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LETTER 3* Introduction The fourth century was a key period for the promotion ofthe ideal of consecrated virginity. Ambrose and, above all, Jerome stand out as essential figures in this effort. Indeed, Jerome is sometimes extreme in his expressions, promoting virginity by the denigration of marriage. Augustine shares the view that in the spiritual hierarchy, the state of consecrated virginity is superior to that of marriage. In turn, the state of consecrated widowhood is superior to the married state but inferior to the state ofconsecrated virginity. In terms of the Gospel parable, virginity yields fruit one hundred-fold, widowhood, sixty, and marriage only thirty. In earlier times, the martyr had been at the summit of this spiritual pyramid. But these were not the times of open persecution. I use the word "state" with good reason because Augustine was acutely aware that "states of perfection" as such did not guarantee the sanctity of individuals in them. In the larger field of his views on the Church, while it was better to be a member of the Church than not to be one, this alone was no iron-clad guarantee of ultimate salvation. He never tired of repeating that there were some in the Church now who would not be found in the ultimate City of God in heaven and some not in the Church visibly now who would be saved. (They would presumably have to find their way to the Church before their deaths.) So, too, there were individual consecrated virgins and widows who were inferior spiritually to holy married women. Here one might compare this view with Jerome who in his famous letter 22 to the young aspiring ascetic Eustochium, proclaimed that she should not mingle with married women since she was superior to them. (Jerome, ep. 22.16) Augustine, on the other hand, was quite aware that a prime danger for consecrated virgins was the temptation to pride. A good part of his treatise On Holy Virginity (FOTC 27) is dedicated to the consideration of this problem. At the beginning of the City of God, when he was searching for answers to the questions posed by bewildered Christians and saucy pagans as to the reasons for Rome's apparent decline in power under Christian emperors, one objection thrown up to him concerned the rape of consecrated virgins by the pillaging Goths. He suggested that some of them, overcome with 31 32 SAINT AUGUSTINE pride, may have needed a lesson in humility provided by this outrage! (City ofGod, 1.28.1) He clearly accepts this spiritual hierarchy: Virginity-WidowhoodMarriage . Itwas nota question ofgood vs. bad, butofgood (marriage) vs. better (virginity). How this view came to prevail has a long history, one that is not comprised solely of Judeo-Christian elements. And reason is not the sole basis of such conclusions either. In this letter, for example, Augustine states that consecrated virginity is potiormore powerful-than consecrated widowhood (3.2).1 There was some movement among Christian married couples (at least of the aristocracy about which we are better informed) for the husband and wife to separate to lead lives of sexual abstinence. Here too Augustine is moderate, stressing that this is not an arrangement to be entered into without a great deal of thought and prayer. The wife, in particular, who is usually portrayed as the moving force in this ascetical wave, can place her husband in a dangerous position, i.e. in danger of falling into adultery. This is the case in ep. 262 in which Augustine rebuked Ecdicia for insisting too much on such a separation with the result that her husband began consorting with prostitutes. The situation in letter 3* is different. A mother dedicated her infant daughter who was in danger of death to a life of consecrated virginity on the condition that she be allowed to live and grow to adulthood. It is not clear from the letter what age the daughter is at the time of writing. In any event, the mother now wished to dedicate her widowhood as a means of absolving her daughter of the vow of virginity so that the latter might marry and bear her grandchildren. In one place, Augustine indicates that the mother is still of marriageable age herself. Further, it is important to note that Augustine presumes the freedom of the daughter to choose for herself when she is of age. It is the mother who made the vow and seems obliged to try to persuade her daughter...

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