The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle to the Corinthians
8. Virginity makes man like the Blessed Trinity. And all this is as true of virgins that live in their own home as of those that live in a monastery ; for in the time of S. Paul and Ignatius there were no monasteries. In counselling and praising virginity, therefore, they mean that which is maintained at home. So Philip the deacon had at his house four daughters that were virgins (Acts xxi. 9), who were also gifted with the spirit of prophecy, and that as a reward of their virginity, as S. Jerome says (ad Demet .). Philip the Apostle had before his call three daughters, of whom two grew old in virginity, as Polycrates says in S. Jerome (de Script Eccles.). S. Theda, by the exhortation of S. Paul, embraced virginity (S. Ambrose de Virgin. lib. ii.). S. Iphigenia, a king’s daughter, was induced by S. Matthew to do the same (“ Abdias,” Life). So too did S. Flavia Domitilla, daughter of Clement, a Roman consul, when urged by S. Clement (Beda. Martyrol. 7 May.); and S. Pudentiana and Praxedes, daughters of Pudens, a senator, and very many others. So many were there that S. Ambrose says (de Virgin, lib. iii.): “In the Eastern Church and in Africa there are more virgins consecrated than there are births in Milan and all Italy. And yet the race of men is not thereby diminished , but increased! The reason of this is, that God is unwilling to be surpassed in generosity. If parents offer one or two of their offspring, He gives eight or ten in their place, hearing their vows, giving fruitfulness and favourable labour, and filling the house with His blessing. So did He give to Hannah five children in the place of the one she offered to Him. So to the rich who give alms does God give greater wealth, and greater fertility to their fields, as S. Augustine says (Serm. 219 de Tempor .).
Ver. 35. — And I speak this for your own profit. I counsel you to remain single for your greater perfection and growth in spirit and in virtue.
Not that I may cast a snare upon you. Not that I wish to lay a necessity of continency upon you, or to force you to it. So
Œcumenius, Theophylact, Chrysostom. For this precept would be a snare to those who find a difficulty in containing themselves, because it would deprive them of the remedy against incontinence, viz., marriage, and would drive them into the sin of fornication. It is evident from what follows that a snare , i.e., a precept, is contrasted with a counsel, for he goes on to say, but for that which is comely. In other words, he says what he does about the advantage of virginity , not by way of precept but of counsel, exhorting them to the more comely and better condition to be found in the single life. So Theodoret, Theophylact, Anselm, Œcumenius.
Peter Martyr and Bucer, therefore, are wrong in supposing that this snare is the constraint of a vow ; for such a vow is not imposed by the Apostle or any one else, but is self-imposed, as each one of his own free will takes a vow of chastity. He who takes a vow of his own accord, no more casts a snare round himself than one who of his own accord binds himself in marriage to one who is often quarrelsome and hard to live with. Moreover, vows are not taken except after some trial, and not without previous mature deliberation and counsel. In monasteries, e.g., a year of probation is given to novices, that they may test their strength and weigh well the cost. But if married people had such a year in which to try each other before marriage, I fancy that many would alter their minds ; and yet when once they are married they are compelled to live with one that is often unknown, untried, and disliked. Why, then, should
those who have made a solemn promise to God, and have professed chastity, after first trying their strength and their duty, be compelled to break their vows, which of their own accord they made to the
Lord their God?
It is far more true to say that this dogma of Bucer and the
Protestants is a snare. They say that chastity is impossible, and consequently that it is lawful to marry after taking the vows. For by this snare the souls of many religious, and of many married people are destroyed, so that adultery, uncleanness, and damnation follow. For, by persuading themselves that virginal or conjugal chastity is impossible, they are necessarily driven by this fond opinion into adultery and sacrilege.
That ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction . 1. The single life affords abundant facilities for prayer and meditation and worship. So the Magdalene, sitting at the feet of Jesus, heard His word.
