Question — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Question First. On Chastity and Virginity.
1. Definition. Chastity is a moral virtue which excludes or moderates the appetite of venereal delectation.
a. Chastity is a virtue annexed to temperance. Temperance, which is one of the cardinal virtues, moderates the sensible appetite in those things which especially allure, namely both in delectations of taste, abstinence and sobriety, and in delectations of touch or of the flesh, chastity. Therefore chastity, which is opposed to the vice of lust, is a special virtue, whose material object is concupiscence of venereal delectation. For just as the virtue of abstinence moderates the appetite which is borne toward delectations of foods, so the virtue of chastity excludes or moderates the appetite which is borne toward venereal delectations. The formal object of chastity consists in the natural honesty which is detected in moderating the pleasures of the flesh according to the norm of reason.
b. Excludes or moderates: for according to the diverse state in which someone is found, the precept of chastity either prohibits and excludes every venereal delectation altogether, or prescribes only its moderation. The former has place in the youthful and widowed state, the latter in the matrimonial state.
1 St. Thomas II-II, q. 151-156. St. Alphonsus, l. 3, n. 412-485. Lessius, De iustitia et iure, etc., l. 4, c. 2, dub. 13-16. Sporer-Bierbaum, Theologia moralis decalog. et sacram.^3 (Paderborn: Typogr. bonifac., 1905), III, tr. IV, n. 467-697. Holzmann, Theologia moralis II, n. 653-723. Reuter, Theologia moralis II, n. 188-221. Lehmkuhl, Theologia moralis (Freiburg: Herder, 1902), I, 860-883. Ballerini-Palmieri, Opus theologicum morale^3 (Prato: Giachetti, 1898), II, n. 959-1049. Gopfert, Moraltheologie^5 (Paderborn: Schoningh, 1906), II, n. 210 ff. Berardi, Praxis confessariorum^4 (Faenza: Novelli, 1898), I, n. 820-1073. E. Genicot, Theologia moralis^6 (Louvain: Polleunis et Geuterick, 1909), I, n. 386-411. Sani, De sexto decalogi praecepto (Ravenna: Serantoni, 1904). Antonelli, Medicina pastoralis (Rome: Pustet, 1908).
2. Division. a. Chastity is distinguished into common chastity, which in any state of life abstains from illicit venereal delectation, and the proper chastity of a determined state, which abstains from venereal delectation according to the laws of the state.
b. By reason of the state to which it ought to correspond, a threefold chastity is distinguished: a. youthful chastity, which abstains from venereal delectation for a time, namely up to the time of nuptials; b. conjugal chastity, which abstains from illicit venereal pleasures in marriage; c. widowed chastity, which after the licit use of venereal delectation abstains from it for the future during the time of life or until second nuptials.
c. By reason of the mode by which it is preserved, chastity is distinguished into imperfect chastity, which contains itself from illicit pleasures of the flesh, and perfect chastity, which contains itself from all delectations of the flesh, even those licit in marriage.
3. On Virginity. 1. Virginity, or virginal chastity, is defined as a firm purpose of the will of abstaining perpetually from all venereal delectations, both illicit and licit, in marriage, in a subject never corrupted.
a. The name of virginity is taken in a twofold sense: for it signifies either integrity of the flesh alone, or also a firm purpose of abstaining perpetually from every venereal delectation. Virginity taken in the first sense is not a virtue, but a good of nature bestowed on all from birth; but virginity taken in the other sense is a virtue.1 In the first sense a woman can be a virgin who has never had carnal intercourse, even if she had sinned against chastity by solitary internal or external acts, because that integrity of the flesh remains which is required and suffices for virginity taken in this sense. Nor does the Church require another, more perfect virginity from those who receive the veil of virginity in the consecration of virgins: for according to the Roman Pontifical, before consecration they are to be questioned concerning life, conscience, and integrity of the flesh.2
b. Therefore two things are required for virginity taken in the full sense, one of which is in the mind, but the other in the body: a. the purpose of the will, which is the formal element of virginity, wherefore without the purpose of preserving chastity perpetually, actual virginity can indeed exist, but neither virtue properly nor the reward of virtue is had; b. integrity of the flesh, which is the material element of virginity. Therefore material virginity consists in integrity of the flesh alone, and consequently does not exclude consent to venereal delectation; formal virginity consists in the will of preserving chastity, even if the integrity of the flesh is injured against the will.
c. Wherefore a virgin can be intact either in body alone, or in mind alone, or in mind and body at the same time. She who is intact in body alone has lost before God the merit and beauty of virginity, but in the face of the Church is held as a virgin and can be consecrated among virgins. She who is intact in mind alone indeed retains before God the merit and reward of virginity, but in the face of the Church has lost virginity.
d. Virginity differs from perfect chastity in this, that virginity adds the signification that the subject has never been corrupted by lust; therefore it is perfect chastity joined with integrity of the flesh. Chastity, on the contrary, prescinds from integrity of the flesh, so that he who has previously already been corrupted by lust can preserve perfect chastity.
e. A vow is not required for virginity; but for the most part the purpose of the will of abstaining perpetually from every venereal delectation is strengthened by a vow. Therefore St. Thomas writes: "Virginity, according as it is a virtue, imports a purpose, strengthened by a vow, of preserving integrity perpetually."3 With this vow added, the state of virginity is had.
f. Virginity is common to each sex;4 nevertheless women alone are usually called virgins, because they alone have been endowed by nature with the seal of virginity.
