10. As concerning purity of body; here indeed a very honorable regard seems to come in the way, and to demand a lie in its behalf; to wit, that if the assault of the ravisher may be escaped by means of a lie, it is indubitably right to tell it: but to this it may easily be answered, that there is no purity of body except as it depends on integrity of mind; this being broken, the other must needs fall, even though it seem intact; and for this reason it is not to be reckoned among temporal things, as a thing that might be taken away from people against their will. By no means therefore must the mind corrupt itself by a lie for the sake of its body, which it knows remaineth incorrupt if from the mind itself incorruptness depart not. For that which by violence, with no lust foregoing, the body suffereth, is rather to be called deforcement than corruption. Or if all deforcement is corruption, then not every corruption hath turpitude, but only that which lust hath procured, or to which lust hath consented. Now by how much the mind is more excellent than the body, so much the more heinous is the wickedness if that be corrupted. There, then, purity can be preserved, because there none but a voluntary corruption can have place. For assuredly if the ravisher assault the body, and there is no escaping him either by contrary force, or by any contrivance or lie, we must needs allow that purity cannot be violated by another’s lust. Wherefore, since no man doubts that the mind is better than the body, to integrity of body we ought to prefer integrity of mind, which can be preserved for ever. Now who will say that the mind of him who tells a lie hath its integrity? Indeed lust itself is rightly defined, An appetite of the mind by which to eternal goods any temporal goods whatever are preferred. Therefore no man can prove that it is at any time right to tell a lie, unless he be able to show that any eternal good can be obtained by a lie. But since each man departs from eternity just in so far as he departs from truth, it is most absurd to say, that by departing therefrom it is possible for any man to attain to any good. Else if there be any eternal good which truth compriseth not, it will not be a true good, therefore neither will it be good, because it will be false. But as the mind to the body, so must also truth be preferred to the mind itself, so that the mind should desire it not only more than the body, but even more than its own self. So will the mind be more entire and chaste, when it shall enjoy the immutability of truth rather than its own mutability. Now if Lot,25    Gen. xix. 8 being so righteous a man that he was meet26    “Ut mereretur.” to entertain even Angels, offered his daughters to the lust of the Sodomites, to the intent, that the bodies of women rather than of men might be corrupted by them; how much more diligently and constantly ought the mind’s chasteness in the truth to be preserved, seeing it is more truly preferable to its body, than the body of a man to the body of a woman?

CAPUT VII.

10. Nec pudicitiae corporalis causa mentiendum. Libido quid sit. Pudicitiae quippe corporis, quia multum honorabilis persona videtur occurrere, et pro se flagitare mendacium, ut si stuprator irruat qui possit mendacio devitari, sine dubitatione mentiendum sit: facile responderi potest, nullam esse pudicitiam corporis, nisi ab integritate animi pendeat; qua disrupta cadat necesse est, etiamsi intacta videatur; et ideo non in rebus temporalibus esse numerandam, quasi quae invitis possit auferri. Nullo modo igitur animus se mendacio corrumpit pro corpore suo, quod scit manere incorruptum, si ab ipso animo incorruptio non recedat. Quod enim violenter non praecedente libidine patitur corpus, vexatio potius quam corruptio nominanda est. Aut si omnis vexatio corruptio est, non omnis corruptio turpis est; 0496 sed quam libido procuraverit, aut cui libido consenserit. Quanto autem praestantior est animus corpore, tanto sceleratius corrumpitur. Ibi ergo servari potest pudicitia, ubi nulla nisi voluntaria potest esse corruptio. Certe enim si stuprator corpus invaserit, qui nec vi contraria possit, nec ullo consilio vel mendacio devitari, necesse est fateamur, aliena libidine pudicitiam non posse violari. Quapropter quoniam nemo dubitat meliorem esse animum corpore, integritati corporis integritas animi praeponenda est, quae in aeternum servari potest. Quis autem dixerit integrum animum esse mentientis? Etenim libido quoque ipsa recte definitur, Appetitus animi quo aeternis bonis quaelibet temporalia praeponuntur. Nemo itaque potest convincere aliquando esse mentiendum, nisi qui potuerit ostendere aeternum aliquod bonum obtineri posse mendacio. Sed cum tanto quisque ab aeternitate discedat, quanto a veritate discedit ; absurdissimum est dicere, discedendo inde posse ad boni aliquid aliquem pervenire. Aut si est aliquod bonum aeternum quod non complectatur veritas, non erit verum: et ideo nec bonum erit, quia falsum erit. Ut autem animus corpori, ita etiam veritas ipsi animo praeponenda est; ut eam non solum magis quam corpus, sed etiam magis quam se ipsum appetat animus. Ita quippe erit integrior et castior, cum ejus potius immutabilitate, quam sua mutabilitate perfruetur . Si autem Loth cum ita justus esset, ut angelos etiam hospites suscipere mereretur, stuprandas filias Sodomitis obtulit, ut feminarum potius ab eis corpora quam virorum corrumperentur (Gen. XIX, 8); quanto diligentius atque constantius animi castitas in veritate servanda est, cum verius ipse corpori suo, quam corpus virile femineo corpori praeferatur?