Orchid exhibition, Kew Gardens, London, England (photo (c) Ulrike Boehm; all rights reserved)
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A contemporary of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the "Seraphic Doctor" is best known for his Commentary on Parisian archbishop Pierre (Peter) Lombard's earlier "Book of Sentences" ("Commentaria in Quatuor Libros Sententiarum"), in turn likewise a major document of medieval theology. But despite his celestial epithet, John's voice sounds anything but angelic when he is talking about women ...
3. ... [St.] Bernard says: "If our salvation and that of all [men], if the restitution of innocence has been placed in the hand of a woman; it is necessary, that a strong woman be sought, who is necessary for so great a work" ... This is the price, of which the Apostle says: You have been bought at a great price: bear and glorify God in your body. Because that price is great, the Apostle Peter says: Not with the corruptible things of gold and/or silver have you been redeemed from your vain comportment of [your] fathers' tradition, but with the precious blood as if of an immaculate and unpolluted Lamb. This was the great price that was owed, by which the whole world and the whole human race ought to be redeemed ... .
4. That price, where will one find it? Certainly nowhere except in the womb of the glorious Virgin. ... It was not fitting that the Virgin have a son except God, nor that God have a mother except the Virgin. ...
6. ... The blest Virgin brought forth as a woman strong and holy ... in the sanctity of incorrupt chastity, in the sanctity of prompt obedience and in the sanctity of full benevolence. ...
... Not only was she blessed who conceived and nursed Him, but also those who follow Her. And who are they? They who hear the word of God and fulfill it. Eve, having transgressed the mandate of God, destroyed the house which God prepared for us for our salvation; but the wise woman built the house and repaired our salvation.
8. ... [T]he glorious Virgin, bringing forth the Son of God even [into] the light of day, through the fire of divine love gave light to the world and was not corrupted. The love of charity preserved her from corruption. And for that reason He also who shall be born from thee, through an undiminished and unpolluted love, will be called Son of God. As out of the love of a man with a woman there is born a son of flesh; so out of the love of the Virgin with God is born the Son of God.
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12. Everyone who wants to be holy ought to follow the glorious Virgin in the sanctity of incorrupt chastity, of prompt obedience and of full benevolence. And as by following the glorious Virgin we become precious and holy, so by following Eve we become evil and vile. Whence in Proverbs: The price of a harlot [is] barely one loaf of bread; however a woman seizes the precious soul of a man. Stupid Eve, for eating one piece of fruit you have sold yourself and your man and all of us! O son of Eve! beware lest you be an imitator of Eve; but for whatever delectation you give your soul; you are an imitator of Eve. What does it proft a man if he gain the entire world, but suffer the detriment of his soul? Or what a man give in exchange for his soul? For the entire [universe] God created, I would not give my soul. Christ gave His own blood for redeming my soul, and for sin you sell yourself and your soul!
13. Do you know what comes about through sin? The most precious becomes the most vile. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: The fornicating woman, like a harlot, is trampled upon in the street. ... Therefore fly concupiscences and let us follow the Virgin, who believed the Archangel Gabriel, not the woman, who believed the serpent. Solomon followed foolish women, for that reason he grieved and says in Ecclesiastes: I have found woman more bitter than death; a hunters' snare, and a net is her heart, chains are her hands. He who pleases God will flee from her, however he who is a sinner will be seized by her. A snare for those looking at it, a net for those lusting after and consenting to it, and chains for those grasping them.
14. I say first, that she is a snare for those looking at her; whence it is written: Many having admired the appearance of another's woman, have become reprobate. One reads of blessed [St.] Bernard that his sister came to see him, adorned with the most beautiful dress; he himself spit in her face and fled from her. Not enduring that, she asked why he did this; he responded: "because you come in the dress of a prostitute to seize souls, and you carry the devil with you." For that reason he says: [she] is a hunters' snare, that is the devil's, who through her seizes souls; because he who sees a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. – Likewise, she is a net to those desiring and consenting to her. Whence in Ecclesiasticus: On account of the appearance of a woman many have perished. It is difficult to carry fire in a fold so as not to burn up one's garments. – Likewise, the hands of a woman are chains to those grasping them, because she holds on [so] tightly that the man cannot be separated from her. Whence the Apostle: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. – From a [woolen] vestiment proceeds [moth] larva, and from a woman the iniquity of a man. – If we want to be most precious, we ought to adhere to the price of the strongest woman, the incorrupt Virgin, most obedient and most loving. That woman, that is, Eve, expelled us from paradise and sold us, this one leads us back and purchases us. – Therefore she brought forth that price as a strong and holy woman.
