Hieronymus Stridonensis
Prominent Istrians

Letter - Epistle 12
(alias quoque 22; scripta an. 384)

To Eustochium

Ad Eustochium
Perhaps the most famous of all the letters. In it Jerome lays down at great length (1) the motives which ought to actuate those who devote themselves to a life of virginity, and (2) the rules by which they ought to regulate their daily conduct. The letter contains a vivid picture of Roman society as it then was—the luxury, profligacy, and hypocrisy prevalent among both men and women, besides some graphic autobiographical details (§§7, 30), and concludes with a full account of the three kinds of monasticism then practised in Egypt (§§34–36). Thirty years later Jerome wrote a similar letter to Demetrias (CXXX.), with which this ought to be compared. Written at Rome 384 a.d.

(Note: This English synopsis is not a translation of the Latin version.)

 De custodia virginitatis. Eustochium Virginem, Paulae nobiliss. apud Romanos Matronae filiam, docet quomodo Virginitatem custodire debeat, quam professa erat: atque eos qui castitatis specie ventri avaritiaeque inserviunt, acriter insectatur.
1. “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father’s house, and the king shall desire thy beauty.”1 In this forty-fourth2 psalm God speaks to the human soul that, following the example of Abraham,3 it should go out from its own land and from its kindred, and should leave the Chaldeans, that is the demons, and should dwell in the country of the living, for which elsewhere the prophet sighs: “I think to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.”4 But it is not enough for you to go out from your own land unless you forget your people and your father’s house; unless you scorn the flesh and cling to the bridegroom in a close embrace. “Look not behind thee,” he says, “neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed.”5 He who has grasped the plough must not look behind him6 or return home from the field, or having Christ’s garment, descend from the roof to fetch other raiment.7 Truly a marvellous thing, a father charges his daughter not to remember her father. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do.”8 So it was said to the Jews. And in another place, “He that committeth sin is of the devil.”9 Born, in the first instance, of such parentage we are naturally black, and even when we have repented, so long as we have not scaled the heights of virtue, we may still say: “I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem.”10 But you will say to me, “I have left the home of my childhood; I have forgotten my father, I am born anew in Christ. What reward do I receive for this?” The context shows—“The king shall desire thy beauty.” This, then, is the great mystery. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be” not as is there said, “of one flesh,”11 but “of one spirit.” Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; He has “married an Ethiopian woman.”12 When once you desire the wisdom of the true Solomon and come to Him, He will avow all His knowledge to you; He will lead you into His chamber with His royal hand;13 He will miraculously change your complexion so that it shall be said of you, “Who is this that goeth up and hath been made white?”14 1. "Audi filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam, et obliviscere populum tuum, et domum patris tui; et concupiscet rex decorem tuum" (Ps. 44. 11). In quadragesimo quarto Psalmo Deus ad animam loquitur humanam, ut secundum exemplum Abrahae, exiens de terra sua, et de cognatione sua, relinquat Chaldaeos qui quasi doemonia interpretantur, et habitet in regione viventium, quam alibi Propheta suspirat, dicens: "Credo videre bona Domini in terra viventium" (Ps. 26. 13). Verum non sufficit tibi exire de terra tua, nisi obliviscaris populi tui, et domus patris tui, ut carne contempta, sponsi jungaris amplexibus. "Ne respexeris, inquit, retro: nec steteris in omni circa regione, sed in monte salvum te fac, ne forte comprehendaris" (Gen. 19. 17). Non expedit apprehenso aratro, respicere post tergum, nec de agro reverti domum, nec post Christi tunicam, ad tollendum aliud vestimentum tecto descendere (Matth. 24). Grande miraculum: Pater filiam cohortatur, ne meminerit patris sui. "Vos de patre diabolo estis, et desideria patris vestri vultis facere" (Joan. 8. 44), dicitur ad Judaeos. Et alibi: "Qui facit peccatum, de diabolo est" (Joan. 3. 8). Tali primum parente generati, nigri sumus, et post poenitentiam, nec dum culmine virtutis ascenso, dicimus: Nigra sum, sed speciosa, filiae Jerusalem (Cant. 1. 4). Exivi de domo infantiae meae, oblita sum patris mei, renascor in Christo. Quid pro hoc mercedis accipio? Sequitur: Et concupiscet rex decorem tuum. Hoc ergo illud magnum est Sacramentum. Propter hoc relinquet homo patrem, et matrem suam, et adhaerebit uxori suae, et erunt ambo, jam non, ut ibi, in una carne (Gen. 2. 44), sed in uno spiritu. Non est sponsus tuus arrogans, non superbus, Aethiopissam duxit uxorem: statim ut volueris sapientiam audire veri Salomonis, et ad eum veneris, confitebitur tibi cuncta quae novit, et inducet te rex in cubiculum suum, et mirum in modum colore mutato, sermo tibi ille conveniet: Quae est ista, quae ascendit dealbata (Cant. 3. 6. et 8. 5).
2. I write to you thus, Lady Eustochium (I am bound to call my Lord’s bride “lady”), to show you by my opening words that my object is not to praise the virginity which you follow, and of which you have proved the value, or yet to recount the drawbacks of marriage, such as pregnancy, the crying of infants, the torture caused by a rival, the cares of household management, and all those fancied blessings which death at last cuts short. Not that married women are as such outside the pale; they have their own place, the marriage that is honorable and the bed undefiled.15 My purpose is to show you that you are fleeing from Sodom and should take warning by Lot’s wife.16 There is no flattery, I can tell you, in these pages. A flatterer’s words are fair, but for all that he is an enemy. You need expect no rhetorical flourishes setting you among the angels, and while they extol virginity as blessed, putting the world at your feet. 2. Dominae virgines vocandae. — Haec idcirco, mi Domina Eustochium, scribo (Dominam quippe vocare debeo sponsam Domini mei) ut ex ipso principio lectionis agnosceres, non me nunc laudem Virginitatis esse dicturum, quam probasti optimam, et consecuta es: nec enumeraturum molestias nuptiarum, quomodo uterus intumescat, infans vagiat, cruciet pellex, domus cura sollicitet, et omnia quae putantur bona, mors extrema praecidat. Habent enim et maritatae ordinem suum, honorabiles nuptias, et cubile immaculatum (Hebr. 13); sed ut intelligeres tibi exeunti de Sodoma, timendum esse Lot uxoris exemplum (Genes. 19). Nulla est enim in hoc libello adulatio. Adulator quippe blandus inimicus est. Nulla erit Rhetorici pompa sermonis, quae te etiam inter Angelos statuat, et beatitudine Virginitatis exposita, mundum subjiciat pedibus tuis.
3. I would have you draw from your monastic vow not pride but fear.17 You walk laden with gold; you must keep out of the robber’s way. To us men this life is a race-course: we contend here, we are crowned elsewhere. No man can lay aside fear while serpents and scorpions beset his path. The Lord says: “My sword hath drunk its fill in heaven,”18 and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the serpent.19 “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”20 We are hemmed in by hosts of foes, our enemies are upon every side. The weak flesh will soon be ashes: one against many, it fights against tremendous odds. Not till it has been dissolved, not till the Prince of this world has come and found no sin therein,21 not till then may you safely listen to the prophet’s words: “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the trouble which haunteth thee in darkness; nor for the demon and his attacks at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.”22 When the hosts of the enemy distress you, when your frame is fevered and your passions roused, when you say in your heart, “What shall I do?” Elisha’s words shall give you your answer, “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”23 He shall pray, “Lord, open the eyes of thine handmaid that she may see.” And then when your eyes have been opened you shall see a fiery chariot like Elijah’s waiting to carry you to heaven,24 and shall joyfully sing: “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we are escaped.”25 3. Nolo tibi venire superbiam de proposito, sed timorem. Onusta incedis auro, latro tibi vitandus est. Stadium est haec vita mortalibus, hic contendimus, ut alibi coronemur. Nemo inter serpentes et scorpiones securus ingreditur. Et inebriatus est, inquit Dominus, gladius meus in coelo (Isai. 34), et tu pacem arbitraris in terra, quae tribulos generat, et spinas, quam serpens comedit? Non est nobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus principatus, et potestates hujus mundi, et rectores harum tenebrarum, adversus spiritualia nequitiae in caelestibus (Ephes. 6. 12). Magnis inimicorum circumdamur agminibus, bostium plena sunt omnia. CARO FRAGILIS, et cinis futura post modicum, pugnat sola cum pluribus. Cum autem fuerit dissoluta, et venerit princeps mundi hujus, et invenerit in ea peccati nihil, tunc secura audies per Prophetam: Non timebis a timore nocturno: a sagitta volante per diem, a negotio perambulante in tenebris, ab incursu et daemonio meridiano. Cadent a latere tuo mille, et decem millia a dextris tuis, ad te autem non appropinquabunt (Ps. 90. 5. 6). Quod si eorum te multitudo turbaverit, et ad singula incitamenta vitiorum coeperis aestuare, et dixerit tibi cogitatio tua: quid faciemus? respondebit tibi Elisaeus: Noli timere, quia plures nobiscum sunt, quam cum illis, et orabit, et dicet: Domine, aperi oculos puellae tuae, ut videat (4. Reg. 6. 16): et apertis oculis videbis igneum currum, qui te ad exemplum Eliae in astra sustollat (Ps. 123. 7); et tunc laeta cantabis: Anima nostra sicut passer erepta est de laqueo venantium: Laqueus contritus est, et nos liberati sumus (Ibid. 2).
