Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Members of the Church · On Monks (Book II)
Chapter 28: The Same Asserted by Reason
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Monachis (De Membris Ecclesiae, Book II), On Monks (On the Members of the Church, Book II). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Now at last, that we may come to the last kind of arguments, by a twofold reason, founded on the Scriptures and the testimonies of the Fathers, we will briefly confirm this same thing. The first reason will be taken from the dignity of continence, the second from the utility of vowing. First, then, everything is rightly vowed to God which is more pleasing to Him if it be done than if it be not done. But such is continence, since it far excels marriage, and ought not even to be compared with fornication; continence, therefore, can rightly be vowed to God. The assumption, which alone is wont to be denied, is to be confirmed in a few words. But because Luther in the Epithalamium cavils that virginity indeed excels marriage, but not likewise the celibate life the conjugal life, we will bring forward arguments concerning the very life and state of celibates. And first the divine Scripture cries out (1 Corinthians 7): Therefore he that giveth his virgin in marriage doth well, and he that giveth her not doth better. And below: Let her marry to whom she will, only in the Lord; but more blessed shall she be if she so remain. Hither also pertain the other testimonies which we brought above in the disputation on the counsels.
Now the Fathers throughout say that this is a perfect life. Cyprian (in the book On the Habit of Virgins) says that the assembly of virgins is the more illustrious portion of the flock of Christ. And in the same place: “A great reward,” he says, “awaits you, a grand prize of virtue, a greatest gift of chastity.” Dionysius (On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chapter 6, part 2): “The priest,” he says, “sets forth to him the most perfect life — to him, namely, who professes the monastic life.” Eusebius (Book 1, chapter 8, Demonstration of the Gospel): “And such,” he says, “is the mode of the perfect life in Christianity.” Basil (chapter 18 of the monastic constitutions) and Gregory Nazianzen (in the oration on the death of Saint Basil) call the monastic life a perfect, nay even a most perfect, life. John Chrysostom (Book 3 against the vituperators of monastic life) calls the same life the summit of perfection and the pinnacle of virtue.
Jerome (in epistle 1 to Heliodorus): “Thou didst promise that thou wouldst be perfect; for when, the warfare left, thou madest thyself a eunuch for the kingdom of heaven, what else didst thou follow but the perfect life?” Augustine (Book 1 On the Morals of the Church, chapter 31): “Now,” he says, “receive the morals and singular continence of perfect Christians, to whom the highest chastity seemed not only to be praised but also to be embraced.” And (On Holy Virginity, chapter 52): “Go on,” he says, “virgins of God, by the way of sublimity, with the foot of humility.”
Sulpicius (in the second Dialogue): “A blessed sight,” he says, “and worthy of God; for nothing is to be compared to virginity.” The Fathers too with highest consent teach that the life of virgins is the angelic life, but the conjugal life the life of men. Ambrose (Book 1 On Virgins): “Let no one wonder if they be compared to angels who are joined to the Lord of angels.” Cyril (catechesis 12): “Let us not be ignorant of the glory of chastity; for it is an angelic crown, and this perfection is above man.”
Nazianzen (in the poem on virginity): “Hail, virginity, given by divine gift, mother of a blameless life, pouring forth greatest goods, part of Christ and associated with the supernal spirits, ignorant of the bridal chamber.”
Athanasius (at the end of the book On Virginity) celebrates virginity with these titles: “O virginity, unfailing riches, unfading crown, temple of God, dwelling of the Holy Spirit, beautiful pearl, unseen by the crowd, joy of the Prophets, glorying of the Apostles, life of the angels, crown of the saints.” See besides, if you please, on the comparison of virgins with angels, Jerome (in epistle 8 to Demetrias), Augustine (On Holy Virginity, chapter 13), Chrysostom (homily 18 on Genesis), Basil (in the book On Virginity), Fulgentius (in epistle 3 to Proba), the Damascene (Book 4, chapter 25), Isidore (Book 2 On the Highest Good).
But here Peter Martyr is wondrously angry; for in the book On Celibacy and Vows he recites the opinion of Athanasius cited above, and says: “These things are full of hyperbole, and do not stand to the exactness of truth. The Apostles indeed had wives, and the Prophets; how then is virginity to them a joy and a crown? What besides have the angels in common with virginity, since they lack a body? Whence they can no more be called virgins than if one should call a stone blind.” So he. But what wonder, if pearls do not please swine?
But that Peter falsely accuses Athanasius of saying that continence is the joy of the Prophets and the glory of the Apostles is most easily refuted from Saint Jerome, who (in epistle 22 to Eustochium) says thus: “Elijah a virgin, Elisha a virgin, virgins the sons of the Prophets. To Jeremiah it is said, And thou, take not a wife.” So he. And who is ignorant that John the Baptist was both a Prophet and a virgin? Of the Apostles we know for certain that John was a virgin. Which same of Paul the same Jerome affirms in the place cited, and of all the Apostles (in the Apology for the books against Jovinian): “The Apostles,” he says, “were either virgins, or continent after marriage.” Looking, then, to these Apostles and Prophets, Athanasius spoke truly and properly, not falsely and hyperbolically.
