Virginity and celibacy in the early church

Virginity and celibacy as a way of life, compared with marriage; clerical continence. Part of Asceticism.

To Polycarp 5.2Ignatius of Antioch · ca. 110 (range ca. 105–135) · Celibacy must be kept humbly, and marriages should be made with the bishop's consent so that they are according to the Lord.
First Apology 15Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christ's teaching on purity, divorce, celibacy, repentance, love of enemies, generosity, and trust in God.
First Apology 29Justin Martyr · ca. 150–155 · Christians marry only to raise children or remain continent; one young man even sought castration to prove Christian chastity.
Acts of Andrew (Vatican fragments), chapter 7Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Andrew tells Maximilla to trample on Aegeates' threats and remain chaste, whatever tortures are brought upon his own body.
Acts of Andrew (Vatican fragments), chapter 8Anonymous · ca. 150-200 (the Acts); the Martyrdom text is later · Andrew tells Maximilla of the Lord's word that the devil will release him from prison, and charges her to remain chaste, warning that he will suffer on her account if she yields.
Acts of John 63Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · A man falls in love with Drusiana, who has renounced relations even with her husband; his friends warn him off.
Acts of John 113Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · In his last prayer John thanks the Lord for keeping him from marriage and asks to be received into his rest.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 5Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · In Onesiphorus's house Paul breaks bread and begins a series of beatitudes in praise of chastity and self-control.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 6Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Paul's beatitudes continue, ending with a blessing on the bodies of virgins.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 9Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Theocleia urges Thamyris to win back Thecla, who is held fast by Paul's teaching on chastity.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 12Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Demas and Hermogenes report that Paul makes chastity a condition of the resurrection.
Acts of Paul and Thecla 16Anonymous · ca. 150–200 · Thamyris accuses Paul before the governor of forbidding virgins to marry.
On the Resurrection 3Justin Martyr · 2nd century (disputed) · If the members of the body rise, their functions need not be active: some are barren or virgins even now, and Christ was born of a virgin and foretold that marriage ceases in the age to come.
Sentences of Sextus 230Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · You are permitted to refuse marriage, so that you may live cleaving to God without ceasing. Know that marrying and begetting children are both very hard; but if, knowing it to be very hard, like a battle, you nevertheless do not wish to fight, then marry a wife and beget children.
Sentence 230 (Greek)Anonymous · 2nd-early 3rd cent. · For he grants you to refuse marriage, so that you may live as one who sits beside God. Marry and have children, knowing that each is hard; but if, knowing as you do that war is hard, you would still show courage, then marry and have children.
Diatessaron, section 25Tatian · ca. 160-180
A Plea for the Christians 33Athenagoras · ca. 176–180 · Christians marry only for children, many remain celibate, and marriage is for life: divorce and remarriage, and even remarriage after a spouse's death, are condemned as adultery.
Miscellanies 3.1.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Self-control covers the tongue, possessions, and desires, and is a gift of divine grace; the church blesses celibacy given by God, admires a single marriage, bears with others' weakness, and permits second marriage to those who burn.
Miscellanies 3.6.50Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Christ's saying about eunuchs followed the disciples' question about divorce: they asked whether a man could remarry after putting away an adulterous wife; even pagan athletes and musicians practiced sexual abstinence.
Miscellanies 3.6.51Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Aristotle of Cyrene kept his oath to Lais by sending her portrait home; celibacy is no virtue unless for love of God; Paul condemns those who forbid marriage and counsels spouses to stay together.
Miscellanies 3.12.79Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Paul's permission for spouses to abstain by consent and for a time teaches self-control without endangering marriage; celibacy and marriage each have their own service to the Lord, and bishops should be tested by ruling their households.
Miscellanies 3.12.88Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We become children again, reborn through water; the married too may care for the Lord's things, and both wife and virgin are holy in the Lord; Paul speaks sternly to restrain those inclined to a second marriage.
Miscellanies 7.12.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Self-control begins in fear of God and is perfected in love; the one who knows eats, drinks, and marries as need and reason require, and the married man who serves God amid family cares surpasses the solitary man, whose virtue is less tested.
Octavius 31.5Minucius Felix · ca. 197–250 · Christians keep to one marriage, sober meals, and many to lifelong virginity.
On Prayer 21Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian takes up the disputed question whether virgins must be veiled, beginning with the argument of those who say Paul's command applies only to married women.
On Patience 13Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Patience is also exercised in the body: in fasting and penance, as Nebuchadnezzar showed, in continence and celibacy, and above all in enduring persecution and martyrdom.
To His Wife 1.3Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · Marriage is not forbidden, against those who reject it, but Paul permits it only as a concession and prefers continence as the better good.
To His Wife 1.8Tertullian · ca. 200–206 · God champions widows; widowhood, being chosen by effort, has a merit of its own even beside virginity, and a widow should avoid idle and loose company.
Acts of Thomas 12Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The Lord, in Thomas's likeness, urges the bride and groom to abstain from intercourse and children for the sake of the true, incorrupt marriage; they believe him.
Acts of Thomas 96Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Charisius accuses Thomas of teaching that husbands should not live with their wives and dismisses his asceticism as mere poverty.
Acts of Thomas 97Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Mygdonia prays for strength to keep her chastity against Charisius.
Acts of Thomas 126Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Before the king, Thomas defends his teaching that those who serve God must be pure and free from bodily pleasures, as a king's servants must be clean.
Acts of Thomas 143Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · Thomas urges belief in Christ the physician and begins a prayer recalling how Christ kept him from corruption and called him to true wealth and to continence.
Acts of Thomas 144Anonymous · ca. 200–250 · The second form of the opening of Thomas's prayer: Christ kept him through temptation and poverty, and he never married so that God's temple might stay unpolluted.
Apostolic Tradition 12Hippolytus of Rome · early third century
Letters to Virgins 1.2.1Anonymous · 3rd century · One who chooses celibacy for the kingdom must live worthily of it.
Letters to Virgins 1.3.2Anonymous · 3rd century · Celibates must imitate Christ in everything to be saved.
Letters to Virgins 1.3.3Anonymous · 3rd century · Virginity without virtues is the foolish virgins’ lampless state.
Letters to Virgins 1.4.1Anonymous · 3rd century · The celibate lives an angelic life in service to God.
Letters to Virgins 1.5.5Anonymous · 3rd century · Chastity is great but must be joined with the other virtues.
Letters to Virgins 1.6.1Anonymous · 3rd century · A virgin bore God the Word; virginity is glorious.
Letters to Virgins 1.7.2Anonymous · 3rd century · True virginity is holy in body and spirit, wholly devoted to the Lord.
Letters to Virgins 2.3.2Anonymous · 3rd century · Ascetic men and consecrated women must not associate, to avoid scandal.
Exhortation to Chastity 1Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian counsels a widowed brother that God wills our sanctification, which comes in three degrees: virginity from birth, continence from baptism, and “monogamy,” refusing a second marriage after a spouse's death.
Exhortation to Chastity 9Tertullian · ca. 208 · Tertullian argues that second marriage is akin to sexual immorality, since it arises from the same desire of the flesh, and that permitting a second marriage leaves no limit to further ones.
Exhortation to Chastity 13Tertullian · ca. 208 · Even pagans honor once-married women and priestly celibacy, and Dido and Lucretia died rather than take a second man; how much more should Christians, like those of the church who live in continence, refuse a second marriage.
Against Marcion 1.29Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Marcion baptized only the celibate and those who divorced, condemning marriage; Tertullian answers that marriage is good, blessed by the Creator, and that celibacy is better only as a free choice, while abolishing marriage would destroy both holiness and the human race.
On the Veiling of Virgins 2Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Many apostolic churches in Greece and elsewhere veil their virgins; since they are one church with us, their custom is ours too, and the custom that hides virgins from view better suits God's discipline.
On the Veiling of Virgins 3Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Veiling had been left to choice in Carthage until unveiled virgins, claiming to be scandalized, demanded that veiled virgins be uncovered; Tertullian condemns stripping a consecrated virgin of her veil as a kind of violation.
On the Veiling of Virgins 5Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Eve was called “woman” while still a virgin in paradise, so the word denotes the female sex, not the married state; only the name “Eve”, mother of the living, looked forward to marriage.
On the Veiling of Virgins 6Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Paul calls the Virgin Mary a “woman” and the angel blesses her “among women”, so the word includes virgins; she was so called not because she was betrothed but because she was female.
On the Veiling of Virgins 10Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · If virgins deserved a visible mark of honour, male virgins and the continent, whose struggle is harder, would deserve it more; since men have none, women should have none either.
On the Veiling of Virgins 11Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Virgins should be veiled not from birth but from puberty, when, like Adam and Eve after the fall, they become aware of their sex; Rebecca veiled herself on first seeing her bridegroom, and nature and time make a girl a woman whether or not she is betrothed.
On the Veiling of Virgins 13Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Virgins who veil themselves in public but go bareheaded in church are seeking the brothers' praise, whereas Christ commands that good deeds, and above all the offering of one's own body, be done in secret for God alone.
On the Veiling of Virgins 14Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Displaying virgins to attract others makes virginity a matter of glory and rivalry; some who fall conceal it by staying unveiled, some attempt to destroy their unborn children, and public admiration wears down modesty.
On the Veiling of Virgins 15Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · True virginity fears itself and hides under the veil as under armor, guarding against envy, the evil eye, and temptation, content to be known to God alone.
On the Veiling of Virgins 16Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Scripture, nature, and discipline all point to the veil; Tertullian urges every virgin to veil her head, since she is already married to Christ.
On Monogamy 3Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · One marriage is not a new rule: Christ and Paul already preferred continence and allowed marriage only as a concession, so the Paraclete, far from innovating, spares our weakness by not demanding complete continence.
