(contd)He adds that as the moth is insensibly generated in and corrodes the garment, so by conversation with women concupiscence is imperceptibly excited, even in men who are spiritual. 1 St. Augustine regards as certain the sudden fall of the man who will not avoid familiarity with dangerous objects. 2 St. Gregory relates 3 of Orsinus, who had sep arated from his wife, and become a priest with her consent, that forty years after their separation, when he was dying, she put her ear to his mouth to ascertain whether he was still alive; but Orsinus exclaimed: “Withdraw, O woman,” said he; " take away the straw; for I have still a small portion of the fire of life which may consume us both.“4 Every one should be filled with terror by the unhappy example of Solomon, who after being so dear to God, and so familiar with him, after being made, as it were, the pen of the Holy Ghost, was in his old age, by conversation with pagan women, induced to worship idols. And when he was now old, his heart was turned away by women to follow strange gods.5 No wonder; for, as St. Cyprian says, it is impossible to stand in the midst of flames without being burned. 6 And St. Bernard has written, that to be familiar with a woman and to preserve chastity require greater virtue than to raise a dead man to life. 7
1 “Tinea insensibiliter in veste nascitur, et eam erodit; sic insensibiliter ex conversatione cum muliere oritur libido, etiam inter religiosos.”
2 Sine ulla dubitatione, qui familiaritatem non vult vitare suspectam, cito labitur in ruinara.” Serm. 293, E. B. app.
3 Dial. 1. 4, c. ii.
4 " Recede mulier, adhuc igniculus vivit, paleam tolle."
5 " Cumque jam esset senex, depravatum est cor ejus per mulieres, ut sequeretur deos alienos." 3 Kings, xi. 4.
6 " Impossibile est flammis circumdari, et non ardere." De Singular, cler.
7 " Cum femina semper esse, et non cognoscere feminam, nonne plus est quam mortuum suscitare ?" In Cant. s. 65.
If, then, says the Holy Ghost, you wish to be secure, Remove thy way far from her. 1 Do not even pass near the door of her whom the devil makes an occasion of temptation to you: pass at a distance from it; and should it be really necessary for you to speak to a woman, your words, says St. Augustine, should be few and reserved. 2 St. Cyprian gives the same advice. He says that our intercourse with women should be passing, and as if we were in flight. 3
But some one may say, The woman with whom I am familiar is a person of deformed figure; God forbid she should be an occasion of sin to me. But St. Cyprian answers that the devil is a painter who, when concupiscence is excited, makes a deformed countenance appear beautiful. 4
But she is a relative. St. Jerome answers: “Allow not to stay with you even the person that is your relative.” 5 Relationship sometimes serves to take away restraint and to multiply sins by adding the guilt of incest to impurity and sacrilege. “The sin will be only the more criminal,” says St. Cyprian, " the more easily one can remove the suspicion of misconduct. “6 St. Charles Borromeo 7 passed a decree that his priests should not without his permission dwell in the same house with women, even with near relatives.
1 " Longe fac ab ea viam tuam, et ne appropinques foribus domus ejus.” Prov. v. 8.
2 " Cum feminis, sermo brevis et rigidus."
3 " Transeunter feminis exhibenda est accessio, quodammodo fugitiva." De Singular, cler.
4 " Diabolus, pingens, speciosus efficit quidquid horridum fuerit."
5 " Prohibe tecum morari, etiam quæ de genere tuo sunt." Ep. ad Ocean.
6 " Magis illicito delinquitur ubi sine suspicione securum potest esse delictum."
7 Acta Mediol. p. 2, syn. 4, Monit.
