41. There resulteth then from all these this sentence, that a lie which doth not violate the doctrine of piety, nor piety itself, nor innocence, nor benevolence, may on behalf of pudicity of body be admitted. And yet if any man should propose to himself so to love truth, not only that which consists in contemplation, but also in uttering the true thing, which each in its own kind of things is true, and no otherwise to bring forth with the mouth of the body his thought than in the mind it is conceived and beheld; so that he should prize the beauty of truth-telling honesty, not only above gold and silver and jewels and pleasant lands, but above this temporal life itself altogether and every good thing of the body, I know not whether any could wisely say that that man errs. And if he should prefer this and prize it more than all that himself hath of such things; rightly also would he prefer it to the temporal things of other men, whom by his innocence and benevolence he was bound to keep and to help. For he would love perfect faith, not only of believing aright those things which by an excellent authority and worthy of faith should to himself be spoken, but also of faithfully uttering what himself should judge right to be spoken, and should speak. For faith hath its name in the Latin tongue, from that the thing is done which is said:75    “Fides, quia fit quod dicitur.” and thus it is manifest that one doth not exhibit when telling a lie. And even if this faith be less violated, when one lies in such sort that he is believed to no inconvenience and no pernicious hurt, with added intention moreover of guarding either one’s life or corporal purity; yet violated it is, and a thing is violated which ought to be kept safe in chastity and sanctity of mind. Whence we are constrained, not by opinion of men, which for the most part is in error, but by truth itself, truth which is eminent above all, and alone is most invincible, to prefer even to purity of body, perfect faith. For chastity of mind is, love well ordered, which does not place the greater below the smaller. Now it is less, whatever in the body than whatever in the mind can be violated. For assuredly when for corporal chasteness a man tells a lie, he sees indeed that his body is threatened with corruption, not from his own, but from another’s lust, but is cautious lest by permitting at least, he be a party. That permission, however, where is it but in the mind? So then, even corporal chasteness cannot be corrupted but in the mind; which not consenting nor permitting, it can by no means be rightly said that corporal chasteness is violated whatever in the body be perpetrated by another’s lust. Whence it is gathered, that much more must the chastity of the mind be preserved in the mind, in the which is the guardianship of the pudicity of the body. Wherefore, what in us lies, both the one and the other must by holy manners and conversation be walled and hedged round, lest from another quarter it be violated. But when both cannot be, which is to be slighted in comparison of which, who doth not see? when he seeth which to which is to be preferred, the mind to the body, or the body to the mind; and which is more to be shunned among sins, the permitting of another’s deed, or the committing of the deed thyself.

CAPUT XX.

41. Pudicitiae corporalis causa non mentiendum. Fides unde dicta. Castitas animi. Conficitur ergo ex his omnibus haec sententia, ut mendacium quod non violat doctrinam pietatis, neque ipsam pietatem, neque innocentiam, neque benevolentiam, pro pudicitia corporis admittendum sit. Et tamen si quisquam proponeret sibi sic amandam veritatem, non tantum quae in contemplando est, sed etiam in vero enuntiando quod in suo quoque rerum genere verum est; et non aliter proferendam ore corporis sententiam, quam in animo concepta atque conspecta est; ut fidei veridicam pulchritudinem non solum auro, et argento, et gemmis, et amoenis praediis, sed et ipsi universae temporali vitae omnique corporis bono praeponeret; nescio utrum sapienter a quoquam errare diceretur. Et si hoc suis omnibus talibus rebus recte anteferret, plurisque penderet; recte etiam temporalibus rebus aliorum hominum, quos innocentia benevolentiaque sua servare atque adjuvare deberet. Amaret enim perfectam fidem, non solum bene credendi ea quae sibi excellenti et fide digna auctoritate dicerentur, sed etiam fideliter enuntiandi quae ipse dicenda judicaret, ac diceret. Fides enim appellata est in latina lingua ex eo quia fit quod dicitur: quam manifestum est non exhibere mentientem. Quae et si minus violatur, cum ita quisque mentitur, ut ei nullo incommodo nullaque pernicie credatur, addita etiam intentione vel salutis tuendae, vel pudicitiae corporalis; violatur tamen, et res violatur in animi castitate atque sanctitate servanda. Unde cogimur, non opinione hominum quae plerumque in errore est, sed ipsa quae omnibus supereminet atque una invictissima est veritate, etiam pudicitiae corporis perfectam fidem anteponere. Est enim animi castitas, amor ordinatus non subdens majora minoribus. Minus est autem quidquid in corpore, quam quidquid in animo violari potest. Certe enim cum pro pudicitia corporali quisque mentitur, videt quidem corrumpendo corpori suo, non suam, sed alienam imminere libidinem; cavet tamen, ne saltem permittendo sit particeps. Permissio vero illa ubi nisi in animo est? Etiam corporalis ergo pudicitia corrumpi nisi in animo non potest: quo non consentiente, neque permittente, nullo modo recte dicitur violari pudicitia corporalis, quidquid in corpore fuerit aliena libidine perpetratum. Unde colligitur, multo magis animi castitatem servandam esse in animo, in quo tutela est pudicitiae corporalis. Quamobrem quod in nobis est, utrumque sanctis moribus et conversatione muniendum est atque sepiendum, ne aliunde violetur. Cum autem utrumque non potest, quid pro quo sit contemnendum quis non videat? cum videat quid cui sit praeponendum, animus corpori, an corpus animo; animi castitas pudicitiae corporis, an pudicitia corporis castitati animi; et quid magis in peccatis cavendum, permissio facti alieni, an commissio facti tui.