but others, in defending wedlock, would have it that the excellence of perpetual continence merits nothing more than conjugal chastity: as though either the good of Susanna were the humiliation of Mary, or the greater good of Mary ought to be the condemnation of Susanna. Far be it, then, that the Apostle should have said to the married or to those about to marry, 'But I spare you,' as though he had been unwilling to say what punishment is owed to the married in the age to come; far be it that Paul should send to Gehenna her whom Daniel freed from temporal judgment; far be it that the marriage-bed should be a punishment before the tribunal of Christ to her who, by keeping faith with it, chose either to be endangered or to die under a false accusation of adultery. What did that voice accomplish:
'It is better for me to fall into your hands than to sin in the sight of God' — if God was going to free her not because she was preserving her marriage-chastity, but going to condemn her because she had married? And now, as often as conjugal chastity is fortified by the truth of holy Scripture against the slanderers and accusers of marriage, so often is Susanna, together with the Holy Spirit, defended against false witnesses; so often is she freed from a false charge, and by a far greater business. For then it was for one married woman, now for all; then concerning a hidden and false adultery, now concerning a true and manifest wedlock is the charge levelled; then one woman on account of what the wicked elders said, now all husbands and wives on account of what the Apostle was unwilling to say, are accused.
'For your condemnation,' they say, 'he kept silent when he said, But I spare you.' Who said this? Surely he who had said above: 'And if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she has not sinned.' Why then, in that which he modestly kept silent, do you suspect a charge against marriages, and in that which he openly said, do you not recognize a defence of marriages? Or does he silently condemn those whom by speaking he acquitted? Is not Susanna now more mildly accused, not concerning her marriage but concerning that very adultery, than apostolic teaching is accused of falsehood? What would we do in so great a danger, were it not as certain and open that chaste marriages ought not to be condemned as it is certain and open that holy Scripture cannot lie? Here someone will say:
What has this to do with sacred virginity or perpetual continence, the praise of which was undertaken in this discourse? To whom I answer, first, what I mentioned above: that from this the glory of that greater good is the greater, because for the sake of attaining it the conjugal good is transcended, not the sin of marriage avoided. Otherwise it would suffice for perpetual continence not to be specially praised, but only not to be blamed, if it were held for this reason, that to marry were a crime. Then, because it is not by human judgment but by the divine authority of Scripture that men are to be exhorted to so excellent a gift, it must not be treated slightly nor in passing, lest to anyone the divine Scripture itself should seem to have lied in anything.
For those who compel sacred virgins to remain so by the condemnation of marriage rather dissuade than exhort them. For whence should they be confident that it is true which is written — 'And he that gives not in marriage does better' — if they think it false which is nonetheless written just above — 'And he that gives his virgin does well'? But if they believe without doubt the Scripture speaking of the good of marriage, then, confirmed by the same most truthful authority of the heavenly oracle, they will run over to their own better part with fervent and confident alacrity. Wherefore we have now said enough for the business undertaken, and, as far as we could, we have demonstrated that neither is that which the Apostle says:
'I suppose therefore that this is good for the present necessity,' is not so to be taken as though in this age the sacred virgins were better than the faithful married, but in the kingdom of heaven and in the age to come they were equal; nor is that where he says of those who marry, 'But such shall have tribulation of the flesh; but I spare you,' so to be understood as though he had preferred to keep silent the sin and condemnation of marriage rather than to speak it. For each single one of these two sentences two mutually contrary errors have held by not understanding them. For the one about the present necessity is interpreted in their own favour by those who contend that the married are to be made equal to those who do not marry; but the other, where it is said:
But we, according to the faith of the holy Scriptures and sound doctrine, both say that marriage is not a sin, and yet set its good not only below virginal, but even below widowed continence; and we say that the present necessity of the married impedes their merit — not indeed with respect to eternal life, but nevertheless with respect to that surpassing glory and honour which is reserved for perpetual continence; and that at this time marriage is expedient for none save those who do not contain themselves; and that the tribulation of the flesh, coming from carnal affection, without which the marriage of the incontinent cannot exist, the Apostle neither wished to keep silent, since he was truly forewarning, nor to unfold more fully, since he was sparing the weakness of men.
