Modesty is the chastity of merit, the virginity of noble souls.--_E. de Girardin._
Humble wedlock is far better than proud virginity.
And it came to pass that under the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the second temple, etc, the Gentiles in crowds worshipped God and lived an angelic life. Maidens dedicated their virginity and their life to God, men gave up their pleasures, what Plato was only able to effect upon a few men, chosen and instructed to that end, a secret force, by the power of a few words, now wrought upon a hundred million ignorant men.
Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.
The Gospel only speaks of the virginity of the Virgin up to the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. All with reference to Jesus Christ
Some say no evil thing that walks by night, In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen, Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost That breaks his magic chains at curfew time, No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine, Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
11:38. And he answered her: Go. And he sent her away for two months. And when she was gone with her comrades and companions, she mourned her virginity in the mountains.
23:8. Moreover also she did not forsake her fornications which she had committed in Egypt: for they also lay with her in her youth, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured out their fornication upon her.
42:10. In her virginity, lest she should be corrupted, and be found with child in her father's house: and having a husband, lest she should misbehave herself, or at the least become barren.
22:20. But if what he charged her with be true, and virginity be not found in the damsel:
Nausicaa! wherefore hath thy mother borne A child so negligent? Thy garments share, Thy most magnificent, no thought of thine. Yet thou must marry soon, and must provide Robes for thyself, and for thy nuptial train. Thy fame, on these concerns, and honour stand; These managed well, thy parents shall rejoice. The dawn appearing, let us to the place Of washing, where thy work-mate I will be For speedier riddance of thy task, since soon The days of thy virginity shall end; For thou art woo'd already by the prime Of all Phæacia, country of thy birth. Come then--solicit at the dawn of day Thy royal father, that he send thee forth With mules and carriage for conveyance hence Of thy best robes, thy mantles and thy zones. Thus, more commodiously thou shalt perform The journey, for the cisterns lie remote.
23:21. And thou hast renewed the wickedness of thy youth, when thy breasts were pressed in Egypt, and the paps of thy virginity broken.
22:15. Her father and mother shall take her, and shall bring with them the tokens of her virginity to the ancients of the city that are in the gate:
Health, youth, honor, all the shy delicacies of the young body, the heart, virginity, modesty, that epidermis of the soul, are manipulated in sinister wise by that fumbling which seeks resources, which encounters opprobrium, and which accommodates itself to it. Fathers, mothers, children, brothers, sisters, men, women, daughters, adhere and become incorporated, almost like a mineral formation, in that dusky promiscuousness of sexes, relationships, ages, infamies, and innocences. They crouch, back to back, in a sort of hut of fate. They exchange woe-begone glances. Oh, the unfortunate wretches! How pale they are! How cold they are! It seems as though they dwelt in a planet much further from the sun than ours.
Cosette, although this is a strange statement to make, in the profound ignorance of a girl brought up in a convent,--maternity being also absolutely unintelligible to virginity,--had ended by fancying that she had had as little mother as possible. She did not even know her mother's name. Whenever she asked Jean Valjean, Jean Valjean remained silent. If she repeated her question, he responded with a smile. Once she insisted; the smile ended in a tear.
He made some remarks about a door which shut badly, and the noise of which might awaken the sick woman; then he entered Fantine's chamber, approached the bed and drew aside the curtains. She was asleep. Her breath issued from her breast with that tragic sound which is peculiar to those maladies, and which breaks the hearts of mothers when they are watching through the night beside their sleeping child who is condemned to death. But this painful respiration hardly troubled a sort of ineffable serenity which overspread her countenance, and which transfigured her in her sleep. Her pallor had become whiteness; her cheeks were crimson; her long golden lashes, the only beauty of her youth and her virginity which remained to her, palpitated, though they remained closed and drooping. Her whole person was trembling with an indescribable unfolding of wings, all ready to open wide and bear her away, which could be felt as they rustled, though they could not be seen. To see her thus, one would never have dreamed that she was an invalid whose life was almost despaired of. She resembled rather something on the point of soaring away than something on the point of dying.
