Chapter XI.
“ soldier
had renounced the military life in the
Church, having professed himself a monk, and had erected a cell for
himself at a distance in the desert, as if with the purpose of leading
the life of an eremite. But in course of time the crafty adversary
harassed his unspiritual nature with various
thoughts, to the effect that, changing his mind, he should express a
desire that his wife, whom Martin had ordered to have a place in the
nunnery of the young women, should rather dwell
along with him. The courageous eremite, therefore, visits Martin, and
makes known to him what he had in his mind. But Martin denied very
strongly that a woman could, in inconsistent fashion, be joined again
to a man who was now a monk, and not a husband. At last, when the
soldier was insisting on the point in question; asserting that no evil
would follow from carrying out his purpose; that he simply desired to
possess the solace of his wife’s company; and that there was no
fear of his again returning to his own
pursuits; adding that he was a soldier of
Christ, and that she also had taken the oath of allegiance in the same
service; and that the bishop therefore should allow to serve as
soldiers together people who were saints, and who, in virtue of their
faith, totally ignored the question of sex,—then Martin (I am
going to repeat his very words to you) exclaimed: ‘Tell me if you
have ever been in war, and if you have ever stood in the line of
battle?’ In answer he said, ‘Frequently; I have often stood
in line of battle, and been present in war.’ On this Martin
replies: ‘Well, then, tell me, did you ever in a line which was
prepared with arms for battle, or, having already advanced near, was
fighting against a hostile army with drawn sword—did you ever see
any woman standing there, or fighting?’ Then at length the
soldier became confused and blushed, while he gave thanks that he had
not been permitted to follow his own evil counsel, and at the same time
had not been put right by the use of any harsh language, but by a true
and rational analogy, connected with the person of a soldier. Martin, for his part, turning to us (for a great crowd of brethren had surrounded him), said: ‘Let not a woman enter the camp of men, but let the line of soldiers remain separate, and let the females, dwelling in their own tent, be remote from that of men. For this renders an army ridiculous, if a female crowd is mixed with the regiments of men. Let the soldier occupy the line, let the soldier fight in the plain, but let the woman keep herself within the protection of the walls. She, too, certainly has her own glory, if, when her husband is absent, she maintains her chastity; and the first excellence, as well as completed victory of that, is, that she should not be seen.’