against me with incredible contriving^ in order to destroy or hinder me, so that I have often wondered whether I was the only man in the world whom he sought. But it was the Lord's will, as I now see, that I should learn the wisdom of the schools and the sanctity of the monasteries in my own certain ex- perience, that is, through many sins and impieties, in order that wicked men might not have a chance, when I became their adversary, to boast that I condemned things I knew nothing about. Therefore I lived as a monk, not, indeed, without sin, but without reproach. For in the kingdom of the Pope impiety and sacrilege pass for supreme piety, still less are they considered matters for reproach.
What do you think now ? Will you still take me out of the cloister? You are still my father and I am still your son and all my vows are worthless. On your side is the authority of God, on my'^side there is nothing but human presumption. For that continence of which they boast with puffed up cheeks is valueless without obedience to God's commands./ Conti- t\ence is not commanded, but obedience is, though the mad and silly papists will not allow that any virtue is equal to continence and virginity, extolling both these virtues with such prodigious lies that their very craze for lying and the greatness of their ignorance, singly or together, ought to cast suspicion on every- thing they do or think.
What kind of intelligence do they show when they distort the words,* "A continent mind cannot be valued," to mean that virginity and continence are to be preferred to everything else, and that vows of virginity cannot be commuted or dis- pensed from? It was a Jew who wrote these words to Jews, among whom virginity and continence were condemned, and he was writing besides about a chaste wife. Thus, too, they apply to virgins that eulogy of a modest wife,* "This is she which hath not known the sinful bed." In a word, although the Scriptures do not laud~virginity, but only give it approval, these men, who are so ready to inflame men's souls for a life that endangers their salvation, dress it out in borrowed feathers, so to speak, by applying to it the praises which the
- Ecclesiastictu xxri, *s. ^
'Wisdom of Solomotf iii, 13,
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