Quaest. 3, Art. 3
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-a3
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### Article III. *On virginal holiness.*

Third, inquiry is made concerning virginal holiness; and the question is whether virginal continence is to be preferred to all. And it seems that it is, by *authority, example* and *reason;* by *authority* thus.

1. First Corinthians the seventh: *He that giveth his virgin in matrimony doth well, and he that giveth her not doth better:* therefore virginal continence is to be preferred to the other differences of continence, according to the authority of the Apostle.

2. Again, this same is shown *by the example of Christ.* For Christ according to his human nature was the exemplar of virtue and of all Christian perfection; but it is established that Christ was a virgin: therefore virginal continence is to be put before all.

3. Again, this same is shown *by the example of the most blessed Mary,* the mother of the Lord, whose virginity he did not take away: therefore virginity is to be commended before all.

4. Again, *by the example of John the evangelist,* whom the Lord loved most; and Jerome gives the reason for this, saying: «He who was chosen a virgin by the Lord remained a virgin for ever».

5. Again, *by the example of John the forerunner of Christ,* who, it is established, was a virgin.

6. Again, *by the example of Abel,* who was a virgin; whence Augustine, in the book *On the Wonders of Sacred Scripture*: «This is the whole of justice: virginity, priesthood and martyrdom, which threefold justice was in Abel». — By all these chief examples it is shown that virginity, or virginal continence, is to be preferred to all the other parts of continence.

Again, this same is shown *by reason* thus.

7. What most makes us follow Christ is most to be preferred; but virginity most makes us follow Christ, Apocalypse the fourteenth: *For they are virgins, and they follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth:* therefore etc.

8. Again, what most makes one conformed to the Angels is most to be commended; but virginity makes one most conformed to the Angels, since, according to Jerome, «to live in the flesh beyond the flesh is an angelic life, not a human one»: therefore etc.

9. Again, *to contain oneself* is good, therefore *to contain oneself more* is more good, and *to contain oneself most* is most good; but the greatest continence is virginity: therefore etc.

10. Again, the honourable is good, therefore the more honourable is more good, and the supremely honourable supremely good; but in virginity there is supreme honourableness and pureness: therefore etc.

11. Again, «that is whiter which is more unmixed with black»: therefore by equal reason that is better which is more unmixed with evil; but lust is the fount of all evil, and virginity is most unmixed with lust: therefore etc.

12. Again, what disposes more to the noblest act is more praiseworthy; but virginity disposes more to the act of contemplation, in which the greatest pureness is required: therefore etc.

Sᴇᴅ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀ, this is objected: 1. Augustine, *On the Good of Marriage*: «The merit of continence is not unequal in John, who experienced no marriage, and in Abraham, who begot sons»: therefore virginity is not to be preferred to wedlock.

2. Again, if the opposite of this is better than the opposite of that, then this also is simply better than that; but the opposite fruitfulness, namely that of the Virgin Mary, is better than virginity: therefore fruitfulness is simply better than virginity: therefore etc.

3. Again, greater goods are to be preferred to middle and lesser goods — for the greater goods are in the virtues with their habits, the middle goods are in the powers and faculties, the least goods are in bodily things — but the habit of conjugal and widowly continence is in the mind, whereas virginity is in the flesh: therefore widowly and conjugal continence is to be preferred to virginal continence.

4. Again, a good which one cannot lose unwilling is better than that which one can lose unwilling; but virginity is a good which one can lose unwilling, as is plain in those violently overpowered; whereas the habit of conjugal or widowly continence no one could lose unwilling: therefore etc.

5. Again, a good which cannot be lost without sin is more to be chosen than that which can be lost without sin; but the habit of conjugal or widowly continence cannot be lost without sin; whereas virginity can, as is plain in a virgin who contracts marriage: therefore etc.

6. Again, «art and virtue are about the difficult»; but it is more difficult to contain oneself from the act of the flesh once experienced than from one in no way experienced: therefore there is greater difficulty in conjugal or widowly continence than in virginal: therefore virginal continence is not to be preferred.

7. Again, what renders one more like to God is more praiseworthy; but generation renders one more like to God, in whom there is supreme fruitfulness, than virginity itself: therefore etc.

