On the Discipline and Advantage of Chastity

Although therefore, as you know, I always exhort you to many duties and to the precepts of divine admonition (for what else can be more devoted or greater for me than that you stand perfect in the Lord in all things), yet I admonish you especially to hold fast the enclosures of chastity (which you indeed do): knowing that you are the temple of the Lord, members of Christ, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, chosen unto hope, consecrated unto faith, destined unto salvation; sons of God, brothers of Christ, partakers of the Holy Spirit, now owing nothing to the flesh, as those reborn of water and chastity, except the will which we ought to will as our own: let it also be maintained on account of the redemption, so that what has been consecrated by Christ cannot be corrupted. For if the Apostle declares the Church to be the bride of Christ, I ask you, how great a chastity is required, where the Church is presented as a virgin bride amid marriages?

And I indeed, were it not that I proposed to admonish you briefly, think I could have set forth praises of chastity sufficiently broad and rich: but I judged it superfluous to praise it at length before those who practice it. For you adorn it while you bear it, and you bring forth its greater praises by exercising it; having become its ornament, while it also is yours, lending beauty to each other in mutual exchange. It suggests to you the discipline of good morals, you render to it the ministry of holy works. For both how much and what it can do appeared through you, and what you wish, it itself showed and taught; the two goods of precepts and deeds being joined into one, lest anything should seem incomplete, if either precepts had lacked ministries, or ministries had lacked precepts.

Chastity is the honor of bodies, the ornament of morals, the sanctity of the sexes, the bond of modesty, the fount of continence, the peace of the household, the head of concord. Chastity is not anxious to please anyone but itself: chastity is always modest, being the mother of innocence: Chastity is always adorned by modesty alone, then well aware of its own beauty, if it displeases the wicked: chastity seeks no adornments, it is itself its own glory. This commends us to the Lord, binds us to Christ: this drives out from our members all the unlawful battles of desires, brings peace to our bodies: blessed itself, and making blessed all those among whom it deigns to dwell; which not even those who do not have it can accuse: venerable even to its enemies, since those who cannot overcome it admire it all the more.

But as it is always mature and proven in men, and to be sought after by women; so its enemy, unchastity, is always to be detested: rendering an obscene mockery to its servants, sparing neither bodies nor souls. For having overthrown its own subjects' morals, it sends the whole man under the triumph of lust; beguiling at first, so as to harm more while it pleases; draining away property along with honor; the enemy of continence, frequently reaching to bloodshed, a hostile madness of desires, the burning of a good conscience, the mother of impenitence, the ruin of a better age, the disgrace of one's lineage, overthrowing the fidelity of blood and family, inserting one's own children into the affections of strangers, introducing into foreign testaments the offspring of an unknown and corrupted stock.

Which, burning often beyond the bounds of sex, while it does not contain itself within what is permitted, thinks itself little satisfied unless it seeks not merely a new pleasure in the bodies of men as well, but hunts out extraordinary and monstrous abominations against nature itself, from men through men.

But indeed chastity holds first place among virgins, second among the continent, third among the married. Yet in all it is glorious with its degrees. For even to keep the fidelity of marriage is praiseworthy, amid so many battles of the body; and to have set a limit upon marriage by continence is of greater virtue, since even lawful things are rejected. Certainly to have preserved holiness from the womb, and to have maintained oneself as an infant throughout one's entire life into old age, is of admirable power indeed: except that not to know the alluring laws of the body is more a matter of happiness, whereas to have overcome them once known is a matter of virtue; yet in such a way that even this virtue comes from the gift of God, although it shows itself in the members of men.

The precepts of chastity, brethren, are ancient. Why do I call them ancient? Because they were established together with mankind itself. For a husband is given to a woman so that she may know no other besides him, and a wife is given back to a man so that, having what was properly hers subjected to him, she may seek nothing foreign. Thus also, he says, the two shall be in one flesh, so that what had been one may return into one, lest separation without return provide occasion for another. Hence also the Apostle declared the head of the woman to be the man, so as to prove chastity by the union of the two.

For just as the head of one person cannot be fitted to the members of another, so also members not one's own cannot belong to a foreign head: for the head is suited to its own members, and the members to their own head; both cohere in mutual concord by a natural bond, lest any discord arising from the division of members should break the covenant of the divine compact. He adds moreover and says: He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the Church. From this there is a great prescription of charity together with chastity, if wives are to be loved by their husbands just as Christ loved the Church; and wives ought likewise to love their husbands as the Church loves Christ.

Christ confirmed this judgment when, asked about the matter, He said that a wife is not to be dismissed except for adultery: He gave so great an honour to chastity. Hence arose that sentence: You shall not suffer adulteresses to live. Hence the Apostle says: This is the will of God, that you abstain from fornication. Hence also he says: The members of Christ are not to be joined to the members of a harlot. Hence he who, trampling upon the right of chastity, practises the vices of the flesh, is delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. Hence adulterers rightly do not possess the kingdom of heaven; hence it is that every sin is outside the body, but the adulterer alone sins against his own body: hence all the other authorities of the Teacher, which it is not now necessary to recall in full, especially among you who know them well and practise them; which, though they be not written out, you cannot nevertheless complain of them.

