Letter 127: Augustine exhorts Armentarius and Paulina to fulfill the continence they vowed to God.

To Armentarius and Paulina, my excellent, deservedly honorable, and much-desired children: Augustine sends greetings in the Lord. The distinguished man Ruferius, my son and your relative, told me what you have vowed to the Lord. His report made me glad, yet at once I feared that the tempter, who from ancient times has envied such good things, might persuade you otherwise. So I thought I should briefly exhort Your Charity, my excellent, deservedly honorable, and much-desired son, to consider what is written in the divine sayings: "Do not delay turning to the Lord, and do not put it off from day to day." Take up and see to the payment of what you know you vowed to him, for he demands what is owed and pays what he has promised. It is also written, "Make vows, and pay them to the Lord your God." And even if you had not made a vow, what else should I have urged on you, or what better thing can a human being do, than return himself to the one by whom he was made? Especially since the sign of God's love for us has appeared and shone so brightly that he sent his only Son to die for us. What remains, then, is that what the apostle says should come to pass: Christ died so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them. Unless, perhaps, the world is still to be loved, broken as it is by so great a collapse that it has lost even the appearance by which it seduces. Those who did not deign to flourish even when the world was flourishing deserve praise and proclamation; those who enjoy perishing with a perishing world deserve rebuke and accusation. The labors, dangers, and disasters of this passing life are endured for the sake of that same life, which must one day end, not so that its death may be removed entirely, but so that it may be delayed for a little while. How much more should they be endured for eternal life, where death will not be something nature anxiously avoids, cowardice shamefully fears, or wisdom bravely bears, because there will be no death at all. Let eternal life, then, have you among its lovers. Do you not see how fierce this miserable and needy life is, and how tightly it binds those who love it? Yet when its danger disturbs them, they often end it more quickly by the very act through which they fear ending it. While avoiding death, they hasten death, like someone who rushes into a river while fleeing a robber or a wild beast. At sea, when a storm rages, people sometimes throw even their food overboard; in order to live, they cast away the means by which they live, so that what is lived even in labor may not end too soon. How much labor is spent so that labor may last longer. When death begins to threaten, it is guarded against so that it may be feared for a longer time. Among the many hazards of human frailty, how many deaths are feared, though when one of them comes, the rest will no longer have to be feared. Yet one is fled so that all may be feared. What pains torture those who are treated by physicians and cut by surgeons. Is it so they may not die? No, only so they may die somewhat later. Certain tortures are accepted so that uncertain days may be added. Sometimes, overcome by the very pains they accept from fear of death, they die at once. They do not choose to end life so as not to suffer; they choose to suffer so as not to end it, and the result is that they suffer and end it anyway. Even those who are healed will certainly end life after their pains, a life bought at such cost that cannot be everlasting because it is mortal, cannot be long because the whole of it is brief, and cannot be secure even in its brief span because it is always uncertain. Sometimes they even ended by pain the life for whose sake they chose to suffer pain rather than end it. Excessive love for this life also has this great evil, a thing to be intensely detested and feared: many people, while wanting to live a little longer, gravely offend God, with whom is the fountain of life. Thus, while they uselessly fear the end of life that must necessarily come, they are kept from the place where life has no end. Add to this that even if a miserable life could be perpetual, it could in no way be compared with even the briefest blessed life. Yet by loving the most miserable and briefest life, people lose the most blessed and everlasting one. In this very life, which they love badly, they want what they lose in the other: they do not love its misery, because they want to be happy; they do not love its brevity, because they do not want it to end. Only because it is life is it so