8. Again, what more conforms man to the state of innocence is more praiseworthy; but in the state of innocence there would not have been virginity, but generation and fruitfulness: therefore etc.

9. Again, «more goods are more to be chosen than fewer»; but in matrimony there are more goods than in virginity; for in matrimony there are faith, offspring and the Sacrament, whereas in virginity only one: therefore conjugal continence is to be preferred to virginal continence.

10. Again, what accords more with the perfection of nature is more praiseworthy; but generation and fruitfulness, or conjugal continence, accord more with the perfection of nature than virginity, since «each thing is perfect when it can produce such a thing as it itself is»: therefore etc.

11. Again, the species is preferred to the individual, and the universal to the particular: therefore what makes for the perfection or conservation of the species is necessarily to be preferred to that which makes for the perfection or conservation of the individual; but conjugal continence makes for the conservation of the species, virginal continence makes for the conservation of the individual or of a singular good: therefore etc.

CONCLUSION.

> *Virginity bespeaks at once a habit of continence, a state of virtue, and a special comeliness; hence it is both praiseworthy on account of its eminence of virtue, of beauty and of dignity, and to be preferred to the other species of chastity.*

Rᴇsᴘᴏɴᴅᴇᴏ: For the understanding of what has been said, it is to be noted that *virginity,* by the meaning of its name, bespeaks abstinence from all illicit coition and from all licit coition, integrity remaining in body and in soul. For, as Augustine says, «virginity is, in corruptible flesh, a perpetual meditation of incorruption». Now, inasmuch as *virginity* bespeaks abstinence from all *illicit* coition, it thus names a *habit of virtue;* inasmuch as it bespeaks abstinence from all *licit* coition, it thus names a *state of virtue;* and inasmuch as it bespeaks *integrity in body and in soul,* it thus bespeaks a *special comeliness.*

By reason, then, of the *habit* itself, virginity is praiseworthy with a praise common with conjugal purity and widowly continence; by reason of the second, namely the *state,* it is more praiseworthy, and this with a praise special with widowly continence itself; but by reason of the third, namely the *comeliness added over,* it is most praiseworthy, and this with a singular praise, on account of its special conformation to Christ the bridegroom, to whom virginity makes conformed as to the excellence *of virtue, of beauty* and *of dignity.* — Now, as to the *excellence of virtue:* since it bears witness to the highest virtue that one lead in mortal flesh a life not human but heavenly, put out the heat in the fire, and in nature

exceed the force of nature; and this virginity does. Whence Jerome to the virgin Demetrias: «As in the furnace the fourth, *having the appearance* as of a Son of man, tempered the boundless burnings, and amid the blaze of the seething oven taught the flames to lose their heat, and to threaten one thing to the eyes and offer another to the touch; so also in the virginal soul, by heavenly dew and by the cold of fastings, the heat of girlhood is put out, and for a human body the converse of the Angels is obtained. Wherefore also the *vessel of election* says that concerning virgins he has no precept of the Lord, since it is against nature, nay beyond nature, not to exercise that for which you were born, to kill in yourself your own root and to pluck only the fruits of virginity, to know no marriage bed, to shudder at all contact with men, and in the body to live without the body».

As to the *eminence of beauty:* since the greatest beauty consists in perfect integrity and cleanness as much in heart as in body, by which virginal chastity makes one conformed to Christ himself, the fount and origin of all beauty. Whence Augustine in the book *On Virginity*: «Those who have been freed from the whirlpool of uncleanness are unworthy that unblemished virginity should be sent to imitate them; I send you to the King of heaven, to him through whom men were created, and who was created among men for the sake of men, to *him who is beautiful in form above the sons of men,* and despised by the sons of men for the sons of men».