On Monogamy 5Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Christ calls all things back to the beginning, including one indissoluble marriage; Christ himself was unmarried in the flesh and has one bride, the church, so Christians owe him at least monogamy.
On Monogamy 8Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · The Gospel opens with examples of monogamy and continence (Zechariah, John the Baptist, Mary, Simeon, Anna, Peter), and Christ's own teaching and example point the same way.
On Monogamy 16Tertullian · ca. 210–217 · Remarriage is not weakness but appetite; Christians who remarry for support, company, or heirs will be judged at the end by the continence of saints and even of pagans, and should at least follow the first Adam, who married once.
On Modesty 16Tertullian · ca. 210–220 · Paul's teaching on the body as Christ's temple, on marriage as a concession against sexual immorality, and on divorce and continence shows he could never pardon adultery or incest after baptism.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 61Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · The bodily organs have higher uses than eating and procreation, and fasting, continence, and virginity already show that they can be idle without the person ceasing to be whole.
PG 12:1175 (Ps 6 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · On Ps 6:4–8: God turns and rescues the soul; in death, God’s enemy, there is no remembrance of him; the weary groaning and the bed washed with tears (applied to the chaste who weep over past sins); anger blinds the mind; demons always work lawlessness, humans sometimes, angels never.
PG 12:1483 (Ps 61–62 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · Beginning of Ps 62 LXX (63): rising early to God, flesh in the desert as purity, God’s mercy better than lives, and hands lifted in the Lord’s name.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 33, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen explains that Paul answers the Corinthians' letter about spouses who were attempting continence by praising chastity while protecting the other spouse, and that the mutual debt and mutual authority of 1 Cor 7:3–4 show the equality of husband and wife.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 37, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen reads Paul's words on circumcision and slavery in 1 Cor 7:18–24 as figures for the married and the unmarried: the man who has cast off his wife should not marry another, the married should not cast off his wife, and celibacy and marriage are in themselves indifferent.
Fragment on 1 Corinthians (Jenkins § 39, part 1)Origen · ca. 226-254 · Origen distinguishes commanded duties from voluntary counsels such as virginity, notes that Paul calls chastity “good” but marriage only “not sin,” and on 1 Cor 7:27 says the married must not seek release nor the released seek a wife.
Homilies on Exodus 13.6Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The incorruptible wood, found only “with whom it was found,” is the rare gift of virginity, unlike understanding, speech, and the four elements, which all have.
Homilies on Leviticus 1.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Morally, one's own flesh is the calf to be offered in chastity, but bodily chastity without the other virtues is like the foolish virgins' lamps without oil.
Homilies on Leviticus 9.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The high priest's linen garments are read as figures of Christ's earthly and virginally conceived body and of the chastity of those who imitate him.
Homilies on Numbers 23.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The first of God’s festivals is the perpetual morning and evening sacrifice, fulfilled by constant prayer and avoidance of sin; Origen adds, from 1 Cor 7:5, that married intercourse interrupts it, so that only the perpetually continent offer it fully.
Homilies on Jeremiah 20.7Origen · ca. 240 · To “call on faithlessness” is to break our bad agreements with the world and the devil, as Judith broke her pact with Holofernes; to “call on misery” is to choose the narrow way of ascetic discipline, as those who renounce marriage do, and as Jeremiah lived unmarried.
On the Good of Modesty 4Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Chastity has three degrees: virginity first, continence second, and faithful marriage third, all of them praiseworthy.
On the Good of Modesty 7Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Virginity stands above the laws of marriage, rivals the angels, and is free from husbands, childbirth, grief, and fear.
Commentary on the Song of Songs 2.155Origen · ca. 240–245 (Rufinus's translation ca. 410) · The bride's cheeks are the church's chaste and pure members, made beautiful by Christ; the turtledove, faithful to one mate, figures the church's faithfulness to Christ; her neck is the obedience of those who take his yoke.
On the Singleness of Clerics 32Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · Married couples separate for continence out of love, while clerics claim “love” to keep unrelated women; Israel in Ezra put away unlawful wives, but these clerics would sooner deny their parents than leave their women.
On the Singleness of Clerics 39Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · A long encomium of solitary chastity, which alone overcomes the evils of cohabitation and puts to death the members that are on earth.
Against Celsus 7.48Origen · ca. 248 · Many simple Christians keep complete chastity without the hemlock used by the Athenian hierophant, and Christian virgins keep virginity not for honour or pay but out of devotion to God.
Commentary on Matthew 14.24Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen discusses Jesus' exception for sexual immorality, asks whether a man may divorce a wife guilty of poisoning, murder, or theft, notes other ways a husband can make his wife commit adultery, and teaches that celibacy is a gift God gives to those who ask.
Commentary on Matthew 15.1Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen sets out two mistaken readings of the three kinds of eunuch in Matt 19:12: that all three are bodily (which led some to castrate themselves), and that only the third is figurative.
Commentary on Matthew 15.4Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen reads all three kinds of eunuch figuratively: those continent by nature, those continent because of human teaching (philosophers or heretics), and those who cut out passion by the Word of God for the kingdom.
Commentary on Matthew 15.5Origen · ca. 246–248 · Taking the three kinds of eunuch spiritually, Origen contrasts Pharaoh’s eunuchs with Nehemiah, the eunuch who rebuilt Jerusalem, and Daniel and his companions, barren toward Babylon but fruitful in the Spirit.
Commentary on Matthew 17.4Origen · ca. 246–248 · The parable of the two sons concerns disobedient Israel and the believing Gentiles, and also those who promise little but do much, or promise much but do nothing.
Commentary on Romans 3.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · To 'turn aside' implies that rational nature was created upright; doing only what is commanded leaves one a 'useless servant,' so works beyond the precept such as virginity make one good and faithful; no one but Christ has brought goodness to completion; and Origen explains the 'open grave' and 'deceit.'
Commentary on Romans 9.1Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Christians offer God the reasonable sacrifice of their own bodies, mastering pride, anger and lust; virginity holds a high rank but married believers too can offer a holy sacrifice, while virgins stained by pride or avarice do not; renewal of mind through Scripture lets one discern God's good, pleasing and perfect will.
To Quirinus 3.32Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Scripture commends virginity and continence: Christ praises those who renounce marriage for the kingdom, and Paul prefers the undivided single life while permitting marriage.
Letter 4.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Cyprian and four other bishops answer Pomponius about consecrated virgins found sleeping with men, including a deacon, and insist on church discipline.
Letter 4.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Virgins must not live with men at all; those who cannot keep their vow should marry rather than fall into sin and scandal.
Letter 4.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · A midwife's examination proves nothing; the very sharing of beds is shameful, and Christ, the virgins' Bridegroom, is angered; clergy above all must set an example.
Letter 62.2Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · The captives are temples of God and wear Christ; in them Christ himself must be ransomed, and the danger to consecrated virgins adds to the urgency.
On the Dress of Virgins 3Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Cyprian turns to the consecrated virgins, the flower of the church, and addresses them out of affection and concern rather than authority.
On the Dress of Virgins 4Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins vowed to Christ should seek to please him alone; Christ and the Apocalypse praise continence, and what is said to men applies to women too.
On the Dress of Virgins 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · A virgin should be chaste not only in body but also in dress, so that no one could doubt she is a virgin; she has no husband to please.
On the Dress of Virgins 6Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · A virgin who has renounced the flesh should not glory in her beauty; the only glory of the flesh is to suffer for Christ in martyrdom.
On the Dress of Virgins 20Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Through finery and freedom the devil corrupts virgins, who become adulteresses against Christ and face punishment as great as the reward they lose.
On the Dress of Virgins 21Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Cyprian urges virgins to stay as God made them, avoid jewelry, cosmetics, mixed baths, and wedding feasts, and take the narrow way to their sixtyfold reward.
On the Dress of Virgins 22Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Virgins escape the curse on Eve and already share the angelic life of the resurrection that Christ promised; they should persevere and seek the adornment of character.
On the Dress of Virgins 23Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · God first commanded increase, then counseled continence; virgins, freely choosing it, live out the new birth of baptism more fully and bear the image of the heavenly man.
On the Dress of Virgins 24Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Cyprian closes by urging virgins to encourage one another and asks them to remember him when their virginity is rewarded.
Symposium, prologueMethodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Gregorion begins to tell Euboulion how Theopatra and nine other virgins, guests of Arete (Virtue) in a garden like paradise, were each asked to give a speech in praise of virginity, beginning with Marcella.
Symposium 1.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Marcella praises virginity as the church's finest flower, which needs a noble soul, constant study of Scripture as preserving salt, and inner as well as bodily purity.
Symposium 1.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · God educated humanity by stages, from marriage of siblings, through monogamy and fidelity, to continence and finally virginity.
Symposium 1.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Circumcision ended marriage of siblings; the prophets and the Wisdom books then led from polygamy to one wife and on toward continence.
Symposium 1.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Virginity was reserved for Christ to teach: taking our form, he became the model by which humanity, made in God's image, may attain his likeness.
Symposium 1.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Christ is the chief virgin; Revelation's 144,000 virgins who follow the Lamb are few compared with the countless saints; Marcella hands over to Theophila.
Symposium 2.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Theophila replies that virginity does not abolish childbearing: God is still creating human beings through procreation until their appointed number is complete.
Symposium 2.7Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · God alone gives the immortal soul; childbearing is good and virginity better, and the church, like a meadow, is adorned with both; Thalia rises to speak next.
Symposium 3.11Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul first sets out that it is good not to touch a woman, then allows marital relations to those who cannot control themselves, lest they fall into sexual immorality.
Symposium 3.13Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Paul permits marriage for virgins without sin, but only by human concession; his counsel as a whole leans toward virginity as freeing one to please the Lord.
