As to the eminence of beauty: because the greatest beauty consists in perfect integrity and purity both in heart and in body, by which virginal chastity makes one conformed to Christ himself, the font and origin of all beauty. Hence Augustine in the book On Virginity: "Those who have been freed from the abyss of impurity are unworthy that unblemished virginity should be sent to imitate them: I send you to the King of heaven, to him through whom men were created, and who was created among men for the sake of men, to him who is beautiful in form beyond the sons of men and despised by the sons of men for the sons of men."
Also with respect to the prerogative of dignity, on account of which to follow Christ wherever he goes and to sing the new song, which is proper to virgins, there will be a singular glory among virgins, according to what blessed John says in the fourteenth chapter of the Apocalypse. Whence Augustine, in the book On Virginity: "Go forward, holy ones of God, boys and girls, men and women, celibates and unmarried, go forward perseveringly unto the end. Praise the Lord more sweetly, whom you contemplate more richly; hope more happily, whom you serve more urgently; please him more attentively: with loins girded and lamps burning, await the Lord when he comes from the wedding: you bring to the wedding of the Lamb a new song, which you will sing on your harps, not indeed such as all the earth sings, to which it is said: Sing to the Lord, all the earth: but such as no one will be able to say except you, and because you follow the Lamb wherever he goes, as he who was beloved by the Lamb above the rest wrote concerning you. Where do we think he goes, this Lamb, where no one dares or is able to follow him except you? Where do we think he goes, into what glades or meadows? Where, I believe, there are twofold joys, not the vain joys of this world, lying madnesses, nor joys such as in the very kingdom of God belong to the rest who are not virgins; but distinct from the lot of all the rest: joys of the virgins of Christ, concerning Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, on account of Christ. In this you follow the Lamb, because the flesh of the Lamb is indeed virgin: for he retained this in himself which, conceived and born, he did not take away from his Mother."
It must be conceded, therefore, that since virginity does not only denote a habit of continence, but also denotes a state and a preeminent beauty, by reason of which it is praiseworthy, and is likewise praiseworthy on account of the eminence of virtue, beauty, and dignity, it is to be preferred to the other degrees of chastity: whence also to hold the contrary of this is not catholic, but erroneous. And because Jovinian held this, Jerome rebuked him as a heretic in the entire book which he wrote against Jovinian. Whence also in the book On Ecclesiastical Dogmas: "To equate marriage with virginity consecrated to God, or to believe that no merit accrues to those abstaining from wine or from meat out of love of purifying the body, this is not of a Christian, but of Jovinian." And Augustine in the book On Virginity: "Since it is an error both to equate marriage with holy virginity and to condemn it, these two errors to be fled clash against each other with opposing fronts, because they refused to hold the mean of truth: whereby both by certain reason and by the authority of the holy Scriptures we find that marriage is not a sin, nor do we equate it with the good either of virginal continence or of widowed continence."
The arguments which are adduced for this position are therefore to be conceded.
1. To that, therefore, which is first objected, namely that the merit of continence is not unequal in John: it must be said that Augustine never speaks with respect to that which pertains to the reward of the aureola, which regards adornment and state: but he speaks with respect to habit. Whence he says thus in the book On the Good of Marriage: "If we compare the things themselves, it is in no way to be doubted that the chastity of continence is better than the chastity of marriage, although both are good: but if we compare persons, he is better who has a greater good than another: moreover, he who has more of the same kind both has that which is less and certainly has that which is more." From which it is gathered that, whatever may be the case regarding the comparison of persons, the use of this continence exceeds the use of that. Whence also a little before he premises: "If it is said to a continent Christian who refuses marriage: are you then better than Abraham? let him say: I indeed am not better than Abraham; but the chastity of the celibate is better than the chastity of the married, of which Abraham had one in use and both in habit: and afterward let him say: I am indeed not better than Abraham in this kind of continence at least, which he did not lack, even if it did not appear: but I am such a one, not having something different, but doing something different."
2. To that which is objected, that the fruitfulness of Mary is more perfect than virginity: it must be said that there is no similarity between her fruitfulness and the fruitfulness of others: because the fruitfulness of the glorious Virgin herself was in conceiving the Son of God not through carnal intercourse, but through the Holy Spirit: whence she both conceived and bore a Son not only holy, but also the Holy of Holies; but the fruitfulness of other women is in conceiving sinners, who are not sons of God unless they are born again in holy mother Church. Whence Augustine, in the book On Virginity: "Indeed, faithful married women and virgins consecrated to God, by holy conduct and charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned, because they do the will of the Father, are spiritually mothers of Christ: but those who in married life bear children bodily do not bear Christ, but bear Adam. And therefore let them hasten, so that their offspring, imbued with the Sacraments, may become members of Christ." And afterward: "For Christians are not born from their flesh, but afterward become such, the Church travailing, because she is spiritually the mother of the members of Christ, whose spiritual virgin she also is. No fruitfulness of the flesh, therefore, can be compared to holy virginity, even of the flesh. For it is not honored because it is virginity, but because it is consecrated to God: which, although it is preserved in the flesh, is nevertheless preserved by the religion and devotion of the spirit." And through this the response to that objection is clear.