As to the *prerogative of dignity* also, on account of which they *follow Christ, whithersoever he goeth, and sing a new canticle,* which is proper to virgins, there will be a singular glory in virgins, according to what blessed John says in the fourteenth of the Apocalypse. Whence Augustine, in the book *On Virginity:* «Go on, Saints of God, boys and girls, men and women, the celibate and the unmarried, go on perseveringly to the end. Praise the Lord more sweetly, of whom you think more richly; hope more happily in him whom you serve more earnestly, whom you please more attentively; *with loins girt and lamps burning, wait for the Lord, when he cometh from the wedding;* you bring to the wedding of the Lamb *a new canticle,* which you will sing on your harps, not indeed such as all the earth sings, to which it is said: *Sing to the Lord, all the earth;* but such as no one will be able to utter but you, and because *you follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth,* as he who was loved by the Lamb before the rest wrote of you. Whither do we think he goes, this Lamb, where no one either dares or is able to follow him but you? Whither do we think he goes, into what glades or meadows? Where, I believe, are twin joys, not the empty joys of this world, lying madnesses, nor joys such as there are, in the very kingdom of God, for the rest who are not virgins; but joys set apart from the lot of all the others: the joys of the virgins of Christ, from Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, for Christ. In this you follow the Lamb, that the flesh of the Lamb is indeed virgin; for he kept in himself this, which, conceived and born, he did not take away from his Mother».

It must be conceded, then, that since virginity bespeaks not only a *habit of continence* but also a *state* and a *special comeliness,* by reason of which it is praiseworthy, and likewise praiseworthy on account of its *eminence of virtue, of beauty* and *of dignity,* it is to be preferred to the other differences of chastity; whence also to hold the contrary of this is not catholic, but erroneous. And because Jovinian held this, Jerome reproves him as a heretic in the whole book which he wrote against Jovinian. Whence also in the book *On Ecclesiastical Dogmas*: «To make marriage equal to virginity consecrated to God, or to believe that no merit accrues to those who abstain from wine or from meats for love of making the body chaste, this is not a Christian's but a Jovinianist's». And Augustine in the book *On Virginity*: «Since it is an error both to equal marriage to holy virginity and to condemn it, these two errors, fleeing each other, clash head-on, because they would not hold the middle of truth; by which, both by sure reason and by the authority of the holy Scriptures, we find neither that marriage is a sin, nor do we equal it to the good either of virginal or of widowly continence». — The reasons, then, which are brought forward for this side are to be conceded.

1. To that, then, which is objected first, that the merit of continence is not unequal in John; it must be said that Augustine is never speaking by reason of that which is referred to the *reward of the aureole,* which regards the *comeliness* and the *state;* but he is speaking by reason of the *habit.* Whence he speaks thus in the book *On the Good of Marriage*: «If we compare *the things themselves,* it is in no way to be doubted that the chastity of continence is better than the chastity of marriage, although both are good; but if we compare *men,* he is better who has more of the good than another; moreover, he who has more of the same kind both has what is less and indeed has what is more». From which it is gathered that, whatever may be said of the comparison of *persons,* the *use* of this continence exceeds the use of that. Whence also a little before

he says beforehand: «If it is said to a continent Christian who refuses marriage: are you then better than Abraham? let him say: I am not indeed better than Abraham; but the chastity of the celibate is better than the chastity of marriage, of which Abraham had the one in *use* and both in *habit;* and afterwards let him say: I am not indeed better than Abraham in this kind of continence alone, which he did not lack, even though it did not appear; but I am such, not having something else, but doing something else».

2. To that which is objected, that the fruitfulness of Mary is more perfect than virginity; it must be said that the case is not alike for her fruitfulness and the fruitfulness of other women: since the fruitfulness of the glorious Virgin herself was in conceiving the Son of God not through carnal commerce, but through the Holy Spirit; whence she both conceived and bore a Son not only holy, but even the Holy of Holies; but the fruitfulness of other women is in conceiving sinners, who are not sons of God unless they are regenerated anew in holy mother Church. Whence Augustine, in the book *On Virginity*: «For married faithful women and virgins dedicated to God, by holy morals and by *charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith,* because they *do the will of the Father,* are spiritually *mothers* of Christ; but those who in married life bear bodily bear not Christ, but Adam. And so they run, that their offspring, steeped in the Sacraments, may become members of Christ». And afterwards: «For Christians are not born of their flesh, but become so afterwards, the Church bearing them, in that she is spiritually the mother of the members of Christ, whose virgin she also spiritually is. No fruitfulness of the flesh, then, can be compared to holy virginity, even of the flesh. For neither is it honoured because it is virginity, but because it is dedicated to God; which, although it is kept in the flesh, is yet kept by the religion and devotion of the spirit». And by this the response to that is plain.