It seemed that this garden, created in olden days to conceal wanton mysteries, had been transformed and become fitted to shelter chaste mysteries. There were no longer either arbors, or bowling greens, or tunnels, or grottos; there was a magnificent, dishevelled obscurity falling like a veil over all. Paphos had been made over into Eden. It is impossible to say what element of repentance had rendered this retreat wholesome. This flower-girl now offered her blossom to the soul. This coquettish garden, formerly decidedly compromised, had returned to virginity and modesty. A justice assisted by a gardener, a goodman who thought that he was a continuation of Lamoignon, and another goodman who thought that he was a continuation of Lenotre, had turned it about, cut, ruffled, decked, moulded it to gallantry; nature had taken possession of it once more, had filled it with shade, and had arranged it for love.
The chamber which Marius occupied had a dilapidated brick pavement; this one was neither tiled nor planked; its inhabitants stepped directly on the antique plaster of the hovel, which had grown black under the long-continued pressure of feet. Upon this uneven floor, where the dirt seemed to be fairly incrusted, and which possessed but one virginity, that of the broom, were capriciously grouped constellations of old shoes, socks, and repulsive rags; however, this room had a fireplace, so it was let for forty francs a year. There was every sort of thing in that fireplace, a brazier, a pot, broken boards, rags suspended from nails, a bird-cage, ashes, and even a little fire. Two brands were smouldering there in a melancholy way.
22:17. He layeth to her charge a very ill name, so as to say: I found not thy daughter a virgin: and behold these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity. And they shall spread the cloth before the ancients of the city:
23:3. And they committed fornication in Egypt, in their youth they committed fornication: there were their breasts pressed down, and the teats of their virginity were bruised.
11:37. And she said to her father: Grant me only this, which I desire: Let me go, that I may go about the mountains for two months, and may bewail my virginity with my companions.
Jean Valjean had never loved anything; for twenty-five years he had been alone in the world. He had never been father, lover, husband, friend. In the prison he had been vicious, gloomy, chaste, ignorant, and shy. The heart of that ex-convict was full of virginity. His sister and his sister's children had left him only a vague and far-off memory which had finally almost completely vanished; he had made every effort to find them, and not having been able to find them, he had forgotten them. Human nature is made thus; the other tender emotions of his youth, if he had ever had any, had fallen into an abyss.
3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:
2:36. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser. She was far advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity.
This last point leads on naturally to the witness of Epiphanius (c. 375), who, speaking of Ebionites or Judaizing Christians of various sorts, and particularly the Essene type, says (_Haer._ xxx. 15) that "they use certain other books likewise, to wit, the so-called _Circuits_ of Peter, which were written by the hand of Clement, falsifying their contents, though leaving a few genuine things." Here Ephiphanius simply assumes that the Ebionite _Circuits of Peter_ was based on a genuine work of the same scope, and goes on to say that the spurious elements are proved such by contrast with the tenor of Clement's "encyclic epistles" (i.e. those to virgins, (2) above); for these enjoin virginity (celibacy), and praise Elijah, David, Samson, and all the prophets, whereas the Ebionite _Circuits_ favour marriage (even in Apostles) and depreciate the prophets between Moses and Christ, "the true Prophet." "In the _Circuits_, then, they adapted the whole to their own views, representing Peter falsely in many ways, as that he was daily baptized for the sake of purification, as these also do; and they say that he likewise abstained from animal food and meat, as they themselves also do." Now all the points here noted in the _Circuits_ can be traced in our _Homilies_ and _Recognitions_, though toned down in different degrees. Entry: 3
