Quaest. 3, Art. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/10/d/3/q/bon-qpe-q3-a2
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### Article II. *On widowly continence, to be kept and to be vowed.*

Secondly, the question is about widowly continence; and the question is whether widowly continence is to be vowed according to the evangelical law. And that it is, is shown by *authority* and by *reason;* by *authority* thus.

1. Matthew the nineteenth: *There are eunuchs, who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven; he that can take, let him take it;* but to make oneself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven is done most of all through the vow of continence, and this is set before all who are willing to take it up: therefore anyone who is willing can vow continence according to the evangelical law.

2. Likewise, First Corinthians the seventh: *It is good for a man not to touch a woman:* therefore by like reason it is good for a woman not to touch a man; but this is not a good of precept, but of counsel; and counsels are to be vowed: therefore not to touch a woman is to be vowed. But this is the vow of continence: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, a little after: *But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue:* therefore according to the Apostle it is good to remain in widowly continence; but this good is a counsel: therefore someone can lawfully vow widowly continence.

4. Likewise, in the same place: *If her husband sleep, she is at liberty* — the woman from the law of her husband; *but more blessed shall she be, if she so remain;* but what is more blessed can lawfully be vowed; and this is through the vow of widowly continence: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, on that word Augustine says, *On Widowhood*: «What I say to one widowed woman I say to every widow: *More blessed shall she be, if she so remain*»:

therefore this is set before all widows: therefore it is lawful for anyone to vow continence according to the evangelical law.

6. Likewise, in the same place: *I would that all men were even as myself;* but he himself was altogether continent and bound to continence: therefore he wished that all should be bound to continence. But this is done through the vow of continence: therefore etc.

7. Likewise, Romans the twelfth: *I beseech you, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God;* but this is done most of all when the flesh is dedicated to God through the vow of continence: therefore to vow continence is pleasing to God.

Likewise, the same is shown by *reason* thus.

8. What draws one far from the concupiscence of the flesh is good and praiseworthy; but the vow of widowly continence draws one farthest from the concupiscence of the flesh: therefore it is good and praiseworthy.

9. Likewise, he who tames the flesh acts praiseworthily, because the flesh through concupiscence drags one to sin; but this is done through perpetual continence: therefore to contain oneself perpetually is praiseworthy: therefore it can lawfully be vowed.

10. Likewise, there is a good of *counsel,* and there is a good of *precept;* but continence is not a good of *precept,* because then all who marry would sin: therefore it is a good of *counsel.* But counsels are to be vowed: therefore etc.

Sᴇᴅ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀ: 1. First Corinthians the seventh: *For fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband;* but that is not a counsel, since it is not a work of perfection or of supererogation: therefore it is a precept: therefore whoever vows continence acts against this precept: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, First Timothy the fifth: *I will that the younger should marry, bear children;* but the vow of continence is contrary to this: therefore the Apostle willed what is contrary to the vow of continence: therefore continence is not to be vowed.

3. Likewise, First Timothy the fifth: *Let a widow be chosen of no less than threescore years of age;* and in the same place: *Avoid the young widows:* therefore it does not seem that widowly chastity is to be taken up except in old women, and this for no other reason than because of the danger: therefore it does not seem safe to make the vow of continence.

4. Likewise, everything that is repugnant to a *divine precept* is to be blamed; but to vow continence is repugnant to a divine precept, namely Genesis the first: *Increase and multiply:* therefore etc.

5. Likewise, everything that is repugnant to the *dictate of nature* is to be blamed; but the vow of continence is repugnant to matrimonial union, which accords with the dictate of nature: therefore etc.

6. Likewise, everything that is repugnant to the *common utility* is to be blamed; but the vow of continence is repugnant to the common utility, namely to generation, in which lies the conservation of the species: therefore it is to be blamed.

7. Likewise, whoever deprives himself of a useful and reasonable remedy, divinely instituted, does ill; but he who vows continence deprives himself of matrimony, which is a sacramental remedy, divinely instituted: therefore etc.

8. Likewise, he who commits himself to danger acts ill; but he who vows continence commits himself to danger because of the slipperiness of the flesh: therefore etc.

9. Likewise, what departs from the mean departs from virtue, because virtue consists in the mean; but to contain oneself at all times departs from the mean: therefore it departs from virtue: therefore etc.

CONCLUSION.

> *Widowly chastity in either sex belongs to divine counsel; it is praiseworthy to love it, more praiseworthy to keep it, and most praiseworthy to vow the same and guard it perpetually.*

I ᴀɴsᴡᴇʀ: It must be said that widowly chastity belongs to divine counsel, in women as well as in men; hence it is both praiseworthy to *love* it, and more praiseworthy to *keep* it, and most praiseworthy to *vow* it and *guard* it perpetually.

