The Doctrine of Virginity: The Misplaced Medieval Judgment of the Female Sex
by Genoa Molden

This study examines the indoctrination of virginity by the early church fathers in Medieval Europe. The teaching of living a virgin life had profound effects on women of that day and was the causation of social and spiritual sufferings. Only the individual can determine his or her spiritual journey and all attempts to suppress that individual will result in astounding faith and determination. The future likely holds countless possibilities for women in their spiritual surroundings.

The progression of Christianity throughout Medieval Europe (ca. 250) brought about radical reformation of the way secular people lived in earlier pagan societies. Once commonly polygamous in culture, the wave of Christianity attempted to dissolve traditions of having multiple wives in marriage and enforced monogamous ones (Betzig 2). Eventually, even that message merged into self-deprivation with the trend leaning towards virginity, backed by pious confirmations promising heavenly rewards to the virtuous. The widespread message of virginity from early church fathers beginning around the fourth century, directed towards females particularly, developed into a doctrine in and of itself. Medieval spiritual achievement and virginity seem to go hand-in-hand in the writings from Sts. Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory. However, doesn't a virgin still have sexual thoughts and desires? How could a woman shut off the hormones racing through her body desiring a physical response? According to many teachings from the medieval church, sexual purity and righteousness are closely associated with virginity. Yet God created humans with a desire for sexual pleasure; did the medieval church intend that God created people to desire sexual relationships only to punish them for that desire? This is a complicated question with no easy answers; however, I believe the medieval church had other motives surrounding the doctrine of virginity, which induced the prescription of a virgin commitment that had little to do with God or the hereafter.

This research intends to resurrect writings from the early church fathers, including Sts. Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, and Gregory, as the primary sources of development that led to the doctrine of virginity. It will be apparent that women were denounced as impure sexual beings and cast into a fiery judgment by the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages. What was the result of this unjust criticism? The medieval woman found herself unable to pursue her personal spiritual journey with the freedom of choice; man cast unfair judgment upon her as a sexual being and governed her most intimate desires. First, the medieval church indoctrinated the theology of The Virgin Mary as an unachievable model of virtue for women; second, the early medieval church fathers imposed virginity as the highest form of spiritual purity, especially among women; and finally, female monasticism served the church fathers with an opportunity to suppress women into a lower class than men.

For centuries many cultures throughout history have honored or elevated virgins as icons of innocence. A connecting theme among these cultures is the purity associated with women who have not been marred by the corruption of sexual behavior. The concept of virginity in the Christian community began with the most famous virgin in history, Mary of the New Testament Christian Bible, who was the mother of Jesus Christ. The Holy Virgin Mary is praised among many religious affiliations as the most blessed human female who has ever lived by having the unique opportunity of conception without the messy business of sexual contact with a male counterpart; and Mary did not simply conceive an ordinary child, but rather the Son of God. This is the most common doctrine in Christianity regarding The Virgin Mary, even today. Unfortunately, the medieval church indoctrinated the theology of The Virgin Mary as the model of virtue for women, thus inflicting tension among women and their societies. What did the medieval church have to say about The Virgin Mary and how did that theology impact women during the early centuries of the Middle Ages? St. Jerome (ca. 340 – 420), an acclaimed early church father, contends in his letter, "The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary" (A.D. 383) that

I must call upon the Lord Jesus to guard the sacred lodging of the womb in which He abode for ten months from all suspicion of sexual intercourse. And I must also entreat God the Father to show that the mother of His Son, who was a mother before she was a bride, continued a Virgin after her son was born. (New Advent par. 2)

St. Jerome concludes in his letter that The Virgin Mary, as well as her betrothed husband, Joseph, continued their roles as virgins throughout their lifetimes. He further asserts this message by stating,

For if as a holy man he [Joseph] does not come under the imputation of fornication, and it is nowhere written that he had another wife, but was the guardian of Mary whom he was supposed to have to wife rather than her husband, the conclusion is that he who was thought worthy to be called father of the Lord, remained a virgin. (New Advent "Of Holy Virginity" par. 21)

Jerome elevated Mary's status of worthiness to God through her act of virginity. Keeping the figure of Mary in a virgin condition, she is an eternal example to all women of spiritual perfection.
Jerome was not the only church father to profess Mary's virginity as the supreme honor among women. St. Augustine (ca. 354 – 430), another early church father, in his letter "Of Holy Virginity" writes,

Her [Mary's] virginity also itself was on this account more pleasing and accepted, in that it was not that Christ being conceived in her, rescued it beforehand from a husband who would violate it, Himself to preserve it; but, before He was conceived, chose it, already dedicated to God, as that from which to be born. (par. 4)

We extract from Augustine in this text Christ chose Mary as the woman to which he would be born incarnate because of her devotion to virginity. This certainly raises the level of praise of virginity to that of most highly regarded even by Christ, the proclaimed Savior of the Catholic Church. With the teaching of virginity so acclaimed, many Catholic women desired to follow the virtuous example set by The Virgin Mary so esteemed by the early church fathers, evidenced by the example of St. Agnes.