Symposium 3.14Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Virginity is God's gift; Paul permits those who cannot sustain it to marry, but those who freely keep it do better; Theopatra is next to speak.
Symposium 4.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Theopatra, the fourth speaker, sets out to praise chastity as the brightest of Christ's gifts.
Symposium 4.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · God sent chastity to anchor souls against the flood of corruption; as Pharaoh drowned the boys, the devil seeks to destroy the soul's rational offspring.
Symposium 4.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · In Psalm 137 the pure souls hang their bodies, the “instruments,” on the willow of chastity so that the rivers of Babylon, this turbulent life, cannot sweep them away.
Symposium 4.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The virgins, who set their hopes on heaven, are the heavenly Jerusalem that God promises to set first at the beginning of joy after the resurrection.
Symposium 4.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The virgin's breast-band in Jeremiah is love of God, which binds the soul to chastity; Arete calls on Thallousa next.
Symposium 5.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Thallousa, the fifth speaker, argues that the “great vow” of Numbers 6 is virginity, the offering of oneself wholly to God.
Symposium 5.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · True dedication means consecrating every member, mouth, tongue, eyes, ears, hands, feet, and heart, to the Lord; this is the great vow.
Symposium 5.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The Nazirite's abstinence from wine means that the virgin must shun the devil's vine, whose fruit is lust, violence, and every passion, and cling to Christ, the true vine.
Symposium 5.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The virgin must avoid not only wine but everything intoxicating, including luxury and adornment; the chaste are God's golden altar of incense in the holy of holies.
Symposium 6.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The soul's beauty is kept by virginity; the ten virgins of the parable are believers, the wise truly practising virginity and the foolish only professing it.
Symposium 6.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The five wise virgins are the five senses kept pure; the flesh is a five-lighted lamp carried to Christ at the resurrection, and the oil is wisdom and righteousness.
Symposium 6.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Agathe ends with the virgins' reward, betrothal to the Word and a place in Christ's heavenly chorus, and urges the young to fill their lamps and meet the Bridegroom.
Symposium 7.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Procilla, the seventh speaker, lets Christ himself be the witness to chastity, as the Bridegroom of the Song of Songs who praises the virgin soul as his bride, a sealed garden.
Symposium 7.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · All believers will be rewarded in ranks, but the virgins, whose lifelong contest is like martyrdom, are the first rank, the one chosen dove of the Song among queens and concubines.
Symposium 7.9Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Psalm 45 shows the virgins following the bride into the King's presence, second only to her.
Symposium 8.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Thecla, the eighth speaker and a disciple of Paul, explains virginity as nearness to God, which gives the soul wings to rise above the world's seductions.
Symposium 8.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Virgins, winged by their longing for the heavenly meadows, despise earthly goods and even torture, and at death angels escort them first to their reward.
Symposium 8.12Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Winged by virginity, the church escapes the dragon; the virgins, armed with God's armour, should face the many-headed beast boldly, since Christ has already defeated it.
Symposium 9.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The branches of Tabernacles are faith, study of Scripture, love, righteousness, and above all chastity, which virgins bear in full and chaste married people in smaller measure.
Symposium 10.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Domnina, the last speaker, argues that chastity, taught by Christ, did what the law could not: it overthrew the devil's reign over humanity.
Symposium 10.3Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The bramble, the same plant as the chaste-tree, stands for chastity; Elijah found refuge under it, and the earlier laws given to Adam and Noah failed to save humanity.
Symposium 10.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Zechariah's two olive trees are Christ and the Holy Spirit, whose branches are the law and the prophets; chastity now lets us receive their full fruit and frees from the sentence of death.
Symposium 11.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Arete judges that true chastity governs every member and the heart, not only the body, and crowns all the speakers, giving Thecla the greater crown.
Symposium 11.2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Led by Thecla, the virgins sing an alphabetical hymn to Christ the Bridegroom, with the refrain “I keep myself pure for you,” recalling chaste figures from Abel to Mary and ending in praise of the Father.
Symposium, epilogueMethodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · In the closing dialogue, Euboulion argues against Gregorion that the soul that feels desire and masters it is better than one that never feels it; they agree to continue another day.
Canon 13Anonymous · ca. 306 (disputed, ca. 295–314) · Dedicated virgins who persist in sexual sin are refused communion; those who fell once and do lifelong penance receive it at death.
Church History 2.17.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Philo describes elderly virgins among them, chaste by choice out of love for wisdom.
Church History 4.23.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius urged Pinytus of Cnossus not to impose celibacy on the brothers as a necessity, but to consider the weakness of the many.
Church History 6.8.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Taking Matt 19:12 literally, and to avoid scandal in teaching women, Origen castrated himself.
Testament of Our Lord 1.46Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Divine Institutes 6.23.37Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Many have kept perpetual virginity.
Divine Institutes 6.23.38Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Virginity is permitted, not commanded, and greatly rewarded.
Divine Institutes 6.23.39Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Continence is the summit of the virtues.
Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs 16Anonymous · 304 (12 February) · Victoria, who had escaped a forced marriage to dedicate herself to virginity, refuses her brother's attempt to save her and confesses that she took part in the assembly.
Preparation for the Gospel 8.11.14Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 313–324 · Philo: the Essenes renounce marriage, which he says would dissolve their community, and disparage women.
Canon 19Anonymous · 314 · Those who break a vow of virginity do the penance of the twice-married, and virgins may not live with men as “sisters”.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul teaches that the shortness of the time and the cares of marriage are reasons to refrain from it.
Demonstration of the Gospel 1.9.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul contrasts the undivided devotion of the unmarried woman with the cares of the married.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Jesus’ austere conduct and his teaching on eunuchs for the kingdom show his chastity.
Demonstration of the Gospel 3.6.20Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Countless disciples who live lifelong continence testify to Jesus’ teaching.
On the Incarnation 48.2Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christian virgins, chaste youths, and martyrs prove the truth of the faith.
On the Incarnation 51.1Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 318–325 · Christ's teaching has made even children vow lifelong virginity.
Theophany 4.32Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Theophany 5.19Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Letter to Amun 1Athanasius of Alexandria · before 356 · Athanasius tells the monk Amun that involuntary bodily emissions are no sin, since God made the body good, and distinguishes lawful marriage from immorality, and marriage from the higher way of virginity.
Tricennial Oration (In Praise of Constantine) 17.6Eusebius of Caesarea · 335–336 · Even amid persecution Christ raised up ascetics and lifelong virgins everywhere, persuaded multitudes to feed on Scripture, and taught even slaves and barbarians to despise death and expect judgment.
Demonstration 6.5Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.6Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.7Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 6.19Aphrahat · 337-345
Demonstration 7.20Aphrahat · 337-345 · Before baptism, those intending to vow virginity and holiness must be warned: whoever wants marriage should marry before baptism, and whoever loves possessions should withdraw.
Demonstration 18.1Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat introduces his defence of the Christian covenant of virginity against Jewish critics who cite God's blessings of fruitfulness.
Demonstration 18.4Aphrahat · 337-345 · Moses lived in continence from the time God spoke with him, just as Israel had to abstain from women for three days before God spoke at Sinai.
Demonstration 18.5Aphrahat · 337-345 · If Israel needed three days' abstinence to hear God once, Moses, who spoke with God constantly, could not have lived in marriage; those who keep holiness always are dearer still to God.
Demonstration 18.6Aphrahat · 337-345 · The law's requirement that priests marry only virgins, Israel's abstinence at Sinai, and Moses' forty years of continence show the excellence of virginity; many children born brought only harm.
Demonstration 18.7Aphrahat · 337-345 · Moses, Joshua, Elijah, Elisha, and Jeremiah lived in chastity, and Ezekiel's wife was taken from him as a mercy; the Jewish explanation of Jeremiah's celibacy is rejected.
Demonstration 18.8Aphrahat · 337-345 · Marriage, established by God, is very good, but as among God's good creatures some are better than others, virginity is more excellent.
Demonstration 18.9Aphrahat · 337-345 · Examples from the earth before rain to Adam, the sons of Seth, Samson, David, Amnon, and Solomon show beauty in virginity and ruin through sexual desire.
Demonstration 18.10Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat reads Gen 2:24 spiritually: a man who marries leaves God his Father and the Holy Spirit his mother, as his heart turns to the world.
Demonstration 18.11Aphrahat · 337-345 · As husband and wife become one flesh, so the unmarried man remains one spirit and mind with God his Father.
Demonstration 18.12Aphrahat · 337-345 · Aphrahat wrote in response to a Jew's taunt that the celibate are unclean; virginity, freely chosen, bears the angels' likeness, and once lost cannot be regained.
Life of Constantine 4.26.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · Some are childless by nature, others by choosing celibacy and consecrated virginity.
Life of Constantine 4.26.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 337–339 · The childless should be pitied and celibates admired, not punished.
Canon 9Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Anyone who chooses virginity out of contempt for marriage rather than for virginity's own goodness is anathematized.
Canon 10Anonymous · ca. 340–360 · Virgins who exalt themselves over married people are anathematized.
Canon 3Anonymous · ca. 345–348 · Celibate men and women devoted to virginity may not live in the same house; laymen who persist are excommunicated and clerics lose their rank.
Catechetical Lecture 12.34Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril urges all ages to the angelic life of chastity, rejecting the adornments that entice to pleasure.
Catechetical Lecture 15.23Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Judge shows no partiality to rich or poor; every good deed, including faithful marriage and chastity, and every sin committed after baptism is recorded.
Catechetical Lecture 16.20Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Spirit inspires virginity, poverty and victory over demons, and as Paraclete strengthens martyrs with the vision of paradise.
Long recension, Philadelphians 4Anonymous · later 4th century (probable) · Ignatius urges one faith and one Eucharist, sets out the unity of God, faith and church, and gives instructions to wives, virgins, children, slaves, husbands, fathers and masters, honouring both virginity and marriage.