And in that Peter reprehends the comparison of virgins with angels, he does injury not only to Athanasius, but to all the other Fathers, and to Christ Himself, who (Matthew 22) says: In the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God in heaven. Whom shall we now believe: Peter Martyr denying that those who do not marry are like the angels, or Christ asserting that very thing?
But, he says, it no more befits the angels not to marry than it befits a stone not to see. So it is; but yet, as we not ineptly compare to a stone and a log one who is very blind, or deaf, or dumb, so also we most rightly make like to the angels those who excel in continence and purity; for otherwise the angels have not even a face, and yet Saint Luke did not fear to say (Acts 6), They saw the face of Stephen as the face of an angel. And so much for the first reason. I add another reason on the part of the vow itself. It is better and more pleasing to God to do something by vow than without a vow; therefore it is not only lawful, but also expedient, to vow continence. The antecedent is confirmed by these arguments.
First, Scripture exhorts to vowing (Psalm 75): Vow ye, and pay. By which testimony moved, Saint Augustine in many places exhorts to vowing, as in epistle 45 to Armentarius, epistle 89 to Hilary, epistle 143 to Julian, in the book On the Good of Widowhood (chapter 19), in the book On Holy Virginity (chapters 29 and 30), on Psalms 75 and 99, and elsewhere. But if it were better to act without a vow, the Holy Spirit would deceive us, which can in no way be; therefore it is better to act by vow.
Secondly, a work is the better and more pleasing to God the more, or the greater, the virtue from which it proceeds; to be continent without a vow is of temperance; to be continent by vow is an act at once of temperance and of religion, which religion indeed is far nobler than temperance itself; therefore to be continent by vow is better and more pleasing to God than without a vow. And so Saint Augustine (in the book On Holy Virginity, chapter 8): “No fruitfulness,” he says, “even of the flesh, can be compared to holy virginity; for it is honored not because it is virginity, but because it is dedicated to God, which, though it be kept in the flesh, is yet kept by the religion and devotion of the spirit; and by this the virginity even of the body is spiritual, which the continence of piety vows and keeps.”
Thirdly, what is done by vow is done with greater charity and liberality than what is done without a vow. For he who does something without a vow offers to God only the work; but he who vows and does it by vow offers both the work and the faculty. Which Saint Anselm explains (in the book On Similitudes, chapter 84) in these words: “He gives more who gives the tree with the fruits, than he who gives the fruits alone.”
Fourthly, better is that which is done from a will confirmed in good than that which is done without such firmness, just as it is worse to sin from a will hardened to evil than from frailty. And as those who sin from a will confirmed in evil are like the damned, so those who act from a will confirmed in good are like the blessed.
Fifthly, he who vows not only gains that which we said, that he does a more excellent work, but also fortifies himself against the temptations of the devil, and human frailty and mutability. For men, in those things to which they are not bound by the bonds of laws, even if they be best and most useful, easily change their purpose, the devil instigating, and even without the devil’s arts, from their own mutability. On which account we see that in human affairs oaths are often required, that the will be bound, that it may not easily be changed. So soldiers, magistrates, betrothed persons, and others of that kind are compelled to swear, and not by words alone to promise that they will do what they ought. Hence Saint Augustine (epistle 45 to Armentarius): “Repent not,” he says, “that thou hast vowed; nay, rejoice that now that is not lawful for thee which would have been lawful to thy detriment.” And below: “Happy necessity, which compels to better things.”
