As far as respects human nature, the woman does not possess one nature, and the man exhibit another, but the same: so also with virtue. If, consequently, a self-restraint and righteousness, and whatever qualities are regarded as following them, is the virtue of the male, it belongs to the male alone to be virtuous, and to the woman to be licentious and unjust. But it is offensive even to say this. Accordingly woman is to practise self-restraint and righteousness, and every other virtue, as well as man, both bond and free; since it is a fit consequence that the same nature possesses one and the same virtue. We do not say that woman's nature is the same as man's, as she is woman. For undoubtedly it stands to reason that some difference should exist between each of them, in virtue of which one is male and the other female. Pregnancy and parturition, accordingly, we say belong to woman, as she is woman, and not as she is a human being. But if there were no difference between man and woman, both would do and suffer the same things. As then there is sameness, as far as respects the soul, she will attain to the same virtue; but as there is difference as respects the peculiar construction of the body, she is destined for child-bearing and housekeeping. "For I would have you know," says the apostle, "that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man: for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. I For neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the woman, in the Lord." For as we say that the man ought to be conti-nent, and superior to pleasures; so also we reckon that the woman should be continent and practised in fighting against pleasures. "But I say, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh," counsels the apostolic command; "for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. These, then, are contrary" (not as good to evil, but as fighting advantageously), he adds therefore, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornication uncleanness, profligacy, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, strifes, jealousies, wrath, contentions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of which I tell you before, as I have also said before, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, temperance, goodness, faith, meekness." He calls sinners, as I think, "flesh," and the righteous "spirit." Further, manliness is to be assumed in order to produce confidence and forbearance, so as "to him that strikes on the one cheek, to give to him the other; and to him that takes away the cloak, to yield to him the coat also," strongly, restraining anger. For we do not train our women like Amazons to manliness in war; since we wish the men even to be peaceable. I hear that the Sarmatian women practise war no less than the men; and the women of the Sacae besides, who shoot backwards, feigning flight as well as the men. I am aware, too, that the women near Iberia practise manly work and toil, not refraining from their tasks even though near their delivery; but even in the very struggle of her pains, the woman, on being delivered, taking up the infant, carries it home. Further, the females no less than the males manage the house, and hunt, and keep the flocks: "Cressa the hound ran keenly in the stag's track."

Whereby then you see here, that God has not willed the earthly Copulation. Man should have continued in the fiery Love which was in Paradise, and...

And so the consummation of this mystery, so sweet and requisite, is wrought in secret; lest, owing to the vulgar jests of ignorance, the deity of eith...

For the outward Virgin could not comprehend, that she did bear the Saviour of the World; but she committed that (in her Virgin-chastity) to God; whats...

The part of the men has been played out, and now properly enough comes the turn of the women. Of them I will proceed to speak, and the more readily si...

The children a woman brings forth resembles the man she loves. If it is her husband, they resemble her husband. If it is a lover, they resemble the...

For ’tis impossible that any of the things that are should be unfruitful. For if fecundity should be removed from all the things that are, it could no...

And the Wisdom of God, the pleasant Virgin, discovered herself in him, and with the Discovering opened Adam's Center, in [or to] many thousand Thousan...

The Spirit of the Male seeks the loving Child in the Female, and the Female in the Male; for the Irrationality of the Body in the unreasonable Creatur...

But there were no more Ribs nor Members broken from Adam; which appears by the Feebleness and Weakness of the Woman, and also by the Command of God, w...

You are quite right, he replied, in maintaining the general inferiority of the female sex: although many women are in many things superior to many men...

And God tolerates their as one Body and its Members, and must aim (in the Fear of God) at the Getting of Children; or else the Wantonness [or Lust] in...

Behold, I give you a true Similitude: Suppose that thou wast a young Man, or young Maid, [or Virgin,] (as Adam was both of them in one [only]...

"Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, Humble and high beyond all other creature, The limit fixed of the eternal counsel, Thou art the one who...

He should have generated an Image again like himself; but because he went into the Spirit of this World, therefore his Body became earthly, and so the...

He, then, alone, yet all-complete in the fertility of either sex, ever with child of His own Will, doth ever bring to birth whatever He hath willed...

The Pride of Nature indeed inclines one Man more strongly than another, but it forces [or compels] none that they must be proud; and if there be a...

And though the child be in the mother's house, and the mother nourish the child with her food, and the child could not live without the mother, yet bo...

While 'mid such manifold first-fruits I walked Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt, And still solicitous of more delights, In front of us like an enkin...

If I had not considered the Scripture, which plainly says, Whatsoever is born of Flesh is Flesh; also, Flesh and Blood shall not inherit the Kingdom...

To this I answer and say—That thou shalt well understand that there be two manner of lives in Holy Church. The one is active life, and the other is co...