- Virginity is a special virtue, which differs from common chastity in this, that it abstains not only from illicit but from all venereal delectations, and that it adds to it the purpose of preserving youthful chastity perpetually. And this indeed is that virtue which is celebrated with so many praises by the holy Fathers of the Church and is adorned in heaven with a special reward, namely the aureole of virgins.
a. Pudicity according to St. Thomas is not a special virtue distinct from chastity, but is chastity itself insofar as it moderates certain less principal acts pertaining to concupiscence of the flesh, which precede and accompany the principal act, carnal intercourse, namely looks, touches, kisses, embraces, base conversations, etc. Therefore chastity includes two things: purity (Reinigkeit), or abstinence from illicit effusion of semen, and pudicity (Schamhaftigkeit), or abstinence from every action which induces to lust.
b. Pudicity is named from shame. Shame (Schamgefuhl), which especially shrinks from the denudation of the body, arises neither from custom nor from education, but has been implanted by nature, so that it is found even in barbarous and uncultivated peoples, and indeed in women with greater intensity and perfection than in men. The end, however, on account of which it has been implanted by God is this, that it may be the guardian of innocence and may aid man in restraining the carnal appetite. For this reason, on the one hand care must be taken that shame be excited, cultivated, and preserved in adolescents, but on the other hand that all things be removed which can offend, diminish, and gradually extinguish pudicity entirely.
1 From these things the distinction between the vow of virginity and the vow of perfect chastity is understood. The vow of virginity taken in the first sense is the promise of abstaining from that act, namely the conjugal act, by which the integrity of the flesh is injured; the vow of virginity taken in the other sense differs from the vow of perfect chastity only in this, that this vow directly and formally does not contain the promise of preserving the integrity of the body uninjured; on the contrary, the vow of virginity directly and formally also involves this promise.
2 Cf. Lessius, De iustitia et iure, l. 4, c. 2, n. 120. Ballerini-Palmieri II, n. 1048.
3 Summa II-II, q. 152, a. 3, ad 4.
4 Cf. Apoc. 14, 4, where male virgins are praised.
4. How virginity is lost. Virginity can be lost in many ways: formally or materially, reparably or irreparably.
a. Formal virginity is lost: a. through any mortal sin, whether external or internal, committed against chastity; b. through the intention of marrying, i.e. through the will of entering and consummating marriage. But through marriage alone without the will of consummating it, virginity is not lost.
b. Material virginity is lost through voluntary violation of the flesh; therefore in men through pollution, in women through breaking of the virginal enclosure. Through involuntary violation of the flesh, as happens in men through effusion of semen in sleep, it is not lost; but in women, through violent oppression, it indeed is not lost before God, but in the face of the Church virgins of this kind are judged corrupted.1
Therefore both forms of virginity are lost through a voluntary action which injures the integrity of the body; therefore in men through effusion of semen, whether solitary or with intercourse; and in women both through intercourse and through another voluntary violation of the virginal enclosure. Nevertheless, in the face of the Church, a woman remains a virgin as long as the enclosure of virginity has not been violated through intercourse, and a man remains a virgin as long as he has not known a woman carnally.
c. Virginity is lost: a. irreparably through a voluntary act by which the integrity of the body is injured; therefore through voluntary intercourse and through voluntary pollution. For just as innocence is lost irreparably by one mortal sin, so by one act of consummated lust virginity is irreparably lost, which signifies integrity of the flesh never voluntarily injured; b. reparably through the will of marrying and of consummating marriage and through any mortal sin of non-consummated lust: for integrity of the flesh remains, but the virtue lost can be recovered either by retraction or by penance.
a. They indeed dispute whether through immodest acts voluntarily admitted without effusion of semen virginity is lost reparably or irreparably. But with Lessius (n. 121) it seems it must be said that through touches of this kind virginity is not lost irreparably: for as long as integrity of the flesh is preserved, the virtue is not lost irreparably.
b. Therefore virginity not irreparably lost can be recovered: a. through the purpose elicited anew of preserving virginity perpetually, if it was lost only by a change of purpose; b. through penance, if virginity, with integrity of the flesh preserved, has been lost only through mortal sin against chastity. But if integrity of the flesh has been lost, virginity can no longer be recovered.
Note. If a penitent who has sinned against chastity asks whether he has irreparably lost virginity, ordinarily it is preferable not to declare this openly, but prudently to dissemble, e.g. by saying that every sin can be repaired through penance, lest the penitent, becoming discouraged and afflicted, neglect care for preserving chastity.
1 Cf. A. Eschbach, Disputationes physiologico-theologicae^2 (Rome: Desclee, 1901), disp. 5, c. 2, a. 2.