155.
(xiii) Chastity cannot be attributed to those who have renounced marriage by a vow of perpetual celibacy, unless there is and persists in them a love of a truly conjugial life.
Chastity cannot be
attributed to these because, following a vow of perpetual celibacy, conjugial love is cast away. Yet chastity can only be attributed to that love. It is also because creation and so birth introduces
a sexual inclination, and when this is restrained and subdued, the inclination cannot but be transformed into warmth, in some cases into burning heat, which, rising from the body to the level of the spirit,
attacks it and in some cases pollutes it. It can also happen that a spirit polluted in this way may pollute religious ideas, casting these down from the inner level, where they are in holiness,
to the outer level, where they become matters of speech and behaviour. It has therefore been provided by the Lord that this kind of celibacy exists only among those who practise outward worship, which
is what happens to those who do not approach the Lord or read the Word. With such people a promise of celibacy together with a vow of chastity does not endanger everlasting life, as it does with those
who practise inward worship. It also happens that many people enter upon that state of life without free choice, some before they are old enough to enjoy freedom by the use of reason, some under the
influence of worldly enticements. [2] Of those who take up that state in order to distance their minds from the world, so as to be free to worship God, those alone are chaste who previously cherished
a love for a truly conjugial life, or acquired it subsequently and retained it, because it is the love of such a life to which chastity can be attributed. For this reason too all monastics are after
death released from their vows, and given freedom to choose a life in or out of marriage, as the inward vows and desires of their loves dictate. If they then choose married life, they are married in
heaven, if they have also loved the spiritual side of worship. But those who choose unmarried life are sent to join their like who live on the fringes of heaven.
[3] I asked the angels whether nuns
who have devoted themselves to religion, making themselves servants in the worship of God, and so withdrawing themselves from the deceits of the world and the lusts of the flesh, and for that reason
taking a vow of perpetual virginity, are received into heaven and take a leading place among the blessed in accordance with their belief. The angels replied that they are certainly received, but when
they feel the sphere of conjugial love in heaven, they become depressed and worried; then they leave and are allowed out, some of their own accord, some after asking permission, some being ordered to
leave. Once outside that heaven the way is open for them to join their colleagues whose state in the world was similar. This makes them cheerful instead of worried, and they are happy with one another.
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