The City of God · Chapter
Of the violence which may be done to the body by another's lust, while the mind remains inviolate explained
Augustine argues that purity is a virtue of the soul, not the body, and that bodily violation by another's lust does not destroy the sanctity of the soul if the will remains chaste and unconsenting.
What happens
Augustine argues that purity is a virtue of the soul, not the body, and that bodily violation by another's lust does not destroy the sanctity of the soul if the will remains chaste and unconsenting. He distinguishes between bodily integrity and spiritual sanctity, concluding that a woman violated against her will has no cause to commit suicide, as that would be murder to prevent a crime not her own.
Themes in this chapter
Morality and Virtue vs. Pagan Corruption
Augustine distinguishes between bodily integrity and spiritual virtue, emphasizing that true purity resides in the soul's continence.
Sin, Grace, and Redemption
The chapter discusses how sin committed by another does not pollute the innocent soul, and suicide to avoid violation is itself a sin.
Characters to notice
- Augustine
Author and theologian arguing that purity is a virtue of the soul, not the body.
Key passages
“But since purity is a virtue of the soul, and has for its companion virtue the fortitude which will rather endure all ills than consent to evil; and since no one, however magnanimous and pure, has always the disposal of his own body, but can control only the consent and refusal of his will, what sane man can suppose that, if his body be seized and forcibly made use of to satisfy the lust of another, he thereby loses his purity?”
Purity is a virtue of the soul, not the body; one's will alone determines moral culpability, so forced bodily violation does not destroy purity.
Augustine's core argument that bodily violation does not affect the soul's purity if the will does not consent.
“And therefore a woman who has been violated by the sin of another, and without any consent of her own, has no cause to put herself to death; much less has she cause to commit suicide in order to avoid such violation, for in that case she commits certain homicide to prevent a crime which is uncertain as yet, and not her own.”
A woman violated against her will should not kill herself, as suicide would be murder to prevent a crime that is not yet certain and not her own.
Augustine's conclusion against suicide for victims of sexual violence.