_Protevangel of James._--This title was first given in the 16th century to a writing which is referred to as _The Book of James_ ([Greek: hê biblos Iakobou]) by Origen (tom. xi. _in Matt._). Its author designates it as [Greek: Istoria]. For various other designations see Tischendorf, _Evang. Apocr.²_ 1 seq. The narrative extends from the Conception of the Virgin to the Death of Zacharias. Lipsius shows that in the present form of the book there is side by side a strange "admixture of intimate knowledge and gross ignorance of Jewish thought and custom," and that accordingly we must "distinguish between an original Jewish Christian writing and a Gnostic recast of it." The former was known to Justin (_Dial._ 78, 101) and Clem. Alex. (_Strom._ vii. 16), and belongs at latest to the earliest years of the 2nd century. The Gnostic recast Lipsius dates about the middle of the 3rd century. From these two works arose independently the _Protevangel_ in its present form and the Latin pseudo-Matthaeus (_Evangelium pseudo-Matthaei_). The _Evangelium de Nativitate Mariae_ is a redaction of the latter. (See Lipsius in Smith's _Dict. of Christ. Biog._ ii. 701-703.) But if we except the Zachariah and John group of legends, it is not necessary to assume the Gnostic recast of this work in the 3rd century as is done by Lipsius. The author had at his disposal two distinct groups of legends about Mary. One of these groups is certainly of non-Jewish origin, as it conceives Mary as living in the temple somewhat after the manner of a vestal virgin or a priestess of Isis. The other group is more in accord with the orthodox gospels. The book appears to have been written in Egypt, and in the early years of the 2nd century. For, since Origen states that many appealed to it in support of the view that the brothers of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former marriage, the book must have been current about A.D. 200. From Origen we may ascend to Clem. Alex. who (_Strom._ vi. 93) shows acquaintance with one of the chief doctrines of the book--the perpetual virginity of Mary. Finally, as Justin's statements as to the birth of Jesus in a cave and Mary's descent from David show in all probability his acquaintance with the book, it may with good grounds be assigned to the first decade of the 2nd century. (So Zahn, _Gesch. Kanons_, i. 485, 499, 502, 504, 539; ii. 774-780.) For the Greek text see Tischendorf, _Evang. Apocr.²_ 1-50; B.P. Grenfell, _An Alexandrian erotic Fragment and other Papyri_, 1896, pp. 13-17: for the Syriac, Wright, _Contributions to Apocryphal Literature of the N.T._, 1865, pp. 3-7; A.S. Lewis, _Studia Sinaitica_, xi. pp. 1-22. See literature generally in Hennecke, _NT liche Apok. Handbuch_, 106 seq. Entry: 2
(c) _Epistles_:-- The Abgar Epistles. Epistle of Barnabas. " " Clement. "Clement's" 2nd Epistle of the Corinthians. " Epistles on Virginity. " " to James. Epistles of Ignatius. Epistle of Polycarp. Pauline Epp. to the Laodiceans and Alexandrians. 3 Pauline Ep. to the Corinthians. Entry: 2
_Her Peculiar Relation to the Godhead, which specially fits Her for Successful Intercession on Behalf of Mankind._--It seems probable that the epithet [Greek: theotokos] ("Mother of God") was first applied to Mary by theologians of Alexandria towards the close of the 3rd century; but it does not occur in any genuine extant writing of that period, unless we are to assign an early date to the apocryphal _Transitus Mariae_, in which the word is of frequent occurrence. In the 4th century it is met with frequently, being used by Eusebius, Athanasius, Didymus and Gregory of Nazianzus,--the latter declaring that the man who believes not Mary to have been [Greek: theotokos] has no part in God (_Orat._ li. p. 738).[3] If its use was first recommended by a desire to bring into prominence the divinity of the Incarnate Word, there can be no doubt that latterly the expression came to be valued as directly honourable to Mary herself and as corresponding to the greatly increased esteem in which she personally was held throughout the Catholic world, so that when Nestorius and others began to dispute its propriety, in the following century, their temerity was resented, not as an attack upon the established orthodox doctrine of the Nicene creed, but as threatening a more vulnerable and more tender part of the popular faith. It is sufficient in illustration of the drift of theological opinion to refer to the first sermon of Proclus, preached on a certain festival of the Virgin ([Greek: panêgyris parthenikê]) at Constantinople about the year 430 or to that of Cyril of Alexandria delivered in the church of the Virgin Mary at the opening of the council of Ephesus in 431. In the former the orator speaks of "the holy Virgin and Mother of God" as "the spotless treasure-house of virginity, the spiritual paradise of the second Adam; the workshop in which two natures were welded together ... the one bridge between God and men";[4] in the latter she is saluted as the "mother and virgin," "through whom ([Greek: di' hês]) the Trinity is glorified and worshipped, the cross of the Saviour exalted and honoured, through whom heaven triumphs, the angels are made glad, devils driven forth, the tempter overcome, and the fallen creature raised up even to heaven." The response which such language found in the popular heart was sufficiently shown by the shouts of joy with which the Ephesian mob heard of the deposition of Nestorius, escorting his judges with torches and incense to their homes, and celebrating the occasion by a general illumination. The causes which in the preceding century had led to this exaltation of the Mother of God in the esteem