4. So long as we are held down by this frail body, so long as we have our treasure in earthen vessels;26 so long as the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh,27 there can be no sure victory. “Our adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”28 “Thou makest darkness,” David says, “and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God.”29 The devil looks not for unbelievers, for those who are without, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasted in the furnace.30 It is the church of Christ that he “makes haste to spoil.”31 According to Habakkuk, “His food is of the choicest.”32 A Job is the victim of his machinations, and after devouring Judas he seeks power to sift the [other] apostles.33 The Saviour came not to send peace upon the earth but a sword.34 Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise at dawn;35 and he who was bred up in a paradise of delight had the well-earned sentence passed upon him, “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.”36 For he had said in his heart, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” and “I will be like the Most High.”37 Wherefore God says every day to the angels, as they descend the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream,38 “I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”39 The devil fell first, and since “God standeth in the congregation of the Gods and judgeth among the Gods,”40 the apostle writes to those who are ceasing to be Gods—“Whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?”41 4. In hac vita nulla est certa victoria. — Quamdiu hoc fragili corpore detinemur, quamdiu habemus thesaurum istum in vasis fictilibus (2. Cor. 4), et concupiscit spiritus adversus carnem, et caro adversus spiritum (Galat. 5), nulla est certa victoria. Adversarius noster diabolus, tanquam leo rugiens aliquem devorare quaerens, circumit (1. Petr. 5). Posuisti tenebras, ait David, et facta est nox. In ipsa pertransibunt omnes bestiae sylvae. Catuli leonum rugientes, ut rapiant, et quoerant a Deo escam sibi (Ps. 103. 20). Non quaerit diabolus homines infideles: non eos qui foris sunt, et quorum carnes rex Assyrius in olla succendit: de Ecclesia Christi rapere festinat. Escae ejus secundum Abacuc electae sunt. Job subvertere cupit, et devorato Juda, ad cribrandos Apostolos expetit potestatem. Non venit Salvator pacem mittere super terram, sed gladium. Cecidit Lucifer, qui mane oriebatur; et ille qui in Paradiso deliciarum nutritus est, meruit audire: Si exaltatus fueris, ut aquila, inde detraham te, dicit Dominus (Abdiae. 4). Dixerat enim in corde suo; Super sidera coeli ponam sedem meam, et ero similis Altissimo (Isai. 14. 13). Unde quotidie ad eos qui per scalam Jacob somniantis descendunt, loquitur Deus: Ego dixi dii estis, et filii Altissimi omnes. Vos autem sicut homines moriemini, et tanquam unus de principibus cadetis (Ps. 81. 6. 7). Cecidit enim primus diabolus, et cum stet Deus in synagoga deorum, in medio autem deos discernat, Apostolus iis qui dii esse desinunt, scribit: Ubi enim in vobis sunt dissensiones et aemulationes, nonne homines estis, et secundum hominem ambulatis (2. Cor. 3. 3)?
5. If, then, the apostle, who was a chosen vessel42 separated unto the gospel of Christ,43 by reason of the pricks of the flesh and the allurements of vice keeps under his body and brings it into subjection, lest when he has preached to others he may himself be a castaway;44 and yet, for all that, sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin;45 if after nakedness, fasting, hunger, imprisonment, scourging and other torments, he turns back to himself and cries “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”46 do you fancy that you ought to lay aside apprehension? See to it that God say not some day of you: “The virgin of Israel is fallen and there is none to raise her up.”47 I will say it boldly, though God can do all things He cannot raise up a virgin when once she has fallen. He may indeed relieve one who is defiled from the penalty of her sin, but He will not give her a crown. Let us fear lest in us also the prophecy be fulfilled, “Good virgins shall faint.”48 Notice that it is good virgins who are spoken of, for there are bad ones as well. “Whosoever looketh on a woman,” the Lord says, “to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”49 So that virginity may be lost even by a thought. Such are evil virgins, virgins in the flesh, not in the spirit; foolish virgins, who, having no oil, are shut out by the Bridegroom.50 5. Si Apostolus vas electionis, et separatus in Evangelium Christi, ob carnis aculeos et incentiva vitiorum reprimit corpus suum, et servituti subjicit, ne aliis praedicans ipse reprobus inveniatur; et tamen videt aliam legem in membris suis repugnantem legi mentis suae, et captivum se in legem duci peccati, si post nuditatem, jejunia, famem, carcerem, flagella, supplicia, in semetipsum reversus exclamat: Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus (Rom. 7. 24), tu te putas securam esse debere? Cave, quaeso, ne quando de te dicat Deus: Virgo Israel cecidit, et non est qui suscitet eam (Amos. 5. 2). Audenter loquar: Cum omnia possit Deus, suscitare virginem non potest post ruinam. Valet quidem liberare de poena, sed non vult coronare corruptam. Timeamus illam Prophetiam, ne in nobis etiam compleatur: Virgines bonae deficient (Amos. 8. 13). Observa quid dicat, et virgines bonae deficient; quia sunt et virgines malae. Qui viderit, inquit, mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam moechatus est eam in corde suo (Matth. 5. 28). Perit ergo, et mente virginitas. Istae sunt virgines malae, virgines carne, non spiritu: virgines stultae, quae oleum non habentes, excluduntur a sponso.
6. But if even real virgins, when they have other failings, are not saved by their physical virginity, what shall become of those who have prostituted the members of Christ, and have changed the temple of the Holy Ghost into a brothel? Straightway shall they hear the words: “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldæans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstone and grind meal; uncover thy locks, make bare the legs, pass over the rivers; thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen.”51 And shall she come to this after the bridal-chamber of God the Son, after the kisses of Him who is to her both kinsman and spouse?52 Yes, she of whom the prophetic utterance once sang, “Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of gold wrought about with divers colours,”53 shall be made naked, and her skirts shall be discovered upon her face.54 She shall sit by the waters of loneliness, her pitcher laid aside; and shall open her feet to every one that passeth by, and shall be polluted to the crown of her head.55 Better had it been for her to have submitted to the yoke of marriage, to have walked in level places, than thus, aspiring to loftier heights, to fall into the deep of hell. I pray you, let not Zion the faithful city become a harlot:56 let it not be that where the Trinity has been entertained, there demons shall dance and owls make their nests, and jackals build.57 Let us not loose the belt that binds the breast. When lust tickles the sense and the soft fire of sensual pleasure sheds over us its pleasing glow, let us immediately break forth and cry: “The Lord is on my side: I will not fear what the flesh can do unto me.”58 When the inner man shows signs for a time of wavering between vice and virtue, say: “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.”59 You must never let suggestions of evil grow on you, or a babel of disorder win strength in your breast. Slay the enemy while he is small; and, that you may not have a crop of tares, nip the evil in the bud. Bear in mind the warning words of the Psalmist: “Hapless daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”60 Because natural heat inevitably kindles in a man sensual passion, he is praised and accounted happy who, when foul suggestions arise in his mind, gives them no quarter, but dashes them instantly against the rock. “Now the Rock is Christ.”61 6. Si autem et illae quae virgines sunt, ob alias tamen culpas, virginitate corporum non salvantur: quid fiet illis, quae prostituerunt membra Christi, et mutaverunt templum Sancti Spiritus in lupanar? Illico audient: "Descende, sede in terra virgo filia Babylonis: sede in terra, non est solium filiae Chaldaeorum: non vocaberis ultra mollis, et delicata. Accipe molam, mole farinam, discooperi velamen tuum, denuda crura, transi flumina, revelabitur ignominia tua, apparebunt opprobria tua" (Isai. 47). Et hoc post Dei Filii thalamos, post oscula fratruelis, et sponsi, illa de qua quondam sermo Propheticus concinebat: Astitit regina a dextris tuis, in vestitu deaurato, circumdata varietate (Ps. 44. 10), nudabitur; et posteriora ejus ponentur in faciem ipsius: sedebit ad aquas solitudinis, posito vase, et divaricabit pedes suos omni transeunti, et usque ad verticem polluetur. RECTIUS FUERAT hominis [al. homini] subiisse conjugium, ambulasse per plana, quam ad altiora tendentem, in profundum inferni cadere. Ne fiat obsecro civitas meretrix, fidelis Sion, ne post Trinitatis hospitium, ibi daemones saltent, et sirenae nidificent, et hericii. Non solvatur fascia pectoralis; sed statim ut libido titillaverit sensum, aut blandum voluptatis incendium dulci nos calore perfuderit, erumpamus in vocem: Dominus auxiliator meus, non timebo quid faciat mihi caro (Psal. 117. 9). Cum paululum interior homo inter vitia atque virtutes coeperit fluctuare, dicito: "Quare tristis es anima mea, et quare conturbas me? Spera in Domino [al. Deo], quia confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei, et Deus meus" (Ps. 41. 12). Nolo sinas cogitationes crescere. Nihil in te Babylonium, nihil confusionis adolescat. Dum parvus est hostis, interfice: nequitia, ne zizania crescant, elidatur in semine. Audi Psalmistam dicentem: "Filia Babylonis misera, beatus qui retribuet tibi retributionem tuam quam retribuisti nobis. Beatus qui tenebit, et allidet parvulos tuos ad Petram" (Ps. 136. 8). Quia enim impossibile est in sensum hominis non irruere innatum medullarum calorem, ille laudatur, ille praedicatur beatus, qui ut coeperit cogitare sordida, statim interficit cogitatus, et allidit ad petram: petra autem Christus est (1. Cor. 104).
7. How often, when I was living in the desert, in the vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place, parched by a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone because I was filled with bitterness. Sackcloth disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin from long neglect had become as black as an Ethiopian’s. Tears and groans were every day my portion; and if drowsiness chanced to overcome my struggles against it, my bare bones, which hardly held together, clashed against the ground. Of my food and drink I say nothing: for, even in sickness, the solitaries have nothing but cold water, and to eat one’s food cooked is looked upon as self-indulgence. Now, although in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison, where I had no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself amid bevies of girls. My face was pale and my frame chilled with fasting; yet my mind was burning with desire, and the fires of lust kept bubbling up before me when my flesh was as good as dead. Helpless, I cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, I wiped them with my hair: and then I subdued my rebellious body with weeks of abstinence. I do not blush to avow my abject misery; rather I lament that I am not now what once I was. I remember how I often cried aloud all night till the break of day and ceased not from beating my breast till tranquillity returned at the chiding of the Lord. I used to dread my very cell as though it knew my thoughts; and, stern and angry with myself, I used to make my way alone into the desert. Wherever I saw hollow valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs, there I made my oratory, there the house of correction for my unhappy flesh. There, also—the Lord Himself is my witness—when I had shed copious tears and had strained my eyes towards heaven, I sometimes felt myself among angelic hosts, and for joy and gladness sang: “because of the savour of thy good ointments we will run after thee.”62 7. Hieronymi tentationes in eremo. — O quoties ego ipse in eremo constitutus, et in illa vasta solitudine, quae exusta solis ardoribus, horridum Monachis praestat habitaculum, putabam me Romanis interesse deliciis. Sedebam solus, quia amaritudine repletus eram. Horrebant sacco membra deformia, et squalida cutis situm aethiopicae carnis obduxerat. Quotidie lacrymae, quotidie gemitus, et si quando repugnantem somnus imminens oppressisset, nuda humo ossa vix haerentia collidebam. De cibis vero et potu taceo, cum etiam languentes Monachi aqua frigida utantur, et coctum aliquid accepisse, luxuria sit. Ille igitur ego, qui ob gehennae metum, tali me carcere ipse damnaveram, scorpionum tantum socius et ferarum, saepe choris intereram puellarum. Pallebant ora jejuniis, et mens desideriis aestuabat in frigido corpore, et ante hominem sua jam in carne praemortuum, sola libidinum incendia balliebant. Itaque omni auxilio destitutus, ad Jesu jacebam pedes, rigabam lacrymis, crine tergebam; et repugnantem carnem hebdomadarum inedia subjugabam. Non erubesco infelicitatis meae miseriam confiteri, quin potius plango me non esse, quod fuerim. Memini me clamantem, diem crebro junxisse cum nocte, nec prius a pectoris cessasse verberibus, quam rediret, Domino increpante, tranquillitas. Ipsam quoque cellulam meam, quasi cogitationum mearum consciam pertimescebam. Et mihimet iratus et rigidus, solus deserta penetrabam. Sicubi concava vallium, aspera montium, rupium praerupta cernebam, ibi meae orationis locus, ibi illud miserrimae carnis ergastulum; et, ut ipse mihi testis est Dominus, post multas lacrymas, post coelo inhaerentes oculos, nonnunquam videbar mihi interesse agminibus Angelorum, et laetus gaudensque cantabam: Post te in odorem unguentorum tuorum curremus (Cant. 1. 3).