loved that often, for the sake of a life miserable and brief, blessed and everlasting life is lost. Considering these things, what great demand does eternal life make of its lovers when it asks to be loved as this life is loved by its own? Is it worthy or bearable that everything loved in the world should be despised in order to hold for a little while a life that will soon end, and yet that the world should not be despised in order to obtain the life without end with the one through whom the world was made? Recently, when Rome itself, the home of the most illustrious empire, was devastated by a barbarian assault, how many lovers of this temporal life gave up everything they had kept not only for its enjoyment and adornment but even for its support and protection, so that they might redeem it, bare and unhappy though it was, and keep it a little longer. Lovers are accustomed to give much to the women they love in order to possess them. These people would not have had their beloved unless, by loving her, they had made her poor. They did not give her much; rather, they took everything away from her so that the enemy would not take her from them. I do not criticize their judgment. Who does not know that life itself would have perished if the things stored up for its sake had not perished? Yet some lost those things first and life immediately afterward; others, though ready to lose everything for life, lost life first. From this we should be warned what sort of lovers we ought to be of eternal life: for its sake we should despise everything superfluous, since for this passing life people have despised even things necessary to it. We do not strip our beloved, as those people stripped theirs, in order to keep her. Instead, in order to gain that eternal life, we make this temporal life serve her more freely as a maidservant, if we do not bind it with chains of empty ornament or weigh it down with harmful cares. Let us listen to the Lord, who most faithfully promises us that life to be desired with the highest ardor, crying out as if in an assembly of the whole world: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." This discipline of holy humility drives from the soul, and in a sense breathes out, windy and troubled desire, greedy for things placed outside our power. Labor exists where many things are sought and loved whose gaining and keeping cannot be accomplished by the will alone, because ability does not follow desire. A just life, however, is present when we will it, because fully willing that life is itself justice; to complete justice, nothing more is required than a perfected will. See whether there is labor where willing is enough. Thus it was divinely said, "Peace on earth to people of good will." Where there is peace, there is rest; where there is rest, desire has reached its end, and there is no reason for labor. But for this will to be full, it must be healthy; and it will be healthy if it does not avoid the physician by whose grace alone it can be healed from the sickness of harmful desires. He is therefore the physician who cries, "Come to me, all you who labor," calling his yoke easy and his burden light. When love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, what is commanded will certainly be loved, and it will not be harsh or heavy if, under this one yoke, the neck serves with greater freedom the less it is swollen with pride. This is the one burden by which the one who carries it is not crushed but lifted up. If riches are loved, let them be kept where they cannot perish. If honor is loved, let it be held where no unworthy person is honored. If health is loved, let it be desired where, once gained, nothing threatens it. If life is loved, let it be obtained where no death ends it. Render, then, what you have vowed, because you yourselves are what you vowed, and you render yourselves to the one from whom you are. Render it, I beg you. What you render will not be diminished by rendering, but rather kept and increased. He is a generous creditor, not a needy one; he does not grow by what is repaid to him, but makes those who repay grow in himself. Therefore what is not rendered to him is lost; what is rendered is added to the one who renders it. Indeed, the one who renders is preserved in the one to whom he renders. What is rendered and the one who renders will be the same thing, because what was owed and the one who owed were the same. A human being owes himself to God and must be rendered to him, so that he may be blessed by the one from whom he received existence. This is what the Lord signifies in the Gospel when he