Defence before Constantius 33Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 353–357 · Athanasius describes how the Arians, with the judges’ help, stripped and tortured consecrated virgins, outdoing Pilate’s cruelty, and blamed it on the emperor.
Commentary on Matthew 19Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary leaves the question of divorce untouched (referring readers to the words of Jesus, the disciples, and Paul), explains the three kinds of eunuchs, reads the children as the nations, and the rich young man as Israel trusting in the law, with the camel through the needle as the nations entering by the gospel.
History of the Arians 25Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes his welcome home in 346: the Palestinian bishops received him, and Alexandria rejoiced with a flowering of asceticism, charity, and peace.
Homilies on the Psalms 44.11Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 45:13–17 Basil teaches that the bride's glory, a garment woven of word and deed, is within; that virgins who choose virginity gladly will be led into the king's temple; and that the Church's sons, the apostles and saints, rule the earth in place of the fathers, while the peoples confess Christ forever.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 77Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's seventy-seventh rule: virgins should be free of worldly cares so as to serve God undistracted in mind and body.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.14.14Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Paul likewise counsels virginity and celibacy beyond the law's command, and gave up rights he was allowed, offering freely more than was required.
Tractates on the Psalms 127.7Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Taken literally, a fruitful wife and children cannot be the blessedness of those who fear God, since the patriarchs lacked it, sinners enjoy it, and virgins forgo it.
Titus of Bostra, Against the Manichees 2.57Titus of Bostra · ca. 360s · Sexual desire exists so that self-control, virginity and celibacy may be real victories of reason and holiness.
Oration 8.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia united the advantages of marriage and of celibacy, won her husband to God, and consecrated her whole household.
Oration 24.3Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory praises Cyprian: his learning, his former life as a magician, his conversion through a virgin he tried to seduce by magic, his episcopate, his encouragement of martyrs from exile under Decius, his martyrdom, and the discovery of his relics.
Oration 37.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Virginity is higher than the good of marriage, yet virgins and wives depend on and should honour one another; the virgin must keep eyes, tongue, feet and mind virgin too.
Oration 37.11Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Virginity, which most cannot receive, is angelic; the virgin must direct all her love to God and Christ the Bridegroom, valuing none of the world's goods.
Oration 37.12Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · As water confined in a pipe rises, desire concentrated on God lifts the virgin upward; she must guard herself on every side against the devil's gradual approaches.
Oration 37.16Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Natural eunuchs should not pride themselves on an untested, involuntary chastity, since only chosen goodness deserves praise.
Oration 40.18Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Baptism benefits virgins, the married, those in authority and slaves, rich and poor; those engaged in public affairs should not fear it; and the parable of the labourers does not justify delaying baptism.
Oration 44.8Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gregory exhorts the married, virgins and the powerful, and all to humility and constant renewal, the true way to keep the feast of dedication.
Tractates 1.4.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno praises chastity, which guards family life and makes the church, Christ's virgin bride, fruitful in holy children.
Tractates 1.4.7Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno ends with a hymn to chastity, the treasure of souls and temple of God, which brings fruit thirty-, sixty- and a hundredfold.
Tractates 1.5.1Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno begins a discourse on continence: he does not condemn marriage but, with Paul, sets virginity and widowhood above it.
Tractates 1.5.2Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno compares the married woman, anxious for husband and children, with the virgin, who seeks to please God alone.
Tractates 1.5.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno answers the objection from Mary's marriage by her perpetual virginity and urges virgins to keep their state, as the angels in the resurrection.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 6.4Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · The Donatists made consecrated virgins do penance and take a second veil, though the veil is only a sign of their profession, not a sacrament; Optatus compares this to a second wedding, which is not celebrated even when a widow remarries, and says it exposed the virgins to abduction.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:6–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Marriage is permitted, not commanded; Paul wishes all were celibate like himself, but each has his own gift and must not be forced.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:8Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul counsels the unmarried and widows to remain as he is, which Ambrosiaster takes to show that Paul was a lifelong virgin.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · There is no command about virginity, since God, the author of marriage, would not condemn his own institution; Paul gives counsel only.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:26Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Virginity is best both before God and in this life, being free of the troubles of marriage, with only the struggle against desire.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:32Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Freedom from marriage, the heaviest worldly care, frees the mind for God.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:33Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Marriage divides a man's mind; a virgin, unlike a married woman, is free of a wife's burdens.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:34Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The unmarried woman can devote body and mind to the Lord, while the married woman is bound to please her husband.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:35Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Virginity is the quicker way to God, but worldly-minded virgins will be punished while devout married people will be rewarded.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:36Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A virgin of age who desires marriage does not sin in marrying; better a public marriage than secret shame.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:37Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · A guardian should not push toward marriage a virgin who does not wish it.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 7:38Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Giving a virgin in marriage is good; keeping her unmarried is better.
Epigram 10Damasus I of Rome · 366–384 · Damasus's epitaph for his sister Irene, a consecrated virgin who died before twenty, asking her to remember him when God comes.
On Virginity 0Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The preface explains the plan of the treatise: praise of virginity, the troubles of ordinary life, the true object of desire, the method of virtue, examples of the saints, and an unnamed living guide.
On Virginity 1Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Virginity needs no long praise: its name, “incorrupt,” and Paul’s words “holy and blameless” already show that it makes people sharers in God’s holiness.
On Virginity 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Virginity belongs first to God (the Father who begets without passion, the Son, the Spirit) and the angels; Christ was born of a virgin to show that only purity can receive God, who now dwells spiritually in every virginal soul.
On Virginity 3Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Gregory, himself married, regrets that he cannot share in virginity, and describes the anxieties of even the happiest marriage: fear of death, dangers of childbirth, widowhood, children’s troubles, and the crimes the law courts reveal.
On Virginity 5Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Bodily virginity serves the soul’s freedom from passion: freed from the claims of the flesh, the soul can turn its power of love wholly to the contemplation of the divine beauty.
On Virginity 6Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Elijah and John the Baptist, living apart from human life, food, comfort, and marriage, reached the greatness of their gifts; their example shows that one who seeks God must not divide his mind among many things.
On Virginity 7Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Like water gathered into one channel or forced up a pipe, the mind that self-control keeps from scattering among many desires rises toward the truth; marriage is the root of the pursuit of vain things.
On Virginity 8Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Marriage is blessed by God and those who condemn it as unclean are heretics; virtue lies in the mean, and one who can use marriage with moderation, like Isaac, should not despise it, but for the weak virginity is the safer course.
On Virginity 9Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Habit is powerful: many who began chaste were drawn by permitted pleasures into a filthy life, so the weak should take refuge in virginity, which keeps the heart undivided for the love of God; habit can also make the struggle sweet.
On Virginity 11Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · To find the true Beauty one must look past material beauties to the formless, unchanging Good; the soul, purified and winged like the dove of the Spirit, becomes light and, like a clean mirror, reflects God, whom true virginity aims to see.
On Virginity 13Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Bodily birth leads to death, but spiritual birth through virginity halts death’s advance, as it was shattered against the virginity of Mary; the virgin already shares the angelic life of the resurrection.
On Virginity 14Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Virginity is not only bodily: the soul wedded to Christ must keep itself from every sin, since, as a stone disturbs a whole pond, one passion upsets the whole soul, and the virtues stand or fall together.
On Virginity 15Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Every vice is an adulterer that defiles the soul’s spiritual marriage to Christ; as a queen who yields to one seducer is condemned, so the virgin soul must keep itself pure from every passion.
On Virginity 17Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Virginity is the foundation on which every other virtue must be built; like partial armour or an unfinished tower, it is worthless if the rest of life is disordered.
On Virginity 18Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The mind must order every power of the soul to its proper use (desire for God, anger against sin, grief for repentance), for true self-control is that harmony; freedom from marriage is not enough without purity in all of life, as Israel passed dry through the sea while Egypt sank.
On Virginity 19Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · Miriam, Aaron’s sister, leading the women with her dry drum, may have been the first virgin and a figure of Mary; true fruitfulness is spiritual, as Isaiah, Paul, and the Virgin’s birth show, and bodily virginity serves the inner spiritual marriage.
On Virginity 20Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · One cannot pursue both bodily pleasure and the spiritual marriage; the soul that seeks union with Christ must, as in an earthly match, make itself young, rich, noble, and strong in spiritual ways, bringing the virtues as its bridal gifts.
On Virginity 23Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The virgin life must be learned from a living, experienced teacher, as languages and medicine are; the young who go alone fall into pride, idleness, false visions, deadly fasting, or sham celibacy that brings scandal.
On Virginity 24Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 370–371 · The young should learn the virgin life from a living master (the unnamed bishop, old in youth and young in age) and his disciples, not despairing at others’ failures; crucified with Christ, offering themselves as priests and sacrifices, the pure in heart will see God.
Letter 22.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells Eustochium that he writes not to praise virginity or disparage marriage but to warn her of the dangers to her vow.
Letter 22.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium that if even Paul had to struggle with the flesh, she must guard her virginity in mind as well as body.
Letter 22.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes in prophetic images the shame of a consecrated virgin who falls, and urges Eustochium to crush sinful thoughts at their first stirring.
Letter 22.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome condemns the practice of celibate men and women living together as "spiritual" partners (agapetae).
Letter 22.18Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Eustochium to watchful prayer and tears, and argues that the virgin is free from the curse on woman and from marriage, which ends in death.
Letter 22.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome insists that preferring virginity does not disparage marriage, which he places second, and argues from Scripture that virginity belongs to paradise and marriage to the fallen state.
Letter 22.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises marriage because it brings forth virgins, and explains that Paul gave no command about virginity so that it would be freely chosen and marriage not condemned.