8. Now, if such are the temptations of men who, since their bodies are emaciated with fasting, have only evil thoughts to fear, how must it fare with a girl whose surroundings are those of luxury and ease? Surely, to use the apostle’s words, “She is dead while she liveth.”63 Therefore, if experience gives me a right to advise, or clothes my words with credit, I would begin by urging you and warning you as Christ’s spouse to avoid wine as you would avoid poison. For wine is the first weapon used by demons against the young. Greed does not shake, nor pride puff up, nor ambition infatuate so much as this. Other vices we easily escape, but this enemy is shut up within us, and wherever we go we carry him with us. Wine and youth between them kindle the fire of sensual pleasure. Why do we throw oil on the flame—why do we add fresh fuel to a miserable body which is already ablaze. Paul, it is true, says to Timothy “drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and for thine often infirmities.”64 But notice the reasons for which the permission is given, to cure an aching stomach and a frequent infirmity. And lest we should indulge ourselves too much on the score of our ailments, he commands that but little shall be taken; advising rather as a physician than as an apostle (though, indeed, an apostle is a spiritual physician). He evidently feared that Timothy might succumb to weakness, and might prove unequal to the constant moving to and fro involved in preaching the Gospel. Besides, he remembered that he had spoken of “wine wherein is excess,”65 and had said, “it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine.”66 Noah drank wine and became intoxicated; but living as he did in the rude age after the flood, when the vine was first planted, perhaps he did not know its power of inebriation. And to let you see the hidden meaning of Scripture in all its fulness (for the word of God is a pearl and may be pierced on every side) after his drunkenness came the uncovering of his body; self-indulgence culminated in lust.67 First the belly is crammed; then the other members are roused. Similarly, at a later period, “The people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play.”68 Lot also, God’s friend, whom He saved upon the mountain, who was the only one found righteous out of so many thousands, was intoxicated by his daughters. And, although they may have acted as they did more from a desire of offspring than from love of sinful pleasure—for the human race seemed in danger of extinction—yet they were well aware that the righteous man would not abet their design unless intoxicated. In fact he did not know what he was doing, and his sin was not wilful. Still his error was a grave one, for it made him the father of Moab and Ammon,69 Israel’s enemies, of whom it is said: “Even to the fourteenth generation they shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever.”70 8. Si autem hoc sustinent illi, qui exeso corpore, solis cogitationibus oppugnantur, quid patitur puella, quae deliciis fruitur? Nempe illud Apostoli: Vivens mortua est (1 Tim 5. 6). Si quid itaque in me potest esse consilii, si experto creditur, hoc primum moneo, hoc obtestor, ut sponsa Christi vinum fugiat pro veneno. Haec adversus adolescentiam prima arma sunt daemonum. Non sic avaritia quatit, infiat superbia, delectat ambitio. Facile aliis caremus vitiis; hic hostis nobis inclusus est. Quocumque pergimus, nobiscum portamus inimicum. VINUM ET ADOLESCENTIA, duplex incendium voluptatis est. Quid oleum flammae adjicimus? Quid ardenti corpusculo fomenta ignium ministramus? Paulus ad Timotheum: "Jam noli, inquit, aquam bibere, sed vinum modico utere, propter stomachum tuum, et frequentes tuas infirmitates" (1. Tim. 5. 23). Vide quibus causis vini potio concedatur, ut ex hoc stomachi dolor, et frequens mederetur infirmitas. Et ne nobis forsitan de aegrotationibus blandiremur, modicum praecepit esse sumendum, medici potius consilio, quam Apostoli: licet et Apostolus sit medicus spiritualis: et ne Timotheus imbecillitate superatus, Evangelii praedicandi non posset implere discursus: alioquin se dixisse meminerat: "Vinum in quo est luxuria" (Ephes. 5. 18) Et, "bonum est homini vinum non bibere, et carnem non manducare" (Rom. 14. 21). Noe vinum bibit, et inebriatus est (Gen. 9. 21). Post Diluvium, rudi adhuc saeculo, et tunc primum plantata vinea inebriare vinum forsitan nesciebat. Et ut intelligas Scripturae in omnibus sacramentum, Margarita quippe est sermo Dei, et ex omni parte forari potest, post ebrietatem nudatio femorum subsecuta est, libido juncta luxuriae. Prius enim venter extenditur, et sic caetera membra concitantur. "Manducavit enim populus, et bibit, et surrexerunt ludere" (Exod. 32. 6). Lot amicus Dei in monte salvatus (Genes. 19), et de tot millibus populi solus justus inventus, inebriatur a filiabus suis; et licet illae putarent genus hominum defecisse, et hoc facerent liberorum magis desiderio, quam libidinis: tamen sciebant virum justum, hoc nisi ebrium non esse facturum. Denique quid fecerit, ignoravit: et quanquam voluntas non sit in crimine, tamen error in culpa est. Inde nascuntur Moabitae, et Ammonitae, inimici Israel, qui usque ad quartam et decimam progeniem, et usque in aeternum, non ingrediuntur in Ecclesiam Dei.
9. When Elijah, in his flight from Jezebel, lay weary and desolate beneath the oak, there came an angel who raised him up and said, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold there was a cake and a cruse of water at his head.71 Had God willed it, might He not have sent His prophet spiced wines and dainty dishes and flesh basted into tenderness? When Elisha invited the sons of the prophets to dinner, he only gave them field-herbs to eat; and when all cried out with one voice: “There is death in the pot,” the man of God did not storm at the cooks (for he was not used to very sumptuous fare), but caused meal to be brought, and casting it in, sweetened the bitter mess72 with spiritual strength as Moses had once sweetened the waters of Mara.73 Again, when men were sent to arrest the prophet, and were smitten with physical and mental blindness, that he might bring them without their own knowledge to Samaria, notice the food with which Elisha ordered them to be refreshed. “Set bread and water,” he said, “before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.”74 And Daniel, who might have had rich food from the king’s table,75 preferred the mower’s breakfast, brought to him by Habakkuk,76 which must have been but country fare. He was called “a man of desires,”77 because he would not eat the bread of desire or drink the wine of concupiscence. 9. Elias cum Jezabel fugeret, et sub quercu jaceret lassus in solitudine, veniente ad se Angelo suscitatur, et dicitur ei: "Surge, et manduca. Respexit, et ecce ad caput ejus panis collyrida, et vas aquae (4. Reg. 19. 5 et 6). Revera nunquid non poterat Deus conditum ei merum mittere, et electos cibos, et carnes contusione mutatas? Elisaeus filios Prophetarum invitat ad prandium, et herbis agrestibus eos alens, consonum prandentium audit clamorem: "Mors in olla" (4. Reg. 4. 40). Homo Dei non iratus est cocis, lautioris enim mensae consuetudinem non habebat, sed farina desuper jacta, amaritudinem dulcoravit: eadem spiritus virtute, qua Moyses mutaverat Maram in dulcedinem. Necnon et illos qui ad eum comprehendendum venerant, oculis pariter ac mente caecatos, cum in Samariam nescios induxisset, qualibus eos epulis refici imperaverit, ausculta, "Pone eis, inquit, panem et aquam; manducent, et bibant, et remittantur ad Dominum suum" (4. Reg. 6. 22). Potuit et Danieli de regiis ferculis opulentior mensa transferri; sed Abacuc ei messorum prandium portat, arbitror rusticanum. Ideoque et desideriorum vir appellatus est, quia panem desiderii non manducavit, et vinum concupiscentiae non bibit.
10. There are, in the Scriptures, countless divine answers condemning gluttony and approving simple food. But as fasting is not my present theme and an adequate discussion of it would require a treatise to itself, these few observations must suffice of the many which the subject suggests. By them you will understand why the first man, obeying his belly and not God, was cast down from paradise into this vale of tears;78 and why Satan used hunger to tempt the Lord Himself in the wilderness;79 and why the apostle cries: “Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them;”80 and why he speaks of the self-indulgent as men “whose God is their belly.”81 For men invariably worship what they like best. Care must be taken, therefore, that abstinence may bring back to Paradise those whom satiety once drove out. 10. Innumerabilia sunt de Scripturis divina responsa, quae gulam damnent, et simplices cibos probent [al. praebeant]. Verum quia nunc non est propositum de jejuniis disputare, et universa exequi, sui et tituli sit et voluminis, haec sufficiant pauca de plurimis. Alioquin ad exemplum horum, poteris tibi ipsa colligere, quomodo primus de paradiso homo, ventri magis obediens, quam Deo, in hanc lacrymarum dejectus est vallem. Et ipsum Dominum Satanas fame tentaverit in deserto. Et Apostolus clamitet: "Escae ventri, et venter escis: Deus autem hunc et illas destruet" (1. Cor. 6. 13). Et de luxuriosis, "quorum Deus venter est" (Philipp. 3). Id enim colit unusquisque, quod diligit. Ex quo sollicite providendum est, ut quos saturitas de paradiso expulit, reducat esuries.
11. You will tell me, perhaps, that, high-born as you are, reared in luxury and used to lie softly, you cannot do without wine and dainties, and would find a stricter rule of life unendurable. If so, I can only say: “Live, then, by your own rule, since God’s rule is too hard for you.” Not that the Creator and Lord of all takes pleasure in a rumbling and empty stomach, or in fevered lungs; but that these are indispensable as means to the preservation of chastity. Job was dear to God, perfect and upright before Him;82 yet hear what he says of the devil: “His strength is in the loins, and his force is in the navel.”83

