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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Jerome and Ambrose often quote from the Song of Songs in their ascetic treatises. The writings of Ambrose on virginity contain no fewer than 130 quotations from or allusions to the poem. Jerome’s letter 22 to the young virgin Eustochium includes around thirty references to it. It seems paradoxical for the Fathers to use the erotic images of the Song of Songs to encourage young women to keep their virginity. How can we explain this phenomenon?
Were the Fathers simply seduced by the nuptial images of the poem? If so, Ambrose and Jerome were not the first. Before them Methodius of Olympus and Athanasius had already applied the Song of Songs to virginal life: Methodius in his Symposium and Athanasius in his letters to virgins. Another possibility is that Ambrose and Jerome quote from the Song of Songs because the poem was used in the consecration of virgins in their day. This is the question which is discussed below.
1 The writings of Ambrose on virginity include the following works: De virginibus (year 377), De virginitate (c.377/8), De institutione virginis (c.391/2), Exhortatio virginitatis (393). The Latin text of these works together with an Italian translation and abundant footnotes can be found in Verginità e vedovanza, ed. F. Gori, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, 14, 2 vols (Rome, 1989): 14/1 includes De virginibus and De viduis; 14/2 contains De virginitate, De institutione virginis, and Exhortatio virginitatis.
2 Jerome, Letter 22, in Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi Epistulae, I. Hilberg, ed., 3 vols, CSEL, 54-6 (Vienna and Leipzig, 1910-18), 1, pp. 143-211. English translation in Wright, F. A., Select Letters of St. Jerome, Loeb Classical Library (London, 1975), pp. 65–159.Google Scholar
3 See Kelly, J., Jerome (London, 1974), p. 103 Google Scholar: ‘it is ironical to reflect that, in urging a young girl like Eustochium to crush the physical yearnings of her nature in the effort to surrender herself the more completely to Christ, he should feed her fantasy with such exciting images’.
4 The Greek text of Methodius’s Symposium is edited by H. Musurillo in SC, 95 (Paris, 1963). English translations of Athanasius’ letters to virgins can be found in D. Brakkc, Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism (Oxford, 1995), pp. 274-302, These arc translations of the Coptic and Syriac versions through which the letters are known to us. Athanasius quotes abundantly from the Song of Songs in his letters to virgins. It is possible that Ambrose did the same under his influence and that Jerome later imitated Ambrose in his application of the poem to Christian virgins. In letter 22 Jerome mentions Ambrose’s treatise De virginibus (letter 22, 22). He had read the work and thought highly of it. On the similarities between Athanasius, Ambrose, and Jerome see Y.-M. Duval, ‘L’originalité du De virginibus dans lemouvement ascétique occidental: Ambroise, Cypricn, Athanase’, in Duval, Y.-M., ed., Ambrose de Milan (Paris, 1974), pp. 9–66.Google Scholar
5 This question is briefly discussed in Pelletier, A.-M., Lectures du Cantique des Cantiques (Rome, 1989), pp. 164–7 Google Scholar. She is extremely cautious, writing (p. 167): ‘Les divers textes sur la virginité … interdisent de répondre de manière trop rapide et trop tranchée.’
6 Personal translation from Hippolytus of Rome, Apostolic Tradition, 12: Hippolyte de Rome, La tradition apostolique, d’après les anciennes versions, ed. B. Botte, SC, 1 ibis, 2nd edn (Paris, 1984), p. 68.
7 For a complete analysis of the passage see Metz, ðent, La Consécration des vierges dans l’Eglise romaine (Paris, 1954), p. 77 Google Scholar n.i.
8 Jerome, Letter 130, 2: Hilbcrg, Sancti Hieronymi Epistulae, 3, pp. 176-7.
9 Ambrose, De virginibus, III, 1-14.
10 Wilson, H. A., ed., The Celasian Sacramentary (Oxford, 1894), c. CHI, p. 157 Google Scholar; Missale Francorum in L. C. Mohlberg, ed., Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta. Series Maior Fontes II (Rome, 1957), pp. 14-16; C. Vogel and E. Elze, Le Pontifical romano-germanique du dixième siècle, Studi e testi, 226 (Vatican City, 1963), p. 40; M. Andrieu, Le Pontifical romain au moyenâge, i, Studi e testi, 86 (Vatican City, 1938), pp. 157-8.
11 See also Athanasius, Second Letter to Virgins, 31 in Brakkc, Athanasius and Asceticism, p. 302: ‘When you have found him, hold on to him, and do not leave him until he brings you into his bedroom. He is your bridegroom. He is the one who will crown you. It is he who is preparing the wedding garment for you.’ The image of the wedding chamber is already used by Athanasius to describe the mystical union between Christ and the Christian virgin. The second letter to virgins docs not contain any liturgical references. Images from the Song of Songs seem to be used as simple literary metaphors without liturgical resonance.
12 S. Siricius papa, Epistola X, seu canones synodi romanorum ad gallos episcopos, PL 13, c. 1, col. 1182C: ‘Si virgo velata jam Christo, quae integritatem publico testimonio professa, a sacerdote prece fusa benedictionis velamen accepit, sive incestum commiscrit furtim, seu volcns crimen protegeré, adultero mariti nomcii imposuit, tollens membra Christi, faciens membra mcrctricis [1 Cor. 6.15]; ut quae sponsa Christi fuerat, conjux hominis dicerctur: in huiusmodi mulierc quot sunt causae, tot reatus; integritatis propositum mutatura, velamen amissum, fides prima deprivata, atquc in irritum devocata.’
13 MS Lat. 17436. Mignc gives a basic edition of the text in PL 78, cols 828-9 (office of virgins).
14 See nn. 7, 33 of my critical edition of the Liber responsalis of Gregory the Great; below, pp. 24, 27.
15 Below, pp. 25, 27, nn. 14, 23.
16 Below, p. 25, 11.12.