Now the reason why the Lord willed to counsel it is this: because, although conjugal continence has many goods in itself, namely fidelity, offspring and the Sacrament, and through this wedlock is a *good* that is *honourable*, *profitable* and *pleasant;* nevertheless, after sin, the very *honourableness* of matrimony has *lust* annexed to it, which bespeaks something of dishonour, by reason of which spouses even blush at that act. And the *utility* of matrimony, which consists in the procreation of children for the worship of God, has *loss* joined to it, because a man is frequently distracted, so that he is not wholly intent on divine prayer. The *pleasantness,* too, that is in matrimony has *tribulation* joined to it, according to what the Apostle says: *Such shall have tribulation of the flesh,* First Corinthians the seventh. — Because, then, matrimony is good, no one is forbidden it, no one is driven back from it; but because it has something annexed that

also lessens honourableness and utility and spiritual joyfulness: hence it is that no one is constrained to it unwillingly, because rather to abstain from it, or to contain oneself, is urged, by the Lord as well as by the Apostle himself, First Corinthians the seventh: *If her husband die, she is at liberty* — the woman from the law of her husband — *let her marry to whom she will; only in the Lord. But more blessed shall she be, if she so remain, according to my counsel.* And he himself sets down the reason for this beforehand: *And this I speak for your profit, not to cast a snare upon you, but for that which is decent, and which may give you power to attend upon the Lord without impediment.*

Since, then, widowly continence has in itself more of the character of the *honourable* because of its cleanness, more of the character of the *advantageous* because of the removal of impediment, more of the character of the *joyful* because of the removal of the burdens that follow upon the law of matrimony: hence it is that widowly continence is counselled to all who are unbound; and those who wish to cleave to this counsel according to the dictate of evangelical perfection are not to be kept back, but rather led on, that is, not only in old age, but also in youth. — Whence Ambrose, in the book *On Widowhood*: «She is the more illustrious who tames the heat of youth and the fervent heat of a younger age, and desires neither the favour of a husband nor richer delights, than she who, her body already worn out and grown colder, in ripe old age, can neither lack pleasures nor hope for childbirth».

It must be conceded, therefore, that widowly chastity is to be vowed according to the evangelical law; and this is to be urged upon all who have free power over their own body; just as both the reasons and the authorities show which were brought forward for this side, and so they are to be conceded.

1. To that, then, which is objected first to the contrary from the word of the Apostle, who says: *For fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife,* it must be said that the text that follows determines it: *But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment.* Whence the Gloss on the word set down before: «The Apostle says this in order to shut out fornication, not to close the road to those who tend toward a better life». And because the Apostle had said: *Let every man have his own, and every woman her own,* and *return together again;* namely lest he seem to have said this by way of precept, he adds: *But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment.* And so he does not sin who acts otherwise, that is, who contains himself; rather he sins who acts thus, because there is some fault there, but a light one.

2. To that which is objected from the word of the Apostle: *I will that the younger should marry* etc., it must be said that that too is not a precept, but is permissive, as is the preceding; and so it does not follow that to vow continence is reprehensible. Whence Augustine, in the book *On Widowhood*: «When the Apostle says: *I will that the younger should marry, bear children,* he commends the good of marriage with apostolic authority and sobriety; he does not impose the duty of procreating, as though for the service of the law, on those women who take up the good of continence». And afterwards: «To give one's effort to the procreation of children in honourable conjugal order is not a disposition in a human being to be disapproved; yet the Christian mind, thinking on heavenly things, more praiseworthily transcends and conquers it. But since, as the Lord says, *all receive not this word; she that can take, let her take it,* and she who does not contain herself, let her marry; she who has not begun, let her deliberate; and she who has undertaken it, let her persevere; let no occasion be given to the adversary, let no offering be withdrawn from Christ».

3. To that which is objected: *Let a widow be chosen of no less than threescore years of age,* it must be said that this is not understood with respect to the vow of continence, but with respect to the ministry which was to be shown to the Saints; and these women were also to be sustained from the goods of the Church. Whence in the Gloss: «*Let a widow be chosen of no less than threescore years of age,* who is to be fed by the Church's provisions». Whence what he adds: *But the younger widows avoid,* is understood in the same sense. Whence the Gloss there: «*Avoid the young widows,* that is, do not so far concern yourself with their vows of chastity as to take them up to be sustained by the Church's provisions». But that he does not intend to forbid them continence or the vow of continence is apparent from what Ambrose says in the book *On Virginity*: «We ought not to look to the virtue of age, but to the age of virtue; nor should you wonder at a profession among the young, when you read of a passion among little ones». Whence blessed Agnes too, in her legend, which Ambrose composed: «Do not, she says to the prefect, so despise the bodily childhood in me as to think that I wish to have you favourable; for faith is found not in years but in the senses, and God almighty approves minds rather than ages».