On the birthday of St. Agnes, a famous virgin and martyr of the Catholic Church, St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, wrote to his sister, "It is the birthday of St. Agnes, let men admire, let children take courage, let the married be astounded, let the unmarried take an example" (New Advent "Concerning Virgins" par. 5). Further in his letter, Ambrose links virginity with the espousal of Christ through the example of St. Agnes when he writes, "Virginity has brought from heaven that which it may imitate on earth" (par. 11). Virginity was the catalyst to living a holy life and highly recognized by the medieval Catholic Church as the approach to achieving a heavenly marriage with Christ. Virginity is further venerated by St. Gregory of Nyssa in his treatise "On Virginity" through the example of The Virgin Mary as he writes, "What happened in the stainless Mary when the fullness of the Godhead which was in Christ shone out through her, that happens in every soul that leads by rule the virgin life" (New Advent 3). The church fathers used the example of Mary's virginity to set the standard for medieval women in the church. This led the church fathers to the next course of action, which included indoctrinating virginity.

Concerning the effect the doctrine of virginity had on women in the early medieval church, we must conclude that women who desired a close relationship with Christ would look toward Mary as their supreme role model, such as the example presented of St. Agnes suggests. Therefore, Christian women would have sought to remain as chaste and pure as Their Lady closest to their Savior. For instance, many women made vows of virginity at an early age, thus seeking to prevent themselves from being married off. In an article from Christian History, "Five Religious Options for Medieval Women," author Ann K. Warren describes the case of one upper class, Anglo-Saxon woman, "Christina of Markyate" who "made a formal vow of virginity at age 14, in about the year 1110." As a result of this act, "She was kept in physical custody for a year, during which an ecclesiastical judge was bribed to set aside her vow of virginity," (Warren) which eventually led to the marriage she so desperately tried to avoid. Consider how tumultuous this event would have been to the young woman who vowed to God her virginity, as she aspired to do by the prompting of the early church fathers. The church prescribed a virgin lifestyle to women; however, as women attempted to live out that lifestyle, society often refused to allow them that choice.

Women who fled from the scene of an unwanted marriage, such as Christina did, were destined to leave their childhood homes or live in the seclusion of monasticism because medieval society refused women the freedom of choice. Warren explains that, "Most medieval women married the men their families chose for them or peaceably accepted the consignment to the convent, the fate of many upper class women of the High and Late Middle Ages." A sanctuary away from the cares of the world that provided seclusion and opportunities for biblical study offered women the education of God's word. However, a heavy price came along with the offering; the early medieval church fathers imposed virginity as the highest form of spiritual purity, aside from which a woman was not considered holy or even acceptable as God's servant. Patristic writers were so repulsed by women who refused a chaste life, they wrote about them with disgust and abhorrence. According to history professor Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, University of Madison, Wisconsin, in her book Forgetful of Their Sex, "Consequently, patristic writers placed the ultimate value on the denial of female sexuality and the espousal of the ideal of total virginity" (128). Admittedly, virginity plays a key role in controlling and focusing spiritual thoughts; however, the Apostle Paul did not teach virginity as a prerequisite to a relationship with God. The early church fathers, Sts. Jerome, Augustine and others, held a different opinion as noted in their writings. The early medieval church fathers insisted worldly pleasures provoked a wicked response and broadened the gap between women and God. Above all worldly pleasures esteemed as the highest evil, sexual indulgence ranked at the top of the list. Gloria K. Fiero, author of The Humanistic Tradition, contends "monastics and church fathers alike generally regarded women as the daughters of Eve, inherently sinful and dangerous as objects of sexual temptation" (2: 17). The church esteemed virginity, especially among women, as the highest form of sanctification.

St. Jerome declared in his letter "On Marriage and Virginity" when he writes, "…I will say it boldly, though God can do all things He cannot raise up a virgin when once she has fallen" (Internet Medieval par. 5). In his lesson St. Jerome implies one must remain a virgin to remain in God's good graces. Jerome further implies that the virgin in this text is female and has the greater responsibility to remain faithful to virginity. Also, in the same letter Jerome quotes from the New Testament Bible in the book of Matthew, 5:28, "‘Whosoever looketh on a woman' the Lord says, ‘to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart'" (qtd. in Internet Medieval par. 5). Jerome continues to list Old Testament biblical men, Sampson and David, who fell from strength and purity in the eyes of the Lord as a direct result of influential pagan women, Delilah and Bathsheba, who used feminine wiles to seduce them (par. 12). However, Jerome failed to report that, unlike the Hebrew men they seduced, these women came from cultures that encouraged sexual acts as a form of celebration to the gods. According to Fiero, the culture surrounding these Old Testament biblical characters was deep seeded in ritualistic practices involving sexual acts. Fiero writes, "At the same time, the sensuous rituals honoring Canaanite fertility gods and goddesses seduced the Hebrews to stray from the rigorous monotheism that forbade the visual representation of their deity" (1: 37).