Letter 22.21Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome contrasts the Old Testament blessing of children with the gospel's call to virginity, which began with Mary and is commended by Paul.
Letter 22.22Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome refers Eustochium to his own work against Helvidius and to earlier writers on virginity, and argues that marital relations hinder continual prayer.
Letter 22.23Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome urges Eustochium to guard her virginity like the sacred vessels of the temple, not displaying herself in public.
Letter 22.24Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium against flattery and worldly distractions, urging her to be like the ark of the covenant and like Mary at the Lord's feet.
Letter 22.38Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium against worldly "virgins", holds up Mary as her model, and insists that virginity avails only within the church, not among heretics like the Manichaeans.
Letter 22.41Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome closes by picturing the heavenly welcome of the virgin by Mary, Thecla, and Christ the Bridegroom, with the virgins who follow the Lamb.
Letter 24.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome writes to Marcella in praise of the virgin Asella, asking that the letter be read to young women rather than to Asella herself.
Letter 49.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome denies that his books against Jovinian condemned marriage and quotes his own preface ranking virginity, widowhood, and marriage as the hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold yield.
Letter 49.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites his comments on 1 Corinthians 7, where he said that the Lord forbids putting away a wife and that marriage too is a gift of God, though a different one.
Letter 49.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome cites passages where he called marriage the root and foundation of virginity and forbade a married man to divorce his wife.
Letter 49.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome distinguishes not condemning from praising and cites passages where he rejected the Encratite condemnation of marriage and set out three grades of chastity.
Letter 49.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls that he said the church does not condemn marriage but ranks it below virginity and widowhood.
Letter 49.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says his harsh sayings on touching a woman only expound Paul by comparison, and shows that Ambrose used still stronger language about marriage.
Letter 49.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome protests that he has never condemned marriage but praises virginity, which he admits he does not himself possess.
Letter 50.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome asks Domnio to warn the critic against teaching virgins in private and to put his objections in writing, as Pammachius did.
Letter 64.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome applies the high priest's marriage rules spiritually to the soul, which must be a pure virgin betrothed to Christ.
Letter 65.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the sword on the thigh as the chastity by which Christ, born of a virgin, overcame the flesh and became the leader of virgins.
Letter 65.14Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the myrrh, stacte, and cassia of the king's garments as the virgin's mortification and praise, and explains the 'ivory houses'.
Letter 65.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome interprets the virgins and companions led to the king as the ranks of virgins, widows, and the continent married within the church.
Letter 66.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome praises the four virtues in Pammachius's family and describes Paulina's chaste marriage, her many miscarriages, and her wish to bear children who would be virgins for Christ.
Letter 107.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says the girl should always stay with her mother, avoid worldly company and servants' festivities, and, once grown, avoid the baths altogether.
Letter 107.13Jerome · ca. 370–419 · If Laeta cannot keep these rules at Rome, Jerome urges her to send Paula to her grandmother and aunt at Bethlehem, where he himself will teach her, while Laeta, bound by marriage, gives to God in her daughter what she cannot give in herself.
Letter 117.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the daughter's complaints about her worldly mother: she should bear with her, or live among virgins, but not leave her mother for a man.
Letter 117.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns the daughter of the dangers to her chastity at the country houses and banquets she visits with relatives, where flattery and temptation abound.
Letter 123.12Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome answers the objection from the patriarchs’ many wives: the command to multiply belonged to an earlier time, and these Old Testament marriages are types of the synagogue and the church.
Letter 128.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Two views on dressing a girl vowed to virginity: plainly from the start, or with finery so that she learns to despise it; Jerome reports the second side's arguments.
Letter 128.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects indulging youth, reads 1 Cor 7 allegorically of virginity and marriage, and warns virgins, men and women, against living or sitting alone with the opposite sex.
Letter 130.1Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome says that writing to the noble virgin Demetrias is the hardest task of his life, undertaken at the insistence of her grandmother and mother.
Letter 130.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome breaks off his commentary on Ezekiel's temple to write to Demetrias, recently veiled as a virgin, as one who waters what her family has planted.
Letter 130.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Demetrias, raised in luxury, longed for a life of fasting and virginity after biblical models, and prayed in secret that her family would allow it.
Letter 130.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On the eve of her wedding Demetrias resolved on virginity, put off her finery, and threw herself at her grandmother's feet.
Letter 130.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes the joy of Demetrias's family, of Africa, Italy, and the East at her profession, and contrasts parents who give only their unmarriageable or poorly dowered daughters to virginity.
Letter 130.10Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Fasting, modelled by Moses, Elijah, and Christ, quenches the heat of youth and makes a virgin's life like that of the angels.
Letter 130.19Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns virgins against dandified young men, going out alone, and lax living, recalls his earlier treatise on virginity, and urges perseverance in the chosen life.
Letter 145.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome reminds Exuperantius of Paul's advice that the unmarried should not seek a wife.
Letter 147.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome recalls Sabinianus's earlier sins and charges him with trying to seduce a virgin in the cave of the Nativity at Bethlehem.
Letter 147.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome describes Sabinianus's secret vows to the virgin in the cave and his planned elopement, which was discovered.
Letter 148.28Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer rebukes Celantia for vowing continence without her husband's consent, since Paul gives each spouse power over the other's body.
Letter 148.30Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer warns that Celantia is caught between breaking her vow and defying her husband, and urges her to win his consent so that both may keep continence.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 13.1.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Dositheans affirm the resurrection and practice abstinence and virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 19.1.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elxai opposed virginity and required marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 21.5.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ commends continence for the kingdom, against Simon's obscene rites.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.6.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ's saying on eunuchs for the kingdom.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 25.6.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul's teaching on virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.15.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Wisdom blesses the undefiled barren woman and eunuch.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 26.16.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul praises both virginity and honorable marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 30.2.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Ebionites once honoured virginity but now forbid it.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Isidore starts from Jesus's saying about three kinds of eunuchs.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 32.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Those who renounce marriage do so to avoid its cares.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 48.9.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Christ commends virginity and continence but honors marriage.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 52.2.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They claim continence and virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · They fit none of the Lord’s three kinds of eunuchs.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Eunuchs for the kingdom are the apostles, virgins, and monks.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 58.4.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · John and James kept virginity by inner struggle.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.1.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Forced separation is human; chosen continence is God’s work.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.3.6Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The church praises continence, virginity, and renunciation.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.4.4Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Renouncing marriage is praiseworthy if marriage is not despised.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.5.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The passage concerns older unmarried girls without suitors.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 61.7.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Some hide immorality under a show of virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.4.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marriage is honorable, though virginity is higher.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.4.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Paul praises true virginity.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 63.4.5Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Elijah, Elisha, and John lived as eunuchs for the kingdom.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.51.7Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Otherwise virginity and continence would be impossible.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 64.51.8Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Continence shows that the body can obey God.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.14.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Virginity is a free vow, not a command, and must not be undertaken rashly.
Apostolic Constitutions 4.14.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A vowed virgin must be holy in body and soul, choosing virginity for devotion, not out of contempt for marriage.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.10.11Anonymous · ca. 380 · Prayer for eunuchs and the continent.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.24.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · Virgins are not ordained; virginity is a free choice that does not disparage marriage.
On Virgins 1.2Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose begins on the feast of the virgin martyr Agnes, who at twelve years old refused suitors, faced the executioner without fear, and won a twofold martyrdom of chastity and faith.
On Virgins 1.3Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virginity, which makes martyrs, is a heavenly life brought to earth: it seeks its bridegroom, the Word, in the Father’s bosom, and though foreshadowed in Elijah and Miriam, it spread through the world only after the incarnation.
On Virgins 1.4Ambrose · ca. 377 · Pagan virginity (the Vestals, the priestesses of Pallas, Phrygian and Bacchic rites, a Pythagorean woman who bit off her tongue) is temporary, hired, or failed; Christian virgins such as Agnes conquer even unseen powers.
On Virgins 1.5Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virginity’s homeland is heaven and its author is Christ, born of the Father and of a Virgin; the Church is the virgin mother watered by the Trinity; Paul had no command about virgins, because virginity can be desired but not commanded.
On Virgins 1.6Ambrose · ca. 377 · Marriage is not condemned, but virginity is better: Ambrose sets the troubles of married women (childbirth, servitude, cosmetics) against the lasting beauty and spiritual fruitfulness of virgins, and the virgin Church, mother of many.
On Virgins 1.7Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose urges parents to dedicate daughters as virgins; he does not condemn marriage (those who do condemn their own birth), but praises virginity, whose bridegroom is the King of Ps 45 and the Song of Songs.
On Virgins 1.8Ambrose · ca. 377 · The virgin should be like the bee, chaste and industrious, feeding on the dew of God’s word, guarding her speech, and gathering riches for the poor; Christ is the lily among thorns.
On Virgins 1.9Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose urges the virgin to seek Christ, the flower found in enclosed gardens, using verses of the Song of Songs; Christ, white and ruddy, divine and human, seals the virgin, angels guard her, and her sober life keeps her from the causes of sin.
On Virgins 1.11Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose answers the complaint that he praises virginity in vain: virgins come to Milan from Placentia, Bononia, and Mauritania, while mothers at home hinder their daughters; the virgins of Bononia live together and win others to their life.
On Virgins 1.12Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virginity is best when chosen even against parents, whose resistance is a training ground; Ambrose tells of a noble girl who fled to the altar to escape marriage and whose kinsman died after challenging her.
On Virgins 2.2Ambrose · ca. 377 · Mary’s life is the pattern of virginity: humble, modest, sparing, studious, seldom abroad, devoted to her kin; she will lead virgins to Christ, who will commend them to the Father, and their minds are altars on which Christ is offered.