says, "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." He said this when a coin was shown to him and, after he asked whose image it bore, the answer was, "Caesar's." From this they were to understand that God demands his image from human beings in the human being himself, just as Caesar demanded his image in the coin. How much more must that be rendered when it has been promised, since it is owed even when it has not been promised? Therefore, dearest one, I could indeed, according to my small ability, praise more fully the fruit of the holy purpose I have learned you vowed to God and show the difference between Christians who love this world and those who despise it, although both are called faithful. Both have been washed in the same bath of the sacred font; both have been instructed and consecrated by the same mysteries; both are not only hearers of the same Gospel but even preachers of it. Yet both are not sharers in the kingdom of God and the light and co-heirs of eternal life, which alone is blessed. For the Lord Jesus did not draw the distinction between those who hear and those who do not hear. He drew a very broad line, not a thin distinction, among hearers of his words: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them I will compare to a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and struck that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them I will compare to a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and struck that house, and it fell, and its fall was great." To hear those words, then, is to build. In this both are equal. But in doing or not doing what they hear, they are as different as a building founded on the firmness of rock differs from one overturned by the easy shifting of sand without any foundation. Nor does anyone who does not hear at all gain anything safer for himself. Having built nothing, and with no roof at all, he is even more easily overwhelmed, swept off, and scattered by rains, floods, and winds. I could also, according to my measure, distinguish in their degrees and merits those very people who belong to the right hand and the kingdom of heaven, and show how the married life of fathers and mothers who beget children and manage households, yet are religious and devout, differs from the life you have vowed to God, if you still needed to be urged to make the vow. But because you have already vowed, you have already bound yourself. It is no longer lawful for you to do anything else. Before you were under the obligation of a vow, you were free to be something lower, though freedom is hardly to be congratulated when it makes a person not owe what, if rendered, would have been rendered with happiness. Now, because your promise is held before God, I am not inviting you to great righteousness but deterring you from great iniquity. If you do not do what you vowed, you will not be the same person you would have remained if you had vowed nothing of the sort. Then you would have been less, not worse; now, God forbid, you would be more miserable if you broke faith with God, just as you would be more blessed if you paid what you owe. Do not regret having vowed. Rather, rejoice that what would have been permitted to your harm is no longer permitted to you. Go forward without fear, and fulfill your words by deeds. The one who asks for your vows will help you. Happy is the necessity that compels us toward better things. There would be only one reason why we would not merely fail to exhort you to fulfill what you vowed, but would actually forbid you to fulfill it: if your wife, through weakness of mind or body, refused to take it up with you. Such vows must not be made by married people except by consent and a shared will. If something has been done rashly, the rashness should be corrected rather than the promise fulfilled. God does not demand what someone has vowed from what belongs to another; he forbids us to usurp what is another's. The divine judgment on this matter was spoken through the apostle: "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." In this case he used the name of body for sex. But since I hear that she is so ready to dedicate continence to God that the only thing preventing her would be if she were compelled by marital right to give you what is owed, both of you should render to God what both of you vowed, so that what you do not demand from one another may be paid to him. If continence is a virtue, as indeed it is, why should the weaker sex be more ready for it, when virtue itself seems to have received its name from manly strength, as the similarity of the word suggests? Do not, then, as a man shrink from a virtue that a woman is ready to take up. Let your agreement be an offering at the high altar of the Creator, with desire overcome by the bond of love, stronger because holier. Let us rejoice over you in the abundant grace of Christ, my excellent, deservedly honorable, and much-desired children.