4. To that which is objected, that everything that is repugnant to a divine precept is to be blamed, it must be said

that the precept of nature is twofold: one, which regards the *common* state; another, which regards the state of the *individual person.* The first does not bind anyone of itself and determinately, so long as there is another who may supply or can fulfil that command. And since there are many who give their effort to carnal generation, as much as suffices for nature, the keeping of continence in an individual person is not repugnant to that precept. For that precept does not descend to any person determinately, except in the case in which nature could not subsist unless that person gave effort to generation, as was so in Adam, or in the sons of Noah, to whom it was said expressly: *Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.*

5. To that which is objected, that what is repugnant to the dictate of nature is to be blamed, it must be said that nature dictates something in two ways, namely by way of the *advantageous* and by way of the *honourable.* What, therefore, is repugnant to the dictate of nature by way of the *honourable* is always blameworthy; but what is repugnant to the dictate of nature as it dictates something by way of the *advantageous* is not necessarily blameworthy, for this reason: that, as Anselm says, the appetite for the *advantageous* is corrupted in first nature through love of a private good, which is called *lust;* and what is repugnant to such an appetite by reason of the corruption joined to it can be praiseworthy: because the perfection of virtue consists in this, that delight be tamed and passion be fled and restrained, most of all that which is coeval with life. Because, then, such delight is joined to the work of generation, hence it is that ceasing from that work, although it seems to go contrary to the inclination of the generative power, ought not to be blamed; rather it is praiseworthy, as the use of perfect virtue.

6. To that which is objected, that everything repugnant to the common utility is to be blamed, it must be said that spiritual utility is to be preferred to carnal, and heavenly to earthly, and the heavenly is to be set above the earthly, as the perpetual above the temporal, and as the end is to be put before the things that are for the end. Since, then, this continence — although it seems to make for the diminution of men in the earthly city — since it makes for the hastening of the number of the elect, accords with the common utility more than it is repugnant to it, most of all since the number of carnal men abounds in earthly things more than that of spiritual men, from whom paradise may be filled. Whence Augustine, in the book *On the Good of Marriage*: «Since, for entering into a holy, sincere society, an abundance of spiritual kinship overflows everywhere from all nations, even those who desire to join in wedlock for the sake of children alone are to be admonished to use rather the ampler good of continence. But I know what they murmur. What if, they say, all should wish to abstain from all intercourse; whence would the human race subsist? Would that all wished this, only in *charity, from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith!* Much more quickly would the city of God be completed and the end of the world hastened». — From which it is apparent that continence of this kind, in truth, is not repugnant to the common utility but accords with it.

7. To that which is objected, that one who deprives himself of a useful and rational remedy acts foolishly, it must be said that that remedy can be considered in two ways: either by reason of *itself,* or by reason of *what is annexed to it.* If, then, someone deprives himself of matrimony believing that remedy not to be good or salutary, he acts foolishly, because he thinks ill of matrimony, like a faithless Manichee. But he who declines it by reason of *what is annexed,* namely lust, wishing to climb to higher things, does not act foolishly but wisely; because even in that state he does not lack a remedy, while through a firm purpose and laborious exercise and a gift divinely given and a vow made, the fervour of concupiscence is tamed more fully than it would be held down through the companionship of marriage. Whence Augustine, in the book *On Holy Widowhood*: «Those women bear a more burning lust who do not despair of its pleasure; but those who have vowed to God the chastity of the unmarried withdraw hope itself, which is the tinder of love; hence concupiscence is more easily reined in, which is kindled by no expectation».

8. To that which is objected, that he who commits himself to danger acts ill, it must be said that, as is already plain from the word set down before, one who vows chastity does not commit himself to danger, but to divine counsel, to divine protection and to spiritual exercise, in which both the spirit is consoled and carnality is unnerved, and, as from a fortified place, the fight is fought more manfully against the temptations of the devil inflaming to concupiscence. Whence Augustine, in the book *On Widowhood*: «Let spiritual delights succeed to carnal

delights in holy chastity: reading, prayer, the psalm, good thought, the frequent doing of good works, the hope of the world to come and the heart lifted up, and for all these the giving of thanks to the *Father of lights,* from whom, without any doubt, *every best gift and every perfect gift,* as Scripture witnesses, comes down».

9. To that which is objected, that what departs from the mean departs from virtue, it must be said that this has place in those acts which do not bespeak corruption, as far as they are of themselves, such as *to distribute* and *to retain, to eat* and *to drink;* but the act of lying together always has corruption annexed, unless it be excused through the good of matrimony; and so, although perfection consists in the other acts through their moderation, in this act it consists through total restraint; because, when this act is given up altogether, then the corruption and lust joined to it are more perfectly tamed, as will appear more fully in the following question.