On Virgins 2.3Ambrose · ca. 377 · Thecla, condemned to the beasts for refusing marriage, was honored by the lion that licked her feet; Ambrose promises a recent example to show that Paul teaches all.
On Virgins 2.4Ambrose · ca. 377 · A virgin of Antioch, sentenced to a brothel for refusing to sacrifice, escaped by exchanging clothes with a Christian soldier; when he was condemned in her place, she returned, and the two contended to die for each other and were both martyred.
On Virgins 2.6Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose, not yet three years a bishop, says his book only portrays the virgins’ own virtues; he has used gentle encouragement before stricter precepts, as the Song of Songs moves from kisses to towers.
On Virgins 3.1Ambrose · ca. 377 · Ambrose recalls the address of Liberius, bishop of Rome, when Marcellina received the virgin’s veil at St Peter’s on Christmas Day: Christ, the eternal Son equal to the Father, is her bridegroom, to be loved and honored as the Father loves and honors him.
On Virgins 3.3Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virgins should seldom pay visits and should speak little, especially in church; Ambrose cites Rebecca, Rachel, and Mary, a pagan boy who endured a burn in silence during Alexander’s sacrifice, and frogs that fell silent at a bishop’s command.
On Virgins 3.7Ambrose · ca. 377 · Asked about virgins who took their own lives to escape persecutors, Ambrose answers with the example of Pelagia of Antioch, who threw herself from a height, and of her mother and sisters, who drowned themselves together; he ends with Marcellina’s ancestor, the martyr Soteris.
Life of Macrina, part 2Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Macrina is educated in Scripture rather than pagan poetry, refuses all suitors after her betrothed dies, holding that marriage, like birth and death, is one, and stays always with her mother.
On not marrying again, section 2John Chrysostom · ca. 380-386 · Chrysostom argues that a second marriage falls short of a single marriage because marriage consists in a wife's being content with one husband, describes the divided affections and household grief it brings, and notes that second weddings were held without festivities.
Canon 8Anonymous · 380 · Virgins vowed to God may not be veiled before the proven age of forty.
Book of Heresies 110.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The prophets' chastity foreshadowed virginity, while marriage remained lawful.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 33Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · The saints' bodies are temples of God and a living sacrifice; they must avoid the works of the flesh, and virgins remain virgins, as Paul counsels.
Petition to the Emperors (Libellus precum) 32Faustinus · ca. 383–384 · At Eleutheropolis in Palestine the consecrated virgin Hermione and the house of the former tribune Severus, refusing communion with compromised bishops, received the visiting Luciferian bishop Ephesius.
Against Helvidius 22Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome contrasts the cares of married life with the virgin's freedom for God, while saying he does not disparage marriage or the Old Testament saints.
Against Helvidius 23Jerome · ca. 383 · Jerome explains Paul's counsel on virginity and answers Helvidius's taunt about unworthy virgins.
On the Life of Moses 387Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–395 · The holy of holies signifies the truth of being, which is beyond comprehension and must be believed rather than pried into; the priestly vesture signifies the adornment of the soul by virtue, the sky-blue robe a life made light and airy, ready to be caught up to the Lord.
Letter 7 to various bishops, against Jovinian, chapter 3Siricius, bishop of Rome · 385 · Jovinian's followers, under a Christian name, perverted the Scriptures' teaching on continence and published their views; a Roman presbytery condemned the writing, while the church accepts marriage and honours virginity more.
On the Duties of the Clergy 2.6Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Ambrose defines the useful not as monetary gain but as piety, so that the useful, the honourable, and the just coincide, as in chastity and widowhood.
Letter 61.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that Donatists coming to the Catholic Church keep their baptism, orders, and vows, and receive the love and unity that make these profitable.
Letter 127.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Armentarius, who with his wife has vowed continence, to fulfill his vow without delay.
Letter 127.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Armentarius that, having vowed continence, he is now bound to it, and that breaking the vow would make him worse than if he had never made it.
Letter 127.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that a vow of continence in marriage requires the consent of both spouses, and since Paulina consents, urges Armentarius to keep it with her.
Letter 150.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine congratulates Proba and Juliana on the consecration of Demetrias, of the Anician family, to virginity, a greater glory than the consulships of her house.
Letter 157.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The Pelagian ascetics should urge higher things without condemning lesser ones, and should welcome the godly rich who often support them.
Letter 188.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Alypius and Augustine write to the widow Juliana, rejoicing that her daughter Demetrias, after their exhortation, chose consecrated virginity instead of marriage.
Letter 188.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Virginity is God's gift, as Paul and Christ teach; Demetrias's virginity, surpassing her mother's state, is truly theirs but not from them, like the daily bread we ask for.
Letter 220.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says that since Boniface's wife has not consented to continence he must at least keep conjugal chastity, love God rather than the world, and seek peace.
Letter 226.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hilary asks for Augustine's Retractations and On Grace and Free Choice, mentions the enclosed letter of Prosper, and asks prayers for his brother and wife who have vowed continence.
Letter 254.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains to Benenatus that the orphan girl is too young to be promised, may wish to be a nun, has relatives and perhaps a mother to be consulted, and so cannot yet be betrothed.
Soliloquies 1.10Augustine of Hippo · 386–387 · Augustine tells Reason that he no longer desires riches or honors, has resolved not to marry, and seeks food and bodily comforts only as health requires.
Homilies on Matthew 1.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christian teaching is loftier and simpler than the philosophers' (virginity, the double love command), and its commonwealth is heavenly; Chrysostom then lists the questions raised by Matthew's genealogy and urges his hearers to attend as eagerly as they do at the theater.
Homilies on Matthew 62.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · On the Pharisees’ question about divorce, Chrysostom explains Christ’s appeal to creation (one man joined to one woman, one flesh), his answer about Moses’ concession to hardness of heart, the disciples’ objection, and the saying about eunuchs, which he applies to voluntary virginity and not to bodily mutilation.
Homilies on Matthew 62.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom explains “those to whom it is given” as help given to the willing, then turns to Christ’s blessing of the children, praising the child’s guilelessness, and contrasts Saul’s malice with David’s simplicity.
Homilies on Matthew 78.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The parables of the virgins and the talents, like that of the servants, urge help to one’s neighbor; the foolish virgins, though they mastered the stronger passion, were overcome by the love of money and found no oil when the bridegroom came, because the poor who sell it are found only in this life.
Homilies on Matthew 78.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Oil can be bought only from the poor in this life; the foolish virgins’ late eagerness avails as little as the rich man’s in Hades; the parable of the talents condemns those who do not use their gifts for others; and our tongue, which receives the Lord’s flesh, should be made like Christ’s by gentleness and meekness, not like the devil’s by curses and insults.
On what sort of wives to marry, section 7John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom praises Rebekah's chastity and eager hospitality at the well, and the servant's prayerful prudence, and tells those choosing a spouse to ask first whether the person is dear to God.
Life of Malchus 6Jerome · ca. 390–392 · Forced by his master to take a fellow captive as wife, Malchus nearly kills himself, but she persuades him to live with her in a chaste marriage.
Life of Malchus 10Jerome · ca. 390–392 · The pair escape to a Roman camp; Malchus returns to the monks and the woman to the virgins, and Jerome draws the lesson that chastity cannot be taken captive.
Sermon 51.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Israel had a duty to multiply until Christ; with Mary the dignity of virginity began; Joseph was all the more truly a father, as adoption and lawful marriage show that a father’s bond is not made by the flesh.
Sermon 96.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s call to self-denial is for the whole church, virgins, widows, and married alike, each in its place; to turn from a chosen continence back to marriage, though lawful, is looking back like Lot’s wife.
Sermon 132.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those vowed to continence live the life of angels on earth; in the resurrection virginity, married chastity, and widowhood will shine differently, but all will share heaven.
Sermon 148.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · If God punished Ananias and Sapphira for withholding vowed money, he is far more angry when vowed virginity or chastity is broken, since these are vowed for his own temple.
Sermon 161.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Marriage is lawful and suffices, but consecrated virgins, out of greater love, take Paul's counsel and give up even marriage, adorning the inner person rather than the outer.
Sermon 161.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Consecrated virgins, overcoming even their parents' opposition, seek to please Christ by inner beauty; their example should teach married people at least to avoid adultery.
Sermon 184.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every kind of person, men and women, the continent and virgins, the righteous, the sick, captives, slaves and free, has reason to rejoice at Christ's birth.
Sermon 188.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary, married and yet a virgin, bore Christ; the Church likewise is a virgin in the integrity of faith, hope, and love.
Sermon 191.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Church, redeemed from idolatry, is mother and virgin in mind as Mary was in body; consecrated virgins should rejoice in the Virgin's childbearing.
Sermon 191.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Virgins imitate Mary in virginity, not in childbearing; they have Christ as bridegroom, and the whole Church conceives and bears him by faith and confession.
Sermon 210.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Augustine urges daily fasting, generous alms, fervent prayer, and marital continence throughout Lent, following the forty-day fasts of Moses, Elijah, and Christ.
Sermon 213.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Holy Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son; the Catholic Church throughout the world, once unfaithful through idolatry, has been made a virgin in faith and, like Mary, gives birth to Christ's members in baptism.
Sermon 260.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · To the newly baptized at the Easter octave: keep chastity, married or vowed; the unmarried may marry only partners whose former spouses are no longer living; those vowed to continence must keep their vow.
