On the Good of Modesty

… to have passed over some parts of my duties, while I always strive, above all through daily expositions of the Gospels, to give you from time to time increases of faith and knowledge through the Lord. For what more useful thing can be done in the Lord's church, what more fitting to the duties of a bishop can be found, than that believers, through the teaching of the Lord's words instilled and conveyed by him, may reach the promised kingdom of heaven? This at least, the daily and devoted business of both my work and my office, I strive to maintain even though absent, and I try to give you my presence through letters. While in my usual way I appeal to you in the faith by sending addresses, I do so for this reason: that, made firm by the strength of the gospel's root, you may always stand armed against all the battles of the devil. I shall not think myself absent if I can be at ease about you. Yet all the things that are usefully set forth, which in expositions either define or promise the state of eternal life, are fruitful only if they are helped, for the profit of the work, by the powers of divine indulgence. We do not only set forth words that come from the sacred springs of the Scriptures; together with the words themselves we join prayers and vows to the Lord, that he may open both to us and to you the treasures of his mysteries, and give strength to fulfil whatever we know. For it is the greater danger to have known the Lord's will and to have been idle in doing the will of God.

Although, then, as you know, I always exhort you to many duties and to the precepts of the divine admonition (for what could I wish for more, or what greater, than that you should stand perfect in the Lord in all things?), yet above all I admonish you to keep the bars of chastity fast, as indeed you do, knowing that you are the temple of the Lord, members of Christ, the dwelling of the Holy Spirit, chosen for hope, consecrated for faith, destined for salvation, sons of God, brothers of Christ, partners of the Holy Spirit, owing nothing any longer to the flesh, as those reborn of water; and let chastity, beyond the will, which we ought to want to be ours, be maintained also for the sake of the redemption, so that what has been consecrated by Christ cannot be corrupted. For if the apostle declares the church to be the bride of Christ, what chastity, I ask you, is required, when the church is presented among marriages as a virgin bride? For my part, had I not proposed to admonish you briefly, I think I could have set forth very ample and rich praises of chastity; but I thought it superfluous to praise it at length among those who practice it. For you adorn it while you bear it, and you set forth its praises more fully by exercising it. You have become its ornament, as it is also yours, each enriching the other with mutual honor. It suggests to you the discipline of good morals; you provide it with the service of holy works. For through you it has appeared how much and what it can do, and it has shown and taught what you should want: the two goods, of commands and of deeds, being joined in one, so that nothing should seem maimed, as it would if the precepts had lacked the service or the service the precepts.

Chastity is the honor of bodies, the ornament of morals, the holiness of the sexes, the bond of marriages, the fidelity of lineage, the bulwark of modesty, the spring of purity, the peace of the home, the head of concord. Chastity is careful to please no one but itself; chastity is always modest, since it is the mother of innocence; chastity is always adorned by modesty alone, and then rightly aware of its beauty if it displeases the wicked. Chastity seeks no ornaments; it is its own adornment. It commends us to the Lord and joins us to Christ; it defeats all the unlawful battles of desire in our members and brings peace to our bodies; blessed itself, it makes blessed those with whom it deigns to dwell. Not even those who lack it can ever accuse it; it is venerable even to its enemies, since those who cannot overthrow it admire it all the more. But as this virtue is always approved in men and to be sought by women, so its enemy, unchastity, is always to be detested. It makes its servants an obscene laughingstock, sparing neither bodies nor souls. For when their own characters have been defeated, it sends the whole man under the triumphal yoke of lust. At first it is flattering, so as to do more harm while it pleases; it drains away property along with modesty; it is the enemy of continence, a hostile madness of the desires that often comes to bloodshed, a burning of good conscience, the mother of impenitence, the ruin of a better age, an insult to the family; it overthrows the fidelity of blood and household, inserts its own children into the affections of others, and brings the offspring of an unknown and corrupt stock into other men's wills. Often it burns even beyond its own sex: since it does not keep within what is permitted, it thinks itself too little satisfied unless it seeks, even in the bodies of men, not a new pleasure but extraordinary and monstrous things against nature itself, from men through men.

