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347 - 419 AD
Born in Damatia, Jerome studied in Rome and became, eventually,
secretary to Pope Damasus. He was ordered to make a new Latin translation of
the Bible from the original languages. He spent most of his later life in
Palestine.
Translation from the Ante-Nicene Fathers. For a
complete electronic copy, visit the Christian Classics Ethereal Library,
the New Advent Library. Italics
in the text by John Wijngaards.
Jerome shared the ideas and prejudices of his contemporaries regarding
women.
- The womb of a woman is like soil that receives the
male seed
- To become human, Jesus put up with the
‘revolting conditions’ in the womb
- Through abstaining from sex a woman can become ‘a
man’
- Woman's punishment, incurred through Eve's sin, may
be undone through childbearing
- Christ's law of chastity applies to men as much as
to women (an unexpected exception!)
For Jerome, marriage, though permitted because of human weakness, is
tainted with impurity, as these select passage will show.
- Marriage is good, but virginity is better
- Corruption attaches to all sexual intercourse, even
in a legitimate marriage
- Holy women who are married are holy because they live
like virgins
- Widows who lost their husbands face great
temptations
- A woman's excuse to marry is to bring forth virgins
for Christ
- Marriage is only allowed as second best
- Husband and wife should imitate virginal
incorruption by sexual abstinence
- Second marriages are only slightly better than
prostitution
- For a man, it is better not to marry to avoid the
burden of having a wife
- Virginity belongs to paradise. Marriage began
after the fall.
Virginity is the only natural way of Christian living.
- A life of virginity overcomes the sentence passed on
Eve
- Virginity is the original and pure human
condition; marriage came with sin
- The gift of virginity came through the Virgin
Mary
- Many great scholars have praised
virginity
- Virgins overcome the limitations of their
sex
- Virgins are liberated from the curse of
subjection
- Small girls need to be prepared for future
virginity
- It is still better to send one's daughter to a
monastery from a tender age
‘God's word is blasphemed by either despising God's original
sentence and reducing it to nothing, or by defaming the Gospel of Christ, when
a woman, against the law and faith of nature, in spite of being a Christian and
made subject by God's law, desires to dominate her husband, since even pagan
wives serve their husbands by the common law of nature’.”
The womb of a woman is like soil that
receives the male seed
Letter to Pammachius, “So the soil, that is the womb,
accepts the human race, and what is her own after receiving it she nourishes,
and while nourishing this body, and while giving it a body, distinguishes it
into various members”.
Letter CXXXIII. To Ctesiphon, §3.“They shut themselves
up alone with women and justify their sinful embraces by quoting the lines:
‘The almighty father takes the earth to wife; pouring upon her fertilizing
rain, that from her womb new harvest he may reap.’
Note. The medieval theologians based their
understanding of conception and marriage on this notion.
Marriage is good, but virginity is
better
Against Helvidius, § 22. “And now that I am about to
institute a comparison between virginity and marriage, I beseech my readers not
to suppose that in praising virginity I have in the least disparaged marriage,
and separated the saints of the Old Testament from those of the New, that is to
say, those who had wives and those who altogether refrained from the embraces
of women. I rather think that in accordance with the difference in time and
circumstance one rule applied to the former, another to us upon whom the ends
of the world have come.” So long as that law remained, "Be fruitful, and
multiply and replenish the earth" [Gen. 1:28]; and "Cursed is the barren woman
that bears not seed in Israel" [cf. Ex. 23:26], they all married and were given
in marriage, left father and mother, and became one flesh.
But once in tones of thunder the words were heard, "The time is
shortened, that henceforth those that have wives may be as though they had
none" [1 Cor. 7:29], cleaving to the Lord, we are made one spirit with Him. And
why? Because "He that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how
he may please the Lord: but he that is married is careful for the things of the
world, how he may please his wife. And there is a difference also between the
wife and the virgin. She that is unmarried is careful for the things of the
Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married
is careful for the things of the world, how she may please her husband" [1 Cor.