2. S. Jerome ( contra Jovin . ) renders it not as the Latin, that ye may have facilities for worshipping the Lord without hindrance , but as above. The Greek εὐπάρεδρον has two meanings : (a) That constant attendance on any one ; (b) assiduity in any work. As therefore, Socrates is said to have had his attendant genius, by whose counsel and advice he was ruled in all that he did ; and as magi in their rings, and heresiarchs in the fabrication of their heresy ( Iren. lib. i. c. 9 and 20) have attendant demons close at hand to prompt them, so here, vice versa , the chaste are called attendants upon the Lord, i.e., His intimates and assessors, as it were, like some terrestrial angels who always behold through their chastity the face of their Father. Hence it is that the Fathers so commonly compare the chaste to angels. S. Bernard, Ep. 42, says : “ The chaste man and the angel differ in felicity , not in virtue : the angel’s chastity is more blest , the man's more strong.” Climacus ( Gradu . 15) and Basil (de Sancta Virgin.) say that by chastity we become like God, and have a kind of celestial and Divine incorruption. Nay, the heathen Cato used to say that our life would be like the life of the gods if we could do without a wife, and that so a wife was a necessary evil. In this Cato erred ; for S. Paul tells us that, through the grace of Christ, it is not necessary, but that both marriage and celibacy are free to every one. Hence Sir Thomas More, on being asked why he had married so tiny a wife, replied merrily, that out of evils he had freely and wisely chosen the least. The Wise Man says most truly (vi. 20) : “ It is chastity that makes us likest God ; " for, as Gregory of Nazianzen says ( Carmen de Virgin.), the Blessed Trinity is the Virgin that all virgins imitate. He says: “The primal Triad is a virgin ; for the Son is born of a Father that has no beginning, for He derived His Being from none ; ” and, as Ambrose (de Virgin. lib. i.) says : “ Virginity has descended from heaven to be imitated on earth. Transcending clouds , the air , and the angels , it has found the Word of God in the very bosom of the Father. Elias , because he was found to be free from all lusts of sexual delight, was taken up in a chariot to heaven .” And it was for this reason that virgins were seen by S. John, not on the mount but above it, in Rev. xiv., singing a new song before the throne of God, and following the Lamb wherever He goes. S. Jerome goes so far as to say that celibate and celestial are conjugate terms. Quinctilian says that Gaius the Jurisconsult held that celibates were “cœliles," or heavenly, because of their freedom from the burdens of marriage. By continency we are brought back to that unity from which we slipped away on all sides. This was well understood and shown, by the four heroic sisters of the queen of the Emperor Theodosius, the most illustrious of whom was Pulcheria, who made a vow of chastity to God, and to whom Cyril wrote his book de Fide ad Reginas, of whom Nicephorus speaks (vol. i. lib. xiv. c. ii. p. 612). He adds that “ day and night they worshipped God with hymns and praises , holding that idleness and ease were unbefitting the purpose with which they had embraced virginity .”
Hence it follows that the single life is the best for acquiring wisdom. Aristotle and other philosophers have laid this down, and Cicero showed by his actions that he thought so. For, after having divorced Terentia, he was asked why he did not marry again ; and he said that it was impossible to at once devote one’s self to philosophy and to a wife, for he that is single and free from other cares can wholly devote himself to wisdom. Moreover, the single life tends to keep the heart pure, and ready to take in wisdom. It is again wonderfully enlightened by God, with whom it lives on terms of intimacy. For since, as the Apostle says here, the soul that is chaste is a close attendant upon and an assessor of God, it follows that it is also an assessor of the eternal wisdom of God: for this is an attendant and assessor of God. “Give me,” says Solomon, “give me, O Lord, the wisdom that attends on Thy abodes.” Hence it is that S. Jerome (contra Jovin. lib. i.) asserts that the Sibyls, because of their virginity, obtained from God the gift of prophecy.
Wisdom and chastity, as twin-sisters, were the companions of S. Gregory of Nazianzen. For, as Ruffinus (in Prolog. Apolog.) records, and also S. Aldhelm (de Laud . Virgin, c. 12), “ when Nazianzen was studying at Athens , he saw in a vision two beautiful maidens , sitting one on his right and the other on his left, as he was sitting reading. Looking askance at them , as purity bade, he asked who they were and what they wished; but they , with more freedom than he, embraced him and said : ‘ Do not be angry with us, young man , for we are well known to you : one of us is called Wisdom, the other Chastity ; and we are sent by God to dwell with you, because you have prepared for us a pleasant and pure dwelling in your heart. We are your twin-sisters, Wisdom and Chastity.'”