But chastity holds the first place in virgins, the second in the continent, the third in marriages; yet in all it is glorious, each in its own degree. For to keep the fidelity of marriage amid so many wars of the body is praiseworthy; and to have set a limit of continence within marriage is of greater virtue, since even lawful things are refused. Certainly to have guarded holiness from the womb, and to have kept oneself a child through one's whole life into old age, is a matter of truly wonderful power; except that not to know the flattering laws of the body is rather a matter of good fortune, while to have conquered them once known is a matter of virtue; yet in such a way that this virtue too comes from the house of God, though it shows itself in human members.

The precepts of chastity, brothers, are ancient. Why do I call them ancient? Because they were instituted together with human beings themselves. For the woman comes from her own man, so that she may know no other besides him; and the woman was given back to the man so that, when what had been taken from him was restored, he might seek nothing that belongs to another. So too it says: “And the two shall be in one flesh,” so that what had been one might return into one, lest a separation without return should give occasion for another. Hence the apostle too declared the man to be the head of the woman, to commend chastity by the union of the two. For as another's head cannot fit the members, so members not its own cannot fit another's head: the head suits its own members and the members their own head; both hold together in mutual concord by a natural clasp, lest, if discord arose through the division of the members, the covenant of the divine bond should be broken. But he adds and says: “For he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ also does the church.” From this comes a great rule of love joined with chastity: if wives are to be loved by their husbands as Christ loved the church, wives too ought to love their husbands as the church loves Christ.

When Christ was questioned and said that a wife may not be put away except for adultery, he gave this principle such honor for the sake of chastity. From this was born that saying: “You shall not suffer adulteresses to live.” From this the apostle says: “This is the will of God, that you abstain from sexual immorality.” From this he also says that the members of Christ are not to be joined to the members of a harlot. From this, one who has trampled on the law of chastity and practices the vices of the flesh is handed over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. From this, rightly, adulterers do not possess the kingdom of heaven. From this it is that he says every sin is outside the body, and only the adulterer sins against his own body. From this come the other authoritative precepts, which there is no need to recall now, especially among you, who know them and often do them; and even if they are not written out here, you cannot complain about them. For the adulterer has no excuse, nor could he have had one, because he was allowed to marry a wife.

But while laws have been prescribed for married women, laws so bound together that they cannot be torn apart, virginity and continence are beyond all law: nothing in the laws of marriage pertains to virginity; by its loftiness it transcends them all … if any depraved persons dare to try to overstep the laws of men. Virginity makes itself equal to the angels; indeed, if we look into it, it even surpasses them, since, struggling in the flesh, it wins a victory even against nature, which the angels do not have. What else is virginity than a glorious meditation on the life to come? Virginity is of neither sex; virginity is a lasting childhood; virginity is the triumph over pleasures; virginity has no children, but, what is more, it has contempt for children; it has no fruitfulness, but neither has it bereavement: happy in being free from the pain of childbirth, happier still in being free from the calamity of children's funerals. What else is virginity than liberty set free? It has no husband for a master. Virginity is freed from all attachments; it is dedicated not to marriage, not to the world, not to children. It cannot fear persecution, since out of its security it can challenge it.