EPISTOLA 127 Scripta sub fine a. 410. Augustinus Armentarium hortatur ut continentiae votum Deo rependat eo magis quod nos fugit haec vita (n. 1) ad quam trahendam mundi amatores tot tantaque mala patiuntur (n. 2) saepeque in Deum, vitae fontem, multa committunt (n. 3), cum e contra mundus contemnendus sit velut impedimentum in adipiscenda vita aeterna (n. 4). Armentarius autem humiliter tollat suave iugum Christi super se (n. 5) reddatque Deo quod ei pollicitus sit (n. 6) praecepta eius ita exsequens (nn. 7-8) neque Paulinae uxori inferior sit virtute (n. 9). DOMINIS EXIMIIS MERITOQUE HONORABILIBUS AC DESIDERABILIBUS FILIIS, ARMENTARIO ET PAULINAE, AUGUSTINUS, IN DOMINO SALUTEM. Vota Deo reddenda. 1. Vir egregius, filius meus Ruferius, affinis vester, retulit mihi quid Domino voveritis: qua eius narratione exhilaratus, et ibidem metuens ne aliud suadeat ille tentator qui bonis talibus antiquitus invidet, exhortandam paucis credidi Caritatem tuam, domine eximie meritoque honorabilis et desiderabilis fili, ut cogites quod in divinis eloquiis legitur: Ne tardes converti ad Dominum, neque differas de die in diem 1; atque arripias curesque reddendum quod ei te vovisse nosti, qui et debita exigit et promissa persolvit. Nam et hoc scriptum est: Vovete, et reddite Domino Deo vestro 2: quamquam etsi non vovisses, quid aliud tibi suadendum fuit, aut quid melius ab homine fieri potest, quam ut ei se restituat a quo institutus est; praesertim quia caritatis erga nos Dei tantum apparuit atque eluxit indicium, ut Filium suum unigenitum mitteret, qui pro nobis moreretur 3? Restat ergo ut fiat quod Apostolus ait, propterea mortuum esse Christum, ut qui vivunt non sibi iam vivant, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est et resurrexit 4. Nisi forte adhuc mundus amandus est, tanta rerum labe contritus, ut etiam speciem seductionis amiserit. Nam quantum illi laudandi atque praedicandi, qui dignati non sunt etiam cum mundo florente florere; tantum increpandi et accusandi sunt, quos perire cum pereunte delectat. Quam multa patimur ad vitam paulo producendam! 2. Labores et pericula et exitia huius transitoriae vitae, si pro eadem vita quandoque finienda subeuntur, ut mors eius non omnino auferatur, sed paululum differatur; quanto magis pro aeterna subeunda sunt, ubi mortem nec natura sollicite cavet, nec ignavia turpiter timet, nec sapientia fortiter sustinet! nulli quippe erit quae non erit. Habeat igitur te vita aeterna in dilectoribus suis. Nonne cernis, haec vita miserabilis et egena quam vehementes habeat, quantumque sibi obliget amatores suos? qui tamen periculo eius saepe turbati, citius eam finiunt, eo ipso quo finire formidant, et mortem dum declinant, accelerant, veluti si quisquam fluvio rapiendus irruat, latronem bestiamve fugiendo. Iactant in mare tempestate saeviente aliquando et alimenta; et ut vivant, proiciunt unde vivunt, ne cito finiatur quod vel in labore vivitur. Quantis laboribus agitur, ut longiore tempore laboretur! et mors cum impendere coeperit, ideo cavetur, ut diutius timeatur. Nam inter tot casus fragilitatis humanae, quam multae mortes timentur, quarum certe una cum venerit, restat caeteras non timeri! et tamen fugitur una ut omnes timeantur. Quibus excruciantur doloribus, qui curantur a medicis et secantur! numquid ut non moriantur? Sed ut aliquanto serius moriantur. Multi cruciatus suscipiuntur certi, ut pauci dies adficiantur incerti: et nonnumquam ipsis doloribus victi continuo moriuntur, quos mortis timore suscipiunt; et cum omnino non eligant vitam finire ne doleant, sed dolere ne finiant, accidit eis ut doleant et finiant: non solum quia et sanati utique vitam finiunt post dolores, quae tantis poenis comparata nec sempiterna esse potest, quia mortalis est, nec diuturna, quia tota brevis est, nec de ipso brevi spatio sui secura, quia semper incerta est; verum etiam quod aliquando eam dolore finierunt, quam ne finirent, dolere voluerunt. Huius vitae amore saepe amittitur aeterna. 