For the adulterer has no excuse, nor could he have had one, since it was lawful for him to take a wife.

But just as laws are prescribed for married women, who are so bound that they cannot be torn away from them, virginity and continence are altogether outside every law: nothing of the laws of marriage pertains to virginity; by its own loftiness it transcends them all. If any wicked human audacities attempt to overstep the laws, virginity makes itself equal to the Angels: but if we inquire more closely, it even surpasses them; since, having struggled in the flesh, it carries off a victory even against nature, which the Angels do not possess. What else is virginity but a glorious meditation upon the life to come? Virginity belongs to neither sex: virginity is a persevering infancy: virginity is a triumph over pleasures: virginity has no children, but what is more, it has the contempt of children; it has not fruitfulness, but it has not bereavement: happy in that it is beyond the pain of childbirth, but happier in that it is beyond the calamity of children's funerals. What else is virginity but a freedom loosed from all bonds?

It has no husband as master. Virginity is freed from all attachments: it is not dedicated to marriages, not to the world, not to children. It cannot fear persecution, since it can challenge persecution from its own security.

But since the precepts of chastity have been briefly set forth for us, let us now set down an example of chastity. For more progress is made when one comes to the matter at hand: nor will virtue be doubted when what is commanded is also confirmed by examples. The example of chastity began with Joseph. A young Hebrew, noble by his father, nobler by his innocence, sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites out of envy of his revelations, had come into the house of an Egyptian man; by his obedience and innocence and the entire faithfulness of his servitude he had drawn upon himself the easy and benevolent disposition of his master, whose face both his gracious speech and his age had commended to all.

But this nobility was received by the master's wife in a manner other than was fitting: in a secluded part of the house, without witnesses, a place deep and suited to wicked deeds; the unchaste impudicity of an incontinent woman thought she could overcome the chastity of the young man, now with promises, now with threats. And when he was held by his garments, because he was attempting to flee, on account of the audacity of so great a crime he left the garments themselves behind, and was to have the sincerity of his naked body as a witness of his innocence; the imprudent woman did not hesitate to add a false accusation to the crime of her own impudicity: dishevelled and burning, her desire spurned, she complained with feigned grief to the others and to her husband that the young Hebrew had attempted to force himself upon her, which she herself had attempted to inflict upon him. The husband's passion, ignorant of the facts and gravely inflamed by his wife's accusation, was set ablaze.

But the chaste young man, because he had not mingled guilt with his conscience, was handed over to the depths of the prison. Yet chastity is not alone in the prison: for God is with Joseph, and the guilty are given into his hand, because he, being innocent, had suffered. Moreover he unravelled the obscurities of dreams, because his spirit was watchful in temptation, and through the Lord he was freed from his chains. He who in the household had been of lesser rank with danger, became without danger the master of the royal household: restored to his nobility, he received, by the judgment of God from whom he had merited it, the fruit of chastity and innocence.

But no less, from the other side, another like example of chastity arises for us from the continence of women. There was, as we read, Susanna, daughter of Helcias, wife of Joachim, most beautiful in appearance, more beautiful in character. No outward beauty commended her to comeliness; for she was simple. Chastity had cultivated her, and together with chastity, nature alone. Two of the elders had begun to be consumed with passion for her, mindful of neither the fear of God nor of their own age now withering with years; so greatly did the flame of revived lust call them back to the burning fires of their spent youth: robbers of chastity, they profess love, but they hated her. They threaten her with false accusations when she resists; they who are adulterers in desire declare themselves accusers of adultery. Amid these reefs of lust she sought help from the Lord, because she was not able to resist by bodily strength.

And the Lord heard from heaven her cry for chastity; and when, oppressed by iniquity, she was being led to punishment, she was freed and saw the vengeance upon her enemies. Twice victorious, and so honourably beset so many times in her peril, she escaped both lust and death. It would be endless if I were to pursue more examples: I am content with these two, especially since through them chastity has been defended with all its strength.

Neither could the memory of noble blood soften them in life, which for some is a minister of the licence of wantonness: nor the beauty of the body and the shapely form of well-proportioned members, which often suggests that, like some flower hastening swiftly through a passing age, one should feed upon the offered occasion of pleasure: nor the first years of blooming youth, but of more advanced age; when the blood, still raw and seething, kindles the flames of nature, and blind fires stirring in the marrow seek a remedy, even one that would go through the peril of shame: nor any occasion of secrecy and without any witness, which is thought by some to be safe, and which is the greatest force for committing crime, when impunity presents itself to deliberations. Nor the necessity imposed by the authority of those commanding, and in the rashness of partners and associates; by which kind even right counsels are often broken.