3. To that objection that greater goods are better than middle and lesser goods, and that virginity belongs to the least goods because it pertains to the flesh: it must be said that this is false. For although virginity with respect to something material and underlying pertains to the integrity of the flesh, with respect to the formal and completive aspect, however, it resides in the mind, which delights in incorruption to be perpetually observed in spirit and in flesh. And therefore that objection is to be resolved by destruction of the premise. Whence Augustine, in the book On Virginity: "The virginity of the body is spiritual, which the continence of piety vows and preserves. For just as no one uses the body unchastely unless wickedness is first conceived in the spirit, so no one preserves chastity in the body unless chastity is first implanted in the spirit. Furthermore, if conjugal chastity, although it is guarded in the flesh, is nevertheless attributed to the soul, not to the flesh—under whose presidency and governance the flesh itself is mingled with none other than one's own spouse—how much more and how much more honorably is that continence to be numbered among the goods of the soul, by which the integrity of the flesh is vowed, preserved, and consecrated to the very Creator of soul and flesh."
4. To that which is objected, that one can lose virginity unwillingly: it must be said that, as is already clear, this is false with respect to the merit of the virtue itself. Whence Lucy also said: "If you violate me against my will, chastity will be doubled for me unto the crown."
5. To that which is objected, that a good which cannot be lost without sin is more to be chosen: it must be said that this is false, because a good of counsel can be omitted without sin, and yet it is better than a good of precept.
The first assumption is false, because virginity, of which we now speak, is not merely the integrity of the flesh, but integrity dedicated to God through an inviolable purpose of perpetually remaining continent. Whence Augustine, in the book On Virginity: "Nor do we praise this in virgins, that they are virgins, but that, dedicated to God with pious conscience, they are virgins through continence. For—what I would not say rashly—a married woman seems to me happier than a virgin about to marry: for the former already has what the latter still desires; the former strives to please the one to whom she has been given, the latter strives to please many, uncertain to whom she is to be given."
6. To that which is objected, that art and virtue concern what is difficult: it must be said that there is a twofold difficulty: one which comes from the kind of work, and this, when it is greater, attests to the perfection of virtue; the other which comes from the weakness of vice, and this does not contribute to the greatness of virtue, because such difficulty was neither in Christ nor in the Virgin. The word of the Philosopher, however, is understood concerning the first difficulty, not the second.
7. To that which is objected, that generation renders one more like God than the incorruption of virginity: it must be said that not every likeness contributes to the complement of virtue, but that which flows from the power of assimilative love; but love which is chaste desires more to be assimilated to God in the full purity of both the inner and outer man than in the fecundity of the flesh, in which even brute animals are naturally assimilated by a certain remote likeness.
8. To that which is objected, that fecundity is more consonant with the state of innocence, etc.: it must be said that in the state of innocence generation would have been without all lust, with purity preserved in mind and flesh; and although by reason of the offspring begotten there is a greater likeness in conjugal modesty, nevertheless by reason of purity and cleanness it is greater in virginity; and because this latter is nobler than the aforesaid, therefore that argument does not conclude.
9. To that which is objected, that more goods are more to be chosen than fewer: it must be said that this is true where the goods are equal. For it can happen that one great good outweighs many, just as one mark of gold outweighs a hundred shillings. And so it is in the matter at hand: for through virginity the soul is made in a certain manner a friend and sister and spouse and in a certain manner a mother of Christ.
10. To that which is objected, that what is more consonant with the perfection of nature is more praiseworthy: it must be said that perfection of nature is spoken of in two ways: either of nature in general, or of rational nature as rational; but he objects concerning perfection spoken of in the first way, and the foregoing statement is understood of the second. For that a man begets and is able to beget, this attests to the perfection of nature in general; but that the spirit presides over the flesh, and reason over sensuality, restraining its depravities and rebellions, this attests to the perfection of rational nature, as was shown above.
11. To that which is objected, that the species is preferred to the individual, etc.: it must be said that this holds true in private goods, which pertain to the conservation of nature; but virginity is a spiritual good and in a certain manner perpetual, contributing to the consummation of the heavenly city; and therefore it is rightly preferred to marriage, as heavenly things to temporal things, for the reason that marriage fills the world, and virginity fills paradise.