The terms are chosen for decency’s sake, but the reproductive organs of the two sexes are meant. Thus, the descendant of David, who, according to the promise is to sit upon his throne, is said to come from his loins.84 And the seventy-five souls descended from Jacob who entered Egypt are said to come out of his thigh.85 So, also, when his thigh shrank after the Lord had wrestled with him,86 he ceased to beget children. The Israelites, again, are told to celebrate the passover with loins girded and mortified.87 God says to Job: “Gird up thy loins as a man.”88 John wears a leathern girdle.89 The apostles must gird their loins to carry the lamps of the Gospel.90 When Ezekiel tells us how Jerusalem is found in the plain of wandering, covered with blood, he uses the words: “Thy navel has not been cut.”91 In his assaults on men, therefore, the devil’s strength is in the loins; in his attacks on women his force is in the navel.

 11. Deus non delectatur nostra inedia. — Quod si volueris respondere, te nobili stirpe generatam, semper in deliciis, semper in plumis, non posse a vino et esculentioribus cibis abstinere, nec his legibus vivere districtius, respondebo: Vive ergo lege tua, quae Dei non potes. Non quod Deus universitatis Creator et Dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu et inanitate ventris, pulmonisque delectetur ardore; sed quod aliter pudicitia tuta esse non possit. Job Deo carus, et testimonio ipsius immaculatus et simplex, audi quid de diabolo suspicetur: "Virtus ejus in lumbis, et potestas ejus in umbilico" (Job. 4). Honeste viri mulierisque genitalia immutatis sunt appellata nominibus. Unde et de lumbis David super sedem ejus promittitur esse sessurus. Et septuaginta quinque animae introierunt in Aegyptum, quae exierunt de femore Jacob. At postquam colluctante Domino, latitudo femoris ejus emarcuit, a liberorum opere cessavit. Et qui Pascha facturus est, accinctis mortificatisque lumbis, facere praecipitur. Et ad Job dicit Deus: "Accinge sicut vir lumbos tuos" (Ibid. 38. 3): Et Joannes zona pellicea cingitur et Apostoli jubentur accinctis lumbis, Evangelii tenere lucernas. Ad Jerusalem vero, quae respersa sanguine, in campo invenitur erroris, in Ezechiele dicitur: "Non est praecisus umbilicus tuus" (Ezech. 16. 4). Omnis igitur adversus viros diaboli virtus in lumbis est: omnis in umbilico contra feminas fortitudo.
12. Do you wish for proof of my assertions? Take examples. Sampson was braver than a lion and tougher than a rock; alone and unprotected he pursued a thousand armed men; and yet, in Delilah’s embrace, his resolution melted away. David was a man after God’s own heart, and his lips had often sung of the Holy One, the future Christ; and yet as he walked upon his housetop he was fascinated by Bathsheba’s nudity, and added murder to adultery.92 Notice here how, even in his own house, a man cannot use his eyes without danger. Then repenting, he says to the Lord: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.”93 Being a king he feared no one else. So, too, with Solomon. Wisdom used him to sing her praise,94 and he treated of all plants “from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall;”95 and yet he went back from God because he was a lover of women.96 And, as if to show that near relationship is no safe guard, Amnon burned with illicit passion for his sister Tamar.97 12. Vis scire ita esse, ut dicimus? Accipe exempla: Samson leone fortior et saxo durior, qui et unus et nudus mille persecutus est armatos, in Dalilae mollescit amplexibus. David secundum cor Domini electus, et qui venturum Christum sanctum saepe ore cantaverat, postquam deambulans super tectum domus suae, Bethsabee captus est nuditate, adulterio junxit homicidium. Ubi, et ILLUD BREVITER ATTENDE, quod nullus sit, etiam in domo, tutus aspectus. Quapropter ad Dominum poenitens loquitur: "Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci" (Psal. 50. 5). Rex enim erat, alium non timebat. Salomon, per quem se cecinit ipsa Sapientia, qui disputavit a cedro Libani usque ad hyssopum, quae exit per parietem, recessit a Domino, quia amator mulierum fuit. Et ne quis sibi de sanguinis propinquitate confideret, illicito Thamar sororis Amnon frater exarsit incendio.
13. I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the church, their mother: stars over which the proud foe sets up his throne,98 and rocks hollowed by the serpent that he may dwell in their fissures. You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder. Yet it is these who say: “‘Unto the pure all things are pure;’99 my conscience is sufficient guide for me. A pure heart is what God looks for. Why should I abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving?”100 And when they wish to appear agreeable and entertaining they first drench themselves with wine, and then joining the grossest profanity to intoxication, they say “Far be it from me to abstain from the blood of Christ.” And when they see another pale or sad they call her “wretch” or “manichæan;”101 quite logically, indeed, for on their principles fasting involves heresy. When they go out they do their best to attract notice, and with nods and winks encourage troops of young fellows to follow them. Of each and all of these the prophet’s words are true: “Thou hast a whore’s forehead; thou refusest to be ashamed.”102 Their robes have but a narrow purple stripe,103 it is true; and their head-dress is somewhat loose, so as to leave the hair free. From their shoulders flutters the lilac mantle which they call “ma-forte;” they have their feet in cheap slippers and their arms tucked up tight-fitting sleeves. Add to these marks of their profession an easy gait, and you have all the virginity that they possess. Such may have eulogizers of their own, and may fetch a higher price in the market of perdition, merely because they are called virgins. But to such virgins as these I prefer to be displeasing. 13. Pudet [al. Piget] dicere, quot quotidie Virgines ruant, quantas de suo gremio mater perdat Ecclesia, super quae sidera inimicus superbus ponat thronum suum: quot petras excavet, et habitet coluber in foraminibus earum. Videas plerasque viduas, antequam nuptas, infelicem conscientiam mentita tantum veste protegere. Quas nisi tumor uteri, et infantium prodiderit vagitus, erecta cervice, et ludentibus pedibus incedunt. Aliae vero sterilitatem praebibunt, et necdum sati hominis homicidium faciunt. Nonnullae cum se senserint concepisse de scelere, abortii venena meditantur, et frequenter etiam ipsae commortuae, trium criminum reae, ad inferos perducuntur, homicidae sui, Christi adulterae, necdum nati filii parricidae. Istae sunt quae solent dicere: "Omnia munda mundis" (Rom. 14. 20). Sufficit mihi conscientia mea. Cor mundum desiderat Deus. Cur me abstineam a cibis quos creavit Deus ad utendum? Et si quando lepidae et festivae volunt videri, ubi se mero ingurgitaverint, ebrietati sacrilegium copulantes, aiunt: Absit, ut ego me a Christi Sanguine abstineam. Et quam viderint pallentem atque tristem, miseram, et Manichaeam vocant: et consequenter: tali enim proposito jejunium haeresis est. Hae sunt, quae per publicum notabiliter incedunt, et furtivis oculorum nutibus, adolescentium greges post se trahunt, quae semper audiunt per Prophetam: "Facies meretricis facta est tibi, impudorata es tu" (Jerem. 3). Purpura tantum in veste tenuis, et laxius, ut crines decidant, ligatum caput, soccus vilior, et super humeros hyacinthina laena Maforte volitans: succinctae manichae brachiis adhaerentes, et solutis genubus factus incessus. Haec est apud illas tota virginitas. Habeant istiusmodi laudatores suos, ut sub virginali nomine lucrosius pereant. Libenter talibus non placemus.
14. I blush to speak of it, it is so shocking; yet though sad, it is true. How comes this plague of the agapetæ104 to be in the church? Whence come these unwedded wives, these novel concubines, these harlots, so I will call them, though they cling to a single partner? One house holds them and one chamber. They often occupy the same bed, and yet they call us suspicious if we fancy anything amiss. A brother leaves his virgin sister; a virgin, slighting her unmarried brother, seeks a brother in a stranger. Both alike profess to have but one object, to find spiritual consolation from those not of their kin; but their real aim is to indulge in sexual intercourse. It is on such that Solomon in the book of proverbs heaps his scorn. “Can a man take fire in his bosom,” he says, “and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?”105 14. Pudet dicere, proh nefas: triste, sed verum est: unde in Ecclesias Agapetarum pestis introiit? unde sine nuptiis aliud nomen uxorum? imo unde novum concubinarum genus? Plus inferam: unde meretrices univirae? Eadem domo, uno cubiculo, saepe uno tenentur et lectulo, et suspiciosos nos vocant, si aliquid existimamus. Frater sororem virginem deserit, coelibem spernit virgo germanum, fratrem quaerit extraneum, et cum in eodem proposito esse se simulent, quaerunt alienorum spiritale solatium, ut domi habeant carnale commercium. Istiusmodi homines Salomon in Proverbiis spernit [al. arguit.]: dicens; "Alligabit quis in sinu ignem, et vestimenta ejus non comburentur? Aut ambulabit super carbones ignis, et pedes illius non ardebunt" (Prov. 6. 27. 28)?
15. We cast out, then, and banish from our sight those who only wish to seem and not to be virgins. Henceforward I may bring all my speech to bear upon you who, as it is your lot to be the first virgin of noble birth in Rome, have to labor the more diligently not to lose good things to come, as well as those that are present. You have at least learned from a case in your own family the troubles of wedded life and the uncertainties of marriage. Your sister, Blæsilla, before you in age but behind you in declining the vow of virginity, has become a widow but seven months after she has taken a husband. Hapless plight of us mortals who know not what is before us! She has lost, at once, the crown of virginity and the pleasures of wedlock. And, although, as a widow, the second degree of chastity is hers, still can you not imagine the continual crosses which she has to bear, daily seeing in her sister what she has lost herself; and, while she finds it hard to go without the pleasures of wedlock, having a less reward for her present continence? Still she, too, may take heart and rejoice. The fruit which is an hundredfold and that which is sixtyfold both spring from one seed, and that seed is chastity.106 15. Explosis igitur et exterminatis his quae nolunt esse virgines, sed videri, nunc ad te mihi omnis dirigatur oratio, quae quanto prima Romanae urbis virgo nobilis esse coepisti, tanto tibi amplius laborandum est, ne et praesentibus bonis careas, et futuris. Et quidem molestias nuptiarum, et incerta conjugii domestico exemplo didicisti, cum soror tua Blesilla aetate major, sed proposito minor, post acceptum maritum, septimo mense viduata est. O infelix humana conditio et futuri nescia: et virginitatis coronam, et nuptiarum perdidit voluptatem. Et quanquam secundum pudicitiae gradum teneat viduitas, tamen quas illam per momenta sustinere existimas cruces, spectantem quotidie in sorore; quod ipsa perdiderit, et cum difficilius experta careat voluptate, minorem continentiae habere mercedem? Sit tamen et illa secura, sit gaudens. Centesimus et sexagesimus fructus de uno sunt semine castitatis.