Sermon 291.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Zechariah and Mary used similar words with dissimilar hearts, as David and Saul both said ‘I have sinned’; Mary’s question shows that she had vowed virginity, and she asked the manner without doubting God’s power.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.1John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom introduces 1 Cor 7: continence is better but marriage is safer; Paul speaks to all, not only to priests; husband and wife each owe the other the body, and neither may abstain without the other's consent.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.2John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains Paul's rules on temporary abstinence for prayer and on marriage for those who burn, the Lord's command against separation (with remaining unmarried or reconciliation), and the believer's duty to stay with a willing unbelieving spouse.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.5John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom continues that the real slavery is to sin and passion, as Potiphar's wife and Cain show, and begins on virginity (1 Cor 7:25–27), where his text breaks off.
Homily on 1 Cor, 19.6John Chrysostom · ca. 392-397 · Chrysostom explains 1 Cor 7:28–40: marrying is no sin for an unvowed virgin, though widows who break a vow of widowhood by remarrying are condemned; Paul grants a second marriage “in the Lord”, and holiness is required in every state.
On Illustrious Men 123Jerome · 392–393 · Tiberianus, accused with Priscillian, wrote an apology but later married off his consecrated daughter.
Against Jovinianus 1.3Jerome · 393 · Jerome mocks Jovinian's style and states his own position: marriage is good and honorable, but virginity, born of marriage, is better, as the hundredfold fruit surpasses the thirtyfold.
Against Jovinianus 1.4Jerome · 393 · Jerome compares Jovinian's teaching to the serpent's in paradise, announces his plan, and states that Jovinian, by making all merits equal, wrongs both virginity and marriage.
Against Jovinianus 1.5Jerome · 393 · Jerome summarizes Jovinian's first argument: from Genesis onward God blessed marriage, and the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles were married.
Against Jovinianus 1.6Jerome · 393 · Jerome announces that he will answer Jovinian first with Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 7.
Against Jovinianus 1.7Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:1–9 and 1 Pet 3:1–7 to argue that marriage is allowed as a remedy against sexual immorality and that intercourse hinders prayer.
Against Jovinianus 1.8Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that Paul's permission to resume marital relations is an indulgence, not a command, and that the gifts of virginity and marriage differ.
Against Jovinianus 1.9Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that "better to marry than to burn" makes marriage good only by comparison with something worse.
Against Jovinianus 1.12Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's use of "I have no command of the Lord": virginity is counseled, not commanded, as Christ's saying on eunuchs shows, and is the greater gift.
Against Jovinianus 1.13Jerome · 393 · Jerome expounds 1 Cor 7:28–38: marriage is not sin, but virginity is better, freeing the virgin for the things of the Lord.
Against Jovinianus 1.16Jerome · 393 · Jerome begins his answer from the Old Testament: Adam and Eve were virgins in paradise, Christ and the Church are the true sense of Gen 2:24, and the number two is not called good.
Against Jovinianus 1.22Jerome · 393 · Jerome contrasts Moses, the married figure of the law, with Joshua, of whom no wife or children are recorded, comparing their deaths and burials.
Against Jovinianus 1.24Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the examples of David and Solomon: their many wives belong to the time of the law, and the Gospel requires more.
Against Jovinianus 1.25Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the examples of Elijah and Elisha, Hezekiah, Huldah, and Daniel.
Against Jovinianus 1.26Jerome · 393 · Jerome argues that the apostles' marriages belonged to the time before the Gospel, that 1 Cor 9:5 refers to women who served them, and that John, the virgin apostle, was specially loved by Christ.
Against Jovinianus 1.27Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's use of 1 Tim 2:13–15: the mother is saved if her children remain in faith and chastity, which Jerome takes as virginity.
Against Jovinianus 1.29Jerome · 393 · Jerome reads Ecclesiastes as teaching a time for marriage under the law and a time for virginity under the Gospel, and argues that Adam and Eve married only after leaving paradise.
Against Jovinianus 1.30Jerome · 393 · Jerome reads the Song of Songs as celebrating virginity, the chaste turtledove, and the bride's purity.
Against Jovinianus 1.31Jerome · 393 · Jerome applies the "garden enclosed" of the Song to the Virgin Mary and finds further praise of virginity in the Song.
Against Jovinianus 1.33Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers Jovinian's claim that baptized virgins and widows are equal, citing Jeremiah's virginity and Ezekiel's freedom after his wife's death.
Against Jovinianus 1.36Jerome · 393 · Jerome answers the objections that universal virginity would end the human race and that the genital organs show we are made for intercourse.
Against Jovinianus 1.37Jerome · 393 · Jerome gathers Paul's sayings on the flesh and the spirit (Romans, 1–2 Corinthians, Galatians) and applies them to the superiority of chastity.
Against Jovinianus 1.39Jerome · 393 · Jerome cites Philip's virgin daughters, James the Lord's brother, and the letters of James and Peter as teaching virginity, and applies 2 Peter 2 to Jovinian.
Against Jovinianus 1.40Jerome · 393 · Jerome applies 2 Peter to Jovinian's luxurious life, cites John's letters and Revelation 14 on the virgins who follow the Lamb, and explains Christ's presence at Cana.
Against Jovinianus 1.41Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns to pagan history and legend for examples of honored virginity and of virgins who died to preserve their chastity.
Against Jovinianus 2.36Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns on Jovinian's followers, contrasting their luxury with the ascetics, and charges that his teaching has led virgins to marry.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine briefly answers the contrast between Psalm 128's blessing of wife and children and Christ's praise of eunuchs, referring to his third chapter.
Against Adimantus, a Disciple of Mani 25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 394 · Augustine reads Hosea's curse of barren wombs figuratively, applying it to false teachers who bear no fruit, and shows that the reward of eunuchs is promised in Isaiah as well as in the gospel.
Historia monachorum, chapter 30Rufinus of Aquileia · Greek original ca. 394-395; Rufinus's Latin ca. 404-406 · Ammon, founder of Nitria, who persuaded his bride to live with him in virginity, healed a young man once his parents returned a stolen ox, and was carried across the Nile.
On Christian Doctrine 4.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Augustine illustrates the three styles from Cyprian and Ambrose: the subdued in Cyprian on the eucharistic cup and Ambrose on the Holy Spirit, the temperate in their praises of virginity, and the grand in their attacks on cosmetics.
Confessions 8.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine no longer desires wealth or honor but is still bound by his desire for a woman, and he hesitates.
Confessions 8.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Ponticianus tells how two imperial agents at Trier, reading the Life of Antony, left their careers to serve God.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 14.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Isaiah praises faithful eunuchs, and reads the curse on not raising seed as fleshly offspring under the Old Testament and spiritual offspring through preaching now.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 30.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus argues that Catholics, who urge virginity and honour Paul’s persuasion of Thecla and Christ’s praise of voluntary eunuchs, cannot charge Manichaeans with “forbidding to marry”, since they too only exhort and do not compel.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 30.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Catholics praise virginity as better than good marriage, while the Manichaeans truly forbid marriage by condemning procreation, which also explains why they deny Christ’s birth.
Tractates 8Gaudentius of Brescia · ca. 397-410 · On the wedding at Cana: Christ's presence blesses marriage against the Manichees while virginity is the better part; Gaudentius warns the newly baptized against debauched banquets and reads the 'third day' as the age of grace, when Christ takes the Gentile church as bride after Israel's 'divorce'.
Commentary on Matthew 19:11 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome explains that the gift of continence is given to those who ask and strive for it, not by fate.
Commentary on Matthew 19:12 (book 3)Jerome · 398 · Jerome distinguishes three kinds of eunuchs in Matt 19:12 and holds that only those who choose chastity for Christ receive the reward, each according to his strength.
On the Good of Marriage 6Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine grades marital intercourse (blameless for procreation, venially faulty from desire) and argues that the marriage bond, as a kind of sacrament, survives separation.
On the Good of Marriage 8Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage and continence are two goods, one better, not two evils; Augustine illustrates this with Martha and Mary, Susanna, Anna, and the Virgin Mary.
On the Good of Marriage 9Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage is a good for the sake of something else; it was necessary for the patriarchs, but now continence is the better choice.
On the Good of Marriage 10Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Answering the objection that universal continence would end the race, Augustine says it would only hasten the city of God, and that now only the incontinent should marry.
On the Good of Marriage 13Augustine of Hippo · 401 · A chaste Christian wife is holy in body too; the unmarried are said to be holier because their attention is undivided.
On the Good of Marriage 15Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christians now free to choose continence should prefer it; the patriarchs married from duty, not lust, and would have embraced continence had it been offered.
On the Good of Marriage 24Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The fair comparison is not between the patriarchs' marriages and ours but between their continence and that of Christian celibates.
On the Good of Marriage 26Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christ ate and drank yet had the virtue of abstinence; so Abraham, though married, had continence in disposition as fully as John the Baptist had it in action.
On the Good of Marriage 27Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine tells a continent Christian how to answer the taunt “So you are better than Abraham?”: celibate chastity is better, but Abraham had continence in disposition.
On the Good of Marriage 28Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Celibate chastity is better than married chastity, but persons must be judged by the virtue they possess, even if circumstances do not call it into action.
On the Good of Marriage 29Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Obedience is a greater good than continence, so an obedient married woman is better than a disobedient virgin.
On the Good of Marriage 30Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Obedience is the mother of the virtues; virginity is a counsel, chastity a command, so a more obedient wife is to be preferred to a less obedient virgin.
On the Good of Marriage 35Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine urges consecrated virgins to humility, reminding them that they will share the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who married for Christ's sake.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Woman was made for procreation; marriage is good and a remedy for incontinence, and its threefold good is fidelity, offspring, and sacrament, which forbids separation and remarriage after dismissal.
On Holy Virginity 1Augustine of Hippo · 401 · After his book On the Good of Marriage, Augustine sets out to praise consecrated virginity while warning virgins against pride.
On Holy Virginity 2Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The church, like Mary, is both virgin and mother, and is holiest in members who are virgins in body as well as spirit.
On Holy Virginity 4Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Mary had vowed virginity before the annunciation, as her question to the angel shows, so that virginity would be a free choice rather than a command.