of the Catholic world are not far to seek. On the one hand the solution of the Arian controversy, however correct it may have been theoretically, undoubtedly had the practical effect of relegating the God-man redeemer for ordinary minds into a far away region of "remote and awful Godhead," so that the need for a mediator to deal with the very Mediator could not fail to be felt. On the other hand, the religious instincts of mankind are very ready to pay worship, in grosser or more refined forms, to the idea of womanhood; at all events many of those who became professing Christians at the political fall of Paganism entered the Church with such instincts (derived from the nature-religions in which they had been brought up) very fully developed. Probably it ought to be added that the comparative colourlessness with which the character of Mary is presented, not only in the canonical gospels but even in the most copious of the apocrypha, left greater scope for the untrammelled exercise of devout imagination than was possible in the case of Christ, in the circumstances of whose humiliation and in whose recorded utterances there were many things which the religious consciousness found difficulty in understanding or in adapting to itself. At all events, from the time of the council of Ephesus, to exhibit figures of the Virgin and Child became the approved expression of orthodoxy, and the relationship of motherhood in which Mary had been formally declared to stand to God[5] was instinctively felt to give the fullest and freest sanction of the Church to that invocation of her aid which had previously been resorted to only hesitatingly and occasionally. Previously to the council of Ephesus, indeed, the practice had obtained complete recognition, so far as we know, in those circles only in which one or other of the numerous redactions of the _Transitus Mariae_ passed current.[6] There we read of Mary's prayer to Christ: "Do Thou bestow Thine aid upon every man calling upon, or praying to, or naming the name of Thine handmaid"; to which His answer is, "Every soul that calls upon Thy name shall not be ashamed, but shall find mercy and support and confidence both in the world that now is and in that which is to come in the presence of My Father in the heavens." But Gregory of Nazianzus also, in his panegyric upon Justina, mentions with incidental approval that in her hour of peril she "implored Mary the Virgin to come to the aid of a virgin in her danger."[7] Of the growth of the Marian cultus, alike in the East and in the West, after the decision at Ephesus it would be impossible to trace the history, however slightly, within the limits of the present article. Justinian in one of his laws bespeaks her advocacy for the empire, and he inscribes the high altar in the new church of St Sophia with her name. Narses looks to her for directions on the field of battle. The emperor Heraclius bears her image on his banner. John of Damascus speaks of her as the sovereign lady to whom the whole creation has been made subject by her son. Peter Damian recognizes her as the most exalted of all creatures, and apostrophizes her as deified and endowed with all power in heaven and in earth, yet not forgetful of our race.[8] In a word, popular devotion gradually developed the entire system of doctrine and practice which Protestant controversialists are accustomed to call by the name of Mariolatry. With reference to this much-disputed phrase it is always to be kept in mind that the directly authoritative documents, alike of the Greek and of the Roman Church, distinguish formally between _latria_ and _dulia_, and declare that the "worship" to be paid to the mother of God must never exceed that superlative degree of _dulia_ which is vaguely described as _hyperdulia_. But the comparative reserve shown by the council of Trent in its decrees, and even in its catechism,[9] on this subject has not been observed by individual theologians, and in view of the fact of the canonization of some of these (such as Liguori)--a fact guaranteeing the absence of erroneous teaching from their writings--it does not seem unfair, to hold the Roman Church responsible for the natural interpretations and just inferences which may be drawn even from apparently exaggerated expressions in such works as the well-known _Glories of Mary_ and others frequently quoted in controversial literature. There is a good _résumé_ of Catholic developments of the cultus of Mary in Pusey's _Eirenicon_. Entry: MARY