16. Do not court the company of married ladies or visit the houses of the high-born. Do not look too often on the life which you despised to become a virgin. Women of the world, you know, plume themselves because their husbands are on the bench or in other high positions. And the wife of the emperor always has an eager throng of visitors at her door. Why do you, then, wrong your husband? Why do you, God’s bride, hasten to visit the wife of a mere man? Learn in this respect a holy pride; know that you are better than they. And not only must you avoid intercourse with those who are puffed up by their husbands’ honors, who are hedged in with troops of eunuchs, and who wear robes inwrought with threads of gold. You must also shun those who are widows from necessity and not from choice. Not that they ought to have desired the death of their husbands; but that they have not welcomed the opportunity of continence when it has come. As it is, they only change their garb; their old self-seeking remains unchanged. To see them in their capacious litters, with red cloaks and plump bodies, a row of eunuchs walking in front of them, you would fancy them not to have lost husbands but to be seeking them. Their houses are filled with flatterers and with guests. The very clergy, who ought to inspire them with respect by their teaching and authority, kiss these ladies on the forehead, and putting forth their hands (so that, if you knew no better, you might suppose them in the act of blessing), take wages for their visits. They, meanwhile, seeing that priests cannot do without them, are lifted up into pride; and as, having had experience of both, they prefer the license of widowhood to the restraints of marriage, they call themselves chaste livers and nuns. After an immoderate supper they retire to rest to dream of the apostles.107 16. Virgo debet fugere Matronarum consortium. Viduarum vitia, et Clericorum. — Nolo habeas consortia matronarum: nolo ad nobilium domos accedas: nolo te frequenter videre, quod contemnens, virgo esse voluisti. Sic sibi solent applaudere mulierculae de judicibus viris, et in aliqua positis dignitate. Si ad Imperatoris uxorem concurrit ambitio salutantium, cur tu facis injuriam viro tuo? Ad hominis conjugem, Dei sponsa quid properas? Disce in hac parte superbiam sanctam: scito te illis esse meliorem. Neque vero earum tantum te cupio declinare congressus, quae maritorum inflantur honoribus, quas eunuchochorum greges sepiunt, et in quarum vestibus attenuata in filum auri metalla texuntur; sed etiam eas fuge, quas viduas necessitas fecit, non voluntas: non quod mortem optare debuerint maritorum; sed quod datam occasionem pudicitiae non libenter acceperint. Nunc vero tantum veste mutata pristina non mutatur ambitio. Praecedit caveas Basternarum ordo semivirorum: et rubentibus buccis, cutis farta distenditur, ut eas putes maritos non amisisse, sed quaerere. Plena adulatoribus domus, plena conviviis. Clerici ipsi, quos in magisterio esse oportuerat doctrinae pariter et timoris, osculantur capita matronarum, et extenta manu, ut benedicere eos putes velle, si nescias, pretia accipiunt salutandi. Illae interim, quae Sacerdotes suo viderint indigere praesidio, eriguntur in superbiam: et quia maritorum expertae dominatum, viduitatis praeferunt libertatem, castae vocantur, et Nonnae, et post coenam dubiam, Apostolos somniant.
17. Let your companions be women pale and thin with fasting, and approved by their years and conduct; such as daily sing in their hearts: “Tell me where thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest it to rest at noon,”108 and say, with true earnestness, “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.”109. Be subject to your parents, imitating the example of your spouse.110.Rarely go abroad, and if you wish to seek the aid of the martyrs seek it in your own chamber. For you will never need a pretext for going out if you always go out when there is need. Take food in moderation, and never overload your stomach. For many women, while temperate as regards wine, are intemperate in the use of food. When you rise at night to pray, let your breath be that of an empty and not that of an overfull stomach. Read often, learn all that you can. Let sleep overcome you, the roll still in your hands; when your head falls, let it be on the sacred page. Let your fasts be of daily occurrence and your refreshment such as avoids satiety. It is idle to carry an empty stomach if, in two or three days’ time, the fast is to be made up for by repletion. When cloyed the mind immediately grows sluggish, and when the ground is watered it puts forth the thorns of lust. If ever you feel the outward man sighing for the flower of youth, and if, as you lie on your couch after a meal, you are excited by the alluring train of sensual desires; then seize the shield of faith, for it alone can quench the fiery darts of the devil.111 “They are all adulterers,” says the prophet; “they have made ready their heart like an oven.”112 But do you keep close to the footsteps of Christ, and, intent upon His words, say: “Did not our heart burn within us by the way while Jesus opened to us the Scriptures?”113 and again: “Thy word is tried to the uttermost, and thy servant loveth it.”114 It is hard for the human soul to avoid loving something, and our mind must of necessity give way to affection of one kind or another. The love of the flesh is overcome by the love of the spirit. Desire is quenched by desire. What is taken from the one increases the other. Therefore, as you lie on your couch, say again and again: “By night have I sought Him whom my soul loveth.”115 “Mortify, therefore,” says the apostle, “your members which are upon the earth.”116 Because he himself did so, he could afterwards say with confidence: “I live, yet not I, but Christ, liveth in me.”117 He who mortifies his members, and feels that he is walking in a vain show,118 is not afraid to say: “I am become like a bottle in the frost.119 Whatever there was in me of the moisture of lust has been dried out of me.” And again: “My knees are weak through fasting; I forget to eat my bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.”120 17. Sint tibi sociae, quas jejunia tenuant, quibus, pallor in facie est, quas et aetas probavit et vita, quae quotidie in cordibus suis canunt: "Ubi pascis? ubi cubas in meridie" (Cant. 1. 6)? Quae ex affectu dicunt: "Cupio dissolvi, et esse cum Christo" (Philipp. 1. 23). Esto subjecta parentibus: imitare sponsum tuum. Rarus sit egressus in publicum. Martyres tibi quaerantur in cubiculo tuo. Nunquam causa deerit procedendi, si semper quando necesse est, processura sis. Sit tibi moderatus cibus, et nunquam venter expletus. Plures quippe sunt, quae cum vino sint sobriae, ciborum largitate sunt ebriae. Ad orationem tibi nocte surgenti, non indigestio ructum faciat, sed inanitas. Crebrius lege, disce quamplurima. Tenenti codicem somnus obrepat, et cadentem faciem pagina sancta suscipiat. Sint tibi quotidiana jejunia, et refectio satietatem fugiens. NIHIL PRODEST BIDUO triduoque transmisso, vacuum portare ventrem, si pariter obruatur, si compensetur, saturitate jejunium. Illico mens repleta torpescit, et irrigata humus spinas libidinum germinat. Si quando senseris exteriorem hominem florem adolescentiae suspirare, et accepto cibo, cum te in lectulo compositam dulcis libidinum pompa concusserit, arripe scutum fidei, in quo ignitae diaboli exstinguuntur sagittae. "Omnes adulterantes, quasi clibanus" (Ose. 7. 4) corda eorum. At tu Christi comitata vestigiis, et sermonibus ejus intenta, dic: "Nonne cor nostrum ardens erat in via, cum aperiret nobis Jesus Scripturas" (Luc. 24. 32)? Et illud: "Ignitum eloquium tuum vehementer, et servus tuus dilexit illud" (Psal. 118). Difficile est humanam animam aliquid non amare, et necesse est, ut in quoscumque mens nostra trahatur affectus. Carnis amor spiritus amore superatur. Desiderium desiderio restinguitur. Quidquid inde minuitur, hinc crescit. Quin potius semper ingemina, et dicito super lectulum tuum: "In noctibus quaesivi quem dilexit anima mea (Cant. 3. 1). Mortificate ergo, inquit Apostolus, membra vestra quae sunt super terram" (Coloss. 3. 5). Unde et ipse postea confidenter aiebat: "Vivo autem, jam non ego, vivit vero in me Christus" (Galat. 2. 20). Qui mortificat membra sua, et in imagine perambulat, non timet dicere: "Factus sum sicut uter in pruina" (Psal. 118. 83). Quidquid in me fuit humoris libidinis excoctum est; Et: "Infirmata sunt in jejunio genua mea;" Et: "oblitus sum manducare panem meum. A voce gemitus mei adhaesit os meum carni meae" (Ps. 101. 6).
18. Be like the grasshopper and make night musical. Nightly wash your bed and water your couch with your tears.121 Watch and be like the sparrow alone upon the housetop.122 Sing with the spirit, but sing with the understanding also.123 And let your song be that of the psalmist: “Bless the Lord, O my soul; and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction.”124 Can we, any of us, honestly make his words our own: “I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping?”125 Yet, should we not weep and groan when the serpent invites us, as he invited our first parents, to eat forbidden fruit, and when after expelling us from the paradise of virginity he desires to clothe us with mantles of skins such as that which Elijah, on his return to paradise, left behind him on earth?126 Say to yourself: “What have I to do with the pleasures of sense that so soon come to an end? What have I to do with the song of the sirens so sweet and so fatal to those who hear it?” I would not have you subject to that sentence whereby condemnation has been passed upon mankind. When God says to Eve, “In pain and in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children,” say to yourself, “That is a law for a married woman, not for me.” And when He continues, “Thy desire shall be to thy husband,”127 say again: “Let her desire be to her husband who has not Christ for her spouse.” And when, last of all, He says, “Thou shalt surely die,”128 once more, say, “Marriage indeed must end in death; but the life on which I have resolved is independent of sex. Let those who are wives keep the place and the time that properly belong to them. For me, virginity is consecrated in the persons of Mary and of Christ.” 18. Esto cicada noctium. Lava per singulas noctes lectum tuum, lacrymis tuis stratum riga. Vigila, et sis sicut passer in solitudine. Psalle spiritu, psalle et sensu: "Benedic, anima mea, Dominum, et ne obliviscaris omnes retributiones ejus: qui propitiatur cunctis iniquitatibus tuis: Qui sanat omnes infirmitates tuas, et redimit ex corruptione vitam tuam" (Psal. 101. 1. et seqq). Et quis nostrum ex corde dicere potest: "Quia cinerem tanquam panem manducabam, et potionem meam cum fletu miscebam" (Ps. 101. 10). An non flendum est, non gemendum, cum me rursus serpens invitat ad illicitos cibos? Cum de paradiso Virginitatis ejectos, tunicis vult vestire pelliceis, quas Elias ad paradisum rediens, projecit in terram? Quid mihi et voluptati, quae brevi perit? quid cum hoc dulci et mortifero carmine sirenarum? Nolo te illi subjacere sententiae, qua in hominem est illata damnatio: "In doloribus, et in anxietatibus paries" (Gen. 3. 16). Mulieris lex ista est, non mea: "Et ad virum conversio tua." Sit conversio illius ad maritum, quae virum non habet Christum. Et ad extremum, "morte morieris." Finis iste conjugii; meum propositum sine sexu est. Habeant nuptae suum tempus, et titulum. Mihi virginitas in Maria dedicatur et Christo.
19. Some one may say, “Do you dare detract from wedlock, which is a state blessed by God?” I do not detract from wedlock when I set virginity before it. No one compares a bad thing with a good. Wedded women may congratulate themselves that they come next to virgins. “Be fruitful,” God says, “and multiply, and replenish the earth.”129 He who desires to replenish the earth may increase and multiply if he will. But the train to which you belong is not on earth, but in heaven. The command to increase and multiply first finds fulfilment after the expulsion from paradise, after the nakedness and the fig-leaves which speak of sexual passion. Let them marry and be given in marriage who eat their bread in the sweat of their brow; whose land brings forth to them thorns and thistles,130 and whose crops are choked with briars. My seed produces fruit a hundredfold.131 “All men cannot receive God’s saying, but they to whom it is given.”