There is no linkage between these women from the Old Testament days, who lived in societies of free sexual expression, and the early medieval women who were newly reformed and desired a dedicated life to God. Who are the greater offenders, the women who acted in socially acceptable behavior in their culture or the Hebrew men who claimed loyalty to God, yet succumbed to passionate women? Jerome apparently failed to take note of the cultural contrasts between the pagan women from the Old Testament and the early medieval Christian women. Then why include this example in support for virginity—to cast blame on women who frivolously flaunt their sexuality as perceived by the early church fathers? These two comparisons are unequal. It was established earlier that the medieval church fathers associated women with the fallen Eve and saw them as obstacles of sexual temptation. Perhaps men found difficulty with their vows of celibacy, which became popular by the third century (McNamara) and rather than laying the blame on their own weaknesses they chose to redirect the implications of corruption toward the women they lusted after in order to save face. Saint Augustine admits in his Confessions that he struggled with his sensual desires after his conversion to Christianity. Fiero includes his writings regarding the lusts of the flesh, eyes, and ambition of the world, "‘But there still live in that memory of mine, of which I have spoken so much, images of the things which my habit has fixed there'" (qtd. in Fiero 2: 19). As a result of the judgment men made regarding the sexuality of women, many women perceived their sexuality as impure and selected the venerated virginity as the alternative. Monasticism served as the only protected environment for a woman who wanted to remain sexually pure.

The New Testament Bible makes some interesting references to virginity that apparently prompted the early church to implement the trend. Thus, according to the teachings of the Apostle Paul, the cofounder of early Christianity (Fiero 2: 8), "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 Cor. 7.1) and, "Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband" (1 Cor. 7.2). In addition, Paul references virginity specifically in verses 25, 28, and 34. He teaches clearly in verse 25, which reads, "Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful" and in verse 28, "But and if thou marry, thou has not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you." What did Paul mean in the phrase "trouble in the flesh"? The answer lies in verse 34 where Paul writes,

There is difference [also] between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please [her] husband.

Therefore, Paul does not propose virginity as the sole means of spiritual communion with God, but he does admonish that virginity provides an easier way to focus on God without worldly distractions. It was evidently an important task, according to Paul, to devote one's life to the study and servitude of God, whether male or female. This brought about a profound change in thinking among a predominately patristic culture during the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, Paul elevated women to that of equal status of men, spiritually, in his writings. The teachings of Christ and the Apostle Paul led one to believe that there were no differences between men and women in the heavenly eyes of Christ. Paul's epistle to the church of Galatians found in the Bible reads, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3.28). This profound statement in an environment that placed heavy emphases on classification among the people shook their foundation to the core. To suggest slaves were equal with their owners and women equal with men demonstrated a radical message and the medieval church (men) did not likely accept the concept easily, thereby utilizing virginity as a way of manipulating control over women.

Influenced by the church fathers to remain chaste and pure, women were denied their own sexual freedoms and considered spiritually evil if they expressed their sexuality in any way. Schulenburg describes the thoughts of the early church fathers as taught in their writings. At one point, Schulenburg writes that "although deceptively attractive, woman's body was to be shunned as an inherently ugly, repulsive receptacle" and that women should "keep themselves enclosed, out of sight, so as not to be responsible for seducing innocent men, as well as causing the loss of their own chastity" (129). These types of writings sent messages of disdain to women and caused many to feel ill at ease with their own sexuality. How could women feel good about themselves when the very men who helped lead them to spiritual reformation also wrote about female sexuality with abhorrence and distaste? The signal is clear in this message. Women should not be looked upon or thought of in any sexual fashion. However, the teachings of Jerome indicate the difficulty of removing sexual thoughts about women from the minds of men and, therefore, assert that women must remove themselves from the vicinity of men to avoid temptation. It is no wonder women felt inclined to join monasticism when they were always considered less than second rate as wives and mothers, and only pure of mind and body as virgins, in addition, they were influenced to remain pure by keeping themselves distant from all men.