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXVIII. Idem asseritur ratione . Nunc tandem, ut ad postremum genus ar¬ gumentorum veniamus, duplici ratione, in Scripturis, et Patrum testimoniis fundata, id ipsum breviter confirmabimus. Prima ratio ex dignitate continentiae, secunda ex utilitate vovendi sumetur. Primum igitur id omne Deo recte vovetur, quod est illi gratius si fiat, quam si non fiat. Ejusmodi autem continentia est, cum longe excellat conjugio, et cum fornicatione ne comparari quidem debeat; poterit igitur recte continentia Deo voveri. Assumptio, quse sola, negari solet, paucis confirmanda est. Quia vero Lutherus in Epithalamio cavillatur, virginitatem qui¬ dem praestare conjugio, sed non item vitam coelibem vitae conjugali : Argumenta ad¬ feremus de vita ipsa, et statu coelibum. Ac primum Scriptura divina clamati. Cor. VII: « Igitur qui matrimonio jungit virginem su- suam, benefacit , et qui non jungit , melius facit. » Et infra : « Cui vult nubat , tantum in Domino ; beatior autem erit , si sic per¬ manserit. » Huc etiam pertinent alia tes¬ timonia, quae attulimus supra in disputatione de consiliis. Jam vero Patres passim perfectam vi¬ tam hanc esse dicunt. Cyprianus lib. de ha¬ bitu virginum, virginum coetum esse dicit illustriorem portionem gregis Christi. Et ibidem : « Magna, inquit, vos merces ma¬ net, praemium grande virtutis, munus ma¬ ximum castitatis. » Dionysius de Ecclesias¬ tica hierarch. c. 6. part. 2 : « Sacerdos, in¬ quit, perfectissimam ei vitam exponit, ei videlicet, qui monasticam vitam profitetur. » Eusebius lib. I. cap. 8. demonst. Evangel : « Et talis, inquit, existit in Christianismo perfectae vitae modus. » Basibus c. 18. monas¬ ticarum constitutionum, et Gregorius Nazian- in oratione de obitu S. Basilii, vitam per¬ fectam, imo etiam perfectissimam ap¬ pellant, monasticen. Joannes Chrysosto- mus lib. III adversus vituperatores vitae mo¬ nasticae, eamdem vitam appellat perfectio¬ nis culmen, virtutisque fastigium. Hieronymus in epist. I. ad Heliodorum : « Tu perfectum te fore pollicitus es, nam quando relicta militia te castrasti propter regna coelorum, quid aliud quam perfec¬ tam secutus es vitam? » Augustinus libr. I. de moribus Ecclesiae cap. 31 : « Jam, inquit, accipite perfectorum Christianorum, quibus summa castitas non laudanda solum, sed etiam capessenda visa est; mores et con¬ tinentiam singularem. » Et de sancta virgini¬ tate c. 52. « Pergite, inquit, virgines Dei, via sublimitatis, pede humilitatis. » Sulpitius in 2. Dialogo : « Beata species, inquit, et Deo digna, nihil enim virginitati est comparandum. » [Idem quoque Patres summo consensu vitam virginum, angelicam vitam esse docent, vitam vero conjugalem, vitam hominum. Ambrosius lib. I. de vir¬ ginibus : « Nemo miretur, si Angelis com¬ parentur, quse Angelorum Domino copulan¬ tur. Cyrillus catechesi 12. « Non ignoremus castitatis gloriam, Angelica enim est corona, et supra hominem hsec perfectio. » Nazianzenus in carmine de virginitate : Salve virginitas divino tradita dono, Mater inoffensae vitae, bona maxima fundens, Christi pars et spiritibus sociata supernis, Ignaris thalami. Athanasius lib. de Virginitate extremo, his titulis virginitatem celebrat : « 0 virgi¬ nitas opulentia indeficiens, corona immar- cessibilis, templum Dei, domicilium Spiritus sancti, margarita speciosa, vulgo inconspi¬ cua, gaudium Prophetarum, gloriatio Apos- lorum, Angelorum vita, Sanctorum corona. » Vide preeterea, si placet, de comparatione - virginum cum Angelis , Hieronymum in epist. 8. ad Demetriadem, Augustinum de sancta virginitate cap. 13. Chrysostomum hom. 18. in Genesim, Basilium in lib. de virginitate, Fulgentium in epist. 3. ad Pro¬ bam, Damscenum lib. IV. cap. 25. Isidorum lib. II de summo bono. Hic vero mire irascitur Petrus Martyr; 574 LIBER It. nam in lib. de coelibatu, et votis recitat sen¬ tentiam Athanasii supra citatam, et ait : a Sunt haec hyperbolis plena, neque ad amussim veritatis consistunt. Apostoli sane conjuges habuerunt, et Prophetae, quomodo ergo virginitas est illis gaudium, et corona? Quid praeterea cum virginitate commune habent Angeli, quandoquidem corpore ca¬ rent? Unde non magis illi virgines queunt dici, quam si quis lapidem caecum appellet. » Haec ille. Sed quid mirum, si non placent porcis margaritae ? Quod autem falsi accusat Athanasium Pe¬ trus, quod dixerit, continentiam gaudium esse Prophetarum, et gloriam Apostolorum, refellitur facillime ex S. Hieronymo, qui in epist. 