Now, then, by the most evident testimonies of the divine Scriptures — as many as, according to the small measure of our memory, we shall be able to recall — let it appear more clearly that perpetual continence is to be chosen not for the sake of the present life of this age, but for the sake of the life to come, which is promised in the kingdom of heaven. And who would not notice this in that which the same Apostle says a little after: 'He that is without a wife thinks upon the things that are the Lord's, how he may please the Lord; but he that is joined in matrimony thinks upon the things that are the world's, how he may please his wife. And the unmarried woman and the virgin is divided: she that is unmarried is careful for the things that are the Lord's, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit; but she that is married is careful for the things that are the world's, how she may please her husband?'
He certainly does not say: 'he thinks upon the things that pertain to security in this age, that he may pass his time without graver troubles'; nor does he say that the unmarried woman and virgin is 'divided' from her that is married for this end — that is, distinguished and set apart — so that the unmarried might be secure in this life on account of avoiding the temporal troubles which the married does not lack; but he says, 'she thinks upon the things that are the Lord's, how she may please the Lord,' and, 'she is careful for the things that are the Lord's, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.' Unless perchance someone is so foolishly contentious as to attempt to assert that we wish to please the Lord not for the sake of the kingdom of heaven but for the sake of the present age, or that we are holy both in body and spirit for the sake of this life, not the eternal.
To believe this — what else is it than to be more wretched than all men? For thus the Apostle says: 'If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most wretched.' Truly, he who breaks his bread to the hungry, if he does it only for the sake of this life, is a fool; and will he be prudent who chastises his body even unto that continence whereby he does not mingle in wedlock, if it shall profit him nothing in the kingdom of heaven? Finally, let us hear the Lord himself bringing forth a most evident sentence on this matter. For when he was speaking divinely and terribly of spouses not to be separated except for the cause of fornication, the disciples said to him: 'If the case is such with a wife, it is not expedient to marry.' To whom he said, 'Not all receive this word.'
'For there are eunuchs who were so born; and there are others who were made by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.' What could be said more truly, what more lucidly? Christ says it, the Truth says it, the Virtue and Wisdom of God says it — that those who by a pious purpose have contained themselves from taking a wife make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven; and against this, human vanity contends with impious rashness that those who do this avoid only the present necessity of conjugal troubles, but in the kingdom of heaven have nothing more than the rest!
But of what eunuchs does God speak through the prophet Isaiah, to whom he says he will give in his house and within his walls a place named — much better than that of sons and daughters — save of those who make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven?
For as to those in whom the male member itself is disabled, so that they cannot beget — such as are the eunuchs of the rich and of kings — it surely suffices for them, when they become Christians and keep the commandments of God, being nevertheless of such purpose that they would have wives if they could, to be made equal to the rest of the faithful married in the house of God, who rear offspring lawfully and chastely received in the fear of God, teaching their sons to set their hope in God; but not to receive a better place than is that of sons and daughters. For it is not by strength of soul but by necessity of the flesh that they do not take wives. Let anyone who will contend that the prophet foretold this of those eunuchs who are cut off in body; this error too tells in favour of the cause which we have undertaken.
For God did not prefer these eunuchs to those who have no place in his house, but assuredly to those who preserve the merit of the conjugal life in begetting children. For when he says, 'I will give them a place much better,' he shows that it is given also to the married, but far inferior. So that, though we grant that those foretold to be in the house of God are eunuchs according to the flesh, who were not among the people of Israel — for we see these too, when they do not become Jews, yet become Christians — and that the prophet did not speak of those who, by a purpose of continence, not seeking marriage, make themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven:
is anyone in such great madness so opposed to the truth as to believe that eunuchs made so in the flesh have a better place in the house of God than the married, and to contend that those who are continent by a pious purpose — chastising the body even to the point of despising marriage, castrating themselves not in the body but in the very root of concupiscence, meditating the heavenly and angelic life in earthly mortality — are equal to the merits of the married; and, being a Christian, to contradict Christ, who praises those who have made themselves eunuchs not for the sake of this age but for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, affirming that this is useful to the present life, not to the life to come? What else remains for such men, save to assert that the kingdom of heaven itself pertains to this temporal life in which we now are?