But since the precepts of chastity have been briefly set out for us, let us now set forth an example of chastity. For more progress is made when one comes to the thing itself, and there is no doubt about a virtue when what is commanded is confirmed by examples too. The example of chastity began with Joseph. This Hebrew youth, noble through his father and nobler through his innocence, was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites out of envy of his revelations, and had come into the house of an Egyptian. By his obedience and innocence and the complete fidelity of his service he had won his master's easy and kindly favor; his looks, his speech, and his youth alike commended him to everyone. But this nobility of his was received by his master's wife otherwise than was fitting. In a secret part of the house, a hiding place without witnesses suited to crimes, the woman's uncontrolled unchastity thought it could overcome the youth's chastity, now with promises, now with threats. And when he was held by his garments as he tried to flee from the audacity of so great a crime, he left the garments themselves, keeping the integrity of his naked body as the witness of his innocence. The shameless woman did not hesitate to add slander to the crime of her unchastity: hot and seething, her desire spurned, she complained to the others and to her husband with pretended grief that the Hebrew youth had tried to inflict on her the violence that she herself had tried to impose. The husband's anger, ignorant of the facts and gravely inflamed by his wife's accusation, flared up. The chaste youth, because he had not stained his conscience with the offense, was thrust into the depths of the prison. But chastity is not alone in prison: God is with Joseph, and the guilty are given into his hand, because he himself was innocent. Moreover, he unravelled the obscurities of dreams, because his spirit had kept watch in temptation, and through his lord he was freed from his chains. He who had been an underling in a house, and in danger, became lord of the royal house, out of danger: restored to his nobility, he received the fruit of chastity and innocence from God as judge, from whom he had deserved it.

No less, from the other side, another example of chastity like it arises for us from the continence of women. There was, as we read, Susanna, daughter of Hilkiah, wife of Joakim, very beautiful in face and more beautiful in character. No finery set off her beauty, for she was simple: chastity had adorned her, and with chastity nature alone. Two of the elders had begun to be madly in love with her, mindful neither of the fear of God nor of their own age, already withering with years: so did the flame of a revived lust call them back into the burning of a youth long past. Robbers of chastity, they profess love, but they hated. When she resisted they threatened slanders; they call themselves accusers of adultery while they wanted adultery. Between two rocks of lust she sought help from the Lord, since she could not resist them with bodily strength. And the Lord heard from heaven chastity crying out to him; and when she was being led to punishment, overborne by iniquity, she was set free and saw vengeance on her enemies. Twice victorious, and hemmed in so often and so deadly in her danger, she escaped both lust and death. It would be endless if I went through more examples: I am content with these two, especially since in them chastity has been defended with all its strength.

They could not be weakened by the memory of noble blood, which in some serves as a license for wantonness; nor by beauty of body and the shape of well-formed limbs, which often suggest that, like the flower of a hurrying age that will soon pass, one should feed on the opportunity of pleasure offered; nor by the years of fresh first youth and riper age, when the blood, still raw and seething, kindles the flames of nature, and hidden fires turning in the marrow will go to seek relief even at the peril of modesty; nor by any opportunity of hiding places, safe with no witness, which some think the greatest force for committing crime, since impunity meets their deliberations; nor by necessity imposed through the authority of those who command and the rashness of partners and companions, a kind of pressure by which even right counsels are often broken; nor by rewards themselves and kindness, nor by accusations, threats, punishments, or deaths: nothing was so cruel, so hard, so sad to them as to have fallen from the lofty step of chastity. They were worthy of the great reward of the divine judge: the one was made illustrious with a throne almost royal; the other, endowed with her husband's concord, was redeemed by the deaths of her enemies. These examples and others like them must always be set before our eyes; their equals must be meditated day and night.

Nothing delights the faithful mind so much as the untouched conscience of unstained modesty. To have conquered pleasure is the greatest pleasure, and no victory is greater than the one won over the desires. He who has conquered an enemy was stronger, but than another; he who has restrained lust was stronger than himself. He who has laid an enemy low has struck a foe outside; he who has put down desire has overcome an enemy at home. Every evil is more easily conquered than pleasure, because the former, whatever it is, repels, while the latter allures. Nothing is so hard to put down as what is armed by pleasure. He who removes desires has removed fears too, for fears come from desires. He who has conquered desires has triumphed over sin; he who has conquered desires shows the evil of the human race lying under his feet; he who has conquered desires has given himself lasting peace; he who has conquered desires has restored to himself liberty, which is very hard even for the freeborn. Chastity, then, brothers, must always be meditated on by us, as the facts teach; and it is the easier because it depends on no arts. For what perfects it is the will, which would not be far off unless it were hindered. It is ours: so it is not to be acquired but cherished, since it is already ours.