Although marriage is one of the seven sacraments, it was ranked a distant third behind that of virginity and widowhood. St. Ambrose compared widows to virgins in the treatise of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, "Concerning Widows," in which he writes, "They are strong in each point, in that they regret not wedlock, the faith of which they keep, and entangle not themselves with wedded pleasures, lest they appear weak and not able to take care of themselves" (New Advent par. 1). Ambrose holds little back regarding his views on marriage in this passage. Marriage, according to Ambrose, is an institute of weakness for those unable to remain faithful to the holy union with Christ. There is speculation that Ambrose viewed marriage as possible between two people vowed to live in chastity. According to Irven M. Resnick in his article in Church History, "Marriage in Medieval Culture: Consent Theory and the Case of Joseph and Mary,"

For example, Ambrose had advanced the idea that marriage consisted in the mutual agreement of the couple, not in their carnal copulation, while Augustine added that the bond of matrimony remained permanent even when the couple had agreed to abstain forever from the carnal enjoyment of the marriage bed. (3-4)

It appears that Ambrose and Augustine both forwarded the concept of a platonic marriage. However, it would seem unlikely that the majority of couples of marital age would have the conviction to refrain from sexual contact while living as husband and wife. Perhaps this also prompted women to join monasticism.

Monasticism was not originally designed to confine women; the monastic movement was a natural response to the evolving devotion men and women developed for serving God with their spiritual and physical beings. Jo Ann McNamara explains in her article "Inside the Convent" the inception of monasticism as she writes, "The first monastic community was organized in the Egyptian desert (c. 320) by Padhomius and his sister, who took charge of a segregated female group on the opposite side of the river from the monks" (2). Even from the very beginnings of monasticism, the men and women were clearly segregated. Perhaps this was out of necessity to maintain the safety and reputation of the women. However, this early form of cloistering was a premonition of future developments, which led to distancing the roles of men and women in the monastic environment. For instance, by the twelfth century the equality of nuns was reduced greatly compared to monks. According to McNamara, "Their exclusion from ordination forbade them to follow their male counterparts into new areas of service" (4). The article goes on to state, "In every order, the nuns were segregated, enclosed, and ultimately separated as far as possible from the monks" (4). Evidently, the roles given to female nuns were of less importance than those of male monks. Women who chose to join a monastic environment found limitation in their acceptable role, which was unequal to that of men. The irony is that women found an ideal location in their medieval environment to pursue spiritual edification, remain safe from arranged marriages, and maintain the model of virtue through virginity, yet they were prohibited from stepping forward in every religious role and second class to religious men.

Where was the call for a woman to rise above her oppression and make a way for herself in Medieval Europe? The church fathers certainly did not bring about an environment enabling independent thought nor did alternative lifestyles as wives and mothers provide a sense of equality to men. Once again, women were forced to hold a lower status in most medieval classes and resolved to accept their sexual impurities as godless and unforgivable. The medieval church was a tool for men to position women a step below men. The authoritative teachings of the Apostle Paul regarding the equality of women forced reluctant medieval men into action to devise a plan that removed women from the equal ground of men. The early medieval woman found herself in a familiar position and unable to freely explore her spirituality fully; man rose above the woman, even in the religious community and found favor in the eyes of the early church as the superior sex. Although the church has made great strides since its early beginnings, women continue to struggle against patristic ideologies and have not yet been given equal footing in spiritual matters of today's Catholic Church. Women continue to strive forward in religious communities today. They remain suppressed in many areas of ministry, yet spiritual yearnings prevent women from giving up completely on holding equal holy ground with men. Kevin A. Miller reflects in his article, "In the Middle (Ages) of a Debate," that, "In our own day, despite countless books, conferences, and theological debates, the role of women in the church is far from settled" (2). Although men may hold the keys to religious doors, women will find a way through them.

Sources Cited

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The Blue Letter Bible. King James Version. <http://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv>.

Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

---. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Internet Medieval Source Book. "On Marriage and Virginity." Ed. Paul Halsall. October 1998 <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/jerome-marriage.html>.

McNamara, Jo Ann. "Inside the Convent." Christian History 10.2 (1991): 19. Academic Search Elite. Online. EBSCO. 23 Apr. 2001.

Miller, Kevin A. "In the Middle (Ages) of a Debate." Christian History. 10.2 (1991): 6. Academic Search Elite. Online. EBSCO. 23 Apr. 2001.

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---. "Concerning Widows." <http://wwwnewadvent.org/fathers/3408.htm>.

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---. "The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary." <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm>.

Resnick, Irven M. "Marriage in Medieval Culture: Consent Theory and the Case of Joseph and Mary." Church History. 69.2 (2000): 350. Academic Search Elite. Online. EBSCO. 6 May 2001.

Schulenburg, Jane Tibbetts. Forgetful Of Their Sex: Female Sanctity and Society, CA. 500-1100. Chicago: Chicago Press, 1998.

Warren, Ann K. "Five Religious Options for Medieval Women." Christian History 10.2 (1991): 12.