7:32-33].
Virgins overcome the limitations of
their sex
Against Helvidius, § 22, cont. “Observe what the
happiness of that state must be in which even the distinction of sex is lost.
The virgin is no longer called a woman. "She that is unmarried is careful for
the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit" [1
Cor. 7:34]. A virgin is defined as she that is "holy in body and in spirit,"
for it is no good to have virgin flesh if a woman be married in mind. "But she
that is married is careful for the things of the world, how she may please her
husband." . . . .”
Virgins are liberated from the curse of
subjection
Against Helvidius, § 22, cont. "It had ceased to be with
Sarah after the manner of women" [Gen. 18:11], so the Scripture says, and
afterwards Abraham received the command, "In all that Sarah says unto you,
hearken unto her voice" [Gen. 21:12].
She who is not subject to the anxiety and pain of childbearing and
having passed the change of life has ceased to perform the functions of a
woman, is freed from the curse of God: nor is her desire to her husband, but on
the contrary her husband becomes subject to her, and the voice of the Lord
commands him, "In all that Sarah says unto you, hearken unto her voice." Thus
they begin to have time for prayer. For so long as the debt of marriage is
paid, earnest prayer is neglected.”
Holy women who are married are holy
because they live like virgins
Against Helvidius, § 23. “ I do not deny that holy
women are found both among widows and those who have husbands; but they are
such as have ceased to be wives or such as, even in the close bond of
marriage, imitate virgin chastity.
The Apostle, Christ speaking in him, briefly bore witness to this when
he said, "She that is unmarried is careful for the things of the Lord, how she
may please the Lord: but she that is married is careful for the things of the
world, how she may please her husband" [1 Cor. 7:34]. . . . . He had not, it is
true, a commandment from the Lord respecting virginity, for that grace
surpasses the unassisted power of man, and it would have worn an air of
immodesty to force men to fly in the face of nature, and to say in other words,
"I want you to be what the angels are."
It is this angelic purity which secures to virginity its highest
reward, and the Apostle might have seemed to despise a course of life which
involves no guilt. Nevertheless in the immediate context he adds, "But I give
my judgment, as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. 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" [1 Cor. 7:25].
It is only one addition to the general rule which is made by those
who follow the Lamb, and who have not defiled their garments, for they have
continued in their virgin state. Notice the meaning of defiling. I shall
not venture to explain it, for fear Helvidius may be abusive.
Widows who lost their husbands face great
temptations
Letter LXXIX. To Salvina, § 8. “Do not, I pray you,
regard these general remarks-applying as they do to all young women-as intended
to insult you or to take you to task. I write in a spirit of apprehension, yet
pray that you may never know the nature of my fears. A woman's reputation is a
tender plant; it is like a fair flower which withers at the slightest blast and
fades away at the first breath of wind. Especially is this so when she is of an
age to fall into temptation and the authority of a husband is wanting to her.
For the very shadow of a husband is a wife's safeguard. What has a widow to do
with a large household or with troops of retainers? As servants, it is true,
she must not despise them, but as men she ought to blush before them. If a
grand establishment requires such domestics, let her at least set over them an
old man of spotless morals whose dignity may guard the honour of his mistress.
I know of many widows who, although they live with closed doors, have not
escaped the imputation of too great intimacy with their servants, etc. etc. . .
. ”
Note. This is a letter of consolation addressed by Jerome to
Salvina (a lady of the imperial court) on the death of her husband Nebridius.
He warns Salvina (in no courtier-like terms) of the dangers that will beset her
as a widow . . . Salvina later consecrated her life to deeds of piety, and
became one of Chrysostom's deaconesses. Its date is 400 a.d.
A life of virginity overcomes the sentence
passed on Eve
Letter 22. To Eustochium, §18. “ 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," 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," 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."
Virginity is the original and pure
human condition; marriage came with sin
Letter 22. To Eustochium, §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."
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, and whose crops are
choked with briars . . . .
“ . . . Let those stitch coats to themselves who have lost the coat
woven from the top throughout; 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." 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." The rod 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." In another place He is foretold to be "a stone cut out of the
mountain without hands," 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." 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 . .
.
The gift of virginity came through the
Virgin Mary
Letter 22. To Eustochium, §21.“ In those days (the Old
Testament), 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 conceived
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," 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 . . .”
Many great scholars have praised
virginity
Letter 22. To Eustochium, § 22. “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," and his other treatises on
virginity, the blessed Cyprian's noble volume, the writings of Pope Damasus in
prose and verse, and the treatises recently written for his sister by our own
Ambrose. 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.”
To become human, Jesus put up with the
‘revolting conditions’ in the womb
Letter 22. To Eustochium, § 37. “For our salvation the
Son of God is made the Son of Man. Nine months He awaits His birth in the womb,
undergoes the most revolting conditions, and comes forth covered with blood, to
be swathed in rags and covered with caresses. He who shuts up the world in His
fist is contained in the narrow limits of a manger. I say nothing of the thirty
years during which he lives in obscurity, satisfied with the poverty of his
parents . . .
A woman's excuse to marry is to bring
forth virgins for Christ
Letter 66. To Pammachius, §3. “When once she [Paulina]
had entered upon the married state, her one thought day and night was that, as
soon as her union should be blessed with offspring, she would live
thenceforth in the second degree of chastity [=sexual abstinence in
marriage], and , though woman, foremost in the high emprise, would induce her
husband to follow a like course. She would not forsake him but looked for the
day when he would become a companion in salvation. Finding by several
miscarriages that her womb was not barren, she could not give up all hope of
having children and had to allow her own reluctance to give way to the
eagerness of her mother-in-law and the chagrin of her husband. Thus she
suffered much as Rachel suffered, although instead of bringing forth like her a
son of pangs and of the right hand, the heir she had longed for was no other
than her husband. I have learned on good authority that her wish in submitting
herself to her husband was not to take advantage of God's primitive command "Be
faithful and multiply and replenish the earth" but that she only desired
children that she might bring forth virgins to Christ.
Through abstaining from sex a woman can
become ‘a man’
Letter 71. To Lucinius, § 3. (Lucinius was a wealthy
Spaniard who had made a vow of continence with his wife Theodora). “You
have with you one who was once your partner in the flesh but is now your
partner in the spirit; once your wife but now your sister; once a woman but
now a man; once an inferior but now an equal. Under the same yoke as you
she hastens toward the same heavenly kingdom.”
Christ's law of chastity applies to men
as much as to women
Letter 77. To Oceanus, § 3. “And because at the very
outset there is a rock in the path and she [Fabiola] is overwhelmed by a storm
of censure, for having forsaken her first husband and having taken a second, I
will not praise her for her conversion till I have first cleared her of this
charge. So terrible then were the faults imputed to her former husband that not
even a prostitute or a common slave could have put up with them. If I were to
recount them, I should undo the heroism of the wife who chose to bear the blame
of a separation rather than to blacken the character and expose the stains of
him who was one body with her. I will only urge this one plea which is
sufficient to exonerate a chaste matron and a Christian woman. The Lord has
given commandment that a wife must not be put away "except it be for
fornication, and that, if put away, she must remain unmarried." Now a
commandment which is given to men logically applies to women also. For it
cannot be that, while an adulterous wife is to be put away, an incontinent
husband is to be retained. The apostle says: "he which is joined to an harlot
is one body." Therefore she also who is joined to a whoremonger and unchaste
person is made one body with him. The laws of Caesar are different, it is true,
from the laws of Christ: Papinianus commands one thing; our own Paul another.
Earthly laws give a free rein to the unchastity of men, merely condemning
seduction and adultery; lust is allowed to range unrestrained among brothels
and slave girls, as if the guilt were constituted by the rank of the person
assailed and not by the purpose of the assailant. But with us Christians what
is unlawful for women is equally unlawful for men, and as both serve the same
God both are bound by the same obligations. Fabiola then has put away-they
are quite right-a husband that was a sinner, guilty of this and that crime,
sins-I have almost mentioned their names-with which the whole neighbourhood
resounded but which the wife alone refused to disclose . . . She acted
legitimately in putting away her husband, and when she had done so she was free
to marry again.
Small girls need to be prepared for
future virginity
Letter 107. To Laeta, §4. (On how Laeta should educate
her little daughter Paula to become a virgin) “Thus must a soul be
educated which is to be a temple of God. It must learn to hear nothing and to
say nothing but what belongs to the fear of God. It must have no understanding
of unclean words, and no knowledge of the world's songs. Its tongue must be
steeped while still tender in the sweetness of the psalms. Boys with their
wanton thoughts must be kept from Paula: even her maids and female attendants
must be separated from worldly associates. For if they have learned some
mischief they may teach more. Get for her a set of letters made of boxwood or
of ivory and called each by its proper name. Let her play with these, so that
even her play may teach her something . . . .The very words which she tries bit
by bit to put together and to pronounce ought not to be chance ones, but names
specially fixed upon and heaped together for the purpose, those for example of
the prophets or the apostles or the list of patriarchs from Adam downwards as
it is given by Matthew and Luke. In this way while her tongue will be
well-trained, her memory will be likewise developed. Again, you must choose for
her a master of approved years, life, and learning Accordingly you must see
that the child is not led away by the silly coaxing of women to form a habit of
shortening long words or of decking herself with gold and purple. Of these
habits one will spoil her conversation and the other her character. She must
not therefore learn as a child what afterwards she will have to unlearn . . . .
Early impressions are hard to eradicate from the mind. When once wool has been
dyed purple who can restore it to its previous whiteness? An unused jar long
retains the taste and smell of that with which it is first filled . . .”
Note. This letter was used a lot in the Middle Ages as a guide
as to how women should be educated.
It is still better to send one's
daughter to a monastery from a tender age
Letter 107. To Laeta, §13. “You will answer, `How shall
I, a woman of the world, living at Rome, surrounded by a crowd, be able to
observe all these injunctions?' In that case do not undertake a burthen to
which you are not equal. When you have weaned Paula as Isaac was weaned and
when you have clothed her as Samuel was clothed, send her to her grandmother
and aunt [who were both nuns]; give up this most precious of gems, to be placed
in Mary's chamber and to rest in the cradle where the infant Jesus cried. Let
her be brought up in a monastery, let her be one amid companies of virgins, let
her learn to avoid swearing, let her regard lying as sacrilege, let her be
ignorant of the world, let her live the angelic life, while in the flesh let
her be without the flesh, and let her suppose that all human beings are like
herself.” O happy virgin! happy Paula, daughter of Toxotius, who through
the virtues of her grandmother and aunt is nobler in holiness than she is in
lineage! Yes, Laeta: were it possible for you with your own eyes to see your
mother-in-law and your sister, and to realize the mighty souls which animate
their small bodies; such is your innate thirst for chastity that I cannot doubt
but that you would go to them even before your daughter, and would emancipate
yourself from God's first decree of the Law [‘Be fruitful and
multiply’] to put yourself under His second dispensation of the Gospel . .
. . I counsel you to pay back to the full in your offspring what meantime you
defer paying in your own person.”
Marriage is only allowed as second
best
Letter 123. To Ageruchia, §4. (An appeal to this widow not
to marry again) “Lastly, that Paul may compress into a few words all the
reasons for such marriages, he shews the motive of his command by saying: "for
some are already turned aside after Satan." Thus he allows to the incontinent a
second marriage, or in case of need a third, simply that he may rescue them
from Satan, preferring that a woman should be joined to the worst of husbands
rather than to the devil.To the Corinthians he uses somewhat similar language:
"I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide
even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to
marry than to burn." Why, O apostle, is it better to marry? He answers
immediately: because it is worse to burn.”
Husband and wife should imitate
virginal incorruption by sexual abstinence
Against Jovinianus, Book 1, §7. "It is good," the Aposle
says, "for a man not to touch a woman." If it is good not to touch a woman, it
is bad to touch one: for there is no opposite to goodness but badness. But if
it be bad and the evil is pardoned, the reason for the concession is to prevent
worse evil. But surely a thing which is only allowed because there may be
something worse has only a slight degree of goodness . . . .We must notice the
Apostle's prudence. He did not say, it is good not to have a wife: but, it is
good not to touch a woman: as though there were danger even in the touch: as
though he who touched her, would not escape from her who "hunteth for the
precious life," who causeth the young man's understanding to fly away. "Can a
man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk upon
hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?" As then he who touches fire is
instantly burned, so by the mere touch the peculiar nature of man and woman is
perceived, and the difference of sex is understood . . . .But inasmuch as he
who is once married has no power to abstain except by mutual consent, and may
not reject an unoffending partner, let the husband render unto the wife her
due. He bound himself voluntarily that he might be under compulsion to render
it. "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be by consent for a season, that
ye may give yourselves unto prayer." What, I pray you, is the quality of that
good thing which hinders prayer? which does not allow the body of Christ to be
received? So long as I do the husband's part, I fail in continency. The same
Apostle in another place commands us to pray always. If we are to pray always,
it follows that we must never be in the bondage of wedlock, for as often as I
render my wife her due, I cannot pray. The Apostle Peter had experience of the
bonds of marriage. See how he fashions the Church, and what lesson he teaches
Christians: "Ye husbands in like manner dwell with your wives according to
knowledge, giving honour unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel, as being
also joint-heirs of the grace of life; to the end that your prayers be not
hindered." Observe that, as S. Paul before, because in both cases the spirit is
the same, so S. Peter now, says that prayers are hindered by the performance of
marriage duty. When he says "likewise," he challenges the husbands to imitate
their wives, because he has already given them commandment: "beholding your
chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be the outward
adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on
apparel: but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptible
apparel of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great
price." You see what kind of wedlock he enjoins. Husbands and wives are to
dwell together according to knowledge, so that they may know what God wishes
and desires, and give honour to the weak vessel, woman. If we abstain from
intercourse, we give honour to our wives: if we do not abstain, it is clear
that insult is the opposite of honour. He also tells the wives to let their
husbands "see their chaste behaviour, and the hidden man of the heart, in the
incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit." Words truly worthy of an
apostle, and of Christ's rock! He lays down the law for husbands and wives,
condemns outward ornament, while he praises continence, which is the ornament
of the inner man, as seen in the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet
spirit. In effect he says this: Since your outer man is corrupt, and you
have ceased to possess the blessing of incorruption characteristic of virgins,
at least imitate the incorruption of the spirit by subsequent abstinence,
and what you cannot show in the body exhibit in the mind. For these are the
riches, and these the ornaments of your union, which Christ seeks.”
Second marriages are only slightly
better than prostitution
Against Jovinianus, Book 1, §14. “The Apostle compares
monogamy with digamy, and as he had subordinated marriage to virginity, so he
makes second marriages inferior to first, and says, "A wife is bound for so
long time as her husband liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is free to be
married to whom she will; only in the Lord. But she is happier if she abide as
she is, after my judgement: and I think that I also have the Spirit of God." He
allows second marriages, but to such persons as wish for them and are not able
to contain . . . . And similarly the words to Timothy, "I desire therefore that
the younger widows marry, bear children, rule the household, give none occasion
to the adversary for reviling: for already some are turned aside after Satan,"
and so on. For as on account of the danger of fornication he allows virgins
to marry, and makes that excusable which in itself is not desirable, so to
avoid this same fornication, he allows second marriages to widows. For it is
better to know a single husband, though he be a second or third, than to have
many paramours: that is, it is more tolerable for a woman to prostitute herself
to one man than to many.”
Woman's punishment, incurred through
Eve's sin, may be undone through childbearing
Against Jovinianus, Book 1, §27. But we toil to no purpose.
For our opponent urges against us the Apostolic sentence and says, "Adam was
first formed, then Eve; and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled
hath fallen into transgression: but she shall be saved through the
child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with
sobriety." Let us consider what led the Apostle to make this declaration: "I
desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands,
without wrath and disputing." So in due course he lays down rules of life for
the women and says "In like manner that women adorn themselves in modest
apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or
pearls or costly raiment; but (which becometh women professing godliness)
through good works. Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I
permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in
quietness." And that the lot of a woman might not seem a hard one, [because
of God] reducing her to the condition of a slave to her husband, the Apostle
recalls the ancient law and goes back to the first example: that Adam was first
made, then the woman out of his rib; and that the Devil could not seduce Adam,
but did seduce Eve; and that after displeasing God she was immediately
subjected to the man, and began to turn to her husband; and he points out that
she who was once tied with the bonds of marriage and was reduced to the
condition of Eve, might blot out the old transgression by the procreation of
children: provided, however, that she bring up the children themselves in
the faith and love of Christ, and in sanctification and chastity . . . . .You
see how you are mastered by the witness of this passage also, and cannot but be
driven to admit that what you thought was on the side of marriage tells in
favour of virginity. For if the woman is saved in child-bearing, and the more
the children the greater the safety of the mothers, why did he add "if they
continue in faith and love and sanctification with chastity"? Will the woman
not then be saved, if she bear children who will remain virgins: if what she
has herself lost, she attains in her children, and makes up for the loss and
decay of the root by the excellence of the flower and fruit.”
For a man, it is better not to marry to
avoid the burden of having a wife
Against Jovinianus, Book 1, §28.“No one can know
better than Solomon who suffered through women, what a wife or woman is. Well
then, he says in the Proverbs: . . ."Like a worm in wood, so a wicked woman
destroyeth her husband." But if you assert that this was spoken of bad wives, I
shall briefly answer: What necessity rests upon me to run the risk of the wife
I marry proving good or bad? "It is better," he says, "to dwell in a desert
land, than with a contentious and passionate woman in a wide house." How seldom
we find a wife without these faults, he knows who is married. Hence that
sublime orator, Varius Geminus says well "The man who does not quarrel is a
bachelor." "It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop, than with a
contentious woman in a house in common." . . . . "A continual dropping on a
wintry day" turns a man out of doors, and so will a contentious woman drive a
man from his own house. She floods his house with her constant nagging and
daily chatter, and ousts him from his own home, that is the Church. Hence the
same Solomon says . . . "The horseleech had three I daughters, dearly loved,
but they satisfied her not, and a fourth is not satisfied when you say Enough;
the grave, and woman's love, and the earth that is not satisfied with water,
and the fire that saith not, Enough." The horse-leech is the devil, the
daughters of the devil are dearly loved, and they cannot be satisfied with the
blood of the slain: the grave, and woman's love, and the earth dry and scorched
with heat. It is not the harlot, or the adulteress who is spoken of; but
woman's love in general is accused of ever being insatiable; put it out, it
bursts into flame; give it plenty, it is again in need; it enervates a man's
mind, and engrosses all thought except for the passion which it feeds. What
we read in the parable which follows is to the same effect: "For three things
the earth doth tremble, and for four which it cannot bear: for a servant when
he is king: and a fool when he is filled with meat: for an odious woman when
she is married to a good husband: and an handmaid that is heir to her
mistress." See how a wife is classed with the greatest evils. But if you reply
that it is an odious wife, I will give you the same answer as before-the
mere possibility of such danger is in itself no light matter. For he who
marries a wife is uncertain whether he is marrying an odious woman or one
worthy of his love. If she be odious, she is intolerable. If worthy of love,
her love is compared to the grave, to the parched earth, and to fire.
Virginity belongs to paradise.
Marriage began after the fall.
Against Jovinianus, Book 1, §29. "Behold, this have I found,
saith the Preacher, one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among
all those have I not found. Behold this only have I found, that God made man
upright; but they have sought out many inventions." He says that he had found
man upright. Consider the force of the words. The word man comprehends
both male and female. "But a woman," he says, "among all these have I not
found." Let us read the beginning of Genesis, and we shall find Adam, that is
man, called both male and female. Having then been created by God good
and upright, by our own fault we have fallen to a worse condition; and that
which in Paradise had been upright, when we left Paradise was corrupt. If you
object that before they sinned there was a distinction in sex between male and
female, and that they could without sin have come together, it is uncertain
what might have happened. For we cannot know the judgements of God, and
anticipate his sentence as we choose. What really happened is plain
enough,-that they who in Paradise remained in perpetual virginity, when they
were expelled from Paradise were joined together. Or if Paradise admits of
marriage, and there is no difference between marriage and virginity, what
prevented their previous intercourse even in Paradise? They are driven out of
Paradise; and what they did not there, they do on earth; so that from the very
earliest days of humanity virginity was consecrated by Paradise, and marriage
by earth. "Let thy garments be always white." The eternal whiteness of our
garments is the purity of virginity. In the morning we sowed our seed, and in
the evening let us not cease. Let us who served marriage under the law, serve
virginity under the Gospel.”
Corruption attaches to all sexual
intercourse, even in a legitimate marriage
Against Jovinianus, Book 1, §37.“If the wisdom of the
flesh is enmity against God, and they who are in the flesh cannot please God, I
think that they who perform the functions of marriage love the wisdom of the
flesh, and therefore are in the flesh. The Apostle being desirous to withdraw
us from the flesh and to join us to the Spirit, says afterwards: "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be
not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will
of God. For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is
among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to
think according to chastity" (not soberly as the Latin versions badly
render), but "think," he says, "according to chastity". Let us consider what
the Apostle says: "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may
prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." What he says is
something like this-God indeed permits marriage, He permits second marriages,
and if necessary, prefers even third marriages to fornication and adultery. But
we who ought to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
which is our reasonable service, should consider, not what God permits, but
what He wishes: that we may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. It follows that what He merely permits is neither good, nor
acceptable, nor perfect. And he gives his reasons for this advice: "Knowing the
season, that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep: for now is
salvation nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far spent, and
the day is at hand." And lastly: "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." God's will is one thing,
His indulgence another. Whence, writing to the Corinthians, he says, "I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even
as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for
hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are
yet carnal." He who is in the merely animal state, and does not receive the
things pertaining to the Spirit of God (for he is foolish, and cannot
understand them, because they are spiritually discerned), he is not fed with
the food of perfect chastity, but with the coarse milk of marriage. As through
man came death, so also through man came the resurrection of the dead. As in
Adam we all die, so in Christ we shall all be made alive. Under the law we
served the old Adam, under the Gospel let us serve the new Adam. For the first
man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
"The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven. As is the
earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are
they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we
shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh
and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption." This is so clear that no explanation can make it clearer: "Flesh
and blood," he says, "cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption." If corruption attaches to all intercourse,
and incorruption is characteristic of chastity, the rewards of chastity cannot
belong to marriage. . . . And by way of more fully explaining what the
Apostle did not wish them to be he says elsewhere: "I espoused you to one
husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ." But if you
choose to apply the words to the whole Assembly of believers, and in this
betrothal to Christ include both married women, and the twice-married, and
widows, and virgins, that also makes for us. For whilst he invites all to
chastity and to the reward of virginity, he shows that virginity is more
excellent than all these conditions.”
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