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1. I do not conceive that I have exceeded any portions of my duty, in always striving as much as possible, by daily discussions of the Gospels, to aff
2. Although, therefore, I exhort you always, as you are aware, to many things, and to the precepts of the Lord’s admonition—for what else can be desir
3. Chastity is the dignity of the body, the ornament of morality, the sacredness of the sexes, the bond of modesty, the source of purity, the peaceful
4. But chastity maintains the first rank in virgins, the second in those who are continent, the third in the case of wedlock. Yet in all it is gloriou
5. The precepts of chastity, brethren, are ancient. Wherefore do I say ancient? Because they were ordained at the same time as men themselves. For bot
6. Christ gave this judgment when, being inquired of, He said that a wife must not be put away, save for the cause of adultery such honour did He put
7. But as laws are prescribed to matrons, who are so bound that they cannot thence be separated, while virginity and continency are beyond all law, th
8. But since the precepts of chastity have thus briefly been set forth to us, let us now give an instance of chastity. For it is more profitable when
9. But not less from a different direction arises to us another similar instance of chastity from the continence of women. Susanna, as we read, the da
10. The memory of noble descent could not enervate them, although to some this is a suggestive licence to lasciviousness nor the comeliness of their
11. Nothing so delights the faithful soul as the healthy consciousness of an unstained modesty. To have vanquished pleasure is the greatest pleasure
12. For what is chastity but a virtuous mind added to watchfulness over the body so that modesty observed in respect of the sexual relations, atteste
13. But to return to what I began with: chastity is ever to be cultivated by men and women it is to be kept with all watchfulness within its bounds.
14. It must be said, moreover, that adultery is not pleasure, but mutual contempt nor can it delight, because it kills both the soul and modesty. Let
Of the Discipline and Advantage of Chastity.1 [Not reckoned by Erasmus as worthy of Cyprian. Pamelius thinks otherwise.]
