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 peacefulness of home, the crown of concord.3    [“So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, etc.”—Milton, Comus, 455.]  Chastity is not careful whom it pleases but itself. Chastity is always modest, being the mother of innocency; chastity is ever adorned with modesty alone, then rightly conscious of its own beauty if it is displeasing to the wicked. Chastity seeks nothing in the way of adornments: it is its own glory. It is this which commends us to the Lord, unites us with Christ; it is this which drives out from our members all the illicit conflicts of desire, instils peace into our bodies: blessed itself, and making those blessed, whoever they are, in whom it condescends to dwell. It is that which even they who possess it not can never accuse; it is even venerable to its enemies, since, they admire it much more because they are unable to capture it. Moreover, as mature, it is both always excellent in men, and to be earnestly desired by women; so its enemy, unchastity, is always detestable, making an obscene sport for its servants, sparing neither bodies nor souls. For, their own proper character being overcome, it sends the entire man under its yoke of lust, alluring at first, that it may do the more mischief by its attraction,—the foe of continency, exhausting both means and modesty; the perilous madness of lust frequently attaining to the blood, the destruction of a good conscience, the mother of impenitence, the ruin of a more virtuous age, the disgrace of one’s race, driving away all confidence in blood and family, intruding one’s own children upon the affections of strangers, interpolating the offspring of an unknown and corrupted stock into the testaments of others. And this also, very frequently burning without reference to sex, and not restraining itself within the permitted limits, thinks it little satisfaction to itself, unless even in the bodies of men it seeks, not a new pleasure, but goes in quest of extraordinary and revolting extravagances, contrary to nature itself, of men with men.

III. Pudicitia est honor corporum, ornamentum morum, sanctitas sexuum, vinculum pudoris, fons castitatis, pax domus, concordiae caput. Pudicitia sollicita non est cui placeat nisi sibi: pudicitia semper verecunda, dum innocentiae mater est: Pudicitia semper ornatur solo pudore, bene sibi tunc conscia de pulchritudine, si improbis displicet; pudicitia nihil ornamentorum quaerit, decus suum ipsa est. Haec nos commendat Domino, connectit Christo: haec expugnat omnia de membris illicita desideriorum 0821C praelia, pacem nostris corporibus inducit: beata ipsa, et beatos efficiens apud quoscumque habitare dignatur; quam numquam accusare possunt, nec qui eam non habent: venerabilis etiam hostibus suis, dum illam multo magis mirantur, qui eam expugnare non possunt. Sed ut matura et in viris probata semper, et a feminis appetenda; sic inimica ejus impudicitia semper est detestanda: obscoenum ludibrium reddens ministris suis, nec corporibus parcens nec animis. Debellatis enim propriis moribus, totum hominem suum sub triumphum libidinis mittit; blanda prius, ut plus noceat dum placet; exhauriens rem cum pudore; hostis continentiae, frequenter perveniens ad sanguinem cupiditatum infesta rabies, incendium conscientiae bonae, mater impoenitentiae, 0821D ruina melioris aetatis, contumelia generis, expugnans sanguinis et familiae fidem, alienis affectibus suos inserens filios, in aliena testamenta sobolem ignoti et corrupti generis inducens. Quae plerumque extra sexum ardens, dum se non continet intra concessa, parum sibi putat satisfactum, nisi in virorum quoque corporibus non voluptatem novam quaerat, sed extraordinaria et portentosa contra ipsam naturam ex viris per viros monstra conquirat.