Some people may be eunuchs from necessity; I am one of free will.132 “There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. There is a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.”133 Now that out of the hard stones of the Gentiles God has raised up children unto Abraham,134 they begin to be “holy stones rolling upon the earth.”135 They pass through the whirlwinds of the world, and roll on in God’s chariot on rapid wheels. Let those stitch coats to themselves who have lost the coat woven from the top throughout;136 who delight in the cries of infants which, as soon as they see the light, lament that they are born. In paradise Eve was a virgin, and it was only after the coats of skins that she began her married life. Now paradise is your home too. Keep therefore your birthright and say: “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.”137 To show that virginity is natural while wedlock only follows guilt, what is born of wedlock is virgin flesh, and it gives back in fruit what in root it has lost. “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his roots.”138 The rod139 is the mother of the Lord—simple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but fruitful in singleness like God Himself. The flower of the rod is Christ, who says of Himself: “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.”140 In another place He is foretold to be “a stone cut out of the mountain without hands,”141 a figure by which the prophet signifies that He is to be born a virgin of a virgin. For the hands are here a figure of wedlock as in the passage: “His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me.”142 It agrees, also, with this interpretation that the unclean animals are led into Noah’s ark in pairs, while of the clean an uneven number is taken.143 Similarly, when Moses and Joshua were bidden to remove their shoes because the ground on which they stood was holy,144 the command had a mystical meaning. So, too, when the disciples were appointed to preach the gospel they were told to take with them neither shoe nor shoe-latchet;145 and when the soldiers came to cast lots for the garments of Jesus146 they found no boots that they could take away. For the Lord could not Himself possess what He had forbidden to His servants.