22. ad Eustochium sic ait ; « Yirgo Elias, Eliseus virgo, virgines filii Propheta¬ rum. Hieremiae dicitur, et tu ne accipias uxorem. » Haec ille : Quis vero nescit Joan- nem Baptistam, et Prophetam, et virginem fuisse? ex Apostolis Joanem certo scimus virginem fuisse. Quod idem de Paulo idem Hieronvmus affirmat loco citato» et de e/ * Apostolis omnibus in Apologia pro libris contra Jovinianum : « Apostoli, inquit, aut virgines, aut post nuptias continentes. » Ad hos ergo Apostolos, et Prophetas respiciens Athanasius, vere et proprie, non falso et hyperbolice locutus est. Quod autem reprehendit Petrus compara¬ tionem virginum cum Angelis, non solum Athanasio, sed omnibus aliis Patribus, et ipsi etiam Christo injuriam facit, qui Matth. XXII ait : In resurrectione , neque nubent , ne¬ que nubentur , sed erunt sicut Angeli Dei in ccelo (1). Cui credemus jam, Petro Martyri ne¬ ganti eos, qui non nubunt, similes esse An¬ gelis, an Christo id ipsum asserenti? At, inquit, Angelis non magis convenit non nubere, quam lapidi non videre. Ita est, sed tamem sicut eum, qui valde caecus, aut surdus, aut mutus est, lapidi, et trunco, non inepte comparamus ; sic etiam eos, qui con¬ tinentia et puritate excellunt, rectissime An¬ gelis similes facimus ; nam alioqui nec vul¬ tum habent Angeli ; et tamen non timuit S. Lucas dicere Act. VI : Viderunt vultum Stephani , sicut vultum Angeli (2). Atque haec de prima ratione, Addo aliam rationem ex parte ipsius voti. Melius est et Deo gratius ex voto aliquid facere, quam sine voto ; igitur non solum licet, sed etiam expedit continentiam vovere. Antecedens his argu¬ mentis confirmatur. Primo, Scriptura hortatur ad vovendum Psal. LXXV : Vovete et reddite (3). Quo tes¬ timonio permotus S. Augustinus, multis in locis ad vovendum hortatur, ut in epist. 45. ad Armentarium, epist. 89. ad Hilarium epist. 143. ad Julianum, in lib. de bono viduitatis cap. 19. in lib. de sancta vir¬ ginitate cap. 29. et 30. in Psalm. LXXV. XCIX. et alibi. At si melius esset absque voto operari, deciperet nos Spiritus Sanctus, quod nullo modo fieri potest : igitur melius est operari ex voto. Secundo, opus eo melius est, ac Deo gra¬ tius, quo ex pluribus, aut ex majori virtute procedit : continere sine voto, est tempe¬ rantiae, continere ex voto est actus simul temperantiae et religionis, quae quidem religio temperantia ipsa longe est nobilior : igitur continere ex voto melius, et Deo gratius est, quam sine voto.Itaque S. Augustinus in lib. de sancta virginitate cap. 8: «Nulla, inquit, foecunditas sanctae virginitati etiam carnis comparari potest; neque enim et ipsa, quia virginitas est, sed quia Deo dicata est, hono¬ ratur, quae licet in carne servetur, spiritus tamen religione ac devotione servatur, ac per hoc spiritualis est etiam virginitas cor¬ poris , quam vovet ac servat continentia pietatis. » Tertio, quod fit ex voto, majori charitate et liberalitate fit, quam quod sine voto. Qui enim sine voto aliquid facit, opus dumtaxat offert Deo ; qui autem vovet atque ex voto facit, et opus, et facultatem offert. Quod ex¬ plicat S. Anselmus in lib. de similitudinibus cap. 84. his verbis : « Plus donat, qui arbo¬ rem cum fructibus, quam qui solos fructus donat. » Quarto, melius est, quod fit ex voluntate confirmata in bonum, quam quod fit sine ejusmodi firmitate, sicut pejus est peccare ex voluntate obfirmata ad malum, quam ex fragilitate. Et quemadmodum qui peccant ex voluntate confirmata in malum, similes sunt damnatis : ita qui operantur ex vo¬ luntate confirmata in bono , similes sunt beatis. Quinto, qui vovet, non solum id lucratur* quod diximus, quod excellentius opus facit, sed etiam munit seipsum adversus tentatio- nes Diaboli, et humanam fragilitatem* ac (1) Math. XXII* 30. — (2) Act. VI, 15. — (3) Psal. LXXV, 12. CAPUT XXIX. 575 mutabilitatem. Homines enim in iis rebus, ad quas non sunt alligati -vinculis legum, etiam si optimae sint, et utilissimae, facile mutant propositum, Diabolo instigante : et etiam sine Diaboli artibus, ex propria muta¬ bilitate. Quocirca videmus in rebus humanis saepe requiri juramenta, ut alligetur volun¬ tas, ne facile mutari possit. Ita milites, ma¬ gistratus, sponsi, atque alii id genus jurare coguntur, non autem solis verbis se facturos quod debent polliceri. Hinc S. Augustinus epist. 45. ad Armentarium : « Non te, in¬ quit, vovisse poeniteat, imo gaude jam... tibi non licere, quod cum tuo detrimento licuisset. » Et infra : « Felix necessitas, quae ad meliora compellit. »