On Holy Virginity 5Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins who do the Father's will are spiritually mothers of Christ with Mary, as the church and every devout soul are.
On Holy Virginity 6Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Mary alone is mother and virgin in both body and spirit; the church is wholly mother and virgin in spirit.
On Holy Virginity 7Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Married women cannot claim a share in Mary's motherhood over virgins, since Christians are born not of the flesh but of the church.
On Holy Virginity 12Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Marriage has its human goods, but virginity is the life of angels and a foretaste of incorruption.
On Holy Virginity 14Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Paul gives counsel, not command, about virginity because marriage is no sin, but virginity vowed to God wins a special glory in eternal life.
On Holy Virginity 18Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins must not judge marriage evil; it is a lesser good, a hill to pass over on the way to the mountain of continence.
On Holy Virginity 19Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine rejects both the view that marriage equals virginity and the view that marriage is sinful.
On Holy Virginity 21Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine sums up: marriage is no sin, but it ranks below virginity and widowhood, and hinders not salvation but the special glory of continence.
On Holy Virginity 22Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Paul's words about pleasing the Lord and being holy in body and spirit show that continence aims at the kingdom of heaven, not present ease.
On Holy Virginity 23Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Christ himself says that those who renounce marriage do so for the kingdom of heaven.
On Holy Virginity 24Augustine of Hippo · 401 · The eunuchs promised a better place than sons and daughters in Isa 56 are those who renounce marriage for the kingdom, whose reward is eternal.
On Holy Virginity 25Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Isaiah's 'eternal name, which will never fail' shows that the reward of the continent is eternal and distinct from others'.
On Holy Virginity 27Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine exhorts consecrated virgins to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, sharing joys proper to them, as in Revelation 14.
On Holy Virginity 29Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins alone follow the Lamb on the way of virginity; others will rejoice with them without envy, since God will be all in all.
On Holy Virginity 30Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity is a free offering, not a command like the ban on adultery, and it will be repaid with an eternal name.
On Holy Virginity 45Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity ranks above marriage, but a virgin cannot know whether a married woman may be readier for martyrdom than she.
On Holy Virginity 46Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Augustine weighs readings of the hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold fruit and concludes that God's gifts are more varied than three grades.
On Holy Virginity 47Augustine of Hippo · 401 · No one prefers virginity to martyrdom, and since the readiness for martyrdom is hidden until tested, virgins must think others possibly better than themselves.
On Holy Virginity 52Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Humility is the dwelling of love, the guardian of virginity; humble married people follow the Lamb more easily than proud virgins.
On Holy Virginity 54Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins who add holy conduct to virginity show the angelic life on earth, but must still humble themselves the more.
Apology against Jerome 2.5Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 401 · Rufinus recalls Jerome's letter to Eustochium on virginity, which pagans copied eagerly because it ridiculed virgins, widows, monks, and clergy.
Dialogues 2.10Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin’s sayings: a shorn sheep fulfills the gospel; a swineherd recalls the old Adam; a meadow partly grazed, partly rooted, partly untouched pictures marriage, fornication, and virginity.
Dialogues 2.12Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin praised a virgin who refused even to let him see her, and accepted her gift; Gallus contrasts her with virgins who seek out priests and banquets.
1 Corinthians 7:3Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Marriage is a concession to the incontinent; continence is to be preached first, and marriage is for children, not lust.
1 Corinthians 7:7Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul wishes all were celibate like him, which shows it is possible; each receives according to his own will.
1 Corinthians 7:8Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · It is good for the unmarried and widows to remain as Paul is.
1 Corinthians 7:25Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Virginity is counsel, not command; fulfilling a command only escapes punishment.
1 Corinthians 7:26Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Paul's 'I think' is certain; the unmarried are free of worldly anxiety and await virginity's reward.
1 Corinthians 7:28Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Marriage is no sin, except for one who has vowed chastity; virgins are spared the cares of marriage.
1 Corinthians 7:34Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · The unmarried woman is holy in body and spirit; an unmarried woman with worldly cares is worse than a wife.
1 Corinthians 7:37Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · A father whose daughter agrees to virginity does well to keep her so.
1 Corinthians 7:38Pelagius · ca. 405–410 · Giving a virgin in marriage is good, keeping her a virgin better.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 9.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · By attending the wedding Christ confirmed that God made marriage, against those who would call it evil; as joining is from God, divorce is from the devil, dismissal being allowed only for sexual immorality, and consecrated virgins too share in the Church's marriage to Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John and Paul, friends of the bridegroom, were jealous for Christ, not themselves; the whole Church is one virgin, whose virginity of mind is whole faith, firm hope, and sincere love.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 13.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Heretics' virgins keep their virginity for Donatus, not Christ, who bought the whole world with his blood; even his persecutors did not divide his seamless tunic, the figure of unity.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 124.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Peter and John are not to be separated: the whole Church binds and looses sins and drinks the Gospel; John's virginity, held by some, fits the life without marriage that he signifies.
Against Vigilantius 1Jerome · 406 · Jerome introduces Vigilantius as a new monster from Gaul who attacks the veneration of martyrs, vigils, and continence, reviving Jovinian's errors.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.57Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The good of marriage is the lawful use of concupiscence for procreation, while concupiscence itself is the evil with which all are born; only Christ, conceived without it, was born without sin.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 3.13Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even Jovinian, who denied the superior merit of virginity, never denied original sin, and Jerome, refuting him, used original sin as a certain premise.
City of God 1.18Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that chastity, as a virtue of the mind, is not lost when the body is violated against the will, so a raped woman has nothing to punish in herself by suicide.
City of God 16.36Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Isaac received the promise for Abraham's sake; though monogamous, he was not greater than Abraham, and virtues must be weighed as a whole.
On the Good of Widowhood 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · When Paul calls celibacy “honourable” he does not make marriage shameful, but means that it is more honourable, as Peter's honour for wives confirms.
On the Good of Widowhood 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · The addressee can have all Anna's merits, and her daughter's consecrated virginity adds virginal merit to the household.
On the Good of Widowhood 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Continence ranks above marriage and virginity above widowhood, but no true marriage is condemned; ascetics who condemn second marriages are not to be followed.
On the Good of Widowhood 28Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · The widows should win others to continence without fearing that the human race or the lesser good of marriage will fail, for the married saints of the past already fill their place.
Commentary on Jeremiah 0.1Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome dedicates the commentary to Eusebius, explains its brief method and his omission of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah, and answers critics of his earlier commentaries and of his books against Jovinian.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.32Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Confidence in the temple, or in splendid churches, is vain without justice and true faith; likewise bodily virginity without purity of mind.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.39.3Orosius · ca. 417–418 · A Goth finds a consecrated virgin.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 29Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Caelestius's claim that we do more than the law commands was approved only in the sense that virginity, a gift of God, exceeds commanded marital chastity.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Paul allowed marriage as a remedy for incontinence, not for the sake of children; so neither motive can excuse adultery, and one who must avoid adultery must keep continence.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine applies Christ's saying on eunuchs for the kingdom to those who, after divorce, must remain continent to avoid adultery and so to enter the kingdom.
On Adulterous Marriages 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine encourages divorced spouses to accept continence, which by faith and grace can become willing and even be vowed, and so gain the reward of those who chose it freely.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Now continence is better for those who can receive it, but those who cannot should marry, to avoid sexual immorality.
On Grace and Free Will 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Lest free choice be so defended that grace is excluded, Augustine shows that continence, marital chastity, and victory over desire are both God's gifts and acts of the will, obtained by prayer.
Retractations 2.22Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine explains that he wrote On the Good of Marriage against Jovinian, who equated virginity with marriage, and clarifies his statements on carnal pleasure and on Abraham.
The Conferences 12.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon distinguishes continence, which fights pleasure by effort, from chastity, which loves purity for itself and is secure even in sleep; eunuchs lack only generative power, not desire, and must also strive.
The Conferences 14.7John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Nesteros warns against imitating extraordinary examples, telling of a married peasant who drove out a demon Abba John could not, and who had kept his wife as a virgin for twelve years; John admired but forbade imitation.
The Conferences 21.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas’s wife refuses to join him, warning that she may sin if deserted; he argues from the Gospel that the call to perfection outweighs marriage, and when she will not yield he leaves her for the monastery, later becoming head of the diaconia.
The Conferences 21.32John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas contrasts law and grace: the law commends marriage, tithes, retaliation, and hatred of enemies; grace calls to virginity, total renunciation, nonresistance, and love of enemies.
The Conferences 22.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Theonas tells of a chaste brother whose emissions came only before communion; the elders judged it the devil’s work and bade him communicate, and the trouble ceased; he then urges moderation in food and the inner purity of the true virgin and eunuch for Christ.
On 1 Cor 7:7.6Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that Paul sets out continence as perfection while conceding marriage, and calls marriage too a gift of God.
On 1 Cor 7:7.8Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret takes 1 Cor 7:8 to show that Paul was himself unmarried, not a widower, and begins to explain that the counsel applies to both sexes.
On 1 Cor 7:7.25Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that Paul has no command on virginity because Christ left it to those able to receive it, so Paul gives counsel, not law.
On 1 Cor 7:7.28Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that marriage is not sin, though Paul spares his hearers its troubles, and that 1 Cor 7:28 concerns those who have not yet vowed virginity.
On 1 Cor 7:7.32Theodoret of Cyrus · ca. 436-448 · Theodoret explains that virginity frees the soul from the cares of married life for undistracted service of God, referring to his own discourses on virginity.
Part 5, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The virgins who follow the Lamb wherever he goes have a place the impious will not see.
Canon 16Anonymous · 451 · Dedicated virgins and monks may not marry; those who do are excommunicated, subject to the local bishop's clemency.