Reference must also be made to a few of the more characteristic points in the theology of Ignatius. As far as Christology is concerned, besides the insistence on the reality of the humanity of Christ already mentioned, there are two other points which call for notice. (1) Ignatius is the earliest writer outside the New Testament to describe Christ under the categories of current philosophy; cf. the famous passage in _Eph._ 7, "There is one only physician, of flesh and of spirit ([Greek: sarkikos kai pneumatikos]), generate and ingenerate ([Greek: gennêtos kai agennêtos]), God in man, true life in death, son of Mary and son of God, first passible and then impassible" ([Greek: prôton pathêtos kai apathês]). (2) Ignatius is also the first writer outside the New Testament to mention the Virgin Birth, upon which he lays the utmost stress. "Hidden from the prince of this world were the virginity of Mary and her child-bearing and likewise also the death of the Lord, three mysteries to be cried aloud, the which were wrought in the silence of God" (_Eph._ 19). Here, it will be observed, we have the nucleus of the later doctrine of the deception of Satan. In regard to the Eucharist also later ideas occur in Ignatius. It is termed a [Greek: mystêrion] (_Trall._ 2), and the influence of the Greek mysteries is seen in such language as that used in _Eph._ 20, where Ignatius describes the Eucharistic bread as "the medicine of immortality and the antidote against death." When Ignatius says too that "the heretics abstain from Eucharist because they do not allow that the Eucharist is the flesh of Christ," the words seem to imply that materialistic ideas were beginning to find an entrance into the church (_Smyr._ 6). Other points that call for special notice are: (1) Ignatius's rather extravagant angelology. In one place for instance he speaks of himself as being able to comprehend heavenly things and "the arrays of angels and the musterings of principalities" (_Trall._ 5). (2) His view of the Old Testament. In one important passage Ignatius emphatically states his belief in the supremacy of Christ even over "the archives" of the faith, i.e. the Old Testament: "As for me, my archives--my inviolable archives--are Jesus Christ, His cross, His death, His resurrection and faith through Him" (_Philadel._ 8). Entry: 3
_Clement's Epistles on Virginity._--These two letters are preserved only in Syriac which is a translation from the Greek. They are first referred to by Epiphanius and next by Jerome. Critics have assigned them to the middle of the 2nd century. They have been edited by Beelen, Louvain, 1856. Entry: OTHER
Jerome "is one of the few Fathers to whom the title of Saint appears to have been given in recognition of services rendered to the Church rather than for eminent sanctity. He is the great Christian scholar of his age, rather than the profound theologian or the wise guide of souls." His great work was the Vulgate, but his achievements in other fields would have sufficed to distinguish him. His commentaries are valuable because of his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, his varied interests, and his comparative freedom from allegory. To him we owe the distinction between canonical and apocryphal writings; in the _Prologus Galeatus_ prefixed to his version of Samuel and Kings, he says that the church reads the Apocrypha "for the edification of the people, not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical doctrines." He was a pioneer in the fields of patrology and of biblical archaeology. In controversy he was too fond of mingling personal abuse with legitimate argument, and this weakness mars his letters, which were held in high admiration in the early middle ages, and are valuable for their history of the man and his times. Luther in his _Table Talk_ condemns them as dealing only with fasting, meats, virginity, &c. "If he only had insisted upon the works of faith and performed them! But he teaches nothing either about faith, or love, or hope, or the works of faith." Entry: JEROME
Together with the rage for virginity went the institution of _virgines subintroductae_, or of spiritual wives; for it was often assumed that the grace of baptism restored the original purity of life led by Adam and Eve in common before the Fall. Such rigours are encouraged in the _Shepherd of Hermas_, a book which emanated from Rome and up to the 4th century was read in church. They were common in the African churches, where they led to abuses which taxed the energy even of a Cyprian. They were still rife in Antioch in 260. We detect them in the Celtic church of St Patrick, and, as late as the 7th century, among the Celtic elders of the north of France. In the Syriac church as late as 340, such relations prevailed between the "Sons and daughters of the Resurrection." It continued among the Albigenses and other dissident sects of the middle ages, among whom it served a double purpose; for their elders were thus not only able to prove their own chastity, but to elude the inquisitors, who were less inclined to suspect a man of the catharism which regarded marriage as the "greater adultery" (_maius adulterium_) if they found him cohabiting (in appearance at least) with a woman. There was hardly an early council, great or small, that did not condemn this custom, as well as the other one, still more painful to think of, of self-emasculation. In the Catholic church, however, common sense prevailed, and those who desired to follow the Encratite ideal repaired to the monasteries. Entry: I