Whether Chastity Is a Virtue?
Objection 1: It would seem that chastity is not a virtue. For here we
are treating of virtues of the soul. But chastity, seemingly, belongs
to the body: for a person is said to be chaste because he behaves in
a certain way as regards the use of certain parts of the body.
Therefore chastity is not a virtue.
Obj. 2: Further, virtue is "a voluntary habit," as stated in _Ethic._
ii, 6. But chastity, apparently, is not voluntary, since it can be
taken away by force from a woman to whom violence is done. Therefore
it seems that chastity is not a virtue.
Obj. 3: Further, there is no virtue in unbelievers. Yet some
unbelievers are chaste. Therefore chastity is not a virtue.
Obj. 4: Further, the fruits are distinct from the virtues. But
chastity is reckoned among the fruits (Gal. 5:23). Therefore chastity
is not a virtue.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Decem Chord. [*Serm. ix de
Tempore]): "Whereas thou shouldst excel thy wife in virtue, since
chastity is a virtue, thou yieldest to the first onslaught of lust,
while thou wishest thy wife to be victorious."
_I answer that,_ Chastity takes its name from the fact that reason
"chastises" concupiscence, which, like a child, needs curbing, as the
Philosopher states (Ethic. iii, 12). Now the essence of human virtue
consists in being something moderated by reason, as shown above
(I-II, Q. 64, A. 1). Therefore it is evident that chastity is a
virtue.
Reply Obj. 1: Chastity does indeed reside in the soul as its subject,
though its matter is in the body. For it belongs to chastity that a
man make moderate use of bodily members in accordance with the
judgment of his reason and the choice of his will.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says (De Civ. Dei i, 18), "so long as her
mind holds to its purpose, whereby she has merited to be holy even in
body, not even the violence of another's lust can deprive her body of
its holiness, which is safeguarded by her persevering continency." He
also says (De Civ. Dei i, 18) that "in the mind there is a virtue
which is the companion of fortitude, whereby it is resolved to suffer
any evil whatsoever rather than consent to evil."
Reply Obj. 3: As Augustine says (Contra Julian. iv, 3), "it is
impossible to have any true virtue unless one be truly just; nor is
it possible to be just unless one live by faith." Whence he argues
that in unbelievers there is neither true chastity, nor any other
virtue, because, to wit, they are not referred to the due end, and as
he adds (Contra Julian. iv, 3) "virtues are distinguished from vices
not by their functions," i.e. their acts, "but by their ends."
Reply Obj. 4: Chastity is a virtue in so far as it works in
accordance with reason, but in so far as it delights in its act, it
is reckoned among the fruits.
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