Whether Virginity Is the Greatest of Virtues?
Objection 1: It would seem that virginity is the greatest of virtues.
For Cyprian says (De Virgin. [*De Habitu Virg.]): "We address
ourselves now to the virgins. Sublime is their glory, but no less
exalted is their vocation. They are a flower of the Church's sowing,
the pride and ornament of spiritual grace, the most honored portion
of Christ's flock."
Obj. 2: Further, a greater reward is due to the greater virtue. Now
the greatest reward is due to virginity, namely the hundredfold
fruit, according to a gloss on Matt. 13:23. Therefore virginity is
the greatest of the virtues.
Obj. 3: Further, the more a virtue conforms us to Christ, the greater
it is. Now virginity above all conforms us to Christ; for it is
declared in the Apocalypse (14:4) that virgins "follow the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth," and (Apoc. 14:3) that they sing "a new
canticle," which "no" other "man" could say. Therefore virginity is
the greatest of the virtues.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says (De Virgin. xlvi): "No one,
methinks, would dare prefer virginity to martyrdom," and (De Virgin.
xlv): "The authority of the Church informs the faithful in no
uncertain manner, so that they know in what place the martyrs and the
holy virgins who have departed this life are commemorated in the
Sacrament of the Altar." By this we are given to understand that
martyrdom, and also the monastic state, are preferable to virginity.
_I answer that,_ A thing may excel all others in two ways. First, in
some particular genus: and thus virginity is most excellent, namely
in the genus of chastity, since it surpasses the chastity both of
widowhood and of marriage. And because comeliness is ascribed to
chastity antonomastically, it follows that surpassing beauty is
ascribed to chastity. Wherefore Ambrose says (De Virgin. i, 7): "Can
anyone esteem any beauty greater than a virgin's, since she is
beloved of her King, approved by her Judge, dedicated to her Lord,
consecrated to her God?" Secondly, a thing may be most excellent
simply, and in this way virginity is not the most excellent of the
virtues. Because the end always excels that which is directed to the
end; and the more effectively a thing is directed to the end, the
better it is. Now the end which renders virginity praiseworthy is
that one may have leisure for Divine things, as stated above (A. 4).
Wherefore the theological virtues as well as the virtue of religion,
the acts of which consist in being occupied about Divine things, are
preferable to virginity. Moreover, martyrs work more mightily in
order to cleave to God--since for this end they hold their own life
in contempt; and those who dwell in monasteries--since for this end
they give up their own will and all that they may possess--than
virgins who renounce venereal pleasure for that same purpose.
Therefore virginity is not simply the greatest of virtues.
Reply Obj. 1: Virgins are "the more honored portion of Christ's
flock," and "their glory more sublime" in comparison with widows and
married women.
Reply Obj. 2: The hundredfold fruit is ascribed to virginity,
according to Jerome [*Ep. cxxiii ad Ageruch.], on account of its
superiority to widowhood, to which the sixtyfold fruit is ascribed,
and to marriage, to which is ascribed the thirtyfold fruit. But
according to Augustine (De QQ. Evang. i, 9), "the hundredfold fruit
is given to martyrs, the sixtyfold to virgins, and the thirtyfold to
married persons." Wherefore it does not follow that virginity is
simply the greatest of virtues, but only in comparison with other
degrees of chastity.
Reply Obj. 3: Virgins "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth,"
because they imitate Christ, by integrity not only of the mind but
also of the flesh, as Augustine says (De Virgin. xxvii). Wherefore
they follow the Lamb in more ways, but this does not imply that they
follow more closely, because other virtues make us cleave to God more
closely by imitation of the mind. The "new hymn" which virgins alone
sing, is their joy at having preserved integrity of the flesh.
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