Virginitas : An Essay in the History of a Medieval Ideal

cites Perrin, O.P.'s [*Virginity:*](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=7135) is “allied to whatever is deepest in the human heart, ... lies also at the centre of the Catholic Church,” and is “intimately related to the Christian conception of life present and to come” (pp. vii-ix). “it does not appear possible to understand fully the mystical nature of Christian virginity without it [the virgin as 'bride of Christ'].” “Virginity fulfills what marriage merely signifies.” ch. 4 "Virginity Sexualized" was initially not the sort of chapter I would have thought interesting, but the historical transition from the epithalamian- Song of Songs- pneumatic- view of bride-soul union with Christ-Spirit to a more "flesh & blood" union of the virgin's body with Christ as human reminded me of [St. Margaret Mary Alacoque's almost "erotic" autobiography](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=5893) or St. Teresa (& St. Thérèse's) devotion to Christ's humanity. The virginal espousals to Christ hinge upon the mystery of the hypostatic union. Afterword speculates that the decline of monasticism is related to the rise in scholasticism: > Fr. Leclercq has outlined the differences between the monastic and scholastic traditions, suggesting that they resolve themselves into a basic distinction between spiritual methodologies. [See [*The Love of Learning*](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=7936) [cited *passim* throughout *Virginitas* ], pp, 6–7, where it is asserted that monastic education was oriented more toward spirituality than simple learning, toward *experiendum* , not just *sciendum*. Fr. Leclercq considers the difference between monastic and scholastic “cultures” in detail in Chapter IX, pp. 233–86.] But what we have learned of virginity as the focus of spiritual energy and strength within the monastic tradition argues that there are also real differences in the content of the two traditions. For beyond the fact of two spiritual cultures, beyond the existence of two fundamentally dissimilar modes of theologizing, remains the question of how it was these two traditions came to be two, and what it was that formed the ultimate issue over which they disagreed. The answer may well be that from the beginning the most elemental point of contention between the two was the place of sexuality in Christian life. > To suggest that the opposition between monastery and cathedral is finally a contest between the rejection or the acceptance of the very fact of human sexuality is at once both radical and commonplace. * * * Just when I thought I've read enough on virginity... I was actually quite impressed with the insights of: > Bugge, John. [*Virginitas: An Essay in the History of a Medieval Ideal*](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=7932). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 1975. Bugge cites Fr. Perrin, O.P.'s [*Virginité*](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=7135). The author's acknowledgement (end of preface) was humorous: > One woman, too, has been extremely helpful in seeing this book to completion: my own *sponsa* , long since *subintroducta* , whose support and unfailing good cheer have made it impossible for this enquiry to be anything more than disinterested. He also cites monasticism historian Fr. Jean Leclercq, O.S.B., *passim* , esp. his [*The Love of Learning and the Desire for God: A Study of Monastic Culture*](https://isidore.co/calibre#panel=book_details&book_id=7936) *(L'amour des lettres et le dâesir de Dieu* ). Bugge mentions St. Bernard's "epithalamian" commentary on the Song of Songs (where the soul = female) contributing to a "feminization" of monasticism, attracting women more than men. In the afterword, Bugge speculates that (although economic factors played a role) the decline of monasticism might have been due to the rise in scholasticism: the opposition between monastery and cathedral is finally a contest between the rejection or the acceptance of the very fact of human sexuality I don't really agree with that; St. Thomas certainly does not simplistically reject "the very fact of human sexuality", although virginity does "triumph" both in his life and thought: I., A. “[Il Trionfo Della Verginità Nella Dottrina Di S. Tomaso d’Aquino](https://isidore.co/misc/Physics%20papers%20and%20books/Zotero/storage/RLD7AFBC/I.%20-%201927%20-%20Il%20trionfo%20della%20verginit%c3%a0%20nella%20dottrina%20di%20S.%20To.pdf).” *Angelicum* 4, no. 1 (1927): 81–94. Mater purissima oret pro nobis. * * * A preface is best written last, after a book is done and its author may look back to survey what he hopes he has accomplished and what he must admit he has not. In hindsight virginity by itself has seemed a very large field to till, but with that reflection also comes a sense of the awareness that a really comprehensive treatment of misgiving, that subject would somehow have to encompass an enormous ter­ rain, the whole length and breadth of Christianity's attitude toward sexuality from the earliest times down to the high Middle Ages. It could be argued that no small book could cover so much ground, and I would be the first to agree. As its subtitle is meant to suggest, the present work is, in at least two senses of the word, an essay: both an initial and tentative effort to get at the meaning of an extremely important but as yet unprobed medieval belief in the perfective value of the virginal life; and an interpretive study of a complex subject from a limited point of view, specifically, that in which the virgin appears in devotional literature as the bride of Christ. Apreface is best written last, after a book is done and its author may look back to survey what he hopes he has accomplished and what he must admit he has not. In hindsight virginity by itself has seemed a very large field to till, but with that reflection also comes a sense of misgiving, the awareness that a really comprehensive treatment of that subject would somehow have to encompass an enormous ter rain, the whole length and breadth of Christianity's attitude toward sexuality from the earliest times down to the high Middle Ages. It could be argued that no small book could cover so much ground, and I would be the first to agree. As its subtitle is meant to suggest, the present work is, in at least two senses of the word, an essay: both an initial and tentative effort to get at the meaning of an extremely important but as yet unprobed medieval belief in the perfective value of the virginal life; and an interpretive study of a complex subject from a limited point of view, specifically, that in which the virgin appears in devotional literature as the bride of Christ