_ XIII. _Chastity cannot
be predicated of those who have renounced marriage by vows of perpetual
celibacy, unless there be and remain in them the love of a life truly
conjugial._ XIV. _A state of marriage is to be preferred to a state of
celibacy._ We will now proceed to an explanation of each article.
139. I. THE CHASTE PRINCIPLE AND THE NON-CHASTE ARE PREDICATED ONLY OF
MARRIAGES AND OF SUCH THINGS AS RELATE TO MARRIAGES. The reason of this
is, because, as will be shewn presently, love truly conjugial is
essential chastity; and the love opposite to it, which is called
adulterous, is essential unchastity; so far therefore as any one is
purified from the latter love, so far he is chaste; for so far the
opposite, which is destructive of chastity, is taken away; whence it is
evident that the purity of conjugial love is what is called chastity.
Nevertheless there is a conjugial love which is not chaste, and yet it
is not unchastity; as is the case with married partners, who, for
various external reasons, abstain from the effects of lasciviousness so
as not to think about them; howbeit, if that love is not purified in
their spirits, it is still not chaste; its form is chaste, but it has
not in it a chaste essence.
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