Nor rewards themselves and kindness, nor accusations, nor threats, nor punishments, nor deaths; nothing so savage, so hard, so grievous, as to have fallen from the high rank of chastity. Worthy of so great a reward from the divine Judge, from whom the one merited to be distinguished by nearly a royal throne, the other, endowed with her husband's love, to be redeemed by the deaths of her enemies. These and similar examples must always be set before our eyes, things equal to these must be meditated upon day and night.

Nothing so delights the faithful soul as the whole and unspotted conscience of an immaculate modesty. To have conquered pleasure is the greatest pleasure: nor is there any greater victory than that which is won over desires. He who conquered an enemy was stronger, but by means of another; he who repressed lust was stronger than himself: he who laid low an enemy struck an external foe; he who crushed desire overcame a domestic enemy. Every evil is more easily conquered than pleasure: because whatever that is, it is harsh; but this is alluring. Nothing is so difficult to overcome as that by which one is armed. He who removes desires has also removed fears; for fears come from desires. He who conquers desires triumphs over sin: he who conquers desires shows that the evil of the human race lies beneath his feet: he who has conquered desires has given himself perpetual peace: he who has conquered desires restores to himself freedom, which is most difficult even for the freeborn.

We must therefore, brethren, as experience teaches, always meditate upon chastity: so that it may be easier, it consists in no arts. For what is that consummated will, which, unless it be hindered, is far off, yet is our own: thus it is not to be acquired, but to be cherished, since it is our own.

For what else is chastity but an honourable mind given to the keeping of the body; so that modesty, restored to the sexes and marked by severity, might preserve the pledge of honour through an uncorrupted offspring? Now to chastity, brethren, there belong and are known above all: the fear of God, and the holy meditation upon the commandments, and a mind inclined toward faith, and a soul struck with awe before sacred religion. Then to take care that nothing in oneself be carved beyond measure, nothing drawn out beyond decency, nothing exposed, nothing painted over with art, nothing used as a lure to provoke or renew deceits. She is not chaste who seeks to move another's soul, even with the chastity of the body preserved. Far away be those things by which beauty is not adorned but prostituted. For solicitude about beauty is both the judgment of an evil mind and a sign of ugliness. Let the nature of the body be free, and let no violence be done to the works of God.

She is always wretched who is not pleased with herself as she is. Why is the colour of the hair changed? Why are the edges of the eyes darkened? Why is the face turned by arts into a different form? Why, finally, is the mirror consulted, unless because one fears to be oneself? Let even the dress of a chaste woman be chaste: let the faithful woman know no adultery even in colours. To weave gold into garments is, as it were, to corrupt garments at a price. What do rigid metals do among the delicate threads of the warp, unless to press upon flowing shoulders and display the wantonness of a soul unhappily boastful? What when necks are burdened and hidden under foreign stones, whose prices even without craftsmanship exceed the account-book of anyone? The woman is not adorned, but the vices of the woman are displayed. What when fingers loaded with such gold can neither enter nor go out; is use being sought, or is the empty pomp of patrimonies being shown?

A strange business: women, delicate in all things, are stronger than men in bearing the burdens of their vices.

But to return to what I had begun: chastity must always be cultivated by men and women, and must be kept with all watchfulness within its own limits. The nature of the body quickly comes into peril in the body, while the flesh, which is always on the verge of falling, carries it along with itself. For under the pretext of nature, which always urges men toward those affections by which the ruins of a fallen race are repaired, deceiving with the allurement of pleasure, it does not lead to the continence of lawful union's offspring, but casts one into crime. Therefore against these snares of the flesh, by which the devil inserts himself both as companion and as leader, one must struggle with every kind of virtue.

Let the works of Christ be taken up according to the Apostle, and let the soul be gathered as much as possible away from fellowship with the flesh: let consent be separated from the body, let vices be always chastised so that they may be hated: let that base and abject shame of sin be kept before the eyes. Repentance itself with its mourning is a dishonourable attestation of crimes committed. Let nothing be curiously observed in the faces of others. Let speech be both brief and sober; laughter is a sign of an easy and slack mind; let even honourable contact be avoided. Let nothing be permitted to the body where the vice of the body is to be shunned. Let it be considered how honourable it is to have conquered disgrace, how dishonourable to have been conquered by disgrace.

It must also be said that adultery is not pleasure, but mutual dishonour, nor can that which kills both the soul and modesty give delight. Let the soul restrain the goads of the flesh, let it bridle the impulse of the body. For it has received this power, that the members should serve at its command; and like a lawful and perfect charioteer, let it draw back with the reins of heavenly precepts the impulses of the flesh that raise themselves beyond the permitted bounds of the body; lest this chariot of the body, carried beyond its own limits, drag the charioteer himself along with it into its own ruin. But amid these things, or rather before these things, help must be sought against all tumults and vices from the divine camp: for God alone is powerful, who deigned to make men, and to furnish men with full assistance. I have dictated a few things, since it is not my purpose to write a volume, but to send an address.

Look to the Scriptures yourselves, seek out from those very precepts greater examples of this matter. Dearest brethren, farewell.