetness, called figs. And Micah too says: "And each one shall rest under his vine, and each under his fig tree, and there shall be none to make them afraid." For it is plain that those who have taken refuge under and rested upon the shelter of the Spirit and of the Word shall not be cowardly nor terrified of him who troubles the hearts.
And that the olive also hints at the legislation in the time of Moses, Zechariah sets forth, saying thus: "And the angel who spoke in me returned, and roused me as when a man is roused out of his sleep, and said to me, 'What do you see?' And I said, 'I have seen, and behold a lampstand all of gold, with its lamp upon it, and two olive trees, one on the right of its lamp and one on the left.'" And a little after: when the prophet asked, "And what are the olive trees on the right of the lampstand and on the left, and the two branches of the olive trees that are in the hands of the two golden spouts?" the angel answered and said, "These are the two sons of fatness, who stand by the Lord of all the earth"—meaning the two primordial powers that are the bodyguards of God, which in the house, around the measuring-line, through the branches supply the spiritual oil of God, that He may have the light of divine knowledge. For the two branches of the two olive trees are the Law and the prophets, which were called around the measuring-line of the inheritance, which Christ and the Holy Spirit caused to sprout, since we were not yet able to contain the whole fruit and the magnitude of these plants before the world began and chastity reigned; but we cultivated only their branches—the Law, as it were, and the prophecy—beforehand, and that but moderately, often slipping. For who was ever able to contain Christ or the Spirit perfectly, without first being made pure? For the discipline that from childhood works the soul into a desirer and lover of true glory, and conveys this world thither for it with ease and without torment, and chooses for small toils great hopes, is the chastity that makes our bodies immortal, which all men ought gladly to prefer and to praise—some because through it they were led to wedlock with the Word, having practiced virginity, others because through it they were freed from the earth, even though it is to earth that you shall depart, in condemnation. This, then, O Virtue, is the discourse on chastity rendered by me to you, so far as I am able; which, even if it be moderate, my lady, and brief, I beg you most eagerly to receive from me, who was chosen to speak last.