3. Habet etiam hoc magnum malum, ac vehementer exsecrandum et horrendum nimius amor vitae istius, quod multi dum volunt paulo diutius vivere, graviter offendunt Deum, apud quem est fons vitae 5; atque ita, dum ab eis frustra qui necessario futurus est vitae finis metuitur, illinc prohibentur ubi sine fine vivitur. Huc accedit quia vita misera etiamsi posset esse perpetua, nullo modo beatae vitae etiam brevissimae comparanda est: et tamen isti amando miserrimam atque brevissimam, perdunt beatissimam ac sempiternam, cum in hac ipsa, quam male diligunt, hoc velint quod in altera perdunt; quia utique in ista nec miseriam diligunt, nam beati esse volunt, nec brevitatem, nam eam finiri nolunt; tantum quia vita est, sic amatur, ut saepe propter eam, licet miseram et brevem, beata et sempiterna amittatur. Mundus spernendus ut aeternitas beata acquiratur. 4. His consideratis, quid magnum vita aeterna iubet amatoribus suis, cum se iubet sic amari quemadmodum haec amatur a suis? an vero dignum est vel ferendum, cum contemnuntur omnia quae amantur in mundo, ut vita post paululum finienda, saltem ipsum paululum teneatur in mundo; et non contemnitur mundus, ut obtineatur vita quae sine fine apud illum est, per quem factus est mundus? Modo cum ipsa Roma, domicilium clarissimi imperii, barbarico vastaretur incursu, quam multi huius vitae temporalis amatores, ut eam vel infeliciter producendam nudamque redimerent, dederunt omnia quae illi non solum oblectandae et ornandae, verum etiam sustentandae tuendaeque servabant! Solent certe amatores illis quas amant, ut eas habeant, multa conferre: isti amatam suam non haberent, nisi amando inopem reddidissent; nec ei multa conferrent, sed cuncta potius auferrent, ne sibi eam hostis auferret. Nec eorum reprehendo consilium: quis enim nesciat perituram fuisse ipsam, si non ea perissent quae recondita fuerant propter ipsam? quamvis et quidam perdiderint prius illa, mox ipsam; quidam vero licet parati cuncta perdere propter ipsam, prius perdiderint ipsam. Sed hinc admonendi sumus quales aeternae vitae dilectores esse debeamus, ut propter eam contemnamus cuncta superflua, cum pro hac transitoria vita contempta sint quae illi fuerant necessaria. Suave Christi iugum non gravat sed levat. 5. Neque enim amatam nostram, sicut illi suam, ut teneamus, exspoliamus; sed illi aeternae adipiscendae istam temporalem velut famulam expeditiorem servire facimus, si eam nec ornamentorum vanorum vinculis alligemus, nec curarum noxiarum sarcinis oneremus, audiamusque Dominum, qui nobis illam vitam summo ardore desiderandam fidelissime pollicetur, velut in totius mundi concione clamantem: Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego vos reficiam. Tollite iugum meum super vos, et discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde; et invenietis requiem animabus vestris. Iugum enim meum lene, et onus meum leve est 6. Haec disciplina piae humilitatis, ventosam et turbidam cupiditatem, avidam rerum extra nostram potestatem constitutarum, pellit ex animo, et quodammodo exspirat. Ibi enim labor, ubi multa quaeruntur et diliguntur, quibus adipiscendis atque retinendis voluntas non satis est, quia consequentem non habet facultatem. Iusta vero vita, cum volumus, adest, quia eam ipsam plene velle, iustitia est; nec plus aliquid perficienda iustitia, quam perfectam voluntatem requirit. Vide si labor est, ubi velle satis est. Unde divinitus dictum est: Pax in terra hominibus bonae voluntatis 7. Ubi pax, ibi requies; ubi requies, ibi finis appetendi, et nulla causa laborandi. Sed haec voluntas ut plena sit, oportet ut sana sit: erit autem sana, si medicum non refugiat, cuius solius gratia sanari potest a morbo desideriorum noxiorum. Ipse est ergo medicus qui clamat: Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis, iugum suum lene, et onus leve dicens; quia diffusa per Spiritum sanctum caritate in cordibus nostris 8, profecto amabitur quod iubebitur, et non erit asperum nec onerosum, si sub hoc uno iugo, quanto minus tumida, tanto magis libera cervice serviatur. Et haec est una sarcina, qua eius baiulus non premitur, sed levatur. Divitiae si diliguntur, ibi serventur ubi perire non possunt. Honor si diligitur, illic habeatur ubi nemo indignus honoratur. Salus si diligitur, ibi adipiscenda desideretur ubi adeptae nihil timetur. Vita si diligitur, ibi acquiratur ubi nulla morte finitur. Quod Deo redditur, reddenti additur. 6. Reddite igitur quod vovistis, quia vos ipsi estis, et ei vos redditis a quo estis; reddite, obsecro. Neque enim quod redditis, reddendo minuetur, sed potius servabitur et augebitur: benignus enim exactor est, non egenus; et qui non crescat ex redditis, sed in se crescere faciat redditores. Huic ergo quod non redditur, perditur: quod autem redditur, reddenti additur; imo vero in eo cui redditur, ipse reddens servatur. Idipsum quippe erit redditum et redditor, quia idipsum erat debitum et debitor. Deo namque seipsum debet homo, eique reddendus est ut beatus sit, a quo accepit ut sit. Hoc significat quod in Evangelio Dominus ait: Reddite Caesari quae Caesaris sunt, et Deo quae Dei sunt 9. Hoc enim dixit, cum sibi demonstrato nummo, et quaesito cuius haberet imaginem, responsum esset, Caesaris; ut hinc intellegerent, quod Deus exigeret ab homine imaginem suam in homine ipso, sicut Caesar suam exigebat in nummo. Quanto magis ergo reddenda est cum promittitur, cui etiam non promissa debetur! Dei praecepta et audienda et facienda. 