 19. Dicat aliquis: Et audes nuptiis detrahere, quae a Deo benedictae sunt? Non est detrahere nuptiis, cum illis virginitas antefertur. Nemo malum bono comparat. Glorientur et nuptae, cum a virginibus sint secundae. "Crescite, ait, et multiplicamini, et replete terram" (Genes. 1. 28). Crescat et multiplicetur ille, qui impleturus est terram. Tuum agmen in coelis est. "Crescite et multiplicamini," hoc expletur edictum post paradisum et nuditatem, et ficus folia, auspicantia pruriginem nuptiarum. Nubat, et nubatur ille, qui in sudore faciei comedit panem suum, cujus terra tribulos et spinas generat, et cujus herba sentibus suffocatur. Meum semen centenaria fruge foecundum est. "Non omnes capiunt verbum Dei, sed hi quibus datum est" (Matth. 19. 11).

Alium eunuchum necessitas faciat, me voluntas. "Tempus amplexandi, et tempus abstinendi a complexibus: tempus mittendi lapides, et tempus colligendi" (Eccles. 3. 5). Postquam de duritia nationum generati sunt filii Abrahae, coeperunt "sancti lapides volvi super terram" (Zach. 9. 16). Petranseunt quippe mundi istius turbines, et in curru Dei, rotarum celeritate volvuntur. Consuant tunicas, qui inconsutam desursum tunicam perdiderunt, quos vagitus delectat infantium, in ipso lucis exordio fletu lugentium quod nati sunt. Eva in paradiso virgo fuit: post pelliceas tunicas, initium sumpsit nuptiarum. Tua regio paradisus est. Serva quod nata es, et dic: "Revertere anima mea in requiem tuam" (Ps. 124. 7). Et ut scias virginitatem esse naturae, nuptias post delictum: virgo nascitur caro de nuptiis, et in fructu reddens, quod in radice perdiderat. "Exiet virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet" (Isai. 11. 1). Virga Mater est Domini, simplex, pura, sincera, nullo extrinsecus germine cohaerente, et ad similitudinem Dei unione foecunda. Virgae flos Christus est, dicens: "Ego flos campi, et lilium convallium" (Cant. 2. 1). Qui et in alio loco, lapis praedicatur abscissus de monte sine manibus" (Dan. 2), significante Propheta, virginem nasciturum esse de Virgine. Manus quippe accipiuntur pro opere nuptiarum, ut ibi: "Sinistra ejus sub capite meo, et dextera illius amplexabitur me" (Cant. 2). In hujus sensus congruit voluntatem etiam illud, quod animalia, quae in Arcam Noe bina inducuntur, immunda sunt: impar enim numerus est mundus. Et Moyses et Jesus Nave nudis in sanctam Terram pedibus jubentur incedere. Et discipuli sine calceamentorum onere, et vinculis pellium ad praedicationem novi Evangelii destinantur: Et milites, vestimentis Jesu sorte divisis, caligas non habebant [al. habuere] quas tollerent. Nec enim poterat habere Dominus, quod prohibuerat servis.
20. I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, but it is because they give me virgins. I gather the rose from the thorns, the gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell. “Doth the plowman plow all day to sow?”147 Shall he not also enjoy the fruit of his labor? Wedlock is the more honored, the more what is born of it is loved. Why, mother, do you grudge your daughter her virginity? She has been reared on your milk, she has come from your womb, she has grown up in your bosom. Your watchful affection has kept her a virgin. Are you angry with her because she chooses to be a king’s wife and not a soldier’s? She has conferred on you a high privilege; you are now the mother-in-law of God. “Concerning virgins,” says the apostle, “I have no commandment of the Lord.”148 Why was this? Because his own virginity was due, not to a command, but to his free choice. For they are not to be heard who feign him to have had a wife; for, when he is discussing continence and commending perpetual chastity, he uses the words, “I would that all men were even as I myself.” And farther on, “I say, therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I.”149 And in another place, “have we not power to lead about wives even as the rest of the apostles?”150 Why then has he no commandment from the Lord concerning virginity? Because what is freely offered is worth more than what is extorted by force, and to command virginity would have been to abrogate wedlock. It would have been a hard enactment to compel opposition to nature and to extort from men the angelic life; and not only so, it would have been to condemn what is a divine ordinance. 20. Laudo nuptias, laudo conjugium, sed quia mihi virgines generant: lego de spinis rosam, de terra aurum, de concha margaritam. Nunquid qui arat, tota die arabit? Nonne et laboris sui fruge laetabitur? Plus honorantur nuptiae, quando quod de illis nascitur plus amatur. Quid invides mater filiae? Tuo lacte nutrita est, tuis educata visceribus, in tuo adolevit sinu. Tu illam virginem sedula pietate servasti. Indignaris, quod noluit militis esse uxor, sed regis? Grande tibi beneficium praestitit. Socrus Dei esse coepisti. "De Virginibus, inquit Apostolus, praeceptum Domini non habeo" (1. Cor. 7. 25). Cur? Quia et ipse ut esset virgo, non fuit imperii, sed propriae voluntatis. Neque enim audiendi sunt, qui eum uxorem habuisse confingunt, cum de continentia disserens et suadens perpetuam castitatem, intulerit: "Volo autem omnes esse sicut meipsum" (1. Cor. 7. 8). Et infra: "Dico autem innuptis et viduis: Bonum est illis, si sic permaneant, sicut et ego." Et in alio loco: "Nunquid non habemus potestatem circumducendi mulieres, sicut et caeteri Apostoli" (Ibid. 9. 5). Quare ergo non habet Domini de Virginitate praeceptum? Quia majoris est mercedis, quod non cogitur, et offertur. Quia, si fuisset Virginitas imperata, nuptiae videbantur ablatae: et durissimum erat contra naturam cogere, Angelorumque vitam ab hominibus extorquere, et id quodam modo damnare, quod conditum est.
21. The old law had a different ideal of blessedness, for therein it is said: “Blessed is he who hath seed in Zion and a family in Jerusalem:”151 and “Cursed is the barren who beareth not:”152 and “Thy children shall be like olive-plants round about thy table.”153 Riches too are promised to the faithful and we are told that “there was not one feeble person among their tribes.”154 But now even to eunuchs it is said, “Say not, behold I am a dry tree,”155 for instead of sons and daughters you have a place forever in heaven. Now the poor are blessed, now Lazarus is set before Dives in his purple.156 Now he who is weak is counted strong. But in those days the world was still unpeopled: accordingly, to pass over instances of childlessness meant only to serve as types, those only were considered happy who could boast of children. It was for this reason that Abraham in his old age married Keturah;157 that Leah hired Jacob with her son’s mandrakes,158 and that fair Rachel—a type of the church—complained of the closing of her womb.159 But gradually the crop grew up and then the reaper was sent forth with his sickle. Elijah lived a virgin life, so also did Elisha and many of the sons of the prophets. To Jeremiah the command came: “Thou shalt not take thee a wife.”160 He had been sanctified in his mother’s womb,161 and now he was forbidden to take a wife because the captivity was near. The apostle gives the same counsel in different words. “I think, therefore, that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely that it is good for a man to be as he is.”162 What is this distress which does away with the joys of wedlock? The apostle tells us, in a later verse: “The time is short: it remaineth that those who have wives be as though they had none.”163 Nebuchadnezzar is hard at hand. The lion is bestirring himself from his lair. What good will marriage be to me if it is to end in slavery to the haughtiest of kings? What good will little ones be to me if their lot is to be that which the prophet sadly describes: “The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask for bread and no man breaketh it unto them”?164 In those days, as I have said, the virtue of continence was found only in men: Eve still continued to travail with children. But now that a virgin has conceived165 in the womb and has borne to us a child of which the prophet says that “Government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called the mighty God, the everlasting Father,”166 now the chain of the curse is broken. Death came through Eve, but life has come through Mary. And thus the gift of virginity has been bestowed most richly upon women, seeing that it has had its beginning from a woman. As soon as the Son of God set foot upon the earth, He formed for Himself a new household there; that, as He was adored by angels in heaven, angels might serve Him also on earth. Then chaste Judith once more cut off the head of Holofernes.167 Then Haman—whose name means iniquity—was once more burned in fire of his own kindling.168 Then James and John forsook father and net and ship and followed the Saviour: neither kinship nor the world’s ties, nor the care of their home could hold them back. Then were the words heard: “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”169 For no soldier goes with a wife to battle. Even when a disciple would have buried his father, the Lord forbade him, and said: “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head.”170 So you must not complain if you have but scanty house-room. In the same strain, the apostle writes: “He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married careth for the things of the world how she may please her husband.”171 21. Alia fuit in veteri Lege felicitas. Ibi dicitur: "Beatus qui habet semen in Sion, et domesticos in Jerusalem." Et: "maledicta sterilis, quae non pariebat" (Esai. 10). Et: "filii tui sicut novellae olivarum, in circuitu mensae tuae" (Ps. 127). Et repromissio divitiarum. Et, "non erit infirmus in tribubus tuis" (Isai. 56). Nunc dicitur, ne te lignum arbitreris aridum: habes locum pro filiis et filiabus in coelestibus sempiternum. Nunc benedicuntur pauperes, et Lazarus diviti praefertur in purpura. Nunc qui infirmus est, fortior est. Vacuus erat orbis: et ut de typicis taceam, sola erat benedictio liberorum. Propterea et Abraham jam senex Cethurae copulatur: et Jacob mandragoris redimitur: et conclusam vulvam in Ecclesiae figuram Rachel pulchra conqueritur. Paulatim vero increscente segete, messor immissus est. Virgo Elias, Eliscus virgo, virgines multi filii Prophetarum. Jeremiae dicitur: "Et tu ne accipias uxorem" (Jerem. 16. 2). Sanctificatus in utero, captivitate propinqua, uxorem prohibetur accipere. Aliis verbis idipsum Apostolus loquitur: "Existimo hoc bonum esse propter instantem necessitatem, quoniam bonum est homini sic esse" (1. Cor. 7. 26). Quae est ista necessitas, quae aufert gaudia nuptiarum? "Tempus breviatum est: Reliquum est, ut et qui habent uxores, sic sint quasi non habeant" (Ibid. 19). In proximo est Nabuchodonosor. Promovit se leo de cubili suo. Quo mihi superbissimo regi servitura conjugia? Quo parvulos, quos Propheta complorat, dicens: "Adhaesit lingua lactentis ad faucem ipsius in siti. Parvuli postulaverunt panem, et qui frangeret eis, non erat" (Thren. 4. 4). Inveniebatur ergo, ut diximus, in viris tantum hoc continentiae bonum, et in doloribus jugiter Eva parturiebat. Postquam vero Virgo concepit in utero, et peperit nobis puerum, "cujus principatus in humeros ejus" (Isai. 9. 6), Deum, fortem, patrem futuri saeculi, soluta maledictio est. Mors per Evam: vita per Mariam. Ideoque et ditius virginitatis donum fluxit in feminas, quia coepit a femina. Statim ut filius Dei ingressus est super terram, novam sibi familiam instituit, UT QUI AB ANGELIS adorabatur in coelo, haberet Angelos et in terris. Tunc Holofernis caput, Judith continens amputavit (Judith. 13). Tunc Aman, qui interpretatur iniquitas, suo combustus est igni (Esther. 15). Tunc Jacobus et Joannes relicto patre, rete, navicula, secuti sunt Salvatorem; affectum sanguinis et vincula saeculi, et curam domus pariter relinquentes. Tunc primum auditum est: "Qui vult venire post me, abneget semetipsum: et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me." Nemo enim miles cum uxore pergit ad praelium. Discipulo ad sepulturam patris ire cupienti, non permittitur (Matth. 8). Vulpes foveas habent, et volucres coeli nidos, ubi requiescant: Filius autem hominis, non habet ubi caput suum reclinet (Luc. 9. 58). Ne forsitan contristeris, si anguste manseris. "Qui sine uxore est, sollicitus est quae Domini sunt, quomodo placeat Domino. Qui autem cum uxore est, sollicitus est quae sunt mundi; quomodo placeat uxori. Divisa est mulier, et Virgo. Quae non est nupta, cogitat quae sunt Domini, ut sit sancta corpore et spiritu" (I Cor. 7. 31. et seqq). Nam quae nupta est, cogitat quae sunt mundi, quomodo placeat viro.
22. How great inconveniences are involved in wedlock and how many anxieties encompass it I have, I think, described shortly in my treatise—published against Helvidius172—on the perpetual virginity of the blessed Mary. It would be tedious to go over the same ground now; and any one who pleases may draw from that fountain. But lest I should seem wholly to have passed over the matter, I will just say now that the apostle bids us pray without ceasing,173 and that he who in the married state renders his wife her due174 cannot so pray. Either we pray always and are virgins, or we cease to pray that we may fulfil the claims of marriage. Still he says: “If a virgin marry she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh.”175 At the outset I promised that I should say little or nothing of the embarrassments of wedlock, and now I give you notice to the same effect. If you want to know from how many vexations a virgin is free and by how many a wife is fettered you should read Tertullian “to a philosophic friend,”176 and his other treatises on virginity, the blessed Cyprian’s noble volume, the writings of Pope Damasus177 in prose and verse, and the treatises recently written for his sister by our own Ambrose.178 In these he has poured forth his soul with such a flood of eloquence that he has sought out, set forth, and put in order all that bears on the praise of virgins. 22. Quantas molestias habeant nuptiae, et quot sollicitudinibus vinciantur, in eo libro quem adversus Helvidium de beatae Mariae perpetua Virginitate edidimus, puto breviter expressum. Nunc eadem replicare perlongum esset; et si cui placet, de illo potest haurire fonticulo. Verum ne penitus videar omisisse: nunc dicam, quod cum Apostolus sine intermissione orare nos jubeat, et qui in conjugio debitum solvit, orare non possit: aut oramus semper, et virgines sumus: aut orare desinimus, ut conjugio serviamus. "Et si nupserit, inquit, virgo, non peccat: Tribulationem tamen carnis habebunt hujusmodi" (1. Cor. 7. 28). Et in principio libelli praefatus sum, me de angustiis nuptiarum, aut nihil omnino, aut pauca dicturum: et nunc eadem admoneo, ut si tibi placet scire quot molestiis virgo libera, quot uxor astricta sit, legas Tertullianum ad amicum Philosophum, et de Virginitate alios libellos, et beati Cypriani volumen egregium, et Papae Damasi super hac re, versu, prosaque composita; et Ambrosii nostri quae nuper scripsit ad Sororem opuscula. In quibus tanto se effudit eloquio, ut quidquid ad laudes virginum pertinet, exquisierit, expresserit, ordinarit.
23. We must proceed by a different path, for our purpose is not the praise of virginity but its preservation. To know that it is a good thing is not enough: when we have chosen it we must guard it with jealous care. The first only requires judgment, and we share it with many; the second calls for toil, and few compete with us in it. “He that shall endure unto the end,” the Lord says, “the same shall be saved,”179 and “many are called but few are chosen.”180 Therefore I conjure you before God and Jesus Christ and His elect angels to guard that which you have received, not readily exposing to the public gaze the vessels of the Lord’s temple (which only the priests are by right allowed to see), that no profane person may look upon God’s sanctuary. Uzzah, when he touched the ark which it was not lawful to touch, was struck down suddenly by death.181 And assuredly no gold or silver vessel was ever so dear to God as is the temple of a virgin’s body. The shadow went before, but now the reality is come. You indeed may speak in all simplicity, and from motives of amiability may treat with courtesy the veriest strangers, but unchaste eyes see nothing aright. They fail to appreciate the beauty of the soul, and only value that of the body. Hezekiah showed God’s treasure to the Assyrians,182 who ought never to have seen what they were sure to covet. The consequence was that Judæa was torn by continual wars, and that the very first things carried away to Babylon were these vessels of the Lord. We find Belshazzar at his feast and among his concubines (vice always glories in defiling what is noble) drinking out of these sacred cups.183 23. Nobis diverso tramite incedendum. Virginitatem non tantum efferimus, sed servamus. Nec sufficit scire, quod bonum est, nisi custodiatur attentius quod electum est: quia illud judicii est, hoc laboris: et illud commune cum pluribus, hoc cum paucis. "Qui perseveraverit, inquit usque in finem, hic salvus erit" (Matth. 24. 13). Et, "multi vocati, pauci vero electi" (Ibid. 20. 16. et 22. 14). Itaque obtestor te coram Deo, et Christo Jesu, et electis Angelis ejus ut custodias quae coepisti, ne vasa templi Domini, quae solis Sacerdotibus videre concessum est, facile in publicum proferas; ne sacrarium Dei quisquam profanus aspiciat. Oza Arcam, quam non licebat tangere, attingens, subita morte prostratus est. Neque enim vas aureum, et argenteum tam carum Deo fuit, quam templum corporis virginalis. Praecessit umbra, nunc veritas est. Tu quidem simpliciter loqueris, et ignotos quosque blanda non despicis, sed aliter vident impudici oculi. NON NORUNT animae pulchritudinem considerare, sed corporum Ezechias thesaurum Dei monstrat Assyriis: sed Assyrii non debuerunt videre, quod cuperent. Denique frequentibus bellis Judaea convulsa, vasa primum Domini capta atque translata sunt. Inter epulas et concubinarum greges (quia palma vitiorum est honesta polluere) Balthasar potat in phialis.
24. Never incline your ear to words of mischief. For men often say an improper word to make trial of a virgin’s steadfastness, to see if she hears it with pleasure, and if she is ready to unbend at every silly jest. Such persons applaud whatever you affirm and deny whatever you deny; they speak of you as not only holy but accomplished, and say that in you there is no guile. “Behold,” say they, “a true hand-maid of Christ; behold entire singleness of heart. How different from that rough, un sightly, countrified fright, who most likely never married because she could never find a husband.” Our natural weakness induces us readily to listen to such flatterers; but, though we may blush and reply that such praise is more than our due, the soul within us rejoices to hear itself praised.