3. But to that which he objects, that greater goods are better than middle and lesser ones, and virginity is among the least goods, because it pertains to the flesh; it must be said that this is false: since, although virginity, as to something *material* and *substrate,* holds itself on the side of integrity in the flesh, yet as to what is *formal* and *completive* it resides in the mind, which is pleased by incorruption to be observed perpetually in spirit and in flesh. And so that argument is to be solved *by destruction.* Whence Augustine, in the book *On Virginity*: «The virginity of the body is spiritual, which the continence of piety vows and keeps. For just as no one uses the body impurely unless wickedness has first been conceived in the spirit; so no one keeps purity in the body unless chastity has first been planted in the spirit. Moreover, if conjugal purity, although it is guarded in the flesh, is yet attributed to the soul, not to the flesh, under whose presidency and rule the flesh itself is mingled with none besides its own spouse; how much more, and how much more honourably, is that continence to be numbered among the goods of the soul, by which the integrity of the flesh is vowed, kept and consecrated to the very Creator of soul and flesh».

4. To that which is objected, that one can lose virginity unwilling; it must be said that, as is already plain, that is false as to the *merit of the virtue itself.* Whence also Lucy said: «If you violate me unwilling, my chastity will be doubled to my crown».

5. To that which is objected, that a good which cannot be lost without sin is more to be chosen; it must be said that this is false: since a good of counsel can be omitted without sin, and yet it is better than a good of precept. — The first *assumption* is false, since virginity, of which we are now speaking, is not integrity of the flesh only, but integrity dedicated to God through an inviolable purpose of containing oneself perpetually. Whence Augustine, in the book *On Virginity*: «Nor do we proclaim this in virgins, that they are virgins, but that they are virgins dedicated to God by a pious conscience, by continence. For, as I would say not rashly, a married woman seems to me happier than a virgin about to marry; for the one already has what the other still desires; the one strives to please one man, to whom she has been given, the other many, uncertain to whom she is to be given».

6. To that which is objected, that art and virtue are about the difficult; it must be said that difficulty is twofold: one, which comes from the *kind of work,* and this, when it is greater, bears witness to the perfection of virtue; the other is that which comes from the *infirmity of viciousness,* and this does not make for the greatness of virtue, since such was neither in Christ nor in the Virgin. But the word of the Philosopher is understood of the first difficulty, not of the second.

7. To that which is objected, that generation renders one more like to God than the incorruption of virginity; it must be said that not every likeness makes for the completion of virtue, but that which flows from the force of *assimilating love;* but love that is chaste desires more to be assimilated to God in the full pureness of both men, the inner and the outer, than in the fruitfulness of the flesh, in which even brute animals are apt by nature to be assimilated by a certain distant likeness.

8. To that which is objected, that fruitfulness accords more with the state of innocence etc.; it must be said that in the state of innocence there would have been generation without any lust, with cleanness kept in mind and flesh; and although by reason of the offspring begotten the likeness is greater in conjugal purity, yet by reason of pureness and cleanness it is greater in virginity; and since this is nobler than the former, therefore that reasoning does not conclude.

9. To that which is objected, that more goods are more to be chosen than fewer; it must be said that this is true where the goods are equal. For it can happen that one great good prevails over many, as one mark of gold prevails over a hundred shillings. And so it is in the matter at hand; for through virginity the soul is made in a certain way the *friend* and *sister* and *bride* and in a certain way the *mother* of Christ.

10. To that which is objected: what accords more with the perfection of nature is more praiseworthy; it must be said that the perfection of nature is spoken of in two ways: either *of nature commonly,* or *of rational nature* as rational; but he objects concerning perfection said in the first way, and the word put forward is understood of the second. For that man generates and can generate bears witness to the perfection *of nature commonly;* but that the spirit presides over the flesh, and reason over sensuality, restraining its depravities and rebellions, this bears witness to the perfection of rational nature, as was shown above.

11. To that which is objected, that the species is preferred to the individual etc.; it must be said that this holds true in private goods, which make for the conservation of nature; but virginity is a spiritual good and in a certain way perpetual, making for the consummation of the city on high; and therefore it is rightly set before wedlock, as heavenly things before temporal, for the reason that wedlock fills the world, and virginity paradise.