7. Quapropter, carissime, possem quidem pro mea quantulacumque facultatula, sancti propositi quod Deo vovisse vos comperi, uberius laudare fructum, ac demonstrare quid distet inter christianos dilectores mundi huius, et contemptores, quamvis fideles utrique dicantur. Eodem utrique lavacro sacri fontis abluti sunt, eisdem imbuti consecratique mysteriis, utrique eiusdem Evangelii non auditores tantum, verum etiam praedicatores; nec utrique tamen regni Dei lucisque participes, et vitae aeternae, quae sola est beata, cohaeredes. Dominus enim Iesus non ab eis qui non audiunt, sed eos inter se auditores verborum suorum, latissimo limite, non tenui distinctione discrevit: Qui audit, inquit, verba mea haec, et facit ea, similabo eum viro prudenti qui aedificavit domum suam supra petram: descendit pluvia, venerunt flumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt in domum illam, et non cecidit; fundata enim erat supra petram. Qui autem audit verba mea haec, et non facit ea, similabo eum viro stulto qui aedificavit domum suam super arenam: descendit pluvia, venerunt flumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt in domum illam, et cecidit, et facta est ruina eius magna 10. Audire ergo illa verba, aedificare est; in hoc utrique pares sunt: in faciendo autem, et non faciendo quod audiunt, tantum dispares, quantum aedificium petrae soliditate fundatum dispar est ei quod sine ullo fundamento facili arenae mobilitate subvertitur. Nec ideo quisquis omnino non audit, tutius sibi aliquid comparat: nihil enim aedificans, sine ullo tecto multo facilius obruendus, rapiendus, et dispergendus imbribus, fluviis ventisque donatur. Voto obstrictorum felix necessitas. 8. Possem etiam pro modulo meo eosdem ipsos pertinentes ad dexteram regnumque coelorum in suis gradibus meritisque distinguere, atque ostendere quo differat vita coniugalis filios procreantium patrum matrumque familias, verumtamen religiosorum ac piorum, ab ea vita quam vos Deo vovistis, si nunc ad eam vovendam exhortandus esses; sed quia iam vovisti, iam te obstrinxisti, aliud tibi facere non licet. Priusquam esses voti reus, liberum fuit quo esses inferior; quamvis non sit gratulanda libertas qua fit ut non debeatur quod cum fuero redditur. Nunc vero quia tenetur apud Deum sponsio tua, non te ad magnam iustitiam invito, sed a magna iniquitate deterreo. Non enim talis eris, si non feceris quod vovisti, qualis mansisses, si nihil tale vovisses. Minor enim tunc esses, non peior: modo autem tanto, quod absit, miserior, si fidem Deo fregeris, quanto beatior, si persolveris. Nec ideo te vovisse poeniteat, imo gaude iam tibi non licere quod cum tuo detrimento licuisset. Aggredere itaque intrepidus, et dicta imple factis; ipse adiuvabit, qui vota tua expetit. Felix est necessitas quae in meliora compellit. Armentarius virtute uxori se adaequet. 9. Una sola esse causa posset, qua te id quod vovisti, non solum non hortaremur, verum etiam prohiberemus implere, si forte tua coniux hoc tecum suscipere animi seu carnis infirmitate recusaret. Nam et vovenda talia non sunt a coniugatis, nisi ex consensu et voluntate communi: et si praepropere factum fuerit, magis est corrigenda temeritas quam persolvenda promissio. Neque enim Deus exigit, si quis ex alieno aliquid voverit, sed potius usurpare vetat alienum. Divina quippe de hac re per Apostolum est prolata sententia: Uxor non habet potestatem corporis sui, sed vir; similiter et vir non habet potestatem corporis sui, sed mulier 11: sexum nomine corporis nuncupavit. Sed cum illam tam paratam esse audiam Deo dicare continentiam, ut eo solo impediatur, si tibi debitum reddere coniugali iure compellitur; ambo Deo reddite quod ambo vovistis, ut illi persolvatur quod ab alterutro non exigitis. Si continentia virtus est, sicuti est, cur ad eam sit promptior sexus infirmior, cum virtus a viro potius cognominata videatur 12, sicut similitudo vocabuli resonat? Noli ergo vir abhorrere a virtute quam mulier est parata suscipere. Sit vester consensus oblatio ad supernum altare Creatoris, et victa concupiscentia, tanto fortius quanto sanctius vinculum caritatis. Gaudeamus de vobis in abundanti gratia Christi, domini eximii meritoque honorabiles et desiderabiles filii.