For why should not blind presumption also advance into this insanity? And what is more frenzied than this assertion? For although the kingdom of heaven is sometimes the name even for the Church which exists at this time, yet for this very reason is it so named, because it is being gathered for the future and everlasting life. Although, therefore, it has the promise of the present life and of the life to come, yet in all its good works it looks not on the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. Nor indeed did the Holy Spirit keep silent that which, against those most shamelessly and most madly obstinate men, might prevail open and unshaken, and might repel their beast-like assault from his sheepfold by an impregnable fortification.
For when he had said of the eunuchs, 'I will give them in my house and within my walls a place named, much better than that of sons and daughters,' lest anyone too carnal should think that something temporal was to be hoped for in these words, he immediately subjoined: 'I will give them an eternal name, and it shall never fail' — as though he said: Why dost thou shuffle, impious blindness? — why dost thou shuffle? Why dost thou pour the mists of thy perversity over the serenity of the truth? Why, in so great a light of the Scriptures, dost thou seek out darkness from which to lay thine ambush? Why dost thou promise only a temporal usefulness to the holy continent? 'I will give them an eternal name.'
Why dost thou strive to refer to earthly advantage those who, free from all intercourse — and by that very thing whereby they abstain from it here — think upon the things that are the Lord's, how they may please the Lord? 'I will give them an eternal name.' Why dost thou contend that the kingdom of heaven, for the sake of which the holy eunuchs castrated themselves, is to be understood only in this life? 'I will give them an eternal name.' And if perchance thou strive here to take 'eternal' for 'long-lasting,' I add, I heap up, I press in: 'and it shall never fail.' What dost thou seek more? What dost thou say more? This eternal name, whatever it is, of the eunuchs of God, which surely signifies a certain glory proper and surpassing, will not be common with the many, although they are established in the same kingdom and in the same house.
For perhaps for this reason it is even called a 'name,' because it distinguishes those to whom it is given from the rest. What then, they say, does that denarius mean, which, the work of the vineyard being finished, is rendered equally to all — whether to those who came from the first hour, or to those who worked one hour? What indeed, unless it signifies something which all shall have in common, such as is eternal life itself, the kingdom of heaven itself, where all shall be whom God has predestined, called, justified, glorified? 'For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.' This is that denarius, the wage of all; yet 'star differs from star in glory; so also is the resurrection of the dead.' These are the diverse merits of the saints.
For if heaven were signified by that denarius, is not to be in heaven common to all the stars? And yet 'there is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars.' If that denarius were set for the health of the body, is not health, when we are rightly sound in all our members, common — and, if it remain even unto death, present equally and alike to all? And yet God has set the members, each single one of them in the body, as he willed, so that the whole is neither eye, nor the whole hearing, nor the whole smell, and whatever else has its own property, although it has health equally with all. So, because eternal life itself will be equally for all the saints, the equal denarius has been assigned to all;
but because in that very eternal life the lights of merits shall shine distinctly, 'in my Father's house are many mansions.' And thus, in the denarius which is not unequal, one shall not live longer than another; but in the many mansions, one is honoured more brightly than another. Go on, therefore, ye holy ones of God, boys and girls, males and females, celibate and unwedded; go on perseveringly unto the end. Praise the Lord the more sweetly, as ye think upon him the more richly; hope the more happily, as ye serve him the more urgently; love the more ardently, as ye please him the more attentively. With loins girded and lamps burning, await the Lord, when he shall come from the wedding. Ye shall bring to the marriage of the Lamb a new song, which ye shall sing on your harps.