For what else is chastity than an honorable mind given to guard the body, so that modesty, restored to the sexes and sealed with strictness, might preserve the fidelity of the lineage through uncorrupted offspring? To chastity, brothers, belong, and are recognized as belonging, first of all a godly modesty, holy meditation on the precepts, a mind inclined to faith, and a spirit in awe of sacred religion; then to see that there is nothing on one's person carved beyond measure, displayed beyond decency, nothing extravagant, nothing painted by art, nothing that panders to provoke or hold the eyes. She is not chaste who aims to move another's mind, even with bodily purity intact. Far from us be those whose beauty is not adorned but prostituted. For anxiety about beauty is the sign of a bad mind and of ugliness. Let the nature of bodies be free, and let no violence be done to the works of God. She is always wretched who is not pleased with herself as she is. Why is the color of the hair changed? Why are the edges of the eyes darkened? Why is the face turned by art into another form? Why, finally, is the mirror consulted, unless because she fears to be herself? Let the dress of a chaste woman, too, be chaste: a believing woman should not know adultery even in colors. To weave gold into garments is, as it were, to corrupt the garments with a price. What are rigid metals doing among the delicate threads of the warp, except to weigh down flowing shoulders and unhappily display the luxury of a boastful mind? What of necks weighed down and hidden by foreign stones, whose price even without workmanship exceeds anyone's account book? The woman is not adorned; the woman's vices are displayed. What of fingers so loaded with gold that the rings can neither go on nor come off? Does use require this, or is it the empty pomp of inherited wealth on display? A strange business: women, delicate in everything, are stronger than men at carrying the burdens of vices.

But to return to what I had begun: chastity must always be cultivated by men and women alike, and guarded with all care within its bounds. It is quickly endangered in the body because of the body's nature, while the flesh, always on the point of falling, carries it off with it. For under the pretext of nature, which always urges human beings toward the affections by which the losses of a fallen race are repaired, the flesh, deceiving by the flattery of pleasure, does not lead offspring to the restraint of lawful union but hurls them into crime. Against these snares of the flesh, then, in which the devil inserts himself as both companion and leader, we must struggle with every kind of virtue. Let the works of Christ be taken up, as the apostle says; let the mind, as far as it can, be drawn back from partnership with the flesh; let every sense be separated from the body; let vices always be chastised so that they are hated; let that ugly and abject shame of sin be kept before the eyes, and repentance itself with its mourning, which is a dishonorable witness to crimes committed. Let nothing in other people's faces be looked at curiously. Let speech be brief and laughter sober (for laughter is the sign of an easy and lax mind), and let touch, even honorable touch, be avoided. Let nothing be allowed to the body where there is any vice of the body to be avoided. Let it be considered how honorable it is to have conquered disgrace, how dishonorable to have been conquered by it.

It must also be said that adultery is not pleasure but mutual insult, nor can that give delight which kills both the soul and modesty. Let the mind restrain the goads of the flesh and rein in the impulse of the body. For it received this power, that the members should serve it at its command, and that, like a lawful and skilled charioteer, it should turn back with the reins of the heavenly precepts the impulses of the flesh that exalt themselves beyond the permitted turning-posts of the body, lest that chariot of the body, carried away beyond its bounds, drag the charioteer himself with it into its own danger. But amid these things, or rather before them, help must be sought from the divine camp against the throngs of all the vices: for God alone is powerful, who deigned to make human beings and to give full help to human beings. I have dictated a few things, since my purpose is not to write volumes but to send an address. Look into the Scriptures, and seek out for yourselves, from the very precepts, greater examples on this matter. Dearest brothers, farewell.