The writings of the Fathers once formed the studies of the learned.
These labours abound with that subtilty of argument which will repay the
industry of the inquisitive, and the antiquary may turn them over for
pictures of the manners of the age. A favourite subject with Saint
Ambrose was that of Virginity, on which he has several works; and
perhaps he wished to revive the order of the vestals of ancient Rome,
which afterwards produced the institution of Nuns. From his "Treatise on
Virgins," written in the fourth century, we learn the lively impressions
his exhortations had made on the minds and hearts of girls, not less in
the most distant provinces, than in the neighbourhood of Milan, where he
resided. The Virgins of Bologna, amounting only, it appears, to the
number of twenty, performed all kinds of needlework, not merely to gain
their livelihood, but also to be enabled to perform acts of liberality,
and exerted their industry to allure other girls to join the holy
profession of VIRGINITY. He exhorts daughters, in spite of their
parents, and even their lovers, to consecrate themselves. "I do not
blame marriage," he says, "I only show the advantages of VIRGINITY."
He composed this book in so florid a style, that he considered it
required some apology. A Religious of the Benedictines published a
translation in 1689.
So sensible was St. Ambrose of the _rarity_ of the profession he would
establish, that he thus combats his adversaries: "They complain that
human nature will be exhausted; but I ask, who has ever sought to marry
without finding women enough from amongst whom he might choose? What
murder, or what war, has ever been occasioned for a virgin? It is one of
the consequences of marriage to kill the adulterer, and to war with the
ravisher."
He wrote another treatise _On the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of
God_. He attacks Bonosius on this subject, and defends her virginity,
which was indeed greatly suspected by Bonosius, who, however, incurred
by this bold suspicion the anathema of _Heresy_. A third treatise was
entitled _Exhortation to Virginity_; a fourth, _On the Fate of a
Virgin_, is more curious. He relates the misfortunes of one _Susannah_,
who was by no means a companion for her namesake; for having made a vow
of virginity, and taken the veil, she afterwards endeavoured to conceal
her shame, but the precaution only tended to render her more culpable.
Her behaviour, indeed, had long afforded ample food for the sarcasms of
the Jews and Pagans. Saint Ambrose compelled her to perform public
penance, and after having declaimed on her double crime, gave her hopes
of pardon, if, like "Soeur Jeanne," this early nun would sincerely
repent: to complete her chastisement, he ordered her every day to recite
the fiftieth psalm.