Not, of course, such a song as all the earth sings, to which it is said, 'Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth,' but such as no one shall be able to say save you. For thus he saw you in the Apocalypse, that one beloved above the rest by the Lamb, who was wont to recline upon his breast, and who drank in and belched forth marvellous things above the heavens — the Word of God. He himself saw you, twelve times twelve thousand of the saints, harpers, of inviolate virginity in body, of unviolated truth in heart; and because 'ye follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes,' he wrote concerning you. Whither do we suppose this Lamb to go, whither no one either dares or is able to follow him save you? Whither do we suppose him to go? Into what glades and meadows? Where, I believe, the grasses are joys;
not the vain joys of this world, lying insanities, nor such joys as belong in the kingdom of God itself to the rest who are not virgins, but joys set apart from the lot of all the other joys — the joys of the virgins of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, for the sake of Christ. The joys proper to the virgins of Christ are not the same as those of the non-virgins, though they too be Christ's; for there are other joys for others, but such as these for none. Go into these; follow the Lamb, for the flesh of the Lamb is surely virgin too. For this he retained in himself when grown, which he did not take away from his mother when conceived and born. Deservedly do ye follow him by the virginity of heart and of flesh, whithersoever he goes. For what is it to follow, save to imitate?
For 'Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example,' as the Apostle Peter says, 'that we should follow his footsteps.' Him each one follows in that wherein he imitates him — not insofar as he is the one Son of God, through whom all things were made, but insofar as he is the Son of man, because it behoved him to present in himself things to be imitated. And many things in him are set forth for all to imitate; but virginity of the flesh is not for all, for they have not what they may do that they should be virgins, in whom it has already been brought about that they are not virgins. Let the other faithful, therefore, who have lost the virginity of the body, follow the Lamb — not whithersoever he goes, but as far as they themselves are able. And they are able everywhere, save when he walks in the comeliness of virginity.
Blessed are the poor in spirit: imitate him who for your sake became poor, though he was rich. Blessed are the meek: imitate him who said, 'Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.' Blessed are they that mourn: imitate him who wept over Jerusalem. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: imitate him who said, 'My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.' Blessed are the merciful: imitate him who came to the aid of the man wounded by robbers and left lying half-dead and despaired of upon the road. Blessed are the pure in heart: imitate him who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Blessed are the peacemakers: imitate him who said on behalf of his persecutors, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness' sake: imitate him who suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Those who imitate these things follow the Lamb in them. But surely even the married can walk along these footprints, and though they do not perfectly set their foot in the very same shape, yet they tread in the same paths. But behold, that Lamb walks by the way of virginity. How shall those who have lost what they can in no wise recover walk after him? You, then, you go after him, his virgins; you go after him even thither, for on account of this one thing you follow him whithersoever he goes.
For to any other gift of holiness by which they might follow him we can exhort the married, except for this one thing which they have irrecoverably lost. You, therefore, follow him by holding fast with perseverance what you have vowed with ardour. Do it while you can, lest the good of virginity perish from us, whom you can do nothing to make it return. The rest of the multitude of the faithful will see you: that multitude which cannot follow the Lamb in this respect will see and will not envy; and by rejoicing together with you, what they do not have in themselves they will have in us. For neither will they be able to sing that new song proper to you; yet they will be able to hear it and to take delight in your so excellent good.
But you, who both will sing and will hear, since what you sing you will also hear from yourselves, will exult more happily and reign more joyfully. Yet over your greater joy there will be no grief for those who lack it. For the Lamb, whom you follow whithersoever he goes, will not desert even those who cannot follow him whither you can. We speak of the omnipotent Lamb. He will both go before you and will not depart from them, when God shall be all in all. And those who have less will not shrink from you. For where there is no envy, difference is a partnership. Take courage then, be confident, be strengthened, persevere, you who vow and render to the Lord your God the vows of perpetual continence, not for the sake of the present world, but for the kingdom of heaven.
You also who have not yet vowed this, but are able to receive it—receive it; run with perseverance that you may lay hold of it. Let each take up his own sacrifices and enter into the courts of the Lord, holding the power of your own will not out of necessity. For it cannot be said, 'Thou shalt not marry,' as it is said, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill': those are demanded, this is offered. If these latter be done, they are praised; unless those former be done, they are condemned. In those things the Lord commands you a debt; in these, whatever more you shall have spent over and above, he will repay you at his return. Consider—whatever it be—the place named better within his wall, far better than that of sons and daughters; consider there an everlasting name. Who can unfold what manner of name it shall be?