18. ... On account of childbirth a woman has pain, that is, before giving birth. But the Blessed Virgin did not have pain before giving birth; because she did not conceive out of sin, as [did] Eve, to whom the malediction was given; but she had pain after birth. ... In other women there is pain of body, in this one there is sorrow of heart; in others there is the pain of corruption, in this one there is the sorrow of compassion and of charity. ...
... [T]he flesh of the Blessed Virgin had not been sanctified before [its] animation ... .[I]f the flesh of the Blessed Virgin is said to be sanctified, either this is to be understood by means of a grace existing in her soul, or by means of a grace existing in the souls of [her] parents. [It could not have been] by means of a grace existing in Her soul, because then ... the flesh [would have been] sanctified before the creation of the soul, and yet sanctified by virtue of the grace of that soul ... But if it this be understood to have come into being through a grace which had been gathered from the souls of [her] parents, this could not be, for a threefold reason. First: because the grace of sanctification does not have it in its power to be transfused from parent to offspring ... [S]econd ..., even if this were possible, ... never, however, is it derived by means of a lustful union ... The third reason is [this]: because being that sanctification be present, and lust will have be missing by divine virtue; it was not, however, fitting that it was missing, for the reason that this is the perogative of the Blessed Virgin alone; for only she, as the saints say, conceived without sin and gave birth without pain; and on that account this ought not be conceded to the parents of the Blessed Virgin, but be reserved to the Virgin alone. ...
... [It] is entirely probable ... that she had been conceieved from a sterile and from conjugal union without all actual fault; it does not however follow that she had been conceived without the cause of sin, because original [sin] is transfused from those who generate from a legitimate union [in the same way] as from those who generate from a adulterous union ... .
... [O]nly the Virgin Mary is said to have conceived of the Holy Spirit. On that account the Church celebrates the solemnity of no conception except that of the Son of God alone, on the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. ...
... [W]ithout doubt it would not have been as fitting that God assume the feminine gender as the masculine into the unity of His Person. – And the reason for this is [that] since the female gender is not of such dignity as is the male. For the male gender excels the female both according to dignity of beginning, and according to virtue in acting, and according to authority in presiding. According to dignity in beginning, since all, men as much as women, were from one man, in whom there is the express representation of the going-forth of things by that one First and Highest Principle. – According to virtue in acting it similarly overrules, since it belongs to a man to act, and it belongs to the woman to endure. Whence the male gender has more active virtue, on account of which it is even more robust both in reality and in name. – According to authority in presiding it even excels beforehand. For according to right order it is not the woman over the man, but the man who is appointed over the woman as head of the body, as the Apostle says. – Therefore since in the word becoming human there is a distinguished dignity in beginning and a virtue in acting and a dominion in presiding; hence it is that it is more fitting that the male gender rather than the female be assumed by the uncreated word, since those [perfections] of the assumed nature should have shared these three [perfections] in an excellent manner. ...
... [T]he strength in the female gender was our inchoate ruin, however in the male gender it was consummated. And since our reparation had to be consumated in the assumed nature, hence it is that according to a right correspondence it is more befitting that a man be assumed than a woman.
... [T]he Virgin conceived, moved and aided by the Holy Spirit; and on that account the offspring had the gender which the Holy Spirit chose rather than the gender which is found in the mother. Nor in such a g eneration is there a becoming-unlike-one's-kind, but rather an ennoblement; since it is not against the nature of a woman to conceive the male gender, on the contrary the woman desires naturally to have a son rather than a daughter.
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Copyright 2002 – 2009: Ulrike Böhm, all rights reserved.