§9Videamus nunc, an sicut naturae et causae argumenta virgini quoque competere monstravimus, ita etiam disciplinae ecclesiasticae praescripta de muliere in virginem spectant.
us now see whether, just as we have shown that the arguments of nature and of cause apply also to the virgin, so also the prescriptions of ecclesiastical discipline concerning the woman look toward the virgin.
Non permittitur mulieri in ecclesia loqui, sed nec docere, nec tinguere, nec offerre, nec ullius virilis muneris, nedum sacerdotalis officii sortem sibi vindicare.
It is not permitted for a woman to speak in the church, but neither to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to claim for herself a share in any masculine function, much less in the priestly office.
Quaeramus, an aliquid horum virgini liceat.
Let us ask whether any of these things is permitted to a virgin.
Si virgini non licet, sed in omnibus eadem condicione subicitur, et necessitas humilitatis cum muliere censetur, unde illi unum hoc licebit quod omni feminae non licet? Quid praerogativae meretur adversus condicionem suam, si qua virgo est, et carnem suam sanctificare proposuit? Idcirco velaminis venia fit illi, ut in ecclesiam notabilis et insignis introeat, ut honorem sanctitatis in libertate capitis ostendat? Potuit Potuit dignius honorari aliqua praerogativa virilis aut gradus aut officii.
If it is not permitted to a virgin, but she is subjected in all things to the same condition, and the necessity of humility is reckoned together with the woman, from where will this one thing be permitted to her which is not permitted to every female? What prerogative does she deserve against her own condition, if any is a virgin and has purposed to sanctify her flesh? Is it for this reason that the indulgence of the veil is granted to her, so that she may enter into the church notable and conspicuous, and show the honor of holiness in the freedom of her head? She could have been more worthily honored by some prerogative of masculine rank or office.
Plane scio alicubi virginem in viduatu ab annis nondum viginti collocatam.
I know clearly that in some place a virgin under twenty years of age was placed in the widowhood.
Cui si quid refrigerii debuerat episcopus, aliter utique salvo respectu disciplinae praestare potuisset, ne tale nunc miraculum, ne dixerim monstrum, in ecclesia denotaretur, virgo vidua, hoc quidem portentuosior, quod nec qua vidua caput texit, utrumque se negans, et virginem, quae vidua deputetur, et viduam, quae virgo dicatur.
If the bishop had owed her any comfort, he could have provided it otherwise, indeed, with safe respect for discipline, so that such a miracle, not to say monster, should not now be noted in the church—a virgin widow, indeed the more portentous in this, that neither as a widow did she cover her head, denying herself to be both: a virgin who is reckoned as a widow, and a widow who is called a virgin.
Sed ea auctoritate illic sedet intecta qua et virgo, ad quam sedem praeter annos sexaginta non tantum univirae, id est nuptae, aliquando eliguntur, sed et matres, et quidem educatrices filiorum, scilicet ut experimentis omnium affectuum structae et facile norint ceteras et consilio et solatio iuvare, et ut nihilominus ea decucurrerint per quae femina probari potest.
But she sits there uncovered with that authority with which a virgin also does; to which seat, besides being over sixty years of age, not only women of one husband, that is, married women, are sometimes chosen, but also mothers, and indeed educators of children, namely that, built up by the experiences of all affections, they may easily know how to help others both with counsel and comfort, and that they may nevertheless have run through those things by which a woman can be proved.
Adeo nihil virgini ad honorem de loco permissum est. §10Sic nec de aliquibus insignibus.
To such an extent nothing is permitted to a virgin from that place for her honor., neither concerning any badges.
Ceterum satis inhumanum, si feminae quidem per omnia viris subditae honorigeram notam virginitatis suae praeferant, qua suspiciantur et circumspiciantur et magnificentur a fratribus, viri autem tot virgines, tot spadones voluntarii, caeco bono suo incedant, nihil gestantes quod et ipsos faceret illustres.
Moreover, it is quite unjust if women, who are in all things subject to men, display the honorary mark of their virginity, by which they may be looked up to, looked around at, and magnified by the brethren, while men—so many virgins, so many voluntary eunuchs—walk in their blind good, carrying nothing that would also make themselves illustrious.
Debebunt enim et ipsi aliqua sibi insignia defendere, aut pennas Garamantum, aut stropulos barbarorum, aut cicadas Atheniensium, aut cirros Germanorum, aut stigmata Britonum: aut ex diverso fiat, capite velati in ecclesia lateant.
For they too will have to claim some badges for themselves, either the feathers of the Garamantes, or the headbands of the barbarians, or the cicadas of the Athenians, or the hair-locks of the Germans, or the tattoos of the Britons; or, on the contrary, let it be done that, veiled in head, they lie hidden in the church.
Certi sumus spiritum sanctum magis masculis tale aliquid subscribere potuisse, si feminis subscripsisset, cum praeter sexus auctoritatem etiam ipsius continentiae nomine masculos potius honorari oportuisset.
We are certain that the Holy Spirit could have prescribed some such thing rather for males, if he had prescribed it for females, since, besides the authority of sex, males rather ought to have been honored even in the name of continence itself.
Quorum quanto sexus avidior et caldior in feminas, tanto continentia maioris laboratior ideoque dignior omni ostentatione, si ostentatio virginitatis est dignitas.
By how much their sex is more eager and hot toward women, by so much is their continence of greater labor, and therefore more worthy of all ostentation, if ostentation of virginity is a dignity.
Non enim et continentia virginitati antistat, sive viduorum, sive qui ex consensu contumeliam communem iam recusaverunt? Nam virginitas gratia constat, continentia vero virtute.
For does not continence also excel virginity, whether of the widowed, or of those who by consent have already refused the common ignominy? For virginity consists in grace, but continence indeed in virtue.
Non concupiscendi cui concupiscendo inoleveris grande certamen est.
It is a great conflict not to desire that for which, by desiring, you have grown accustomed.
Cuius autem concupiscendi ignoraveris fructum, facile non concupisces, adversarium non habens, concupiscentiam fructus.
But of whose desiring you have not known the fruit, you will easily not desire, not having an adversary, the desire of the fruit.
Quomodo ergo non magis viris aliquid tale deus in honorem subscripsisset.
How therefore would God not have prescribed some such thing in honor rather for men, either because indeed for his more familiar image, or because for the one laboring more?
vel quia familiariori scilicet imagini suae, vel quia plus laboranti? Si autem nihil masculo, multo magis feminae.
But if nothing for the male, much more so for the female.