Yet whatever it shall be, it shall be eternal. By believing and hoping and loving this, you have been able not to avoid marriages that are forbidden, but to fly beyond marriages that are permitted. Wherefore, by how much the greatness of this gift—to the seizing of which we have exhorted you according to our strength—is more excellent and more divine, by so much the more does it warn our solicitude to say something not only concerning most glorious chastity, but also concerning most safe humility. When therefore those who profess perpetual continence, comparing themselves with the married according to the Scriptures, have found them to be beneath themselves both in deed and in reward and in vow and in prize, let there straightway come into their mind what is written: 'By how much thou art great, so much humble thyself in all things, and before God thou shalt find grace.'
The measure of humility is given to each according to the measure of his own greatness: to whom pride is perilous, which lies in wait for the greater the more amply. Envy follows pride, as a daughter and attendant; for pride continually gives birth to it, nor is it ever without such offspring and companion. By these two evils, that is, pride and envy, the devil is the devil. And so against pride, the mother of envy, the whole of Christian discipline especially wages war. For this it is that teaches humility, by which it both acquires and guards charity. And when it had been said of charity, 'Charity envies not,' as if we were seeking the cause whence it comes that it envies not, straightway it added, 'is not puffed up,' as though it said:
It therefore has no envy, because it has no pride. And so Christ, the teacher of humility, first emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man; he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. But as for his very teaching, how attentively it inculcates humility, and how vehemently it insists upon enjoining this—who could easily unfold it and heap together all the testimonies for demonstrating this matter? Let whoever wishes to write separately concerning humility attempt or accomplish this. But of the present work another purpose has been undertaken, concerning so great a matter that in it above all pride must be guarded against.
Accordingly, I recall a few testimonies which the Lord deigns to bring to mind, out of the teaching of Christ concerning humility, which may perhaps suffice for that which I have intended. His discourse, the first and more prolix which he addressed to the disciples, began thus: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'—whom without any controversy we understand to be the humble. He praised the faith of that centurion especially, and said that he had not found so great faith in Israel, because that man believed so humbly as to say, 'I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof.' Hence Matthew for no other reason said that he came to Jesus, though Luke most plainly indicates that he himself did not come to him, but sent his friends.
except that by most faithful humility he himself came rather than those whom he sent. Hence too is that prophetic word: 'The Lord is high, and looks upon the lowly; but the lofty he knows from afar'—that is, as not drawing near. Hence too he says to that Canaanite woman, 'O woman, great is thy faith! Be it done to thee as thou wilt'—she whom above he had called a dog, and had answered that the children's bread was not to be cast to her. Which she humbly accepting had said, 'Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.' And thus what she did not obtain by continual crying, she merited by humble confession.
Hence those two are set forth praying in the temple, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican, for the sake of those who seem to themselves righteous and despise others; and the confession of sins is preferred to the enumeration of merits. And indeed the Pharisee was giving thanks to God out of those things in which he greatly pleased himself. 'I give thanks to thee,' he says, 'that I am not as other men are, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, as also this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.' But the publican stood afar off, and would not so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'Be merciful to me a sinner.' There follows then the divine sentence:
'Amen I say to you, this publican went down to his house justified rather than that Pharisee.' Then the reason is shown why this is just: 'because everyone that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.' It can therefore come to pass that a man both avoids true evils and considers the true goods in himself and gives thanks for these to the Father of lights, from whom cometh down every good gift and every perfect gift, and yet is reproved by the vice of self-exaltation, if by pride he insults other sinners—especially those confessing their sins in prayer—even by mere thought, which is before God; to whom is owed not reproach with self-inflation, but pity without despair.
What of the fact that, when the disciples were inquiring among themselves which of them should be the greater, he set a little child before their eyes, saying, 'Unless ye be as this child, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'? Did he not most highly commend humility, and place in it the merit of greatness? Or when he thus answered the sons of Zebedee, who coveted places at his sides in the loftiness of thrones, that they should rather think of drinking the cup of his Passion—in which he humbled himself even unto death, the death of the cross—than demand with proud appetite to be preferred above the rest, what did he show but that he would be the bestower of loftiness upon those who should first follow him as the teacher of humility?