Like the ark of the covenant Christ’s spouse should be overlaid with gold within and without;184 she should be the guardian of the law of the Lord. Just as the ark contained nothing but the tables of the covenant,185 so in you there should be no thought of anything that is outside. For it pleases the Lord to sit in your mind as He once sat on the mercy-seat and the cherubims.186 As He sent His disciples to loose Him the foal of an ass that he might ride on it, so He sends them to release you from the cares of the world, that leaving the bricks and straw of Egypt, you may follow Him, the true Moses, through the wilderness and may enter the land of promise. Let no one dare to forbid you, neither mother nor sister nor kinswoman nor brother: “The Lord hath need of you.”187 Should they seek to hinder you, let them fear the scourges that fell on Pharaoh, who, because he would not let God’s people go that they might serve Him,188 suffered the plagues described in Scripture. Jesus entering into the temple cast out those things which belonged not to the temple. For God is jealous and will not allow the father’s house to be made a den of robbers.189 Where money is counted, where doves are sold, where simplicity is stifled where, that is, a virgin’s breast glows with cares of this world; straightway the veil of the temple is rent,190 the bridegroom rises in anger, he says: “Your house is left unto you desolate.”191 Read the gospel and see how Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord is set before the zealous Martha. In her anxiety to be hospitable Martha was preparing a meal for the Lord and His disciples; yet Jesus said to her: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But few things are needful or one.192 And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.”193 Be then like Mary; prefer the food of the soul to that of the body. Leave it to your sisters to run to and fro and to seek how they may fitly welcome Christ. But do you, having once for all cast away the burden of the world, sit at the Lord’s feet and say: “I have found him whom my soul loveth; I will hold him, I will not let him go.”194 And He will answer: “My dove, my undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.”195 Now the mother of whom this is said is the heavenly Jerusalem.196

 24. Ne declines aurem tuam in verba malitiae. Saepe enim indecens aliquid loquentes, tentant mentis arbitrium, si libenter audias virgo quod dicitur, si ad ridicula quaeque solvaris, quidquid dixeris, laudant; quidquid negaveris, negant: facetam vocant et sanctam, et in qua nullus sit dolus: Ecce vere ancilla Christi, dicentes: ecce tota simplicitas. Non ut illa horrida, turpis, rusticana, terribilis, et quae ideo forsitan maritum non habuit, quia invenire non potuit. Naturali ducimur malo. Adulatoribus nostris libenter favemus, et quanquam nos respondeamus indignos, et calidus rubor ora perfundat; attamen ad laudem suam intrinsecus anim laetatur. Sponsa Christi arca est Testamenti, intrinsecus et extrinsecus deaurata, custos legis Domini. Sicut in illa nihil aliud fuit, nisi tabulae Testamenti, ita et in te nullus sit extrinsecus cogitatus. Super hoc propitiatorium quasi super Cherubim, sedere vult Dominus. Mittit discipulos suos, ut in te sicut in pullo asinae sedeat, curis te saecularibus solvat, ut paleas et lateres Aegypti derelinquens, Moysen sequaris in eremo, et terram repromissionis introeas. Nemo sit qui prohibeat, non mater, non soror, non cognata, non germanus: Dominus te necessariam habet. Quod si voluerint impedire, timeant flagella Pharaonis, qui populum Dei ad colendum cum nolens dimittere, passus est ea quae scripta sunt. Jesus ingressus in Templum, ea quae Templi non erant, projecit. Deus enim zelotes est, et non vult Patris domum fieri speluncam latronum, Alioquin ubi aera numerantur, ubi sunt caveae columbarum, et simplicitas enecatur, ubi in pectore virginali saecularium negotiorum cura aestuat, statim velum Templi scinditur; sponsus consurgit iratus, et dicit: Relinquetur vobis domus vestra deserta (Matth. 15. 38). Lege Evangelium, et vide quomodo Maria ad pedes Domini sedens, Marthae studio praeferatur. Et certe Martha sedulo hospitalitatis officio, Domino atque discipulis ejus convivium praeparabat, cui Jesus, "Martha, inquit, Martha, sollicita es, et turbaris erga plurima: pauca autem necessaria sunt, ut unum: Maria bonam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea" (Luc. 10. 41. et seqq), Esto et tu Maria, cibis praeferto doctrinam. Sorores tuae cursitent, et quaerant quomodo Christum hospitem suscipiant. Tu semel saeculi onere [al. honore] projecto, sede ad pedes Domini, et dic: "Inveni eum, quem quaerebat anima mea: tenebo eum, et non dimittam" (Cant. 3. 4): et ille respondeat: "Una est columba mea, perfecta mea: una est matri suae, electa genitrici suae" (Ibid. 6. 8), coelesti videlicet Jerusalem.
25. Ever let the privacy of your chamber guard you; ever let the Bridegroom sport with you within.197 Do you pray? You speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you. When sleep overtakes you He will come behind and put His hand through the hole of the door, and your heart198 shall be moved for Him; and you will awake and rise up and say: “I am sick of love.”199 Then He will reply: “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”200

Go not from home nor visit the daughters of a strange land, though you have patriarchs for brothers and Israel for a father. Dinah went out and was seduced.201 Do not seek the Bridegroom in the streets; do not go round the corners of the city. For though you may say: “I will rise now and go about the city: in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth,” and though you may ask the watchmen: “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?”202 no one will deign to answer you. The Bridegroom cannot be found in the streets: “Strait and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.”203 So the Song goes on: “I sought him but I could not find him: I called him but he gave me no answer.”204 And would that failure to find Him were all. You will be wounded and stripped, you will lament and say: “The watchmen that went about the city found me: they smote me, they wounded me, they took away my veil from me.”205 Now if one who could say: “I sleep but my heart waketh,”206 and “A bundle of myrrh is my well beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts”;207 if one who could speak thus suffered so much because she went abroad, what shall become of us who are but young girls; of us who, when the bride goes in with the Bridegroom, still remain without? Jesus is jealous. He does not choose that your face should be seen of others. You may excuse yourself and say: “I have drawn close my veil, I have covered my face and I have sought Thee there and have said: ‘Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest Thy flock, where Thou makest it to rest at noon. For why should I be as one that is veiled beside the flocks of Thy companions?’”208 Yet in spite of your excuses He will be wroth, He will swell with anger and say: “If thou know not thyself, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy goats beside the shepherd’s tents.”209 You may be fair, and of all faces yours may be the dearest to the Bridegroom; yet, unless you know yourself, and keep your heart with all diligence,210 unless also you avoid the eyes of the young men, you will be turned out of My bride-chamber to feed the goats, which shall be set on the left hand.211

25. In oratione ad Deum loquimur, etc. — Semper te cubiculi tui secreta custodiant, semper tecum sponsus ludat intrinsecus. Oras, loqueris ad Sponsum: legis, ille tibi loquitur: et cum te somnus oppresserit, veniet post parietem, et mittet manum suam per foramen, et tanget ventrem tuum: et expergefacta consurges, et dices: "Vulnerata caritate ego sum": et rursus ab eo audies, "Hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa: hortus conclusus, fons signatus" (Cant. 4. 12).

Cave ne domum exeas, et velis videre filias regionis alienae, quamvis fratres habeas Patriarchas, et Israel parente laeteris: Dina egressa corrumpitur. Nolo te Sponsum quaerere per plateas. Nolo te circumire angulos civitatis, dicas licet: "Surgam, et circumibo civitatem, et in foro, et in plateis quaeram quem dilexit anima mea" (Ibid. 3. 2); et interroges: "Num quem dilexit anima mea, vidistis" (Ibid. 3)? nemo tibi respondere dignabitur. Sponsus in plateis non potest inveniri. "Arcta, et angusta via est, quae ducit ad vitam" (Matth. 7. 14). Denique sequitur: "Quaesivi eum, et non inveni, vocavi eum, et non respondit mihi" (Cant. 5. 6). Atque utinam non invenisse sufficiat! Vulneraberis, nudaberis, et gemebunda narrabis: "Invenerunt me custodes, qui circumeunt civitatem: percusserunt me, et vulneraverunt me, tulerunt theristrum meum mihi" (Ibid. v. 7). Si autem hoc exiens patitur illa, quae dixerat: "Ego dormio, et cor meum vigilat" (Cant. 5. 2). Et, "fasciculus stactes fratruelis meus mihi, in medio uberum meorum commorabitur;" quid de nobis fiet, quae adhuc adolescentulae sumus; quae sponsa intrante cum sponso, remanemus extrinsecus? Zelotypus est Jesus, non vult ab aliis videri faciem tuam. Excuses licet, atque causeris, obducto velamine ora contexi, et quaesivi te ibi, et dixi: "Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea: ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie, ne quando efficiar sicut operta super greges sodalium tuorum" (Cant. 1. 6. juxt. LXX): indignabitur, tumebit, et dicet: "Si non cognoveris teipsam, o pulchra inter mulieres, egredere tu in vestigiis gregum, et pasce haedos tuos in tabernaculis pastorum." Sis licet pulchra, et inter omnes mulieres species tua diligatur a Sponso, nisi te cognoveris, et omni custodia servaveris cor tuum: nisi oculos juvenum fugeris, egredieris de thalamo meo, et pasces haedos, qui statuendi [al. staturi] sunt a sinistris.
26. These things being so, my Eustochium, daughter, lady, fellow-servant, sister—these names refer the first to your age, the second to your rank, the third to your religious vocation, the last to the place which you hold in my affection—hear the words of Isaiah: “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation” of the Lord “be overpast.”212 Let foolish virgins stray abroad, but for your part stay at home with the Bridegroom; for if you shut your door, and, according to the precept of the Gospel,213 pray to your Father in secret, He will come and knock, saying: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man…open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”214 Then straightway you will eagerly reply: “It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.” It is impossible that you should refuse, and say: “I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?”215 Arise forthwith and open. Otherwise while you linger He may pass on and you may have mournfully to say: “I opened to my beloved, but my beloved was gone.”216 Why need the doors of your heart be closed to the Bridegroom? Let them be open to Christ but closed to the devil according to the saying: “If the spirit of him who hath power rise up against thee, leave not thy place.”217 Daniel, in that upper story to which he withdrew when he could no longer continue below, had his windows open toward Jerusalem.218 Do you too keep your windows open, but only on the side where light may enter and whence you may see the eye of the Lord. Open not those other windows of which the prophet says: