De Singularitate clericorum

XIII. ON THE SINGULARITY OF CLERICS. I had indeed promised you, dearest sons, a letter before this time, which, commending all the established customs of conduct from the law, would summarily contain everything that generally pertains to all clerics for directing the rule of discipline. But because now, by the common cohabitation with women, some among you have been cast down into disgrace, I have been compelled to write to you specifically about this matter by the Lord’s rebuke: He, reproaching me with severity for your negligence, has commanded me to order that clerics not dwell with women. And although this admonition alone, by the authority of my letters, would suffice, yet lest anyone mock me as a dreamer, just as Joseph’s brothers mocked him, we add the firmness of the Scriptures, so that all may know that the Lord commands even in this way through revelation what He is known to have commanded before in writings, and that we are not adulterating the word of the Lord or wishing boastfully to glory in revelations, but, thus reporting before the face of the Lord, we do not lie in what we say: just as we trust that we have not heard a lie from the Lord, presuming upon the voice of the apostle Paul protesting, “For we are not,” he says, “like many who adulterate the word of God, but we speak from sincerity, as from God, before Him in Christ.

Thus placed in the greatest grief over certain corrupted members of our body, and in the groaning lament of the church over its loss, which through our negligence is reduced day by day to an excessive fewness, we believe ourselves to be somewhat relieved, because the negligence of certain persons cannot hinder our diligence, to whom our letters have never been lacking, which, through my absence, have compensated for my presence to all. Let each despiser of his own dissimulation enroll himself as guilty; but we, with a free brow, cry out to the despisers what Solomon confidently reproaches: "For indeed I called," he says, "and you did not obey; and I extended my words, and you did not pay attention, but you made my counsels vain, and you did not heed my reproofs; therefore I too will laugh at your destruction. I will therefore rejoice against you, when destruction comes upon you, when a sudden tumult comes upon you, and a ruin like a whirlwind, and when pressure and assault come upon you. For it will be that when you call upon me, I will not hear you. The wicked will seek me, and will not find me; for they have hated wisdom. But they have not taken up the word of the Lord, nor have they wished to heed my counsels. For they have spurned my corrections; therefore they will eat the fruits of their own way and will be sated with their own impiety.

Our exhortation now turns to you, whom we do not wish to experience such headlong falls into ruin. Fear as much as you can such disasters and destructions, and let these examples of those slipping in this overthrow terrify us. He is excessively rash who strives to cross over after seeing another fall, and he is violently unbridled who is not struck with fear when another perishes. He is a true lover of his own safety who avoids the onset of another’s death. And he is prudent who becomes anxious at the calamities of others, as Solomon affirms, saying: “He who sees evil punished will be vehemently instructed,” and again: “When the impious fall, the just will be vehemently terrified.” Confidence that entrusts one’s life to dangers is an adversary, and hope that expects to be saved amid the tinder of sin is slippery. Victory is uncertain when fighting among hostile weapons, and liberation is impossible when surrounded by flames without burning. This Solomon denies, saying: “Who will bind fire in his bosom and not burn his garments? Or who will walk upon coals of fire and not burn his feet? So he who enters to his neighbor’s wife will not be immune, nor will anyone who touches her.” Believe me, I beg you, believe divine faith—indeed, more than your own—because whatever it promises cannot deceive, as the Lord says: “It is easier,” he says, “for heaven and earth to pass away than for one jot of the law to fall.” And again: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

Therefore we deceive ourselves, whenever we believe without order, thinking that through our faith the precepts of the law can be changed, so that we hope chastity can be immovably preserved indiscriminately among men and women. It is difficult for someone to drink poison and live. One must beware, when sleeping on the bank, lest he fall, as the apostle says: "He who thinks he stands, let him see that he does not fall." In this matter, it is better to fear well than to trust badly. And it is more useful for a man to recognize himself as weak so that he may be strong, than to wish to appear strong and emerge weak. Concerning this, the apostle rebukes the presumptuous, saying: "If anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself." For certain, one who deceives himself deceives his own soul, who, by not avoiding things harmful to himself, has committed himself to harmful things. But he consults his own safety more prudently, who, always distrustful around evil things, fears whatever harmful things he may encounter. Solomon explained their difference, saying: "The wise man, by fearing, will turn aside from all evil; the fool, however, trusting in himself, mingles with the wicked." A great counsel of divine wisdom has been found, where by the help of fear we are set free. Great are the benefits of providence, that sometimes virtue and victory are achieved through fear. Great remedies the Lord has bestowed for salvation, so that even the timid man may have praise, as Solomon repeats, saying: "Blessed is the man who fears everything through dread.

The inestimable mercy of the Lord, which everywhere conferred glory upon His man, and the incomprehensible piety, which gave both battles and palms according to the contests, so that by confessing we overcome the savagery of males and by fearing we conquer the blandishments of females, provided that the Lord works glories over us from both virtue and infirmity, so that in all things and through all things He Himself testifies to being omnipotent, dividing the differences of triumphs, so that wars are conquered by us through both counsels and strengths, nor, if we conquered by the fortitude of faith alone, would the works of wisdom be empty against Solomon. Now, therefore, the arms of wisdom must be borne, where the female and male sexes declare a contest. Whence Solomon instructs thus, saying: "Make prudence known to yourself," he says, "so that it may keep you from a foreign and most wicked woman." See now that prudence, not faith, has been given to us as victorious in this war, which would have freed us by the remedy of timidity, and consider what arms are now to be taken up, if you wish to have the aids of the law. Be timid so that you may be intrepid: and although fear seems to be a weakness in battle, yet according to the word of the apostle, virtue is perfected in infirmity. Separate yourselves, I implore, separate yourselves from pestilential contagion.

However far each one may be from adversities, to that extent he does not feel adversities. He is less goaded by pleasures who is not where the throng of pleasures is. And he suffers less the troubles of avarice who does not see riches, if we admit the apostle promising: "Those who wish," he says, "to become rich fall into temptation and snares and many desires, both useless and harmful, which plunge a man into perdition and ruin." No otherwise is he subject to temptations who is joined to a woman, in whom there is nothing else but what strikes the one who approaches. The sting of sin has been made the female form, and the condition of death arose from no other source than from the substance of woman. As Solomon recalls to our concern, saying: "From woman came the beginning of sin, and because of her we all die." Hence we are held mortal and do not fear. What if we were already immortal? Through woman Christ indeed freed us, but from whence we still die we ought to fear. That liberation itself will be established in woman only if death, which came through woman, is vanquished by us. Otherwise, if scandals still dominate around us through woman, we have surely incurred the loss of Christ's liberation: since this hope of freedom remains in the future, which we believe Christ has conferred upon our faith, so that then woman will harm us not at all, when death itself has been abolished. For if we now think ourselves unassailable by female darts, then nothing remains for the heavenly kingdoms.

Not undeservedly does the apostle rebuke such sentiments, saying: "You are now sated, you have now become rich: you reign without us, and would that you reigned." Therefore the time of struggle is still carried on, and death through woman still rages. I lie, if we do not see from that source the destruction of very many. How many and what sort of bishops and clerics, together with laity, after the trampled contests of confessions and victories, after the great deeds and signs or wonders shown everywhere, are known to have been shipwrecked with all these things, when they wish to sail in a fragile ship? How many lions has one delicate infirmity tamed, which, though it be cheap and wretched, makes prey of the great? What Solomon says: "The price of a harlot is as much as one loaf of bread, but a woman captures precious souls." Before Noah these things are discussed, and we are restrained by no terrors: what would we do, if we only heard histories performed by hearsay? But this is always the incredulity of human hardness, that not only by hearing but also by seeing it does not believe that others have perished, unless it sees itself perish: nor is it shaken by the deaths of companions, while it thinks them deserving or weak. But it confidently thinks that it itself merits much or is worth much, not knowing that examples are offered to all, when punishments have been inflicted on some, as the Lord sets forth in the Gospel and says: "Do you think that these Galileans were sinners above all Galileans who suffered such things? No.

I say to you: unless you repent, you will likewise perish just as those upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them. Do you think that they were debtors above all men dwelling in Jerusalem? No. I say to you: if you do not repent, you will likewise perish. We marvel that Adam was deceived by Eve, whom no examples of the dying had preceded, and only one command had constrained, when now neither countless customs nor infinite commands restrain us. To them it is fittingly said according to the Lord's rebuke: if Adam had seen the deaths that have occurred among you, he would long ago have done penance in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, that Adam will be more tolerable on the day of judgment than you. Far, far away let this plague and pestilence and secret destruction be. O how disordered is the proximity of a woman. It hurls the plunder of sins, whose neighbor it is. In this association there is no approvable sincerity, which has collisions like certain turbulent waves. In this familiarity, friendly concord does not dwell, since it creates only discordant enmities. Indeed, the Lord made woman for man as a helper, but the serpent's envy assumed a hostile guise. For if that woman born from her own man tempts even today the man to whom she is joined, how much more that woman who is joined by no law?

And if those who are two in one flesh, bound together, mutually prick each other with temptations, what do those do who are neither born nor joined in one flesh? Especially since one who is distracted by the affection of another is not even permitted to invoke God, nor is one who has sought for himself someone to whom to show domestic care allowed to think of divine things. On account of this, the Apostle advises thus, saying: I want you to be without anxiety. He who goes without a wife is anxious how to please God; but he who has a wife thinks about the things of this world, how to please his wife. What now is there that delights in this union, in which there are only struggles? Or what advantage favors it, where there are no conjugal duties, when not even these can be secure? Everything that is of woman is harmful, and her union is always hostile. Her bond brings great troubles, and to whom she clings contrary to divine law, she inflicts an incurable wound. Sparks leap from coals, rust is nourished from iron, asps hiss forth diseases, and woman pours out the pestilence of lust, which Solomon compares thus, saying: From garments comes the moth, and from woman the iniquity of man.

I wish to know what this common affection is, this discord of disease, which always unsettles its own purpose by attacking with wavering counsels. Why did he take a woman to himself who disdained to lead a wife? He who will not eat meat, why does he fill his dwelling with the preparations of meat? And he who has not drunk wine, why does he enjoy the pleasure of wine? As if not often, by having without tasting, the mind is fed by the abundance of foods, and the mind is more often aroused by the mere fragrance of fragrant wine. What does he want by being called abstinent among men, while in secret he is distended with meats and drunkenness? Many have riches which they deny to their own uses but preserve out of greed; if no greed had clung to them, they would not possess the insignia of greed. But because they are possessed by greed, they enjoy in mind what they do not touch in use. Thus he who has despised the bond of marriage is otherwise bound by feminine bonds: although he is joined by no intercourse, he is always delighted by desire, sight, conversation, and association. For if he had no desire for a woman, he would never take a woman to himself for his delights. Indeed, moreover, the agreement he has given is suspect to me, who did not lead a lawful wife and refused a lawful one: unless I am mistaken, he has argued publicly to promise holiness to men and in secret not to be without a wife.

The two arguments of lust and sanctity are to be wondered at on both sides, which both conceal each other and both betray each other. The ingenious eunuch and adulterer begrudges himself while he takes counsel, and while he seeks both, he has done neither, so that he is not at all considered a saint who does not enjoy a true union, since the apostle Paul says: Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek a release. Are you freed from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But I agree that the chastity of this man has not been violated: yet he offers a bad reputation to the suspicious and vainly guards the good of chastity within by a laborious struggle, which he causes to be defamed without, destroying the teaching of the apostle Paul, who both provides and warns: Why, he says, is my freedom judged by an unbelieving conscience? If I partake of grace, why am I blasphemed for that for which I give thanks? It is worse than adultery to lead a criminal continence and to make sanctimony infamous. He brings blasphemy upon the religion he has cultivated, who has not fulfilled before all what he professes, lest Christianity be believed to be a deception and adultery be seen as clothed in the veil of sanctity. For this reason the Lord in the Gospel warns thus, saying: Let your light shine before men in such a way that, seeing your good works, they may magnify your father who is in heaven. The apostle Paul follows this, saying: Therefore, let not your good be blasphemed.

And again: providing for what is good not only before God, but also before men. And in another place: therefore whether you eat, whether you drink, whether you do anything, do all things for the glory of God and be without scandal to Jews and Greeks and the Church of God, just as I myself please everyone in all things. But perhaps it is objected, what is it that he himself said again: if I wished to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ? Whatever sayings of the law are uttered never exclude each other, but all responses are fixed in specific places. There it is not permitted to please men, where the will of men does not comprehend the will of the Lord: but where men accept what advances the glory of God, the apostle Paul himself commanded that it be made known to all. Each one of us, he says, should please his neighbor for good edification. Therefore, what reward of sanctity does he expect, who not only provokes blasphemy of sanctity from unbelievers, but also provides a pernicious example to the faithful? So that the weak, under the pretext of love, subtly fornicate, and the chaste man most unchastely offers a teaching of chastity, destroying what the apostle Paul threatens: has a weak brother, for whom Christ suffered, perished, he says, in your knowledge? Thus sinning against brothers and striking their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.

And indeed it is fitting not only for the young but also for the old to care for the weakness of the brethren, lest old age provoke youth to perish, from whom all salutary teachings ought to proceed: as Eleazar in the book of Maccabees declares and says: it is better to send the wicked to hell than to abandon the laws of the fathers. For it is not worthy to feign our age, so that many of the young, having judged that Eleazar, ninety years old, had passed over to the life of the foreigners, might themselves, on account of my pretense and on account of a brief and corruptible span of life, be led astray through me, and I acquire hatred and a stain upon my old age. He preferred to expose his life to torments rather than to be a teacher of perdition to anyone: and we, where there are no torments, are unwilling to prefer the brethren who are to be saved by mere streams, nor are we content, without any tortures, to benefit ourselves as much as others, when he was unwilling to live as one about to die, as he further pursued, saying: therefore, departing life bravely, I will appear worthy of old age, and I will leave a strong example for the young, so that with ready and brave spirit they may depart by an honorable death for the grave and holy laws. Since this is fitting even for the laity, lest they either offer occasions for blasphemy to outsiders or an opportunity for fornication to the brotherhood, then especially does this necessity constrain the clergy, for whom either blasphemed religion or a lost brotherhood will impose double penalties.

nor will they find any solace at all in the judgment of the Lord, those who have supplied to strangers and to brethren the tinder for sinning. For this reason the apostle Paul instructs Titus, saying: "Present yourself as an example of good works in teaching, in integrity, in gravity, in sound and irreproachable speech, so that the adversary may stand in awe, having nothing evil to say of us." And again: "Show good faith to all," he says, "so that they may everywhere set forth the good teaching of our Lord and Savior." Thus also he writes to Timothy, saying: "Be a model to the faithful in speech, in conduct, in charity, in faith, in chastity." And the apostle Peter likewise declares: "Let your conduct among the Gentiles be good," he says, "so that, in the very matter in which they slander us as evildoers, they may glorify the Lord because of your good works." And again: "Since such is the will of God," he says, "let those who do good silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Let no one set before himself and say: I wish to have nothing that I may overcome. For that is to say: I desire to live under ruin. Who is so foolish as to long to be constrained to labor, when a more delightful triumph is offered? For a double triumph is not to be proven victor in the presence of a woman than to preserve the whole pledge of sanctity in singleness. And although there is one title of glories, in this place the vain strong man is one who labors enough and is rewarded equally with him who, having labored little, has conquered. What of the fact that he is indeed recorded as perfected who shows himself cut off from all female affections? Because the Lord in the Gospel calls perfect him who has cut off his entire patrimony for his own uses. Certainly also for anyone alone daily triumphs for chastity are not lacking, because the spirit never ceases to infest the human body with carnal desires, which the apostle affirms saying: The flesh, he says, lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh: for these oppose each other so that you do not do whatever you wish. You have now your own flesh which you may always overcome: why do you wish to bring in another? No one desires to add a worse fever to a single one, lest he begin to labor with an incurable half-fever, which no physician can relieve. Nor does anyone take up another's burden on top of his own, lest, oppressed by two burdens, he be sunk down to the depths.

Thus the prophet Jeremiah teaches that the weight of holiness is to be borne in a singular manner. "It is good," he says, "for a man when he has carried a heavy yoke in his youth: he will sit alone and be silent, because he has borne a very heavy yoke." But let no malicious objector take refuge in the saying of the apostle Paul: "Bear your burdens mutually, and thus you will fulfill the law of Christ." These are not the burdens which the apostle Paul commands to be lifted, but rather that we tolerate one another so that no discord divides us, and that we offer mutual aid to brothers placed in temptations—not that we ourselves procure temptations through women, but that we rather lift the weights of temptations, knowing what kind of yoke of holiness it is that is scarcely borne in a singular manner. Concerning this, not only he himself but also the Lord did not wish to define a certain precept, saying: "Not all grasp this word, but only those to whom it is given." And again: "He who can grasp it, let him grasp it." Therefore, if the magnitude of this weight is difficult to bear in a singular manner, how will it be borne if it is weighed down by doubled burdens? And if nearly all who are single barely endure sustaining carnal snares, what do those do who do not hesitate to rush in with swords hanging from both sides? I say more.

if husbands and wives, daily bearing the desires of marriage, do not suffice for themselves, what are those to do who, to increase their temptations, are joined with women? Whether by chance or in passing, the feminine aspect occurring at the hour casts arrows, as it were, into the eyes of others. When simple reverence is not free, what is done there, where a woman takes on constancy in companionship from liberty? When in domestic tasks she now bares her arms and thighs for wool-working, now, growing hot, uncovers her limbs, now, weary, tosses about or sometimes dissolves into laughter, now offers blandishments and, more poisonous than all, delights in singing or chanting? Whose song it is more tolerable to hear a basilisk hissing. Against this, Solomon makes us cautious, saying: Do not be constant with a dancing girl, nor listen to her, lest you perish in her efficacy. I pass over the rest, which are more shameful than speakable; I say only this: to see a woman broken in grief or anger is already not without allure. What shall we say if you see her rejoicing or, what is worse, flattering? Let me say once: every unsuitable fellowship with women is the glue of sins and a poisoned birdlime with which the devil hunts.

The association of women is unsuitable, whose companionship Solomon again teaches us to beware of in all things: "Do not sit at all with another woman," he says, "and do not argue with her over wine, lest your heart incline toward her and you slip into perdition through your own blood." Finally, if we trust our mind to persevere always in this association, even that ought to be suspect among us, lest those who come together with us be perhaps moved toward us ourselves or, in their hasty youth, be goaded by furies into other loves; and we will be the cause, what is worse, without cause, that alien fornication stains us, among whom the opportunity of the brothel is suggested to others, and we will be swallowed up by the crime of another's guilt, for whom we ourselves furnish the pander of filth. On account of this, the apostle Paul instructs us concerning similar matters, saying: "If your brother is scandalized on account of food, you are no longer walking in charity. Do not let your food destroy him for whom Christ died." And again: "It is good not to eat meat nor to drink wine nor anything in which your brother offends or is scandalized or is weakened." And in another place: "Judge this rather," he says, "that you do not place an offense or scandal before your brother." And concerning himself he speaks thus: "On account of which, if food scandalizes my brother, I will no longer eat meat forever, lest I scandalize my brother.

Since, therefore, the detestable annoyance of this association assails us, even if it cannot make adulterers, it nevertheless makes pimps for adulterers and incestuous persons. For who is a scrutinizer of another’s heart, who can assess the quality of each individual and, for another person, be a fighter against Satan, but presume to be a suitable guarantor before God? He is insane who promises anything concerning himself, not to mention if he also appears to pledge a bond for a woman, since the apostle Paul pronounces thus concerning himself: “Not because I have already received or am already justified or am already perfect, but I follow, if I may grasp, that in which I have been grasped by Christ. Brethren, I do not think I have yet grasped it; nevertheless, forgetting the things behind, I strive toward those which are before, following the rule toward the palm of the heavenly calling of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, let us who are perfect think this.” And again: “It is of little account to me,” he says, “to be judged by you or by a human day; but I do not even judge myself. He who judges me is the Lord.” And in another place: “Blessed,” he says, “is he who does not judge himself, in whom he proves another.

Although, therefore, we have no certainty even about our own stability, who are incessantly shaken among the waves of the age, enduring stormy assaults, yet if anyone has such confidence in the immobility of his own firmness, let him at least anxiously fear lest he himself be a scandal to the eyes of others and be terrified by the voice of the Lord threatening: "Woe," He says, "to this world from scandals; yet woe to that man through whom the scandal comes." If we fear and revere these threats of the Lord with a religious heart, let us fear our own danger more on account of others than on account of ourselves, we who are bound by mutual utilities from the Apostle Paul. "Not thinking," he says, "each one of his own things, but of others." And again: "Let no one seek what is his own, but what is another's." But someone, seizing from Paul himself something to oppose, says: "Each one of us," he says, "will render an account for himself to God, and each one will carry his own burden." Therefore, whoever does not wish to render an account for another, ought not to be an unlawful participant in his causes or business; and whoever tries to be free or immune concerning the burdens of others, should hold nothing of another under contrary condition within himself. For it is necessary that he who has handled another's business be subjected to the reason of that other.

it is fitting that he be punished with loss or the waste of his baggage, with whom the brother's goods have perished under insecure custody, because whatever in our house, under less suitable protection, has been broken into by thieves, is ours, and whatever has been badly entrusted through our negligence is demanded from us. But then we are free from one another if nothing of another's property is kept with us. Perhaps someone will say: therefore, should we not even come together to the house of prayer, lest someone scandalize another? That is the calumnious contradiction of a heretical profession, which prescribes from good things so as to assert evils, and prejudges from holiness so as subtly to introduce impurity, making calumnies from what is permitted so that it may obtain what is forbidden. On account of this, the apostle Paul prescribes against this heresy beforehand, saying: "Nevertheless, neither woman without man nor man without woman in the Lord." Far be it, far be it that women be everywhere prescribed against or that permission be everywhere granted. They have their places around husband, around sons, around brothers, around parents, around servants, and in the house of prayer only next to all the clergy. But in a single dwelling without kinship they do not suitably have companions. This is the balance that stands. But whatever tilts the balance cannot stand, as Scripture says: "You shall not incline to the right nor to the left," and the Lord in the Gospel: "What is more is from evil." Learn now the measure of temperance, you who seek excess through license.

Love women during the sacred solemnities and hate them in private communion, if you wish to hold to the teaching of Solomon: there is, he says, a time for loving and a time for hating. Therefore the company of women is to be avoided when the continuous unanimity of carnal cares is being conducted, because among their cares the flesh always provokes the incitements of desire and there gives birth to the fuel for sinning, where, while dealing with its own advantages, it has sensed the mind to be a little relaxed from the thoughts of temporal life, as Solomon asserts saying: earthly thought oppresses the mind that thinks many things. But in the gathering of sacred rites, where the spirit rules, the handmaid, recognizing herself, loses the use of her pleasure, loses also her luxury while heavenly matters are being treated, while the holy mysteries are being celebrated: the whole of humanity is occupied, where not human but divine things are everything: where veneration or terror and trembling are struck into all minds, the carnal substance is indeed buried. Even among the very markets of the flesh many neglect the pleasure of the body, when the legions meditate on the exercises of the years, or the forum crackles with lawsuits, or the auditoria resound with letters, or merchants eagerly apply themselves to their trades, or artisans are intent upon their crafts themselves: how much more where not the carnal work of men but the spiritual work of angels is being conducted?

Nothing there can the assaults avail where even the demons yield, and no consideration of any difference of sex is permitted, where neither age nor rank but only equality reigns: and, to speak more fully, all there receive such a disposition that even conjugality itself is unknown, where Christ speaks, is heard, is attended to, and through all and in all He alone is everything, the apostle testifying and saying: "There is not," he says, "Jew and Greek, circumcision and foreskin, barbarian and Scythian, male and female, slave and free, but all and in all, Christ." This assembly, plainly, it is a glory to celebrate with women, in which there is no distinction of quality, to which it is permitted to equalize all without any difference, so that not even in baptism itself does anyone's nakedness cause shame, where the infancy of Adam and Eve is renewed, and it does not expose but rather receives a garment. But if even there there is someone worse than the devil who is stricken by the sights of women, yet our congregation is in no way blamed, which is gathered for heavenly, not for earthly things. Let him see to it if anyone there has been shameless with lustful gazes; in no way does he harm another who has proceeded not to a man but to Christ for the sake of salvation. Indeed, I will exclude the contradictors by their own contradictions, so that they yield not to my propositions but to their own.

If among sacred feasts a common gathering can be scandalized where the tempter and the devil himself trembles, who promises to be stable there where the tempter boldly advances? And if we are in peril there where the precepts of God gather us, what do we do where the commands of God separate us? And if we are disturbed there where we are fortified by the will of God, how much more so where we have not only the devil but also the Lord opposed to us? For with sacrosanct commands, divine protection is ministered to us, as Isaiah says: "He gave the law," he says, "as an aid." But without divine commands there can be no protection. It is one thing that God commands to be done, and another to oppose His will: whose commandments are to be kept in such a way that if He has ordered something which according to men seems unjust, it is believed just and is done, and if He has ordered something just, it is deemed just and is done: since what He commands cannot be without victory, He who is powerful can call injustice justice by justifying it, and by reproving justice can prove it perverse injustice, whose will is the sole and true justice. For if everything we do we do only to this end, that we may please the Lord, then indeed that alone will be just which God, whom we desire to please, has willed, commanded, and approved.

For servants cannot know by themselves what pleases their masters, unless they follow the masters’ commands; and certainly men, even those like themselves, cannot discern the wills of other men unless they receive something to observe. Much more are mortals unable to comprehend the justice of the immortal God, unless He Himself deigns to show the signs of His own justices, as Solomon affirms, saying: “For who among men will be able to know the counsel of God? Or who will be able to think what God wishes? The thoughts of mortals are timid, and our prudence is uncertain. For the body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling oppresses the mind that thinks many things. We scarcely estimate what is on earth, and we find with labor what is in sight. But who will investigate what is in the heavens? And who knows your mind, unless you give wisdom and send the Holy Spirit from the highest? And if the paths of those who are on earth are corrected, and men have learned what pleases you, and they are healed through wisdom. Walking in darkness, they cannot show light to themselves, unless the light voluntarily offers itself to those who do not see. Thus human blindness does not direct the way to God, unless He Himself shows the lamp of the law.” Hence David speaks thus, saying: “A lamp,” he says, “is your word to my feet, and light to my paths.” And again: “The Lord’s precept is bright, illuminating the eyes.

This, then, is Luciferan: whatever has been intimated by God; and this is worthy of God: that which God Himself acknowledges as acceptable to His will, so that He may exercise dominion in all things. Otherwise, we would not be registered as servants, nor would He Himself be considered Lord, if we were permitted to render service according to our own will and to choose the exercises of justice by our own judgment rather than by God’s. The apostle Paul nullifies such persons, saying: “Ignorant,” he says, “of God’s justice and wishing to establish their own, they are not subject to God’s justice.” Let these so vain ambiguities and baselessly slanderous complaints now be removed from our midst. We do not fear to be united with women in spiritual acts, with God’s help, since we believe we are performing justice by God’s command, from which we know supports are provided for us. Privately, however, for continent clerics and virgins, as many as possible, separate lodgings are to be established, because what God judges as unjust cannot be just. Yet cohabitation, even if no base habit is known in that cohabitation, inflames, because it is impossible for integrity to attain victories when it fights against God’s commands. For as much as the law supplies assistance to the obedient, so much does it incite the disobedient—indeed, it is a sin, as the apostle says: “Virtue,” he says, “is the law of sin.” Therefore, He who commanded us to triumph with women in His sacred rites also commands us to avoid private feminine struggles.

There are indeed other necessities which compel us to see women even individually, but even these necessities themselves command the efficacy of divine precept or work, so that we may visit, so that we may offer comfort, so that we may salutarily impart vital exhortations. Yet even in these duties, lesser care is not to be taken for our own conduct, so that signs of purity may shine forth in our operation. Severity should not be lacking, which can constrain a woman under a cleric, so that she may receive our very consolation with trembling and so perceive the affection of the visitation that she venerates the cleric. And lest it be too slow to wander through each detail, everything we do can be honorable, if signs of honorableness always shine forth in us, just as the Apostle Paul embraced all things, saying: "Let all your deeds be done honorably." And again, "As we have commanded you," he says, "walk honorably." Whatever is done indiscriminately does not turn out well, and what is holy is not holy unless that which is holy is performed holily, as Solomon asserts, saying: "For those who have justly kept the just things will be justified." Therefore, sincerity itself must be preserved sincerely, and everything that is of the vow must also be marked in the act, lest the vows commend one thing and the acts suggest another. The institution of the will must be approved on all sides, and the course of each one's struggle must be consummated on all sides, lest something be lacking for the triumph, if the contest is not waged more fully.

Hence the Apostle Paul introduces the proofs of contests: "But he who contends in the contest," he says, "will not be crowned unless he has contended lawfully." And again: "Do you not know," he says, "that those who run in the stadium all indeed run, but one receives the prize? Run thus, that you may seize it." Moreover, everyone who contends in the contest is continent from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. Therefore, it is the fullness of sanctity and the perfect palm that one does not have with him from any side what he may reject, lest he seem to love what he professes to hate by holding it. But if someone says, "I hold my adversary captive, whom I may always insult," let him see to it that the captive does not perhaps begin to prevail against him. A thief shut in with a treasure is never secure, nor is a lamb safe dwelling with a wolf in the same cage. He himself wished to be penetrated who brought his own enemy within his gates, and he himself placed a sword within his own belly who opened the place of his dwelling to the entrances of his adversary, and he who trusts to associate with scandal without cause says, "I wish to be at peace with the devil," contrary to the Apostle saying: "Give no place to the devil." Therefore, the place where the treasure is hidden must be fortified in every way, lest through one crevice the thief undermine the entire wall. For if an assailant from without is scarcely driven out by walls, how much will he avail if he receives a dwelling within the walls?

and if those who shut themselves off against him are sometimes caught by him, how much more so the one who voluntarily opened the entrance to him, since Solomon says: "If even a just man is scarcely safe, where will the sinner and impious man appear?" Therefore all cracks—not to say doors—must be closed, lest through one opening the entire camp be penetrated, and all fortifications must be repaired, lest through a small unfortified spot the whole city collapse, as Solomon repeats, saying: "He who despises small things will gradually fall." I am amazed, moreover, at the judgment of this perversity, that by clerics a woman is chosen for community more than a man. Is a woman really more useful for the advantages of a cleric than a continent man or a boy is profitable to a continent man? Or will that utility be decent which an indecent community produces? And where will that be which Solomon says: "Every animal loves its like"? And again: "Birds of a feather flock together." But even if a woman were considered more useful, it was not right to prefer carnal advantages to the utilities of spiritual benefits, and it was expedient to endure any useless man for the sake of protecting reputation rather than the good effects of a woman with the most shameful reputation. Which Solomon compares, saying: "Better," he says, "is the iniquity of a man than a woman doing good.

The benefits of the devil are therefore always artificial, by which, exercising the cunning of his craftiness, he aids those devoted to holiness with deceitful advantages in order to destroy them; and among the continent, supplying as it were necessary profits through mutual assistance, he first drives a man and a woman together to associate, so that after he has made them inseparable through reciprocal comforts, he can destroy them, as they give their simple minds to preserving the vows of chastity. And, withdrawing the weapons of his attack, for a while as a seemingly gentle supporter, he suggests arguments for holiness, until he nurtures a hostile friendship between the two for a longer time. He makes them affable to each other and subservient, and as a flattering enemy, removing all obstacles, he rejoices in lending efficacy to their advantages, so that, commending them entirely to their own mutual need, he can make them depend on each other for their usual consolation. He does not want to hinder them in anything, lest he separate them both spiritually and carnally. He makes them live unshaken, so that the very beginnings of the association do not disturb the pacts begun prematurely. To such an extent, providing for all things, he invites, fosters, and uplifts them to the perfection of holiness, so that they count as benefits of God those very contrary things by which they are led to perish, not knowing that God never aids what he forbids.

to such an extent does the devil, flattering them, prepare a security of holiness, that they think themselves more joined than separated, immovable in their persistence against lust: leading them with complete tranquility, he disturbs them with no storms or waves, and as if in the middle of the sea, he induces the less cautious to slacken their sails and not seek the rudders, so that by a sudden tempest he may overwhelm them as shipwrecked men roused by an unexpected commotion. He first exhibits this gentleness, so as to delight two ships in coming together, which, when he has made them joined, he can shatter by sudden whirlwinds, dashing them against each other: and he uses these blandishments, withdrawing all darts, suppressing adversities, suggesting prosperities, and for so long conceals the dormant fire without any flames, until, joining two torches, he ignites both at once: and for so long does he cease to apply the weapons of his cruelty, until, like a skilled hunter, he binds with the chains of his snare what he is about to kill. But when he has bound them with an indissoluble chain, like a lanista he immediately compels two gladiators to arm themselves against each other, and then, goading their limbs, he instantly fits swords, instantly kindles madness, and, driving them into wounding embraces, kills both at once with a single blow.

He thus unfolds what he previously seemed to bestow; thus from simple charity he kindles illicit love; thus through sanctity he stealthily introduces destruction; while he is content to yield, he is able to seize more strongly; and while he suffers himself to be subdued, offering himself as conquered, he thus more fully boasts of conquering. The apostle Paul understands his wiles thus, saying: "For we are not ignorant," he says, "of his craftiness." Wretchedly, therefore, are those pacified in this participation who are led to wars by the devil pacifying them; and they do not advance well in sanctity, for whom the very progress is furnished to their detriment by the artifice of the enemy; nor do they strive to ascend the steps of continence by a straight course, whom the adversary labors to prolong to the summit in order to hurl them from the height. But it is necessary that those who have held to a slippery path be dashed by falling slips, concerning which Solomon thus proclaims, saying: "There is a way which seems to men to be right; but its end comes into the depth of hell.

But they say: if clerics are censured for this union, then many saints among us should also be censured, whether Elijah who stayed with the widow, or the apostles who led women about as companions, such as John who took the Lord’s mother under his care at the Lord’s own behest, or the Lord Himself, to whom some religious women provided sustenance from their own means, and to whom Martha also served at table, and who spoke singularly while sitting at the well with the Samaritan woman, a foreigner, or for whom a woman, as he reclined, washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. Cunning arguers and deceitful experts in law, who, when they wish to transgress, overturn even the laws themselves in the controversies and pleadings of cases, and when they are unwilling to be restrained by the fitting commands of the laws, they cast forth unsuitable examples like similar legal conjectures to deceive the judges. They are exposed by the wisdom of the law itself through Solomon: “The sinner,” he says, “avoids correction and finds a comparison according to his own will.” Such men, therefore, are to be refuted not first by prayer but by correction, so that they are not instructed by interpreted prayers before they have lost what they found as a solace for defense: as Solomon teaches us against such men, saying: “Do not,” he says, “answer a fool according to his own folly, lest you become like him; but answer a fool against his own folly, so that he may not seem wise to himself.

Truly great are those who compare themselves to the saints, and our conduct is indeed exceptional, which seems equal to that of the prophets or apostles. For the occasion of our lust, we perversely refuse to imitate the saints, and among other deeds we are unwilling to follow the footsteps of the righteous. In some matters we excuse ourselves as weak for imitating the deeds of our betters, and in others we declare ourselves equal to our betters: when Elijah himself, placed in distress, confesses before God that he is unequal to his own fathers: "Am I not," he says, "better than my fathers?" This Elijah is compelled to exclaim concerning his predecessors in his own weakness: and do we not hesitate to equate our own strength with that of Elijah, or the prophets, or the apostles, and the Lord? I see plainly that avarice is trampled among us just as the apostles gave up all their possessions. I see that gluttony and drunkenness are absent from our feasts just as the apostles, possessing nothing, were often compelled to go hungry. I recognize that fasting, thirst, hunger, and nakedness flourish everywhere among us for the sake of teaching alone, just as we read they triumphed in the apostles. And it is proven among us that the same exercises of virtues burn, by which the apostles made all vices tremble. Plainly we meditate on the Lord's forty-day fast and the prayers and vigils with which he broke even the nocturnal silences through the deserts.

Do we likewise engage in such contests against the struggles of vices, and do we act with such rigor, authority, vigils, passions, labor, necessity, affliction, and abstinence—by which sins are trampled—that no one might suspect anything evil of us? Through these things the apostle Paul boasts that his own conscience became known to all. "In all things," he says, "commending ourselves as ministers of God, in much endurance, in pressures, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses, in plagues, in imprisonments, in prisons, in seditions, in invocations, in labors, in vigils, in fasts, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in goodness, in the Holy Spirit, in unfeigned charity, in the word of truth, in the power of God, through the weapons of justice on the right and on the left." For these imitations we are weak, but for leading women about we claim for ourselves the possibility of a comparable imitation. But even if someone were to boast that he fulfills all those things, still no persuasion of his could incline me to believe that there are now other apostles, contrary to the profession of the apostle Paul: "Are all apostles?" he says. "Are all prophets?

If Christ dared to compare himself to God, who said: the Father is greater than I, or if the apostles dared to equal themselves to Christ, and today a similar strength makes us equal to the apostles, wretched humanity, in this equality do you not fear being struck by lightning, you who do not hesitate to borrow from your sins examples as if similar to those of the Son of God or the sons of thunder? Such is the swollen arrogance of pride, that even the least of the church wishes to be recorded as comparable to anyone, while Paul warns and says: each thinking the other superior to himself. And further on he added, saying: think this of yourselves which you also think of Christ Jesus, who, although he was established in the form of God, did not consider it a usurpation to be equal to God, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Certainly we must think modestly of our own strengths, nor is our weakness to be compared to the strength of the saints, just as the apostle Paul sets forth for us a teaching from himself and says: for we do not dare, he says, to compare or equate ourselves with certain ones who commend themselves, but we ourselves, within ourselves, commend ourselves to ourselves: not boasting beyond measure, but to the measure of glory which God has measured out for us. For we observe that he himself also said: I have labored more than all of them, nothing better, nothing more suitable is set before me, by which I might prevail, unless I myself prescribe from the very one by whom a prescription is laid upon me.

Certainly he labored more than all, and yet he trembled to imitate his colleagues in taking women about with him, lest he subject himself to uncertain carnal temptation. Hence he himself gave the reason, saying: "I," he says, "run thus, not as into uncertainty; I fight thus, not as striking the air; but I afflict my body and reduce it to servitude, lest, while preaching to others, I myself be found reprobate." Compare yourself, then, to him, you who boast yourself an apostle, and learn from him what you should fear, who cries out and says: "I beg you, be my imitators." He therefore did not wish to have confidence in taking women about, for he was not ignorant how much other virtues differ from other virtues, and one brightness of the sun and another of the moon, and yet another of the stars, having intimated a comparison of likeness from ecclesiastical charismata. But we, on the contrary, flatter ourselves with equality to the apostles, not deeply considering what the apostles and all the saints accomplished with invincible virtue, and we seek to break a difficult path, when an easier one is laid before us, contrary to Solomon saying: "Do not trust," he says, "the laborious road, lest you place a stumbling block for your soul.

No one considers that one man walks securely on slippery ground and another, who is unequal, slips; one man climbs mountains by a path over the rocks and another, if he forces himself, falls; one man happens to guide his ship successfully through storms and such good fortune cannot come to another. The apostle Paul declares, saying: "Each one," he says, "has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that way." But those who prejudge me by the example of the saints, why do they not wish to contemplate another example that they might fear? And he who strives to be made equal to the apostles, why does he not rather set before himself, for his own terror, the adulterous presbyters in Daniel? I propose these things, however, not as if I were contradicting the imitators of the apostles, but to confound those who equate themselves with the saints. Nor do I deny that those whom we have all accepted as teachers are to be followed, but I contend against those who, desiring to corrupt the histories of good men for their own evil purposes, think that the law supports them, just as all who hasten to perish, so that under the pretext of the saints they wish their own disgraces to be hidden, so that under the imitation of their predecessors they may commit any contrary deeds. The apostle Paul exposes and publishes them, saying: "But what I do, and will do, is to cut off the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, so that in that in which they glory, such men may be found as we are." For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

They add this to heap up a pile of ruin, that they may defame the good, whose example they use for evil—those for whom it would be sufficient and salutary if they believed themselves not to have understood the reasoning of some history or other, rather than to judge that something dishonorable exists in the law. The apostle Paul confutes and rebukes them, saying: "not understanding either what they speak about or what they affirm." And again: "if anyone thinks he knows something, he has not yet learned how he ought to know." Thus the prejudgments of the insolent are void, whom the wandering wits of their own perversity lead astray, and who seek out histories suitable to their own inclinations to expound, those who, acting evilly, borrow legal patronage. For those who act well, all things that are written are good, since they receive well-spoken things well, as the apostle Paul promises: "We know," he says, "that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully.

We have prevailed by confounding the contradictors. We then turn to instructing those same whom we have conquered, lest we either allow holy men to remain in sin or be deemed ignorant in rendering an account, so that, publicly defeated, they may do penance; or, if they are unwilling, we have discharged what pertains to our diligence, so that, just as we have satisfied the aforementioned saying of Solomon, we may also satisfy the apostle Paul preaching: "The servant of the Lord," he says, "ought not to quarrel, but to be gentle, teachable, and patient toward all, correcting with all modesty those who resist, lest God give them repentance to know the truth and they come to their senses from the snares of the devil, by whom they are held captive according to his will." Everything that was done by our authors was done reasonably, so that for us, their posterity, an authority fortified on all sides might be handed down against transgressors. For the sake of forestalling the heresy which we have mentioned above concerning the taking of women, the Lord relaxed a little, either through himself or through his servants, lest the entire work of the Lord be condemned by excessive rigor. Heretics were foreseen by the Lord who take away marriages and who strive to separate what the Lord has joined, contrary to the principle of nature and contrary to the Gospel. Against these, authority was already being prepared at that time, so that married women might not be forbidden to approach Christ, whom they served in his presence.

But that permission itself was not without moderation, for it was procured not to serve itself but to benefit others. For if the Lord spoke to the Samaritan woman, he taught for the moment and withdrew, and did not make a defense for continuing excesses. For the moment he also allowed Martha to serve. But what else was the Lord doing but serving the feasts of the heavenly kingdom? Were there no banquets under the Lord? Or under his majesty was there any other drink or food than discipline alone, which nourished? As the Lord himself testifies, saying: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me." Thus a company of women accompanied the apostles, not to corrupt them, but to learn reverence, and they followed for the sake of rendering service of humanity, as is recorded in the Gospel concerning the Lord and them alike: "And it happened," it says, "after this, he himself was making a journey through cities and towns, evangelizing the kingdom of God, and the twelve with him, and the women who had been cured of unclean spirits and infirmities: Mary who is called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, who also ministered to him from their own resources.

Did they cling to solitary individuals as solitaries, or did they persist in the illicit fellowship of a seductive association, living together where nearly the whole church could see, so that they followed not for shameful banquets but for learning the pursuits of good conduct? So far is it from being described that this is equated to our banquets; no laughter, no jest is said to have been present. Nor, as is now customary among some, is a chorus of psalm-singing virgins said to have soothed ears with poisonous songs. And to prove briefly from the apostles, how much a loose familiarity could displease them, who were compelled to doubt even the Lord Himself speaking with a woman, had not the proven knowledge of His majesty restrained them? As the evangelist relates, saying: "Meanwhile," he says, "his disciples came and marveled that he was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said to him: 'What are you seeking or speaking with her?'" But what shall I say of the approach of a woman prostrate at the Lord's feet, whose grief and lamentation the shameless do not blush to demand in defense of their own wantonness? So much does their own blindness seize them, that they dare not even resist in similar cases, concerning which Solomon said: "Their malice blinded them, and they did not know the sacraments of God." John, however, seems to have received the mother of the Lord. But a mother whose character the maternal name indicates.

Nevertheless, I cannot admit other mothers of Christ, nor is she who gave birth to the Majesty to be equated with all women. Elijah also was ordered by the Lord to leave solitude and enter the tent of a widow. By the Lord’s command he labored to remain in that house, for whom solitude had provided a palace for rest: the Lord offered him an opportunity to perform great deeds, so that in a time of famine he might provide sufficiency of food to the widow herself and to her orphans, he who had endured want, afflicted as he was by fasts on all sides, and who had come sent to be fed, but rather, conferring sustenance, caused the miseries of poverty to be banished. And this cannot favor anyone’s laxity, since there was no opportunity for scandal where, what is worse, he had a wretched lodging, which any chance guest would shun. But among those with whom he lodged, he fulfilled his task and returned, and even if he had lingered, he could not have been suspected. What affection of community was there, where there was no sustenance? And what kind of entry did Elijah have to the widow, to whom famine gave lodging? Whoever you are who wish to be called a disciple of Elijah concerning his stay with a widow, first endure the afflictions of solitude and the outcome of a forty-day fast, and then either you will not seek a woman, or there will be no one who stays with a woman; and yet if you wish, keep it for yourself. But for us, in the spirit and power of Elijah, the angel and the Lord Christ point out no one other than John alone.

We are forced to grieve over the unspeakable things we teach, having come to this point that we debate the tremendous virtues of the saints in comparison with fleeting things. Spare us now, spare us, insolence. The saints never agree with you, those who carried out religious, modest, venerable, chaste, and shamefast dealings with women. Or if you still strive to seek out through the saints the winding paths of quibbling, we nevertheless know the friends of God only to be remembered for veneration, as David taught, saying: "But your friends, O God, are greatly honored by me." Let the plunderers of modesty and the kidnappers of chastity now go and set forth the troubles of their complaints to their little women. Among our saints they have no refuge at all, those whom the church, by the authority of the apostle Paul, forbids to be mingled with. "And avoid these," he says, "for from among them are those who creep into houses and lead captive little women laden with sins, who are led by various desires.

After this edict, would that they might trust that the examples of angels are to their advantage. We, however, are no longer able to be swayed, we who know that even angels fell with women. From them, indeed, they borrow good patronage, but we hear of no angel against the Apostle Paul. "But even if," he says, "an angel from heaven were to evangelize to you, beyond what we have evangelized to you, let him be anathema." They are utterly mad and burn with the fire of women, all who do not yield to this prohibition, and gaping for obscenities they prefer to die rather than be content to be torn away from the sides of women by any separation, so that to satisfy the filth of their greed they are not even for a moment without the pleasure of a woman, and they have this fruit in women, that with intention always fixed upon them they sate the desires of their eyes, lest any moment pass when they lacked what they crave. Thus integrity dies among them, where every association, whether living together or dwelling together, is polluted by corrupted affections. Those whom Saint Peter had designated, saying: "In their banquets they are wanton, having eyes full of adulteries and incessant sins, capturing weak souls." These also Solomon marks: "It is an abomination," he says, "before the Lord to fix the eye." Job clearly testifies that he holds himself pure against the eye, who says: "And if my eye consented, my heart did not.

Truly, indeed, that man cannot be held liable by his own eyes, for whom an unexpected encounter with a woman, against his will, has stirred up scandal, which his mind immediately expels, since it did not wish it. But that man does not deserve to escape the disturbance of his own sight who holds within himself the material of scandal, who wishes to enjoy the affections of his intention, who strives to have what brings offense to his eyes, whose insatiable greed among continual stumbling blocks can in no way be completely restrained, as Solomon affirms, saying: "Hell and destruction are not satisfied; likewise, the eyes of men are insatiable." And in another place: "The eye is not satisfied with seeing." And again: "What is created more wicked than the eye?" Unpricked by this chastisement, they despise divine prohibitions with the obstinacy of unspeakable familiarity, and still, moreover, they plead about love, when, according to the word of Isaiah, those who devour bitterness instead of sweetness cover naked ugliness with the veil of a good name, and among them, under false affection, true affection is violated. But Love cries out and appeals: "I have not joined such as these; let another go who feigns me by pretending. I never oppose the commands of God; I never favor the dissolute; through me, I do not wish sanctity to be blamed. Hostile brotherhood brings calumnies against me, and I too have incurred dangers among false brothers.

Help me, my herald; help me, Paul the apostle; speak my testimony, lest what you announce concerning me be perverted. For the end of the precept is 'charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith not feigned.' Will love be accounted such that the injury of sanctity is assailed by accusations? Or will the sincere fraternity of those by whom the daughters of mother church are led into guilt be esteemed? If such Christian charity is noted, undoubtedly hatreds are better, which, while they separate, stain no one. But this parricidal love has been accustomed to unite brotherly persecutors, who willingly suffer that the daughters of the church be defamed as fornicatresses from their company, contrary to the charity which the apostle Paul taught, saying: 'The love of one's neighbor does not work evil.' A splendid proof of charity, which not only harms one's neighbor with a harmful brotherhood, but also does not wish to be subject to the prescriptions of the apostolic command. Let the advocates of such love be confounded, those whom those who for the sake of common advantages also abandon even kindred love judge.

In nearly the whole world, the human race is almost entirely joined together, and everywhere natural kinship is distinguished by alternating travel. Parents can, children can, brothers can, and even spouses themselves—which is more—can break the bonds of nature granted to them by God, and yet clerics, with God not permitting—indeed forbidding—are unable to refuse a charity enslaved by the bonds of women? The closeness of relatives, always to be desired, is absent from kinsmen, and do clerics shrink from traveling away from foreign women? They ought to have done what was necessary, even if the Lord had commanded something peculiar or unusual, for they have the Holy Spirit, which worldly men do not have, to accomplish impossible things. Hence the apostle John admonishes thus, saying: "Little children, conquer them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in this world." But now, something possible even for pagans—not to mention Christians—and easy is foreseen, and among clerics it is nullified without any effect, so that it is not enough for them to despise God's commands, unless they have some other disgrace, that they do not even follow—let alone surpass—the custom of all nations. To them the Lord, through Ezekiel, reproaches and says: "You have not walked in my laws, and you have not performed my justifications, nor have you acted according to the justifications of the nations that are around you." I know not what shame this love signifies, when it is thought to be wrenched against nature.

I still have something to wonder at: when I see that among Christians many husbands and wives alike, dedicating themselves to continence, prefer to choose separate dwellings, so that the harmony of their common vows may be maintained by a concordant withdrawal, without the irritation of presence—do our eunuchs not endure sleeping without the companionship of a woman? Among them, conjugal love is weighed against the love of continence, and among the spadoes, the cohabitation of a woman can never produce disgust. Let the charity of the eunuchs now speak, let it speak, lest perhaps in this separation conjugal love sins all the more, so that the advice of the apostle Paul seems to have suggested divorce to married couples: "The time that remains," he says, "is short. It remains that even those who have wives should be as if they did not have them." How great a perversity of affection is displayed, that those who have wives strive to be as if they did not have them, and those who do not have wives boast as if they did have them. Concerning these, the apostle himself says: "Their glory is in their shame.

It is love," they say. O love that is jealous of itself! O charity that desires to be praised through blame! A great wonder, that the charity of virgins makes virgins be believed as if they were spouses, and the charity of spouses makes spouses be esteemed as if they were virgins. Behold true love, which divides in conjugality so as to unite in chastity. Behold holy love, which leads spouses to common praise through absence. These certainly love each other inseparably, who depart from themselves to bring triumphs to themselves: those whom neither crime, nor nature, nor law, nor the Lord, nor the apostle forbade or took away the power of a single way of life, but charity persuaded them to be absent in unanimity for the sake of protecting equal vows. But let those see whose charity they have known, who yield neither to crime, nor to nature, nor to law, nor to the Lord, nor to the apostle, nor to conjugality itself, whom shameful virginity condemns as much as castrated conjugality glorifies those others, for whom it suffices for a disgraceful punishment that they are judged eunuchs by their spouses. In rebuking them, the children of Israel should not be passed over in silence, who, in the time of Esdras, did not hesitate to drive away wives and children taken up contrary to divine laws, nor did they try to excuse themselves against the Lord's charity. But, to tell the truth, if I am permitted: those who now are joined for the sake of dismissing other men's women, what would they do if they were ordered to cast out their own children and wives?

or when will they be able to renounce their relatives for Christ, those who prefer women not their own to the precepts of Christ? I say that they can more easily deny their own parents for the sake of these same women than they can leave those women for the sake of Christ, despising what the Lord Himself testified in the Gospel, saying: "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father or mother or wife and children and brothers and sisters and his own soul, he cannot be my disciple." If those who hesitate about abandoning their parents are unworthy of Christ, what do those promise themselves whom contempt for Christ displays, not parental affection? And through this, the merits of those whom they see making no exception of relatives in their contemplation of Christ are rendered void. Nor do those confuse them less, but even worse, who, fearing to struggle not only with another's flesh but also with their own, cut off their own genitals and castrate themselves. Concerning these, I suspend judgment for the moment, leaving it to be brought forth in another discussion. But to the confusion of eunuchs, I do not doubt that I assert as better those who do not even spare themselves, let alone dare to offer temptations to women. Let the spiritual eunuchs answer: what madness is there in the love of women, or what mystery in the companionship of a woman, that they indulge in alien members to their own ruin, while those others unhesitatingly cut off their own? These cast off their own confirmed limbs, and those are glued to hostile limbs.

They do not hesitate to fight for spiritual integrity with the torment of a body not whole, while those others, without torment, refuse to be whole without the half-measure of women. But no comparison should be made between our men and those, lest the addicted take comfort from any Christian judgments. Some are even worse and worthy of mention, so that it is a greater punishment to be condemned by one who is himself condemned. Let them consider the Jews, who to this day, by the command of the law, mutilate a part of their flesh with the torture of circumcision, and let them know what they deserve who, when the Gospel commands, dissemble the performance of the Lord's will in the presence of circumcised women, not understanding that the Lord himself said: "Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." I think also that the idolaters among their Gauls insult us reproachfully, who, by castrating themselves, willingly torture themselves, provided that with damage to their own condition they obey the pretenses of idols. But our clerics willingly endure the loss of their own body for the gain of women dwelling with them, whom it would be necessary to tear away even from their own substance, if they happened to be born with them, lest they blush when compared to idolaters and sacrilegious persons. Concerning these, the Lord also rebukes the contemptuous, saying: "The children of this world are more prudent than the children of light." Therefore, the profane devotion of such men is to be preferred to our clerics, for whom, with such great disasters, shameful priesthoods are lovable.

But clerics, for the sake of the dignity of the heavenly priesthood, do not shed blood, do not endure the sword, there is no wound, there is no torture; rather, the mere sight of a woman burns them against the Lord. They rush into women, they love women, in such a way that they do not hope that the pure mysteries of their love can ever be revealed, just as through those like them they have been shamefully made public and exposed, whom the apostle Paul had already foreseen, saying: “The sins of some men are manifest, preceding them to judgment; but some men are followed by their sins as well.” Similarly, good deeds are also manifest, and whatever things are otherwise cannot be hidden. But on the contrary, they themselves say: “Some of our despisers, likewise having women in their houses, have attained martyrdom, so that an innocent conscience among them might be proven.” Let no one bring up the matter of martyrdom to me, because often even adulterers, murderers, drunkards, and those guilty of every crime, having seized the opportunity of battle, have been converted and have merited to attain pardon through martyrdom. For martyrdom is called both a crown and a baptism, because it baptizes and crowns alike.

Now, if it was permitted to some to earn martyrdom through an inviolate association with women, even for them that very martyrdom was not without indulgence, since the guilt of a forbidden cohabitation did not absolve them, nor could it prove them innocent in their very innocence, those to whom the contempt of the law, the foulness of illicit association, and—what is graver than all—the crime against the church is seen to have been forgiven. For innocence is harmful which harms the reputation of the bride of Christ. And since Christ, the innocent lamb—or rather, heavenly innocence itself, which is truer—utterly despised himself for the church, so that he might render her unstained, without any blemish or wrinkle, what sort of cleric is he to whom the bride of Christ is entrusted, so that for the love of one woman the whole church suffers blame? I dare to say: the Son was sent from the bosom of God the Father and endured being absent from the kingdom so that he might make the church innocent, and a cleric cannot leave the side of a woman, lest he render the church of Christ infamous?

But they say: “In martyrdom we are forgiven, just as it was granted to our parents.” Therefore let us all also be confident concerning all sins, so that we who labor to do good amid luxuries may wander and run through the paths of sins, let us loosen the reins and slacken the bridle. Let us go wherever the world has carried us and wherever the devil has invited us; let us freely fornicate, envy, steal, defraud, commit all evils securely: martyrdom will come to our aid and we will escape. For thus the apostle Paul promises: Let us do evil so that good may come: whose condemnation is just. Let those to whom the astrologers have taught foreknowledge of tomorrow entrust their hope to this martyrdom, and let those who have learned from astrologers to know times that the Father placed in his own power, above angels and Christ, await these crowns, so that they may then remember that they ought to have done good before the time of martyrdom, when they have perceived the day of the Lord like a thief. But let us believe that martyrdom is already hanging over them. Meanwhile, before they become martyrs, they are subject to the laws, so that they may be subjected to judgment, unless they are disarmed by arms. It is an impious audacity for them to oppose the authority of the Lord with the persons of their parents: from whom the Lord himself has taken away the voice of this contradiction. “In the laws,” he says, “of your fathers do not walk, and their justifications do not keep, and in their pursuits do not mingle, and do not be polluted. I am the Lord your God.

Walk in my precepts and keep my ordinances. Let them know now that the parental protections have been taken away from them, those who, running back and forth, seek hiding places of contradiction, lest they ever be without women. And because they are abandoned by every support of defense, in the end, with all arguments exhausted, they think the sentence of the apostle Paul helps them and they say: “Who are you, to judge another’s slave?” The apostle Paul indeed recognizes the words of his own constitution, but he does not recognize the constitution-makers and the utterers themselves. For he conferred defense on those who attack no part of the law, and he granted protection to those who do something by their own will and hinder nothing of ecclesiastical law. He treats the right of living and not of eating, confirming the choice of each individual. He commanded that no one be judged concerning similar matters, which divine authority, conceding to the will of individuals, has mercifully allowed in both the part of doing and of not doing. But he subjected to ecclesiastical tribunals those whom no impunity excused as transgressors of ordinary transgression, so that those who indiscriminately bring forth against us, as if a bill of contradiction, “Who are you, to judge another’s slave?” may at the same time recognize the rational and certain rebuttal that we have received from the same apostle Paul.

I command you," he says, "brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you separate yourselves from brothers who walk disorderly and not according to the tradition which you have received from us." We have escaped, I think, such great entanglements of questions with which lovers of eunuchs, bound by the embrace of women, have ensnared themselves; they are compelled to alter legal decrees through perverse interpretations and prefer to be heard proposing vain and fabulous fictions rather than themselves to hear what is true. The apostle Paul announces them, saying: "They will indeed turn their hearing away from the truth; they will be turned toward fables." Let them still seek whatever they wish, so that they may resist the truth on behalf of women. They have no victory, those with whom, against Ezra, a woman rather than the truth has prevailed. But you, dearest children, I address not only by persuasion but also by authority. Despise such madness, you who know that the apostle Paul everywhere condemned their questions, as he wrote to the Romans, saying: "I ask you, brothers, diligently to observe those who, contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, either say or do things that cause dissensions and stumbling blocks, and to avoid them." And likewise he charges Timothy: "Do not," he says, "contend with words; for nothing is useful except for the subversion of the hearers. Diligently take care to show yourself acceptable to God, an irreproachable worker, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid foolish and empty eloquence; for they greatly contribute to impiety, and their speech creeps like a cancer.

And to show what teaching is suitable for instructing clerics in order to resolve questions, he also suggests to Titus thus: "You, however, speak what is fitting for sound doctrine: that elders be sober, prudent, sound in faith, in charity, in sincere patience. Therefore let your obedience receive simple hearings and avoid the crafty deceit of contradictions. Cleanse the pure path for your steps and do not tread upon thorns and briars, lest the good seed be unable to bring forth for you the fruit of holiness because of the thickets of thorns." Hence the prophet Jeremiah exhorts and teaches thus, saying: "Do not," he says, "sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves for your God, circumcise the foreskin of your heart." Therefore all things that are accustomed to prick and lacerate must be cut away from your field, lest the mind of the cultivator become entangled in his possession by malignant briars. And we must cut off everything whatsoever that the furnace of seething flesh, teeming with the sulphurous flames of fiery tinder, blazes up, lest even the slightest spark preserved kindle greater conflagrations. This Solomon makes clear, saying: "From a single spark the fire grows." Turn away impure occasions, by which the inner parts of the breast are penetrated, so that clear transparency may be honored in us. Be content to endure the laborious singularity for preserving modesty rather than to arrive at disgrace without labor.

Consider what it is to be set over a holy people, and reflect on what it is to attend to the divine sacraments. Those who live by the altars ought to please the altars, and such care for sincerity befits the consecrated as the sacred things themselves are, to which they perform the offices of service, lest they offend the Lord in what they handle, or begin to hinder among the people what they preach. On account of this, the apostle Paul testifies and says: "And we endure everything," he says, "lest we give any impediment to the Gospel of Christ." And again: "Giving no one any offense, so that our ministry may not be reviled." Therefore, by this instruction, you must labor as much as possible concerning those things for which, in order to manifest gravity, singularity is a truer witness than parity. Consider how many evils the intercourse of this parity acquires, which sows nothing but corruption, sprouts vices, conceives greed, begets disgrace, stirs up rage, extends fury, feeds wantonness, nourishes insolence, exalts falls, builds ruins; erects banks, constructs precipices, sails through dangers, sets sail through shipwrecks, rejoices in destruction, fosters ruin, earns confusion, hoards reproach, magnifies accusations, inflames charges, and, gathering them at once into a single bundle, brings in numerous snares of entrapments through infinite disgraces, manifold deaths, to the ruin of the lost.

So many and so great are the devastations of calamity and of the worst conduct that no one lays low, no one tramples, no one defiles, except singular chastity alone, which is the invincible bulwark of sanctity and the strong assault on infamy, the steadfastness of fortitude and the weakness of wanton lasciviousness, the protection of probity and the destruction of dishonesty, the victory of the soul and the prey of the body, the abundance of glories and the captivity of crimes, the patroness of holiness and the repudiation of turpitude, the sign of sincerity and the abolition of scandals, the exercise of continence and the total evacuation of luxury, the secure peace of virtues and the quiet subjugation of wars, the summit of purity and the prison of lust, the harbor of honor and the shipwrecking place of ignominy, the mother of virginity and the enemy of uncleanness, the breastplate of modesty and the spoil of shamefulness, the ruin of corruption, the wall of rigor and the destruction of vulgarity, the sword of severity, the conqueror and slayer of dissolution, the armor of strength and the disarming of excesses, the dignity of integrity and the enslavement of fornication, the height of renown and the precipice of disgrace, the will for good works and the affliction of vices, the refreshment of chastity and the punishment of wantonness, the acquisition of triumphs and the loss of crimes, the rest of salvation and the exile of perdition, the life of the spirit and the death of the flesh, the state of angelic quality, the funeral of human substance.

of its restraints all obscenity is bridled, and by its fetters the heels of raging lust are halted. In it, as on a rock, the onslaughts of any surging blood are shattered, and in it the foaming madness of bodily swelling is calmed. While it withdraws the supports of concupiscence from itself, it is known to carry its own dead members: concerning which the Apostle Paul warns, saying: "Therefore mortify your members, which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil desire, and avarice, which is the servitude of idols, on account of which the wrath of God comes." From all these, human nature is castrated only by the splendid knife of singularity, so that unblemished eunuchs may be brought into the banquet of sanctity by betrothing circumcision. To which sanctity has promised the nuptial signet of its ring, so that without it virginity is unsealed—virginity which, content with itself alone, tames desire, purifies the mind, subdues concupiscence, extinguishes the ardors of passion, weakens the limbs, enslaves the body, and so crucifies the carnal that both male and female seem to lie in their conduct, while it cuts them off by the operation of both sexes: or, making neither of the two, it boasts of conferring a third form upon both, so that before the resurrection it is known to meditate upon the image of the resurrection after the example of the angels.

The Lord, promising for the future, says: "Those who are deemed worthy of that age and of the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they will not die." For they are like the angels of God, because they are sons of the resurrection. This is what holy singularity of merits demands: that before it is transfigured, it may already be seen transfigured into the appearance of angelic brightness, which, cutting off all things from itself, plunders the contests of lust. Solomon extols its praises, saying: "It is sweet to be without children with glory." For immortality is in the memory of that one, who is known both to God and to men. When she is present, they imitate her, and they desire her when she has withdrawn herself; and crowned forever, she triumphs, conquering the battle of unstained contests. It is not without children with glory except for singularity alone, which not only stains its own conscience with no filth, but also no suspicions of equal baseness defame it. For if chastity—which is difficult—preserves both male and female equally in virginity, it does not have the glory that this very commonality cannot obscure except with certain shadows of disgrace. Singularity, however, is so clear and manifest to all that it is revealed pure and bright to everyone by the splendor of its own whiteness. Hence the apostle teaches us, saying: "Walk as children of light; for the fruit of light is in all goodness and justice and truth, proving what is pleasing to God.

And again, "Do everything," he says, "without murmuring and hesitation, so that you may be blameless and simple, like the immaculate sons of God in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, among whom you shine like lights in the world." Thus singularity shines everywhere, so that all do not hesitate to vouch for it, and it so glorifies sanctity in itself that it wrings praise for itself even from enemies. This is especially what the apostle Paul commands concerning any prelate, saying: "But he must also have a good testimony from those who are outside, so that he does not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." Therefore love this, hold fast to this, which alone can subdue women. While no lust yet stirs the breast, and while uncorrupted simplicity remains still or tranquil, quickly hasten to the secret protection of singularity, lest afterwards you be unable to escape. The approach must be forestalled against all snares, so that hostility does not creep in first and catch the unwary. It is a salutary remedy to anticipate rather than be anticipated, and to preempt rather than be preempted befits strong men. Wherever providence is present, all adversities are thwarted; but where providence is neglected, all adversities hold sway. We struggle before the rope, we toil in labor before need arises. Thus we remove the place for all calamities in everything, by exercising providence for future times.

how much more must the calamity of women be forestalled with every precaution, whose desire, if allowed to begin, never wholly finds an end? Solomon explains this comparison, saying: "Hell, and the love of woman, and the earth which is not satiated with water, and fire do not say: 'Enough.'" Therefore, each one who is secure because he is not yet tempted should be afraid. Because nothing is said about him, let him take care lest it be said: we are men, we bear our fragility in our flesh. Thus we must now surround and gird ourselves on all sides with watchful alertness, so that there is no part which wavers. Indeed, we receive spiritual strength, by which the fragility of our substance is strengthened. But spiritual strength has been granted to us in such a way that it protects the prudent, not the reckless; that it fortifies those who renounce the importunities of sins, not those who immerse themselves more deeply in importunate sins. A guardian spirit has been given to us, but to assist by standing by those who shun adversities, not to favor those who choose adversities; nor to strengthen those who are willing and prone to adversities, but to confirm those who strive to be separated from adversities.

For whoever dares to exercise virtue through pernicious endeavors does not have the help of the Holy Spirit, who wills that no one be constrained as a voluntary strong man to fraudulent victories; nor does he protect him, but rather abandons him whom he recognizes as rushing into dangers to seek triumphs through illicit outcomes, just as he himself then spoke through Solomon, saying: "He who loves danger will perish in it." Therefore, in its proper order and not by our own choice, the virtue of the Holy Spirit is administered, and according to its ordinance, battles prosper. Never has an army fallen except when it was precipitated, when it rushed greedily to act bravely against the dispositions of its leader or commander. Much more does it expend a perverse fortitude, when one without the weapons of the doctrine of the master Spirit presumes to triumph, since it says: "Woe to those who do something by their own presumption, not through God." If, therefore, there is in you any confidence in spiritual powers, let each remember what befits spiritual men; and if you believe you are fighting spiritually, acknowledge that what we teach is not carnal, as the apostle Paul says: "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or a spiritual man, let him recognize what I write to you." There is no reason for you to flatter yourselves in this deceptive persuasion, that because you are spiritual, you wish to mingle among the armaments of the wicked, nor that you are unfit for the dignity of the clergy, because greater conflicts are accustomed to confront greater men.

The rich are envied more bitterly than the poor, and the savage harassment of robbers disturbs not the needy but the wealthy. Leaders and princes are more sought after by enemies in battle than soldiers, and winds and whirlwinds strike more violently at whatever heights are loftier. Therefore, more and more, the more each one is able above others, let him know that he must fear for himself lest he be diminished in some respect, on account of which Solomon admonishes thus, saying: "He who glories," he says, "in riches, let him fear poverty." I ask you as much as I am able and beyond what I am able: let these be the pursuits of all clerics, that they perform the duty of blameless seclusion, lest either they themselves through women or women through them be provoked to shameful mockeries. If anyone has a mother or a daughter or a sister or a wife or a female relative, let him have her in such a way that no maidservant is present nor any strange woman enters, lest he seem to hold his female relatives for the purpose of freely bringing in alien women on their account. But if those who are relatives cannot themselves do without the service of maidservants or the solace of female friends, it is expedient that they move to another dwelling rather than that contrary persons be kept on their account. For it is humane that neither the cleric defraud those women of necessary female attendants nor they themselves defile the cleric through troublesome women. They can be assigned to holy women, with whom they may live, provided that no woman dwells together with the cleric.

not despised, not an old woman without kinship is to be especially taken up for domestic service: because wrongdoing occurs more quickly there where the offense can be secure without suspicion, especially since for lust there is no ugliness, no disdain of disgust or baseness, for which the devil, painting it fair, makes whatever is foul or horrible seem beautiful. If, however, someone is compelled by travel to lodge among brothers or among strangers where women are present, let him altogether restrain himself, lest he be corrupted by any susceptibility. Withdrawn and secluded, let him be free for God and for himself, lest he be caught within by the devil, and he who could not be caught outside among his own may fall. He who has escaped enemies, let him for the time being come forward for salutary reasons and again quickly hasten to depart from sight. Everywhere presence with women is to be tasted, not continued, but as if in passing, a somewhat fleeting approach is to be shown to women. For it has already begun that boldness is always displayed in public, and the meditation on perdition is the frequent celebration of processions among women. Concerning this matter, Solomon imposed restraint on us, saying: "Do not be constant among women." Therefore walk thus, act thus, so that the senate of the church in its clergy always stands pure. Let severity toward women prevail in us, let authority flourish, let vigor be maintained, let gravity be revered.

So that we may gather everything together into a conclusion, we read back to you a brief summary which the apostle Paul, reducing it to a compendious fullness, suggests: "Moreover," he says, "brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are chaste, whatever things are just, whatever things are holy, whatever things are lovable, whatever things are of good repute, if any virtue, if any praise of discipline—these things ponder which you have received and learned and heard and seen in me. Do these things, and the God of peace and love will be with you. Amen.