Chastity

CHASTITY. - A moral virtue that regulates the appetite for sexual pleasure, inherent in the generative act. It is a virtue because it entails a dominion of the soul over the body, to be maintained with the energy of the will (Sum. theol., 2a-2ae, q. 151, a. 2); it concerns both the one and the other, the soul as subject, the body as matter (ibid., a. 1, ad 1m); it is annexed to the cardinal virtue of temperance, which aims precisely at regulating the pursuit and use of sensory pleasures (ibid., a. 3, ad 3m). And since sexual pleasure, according to the order of the Creator, is ordered to generation in order to facilitate the fulfillment of a task necessary for the preservation of the species, but at the same time heavy with obligations and burdens, it follows that it is not lawful outside of marriage, which has generation as its essential and primary end.

I. THEOLOGY

1. Kinds

Chastity is divided into perfect and imperfect or common. Perfect chastity consists in the complete renunciation of every sexual pleasure, even that lawful in marriage (in this respect it coincides with virginity); imperfect chastity consists in the renunciation of sexual pleasures that are forbidden according to the state of life in which one finds oneself. Therefore every sexual pleasure remains forbidden to all, both before marriage (premarital or youthful chastity) and in the state of widowhood (widow's chastity); in the married state, on the other hand, those acts remain forbidden which go against the purpose and the prerogatives of marriage. From this it follows that common chastity is always a duty for all and admits of no exceptions; whereas perfect chastity is a matter of free choice, constitutes one of the evangelical counsels and can become a duty in certain particular states (v. CELIBATO; VERGINITÀ).

Generally chastity is a virtue of struggle and conquest, after the rebellion of the flesh against the spirit provoked by original sin; but it can happen that God grants not merely a ready and even easy victory over temptation, but the definitive suppression of every sexual impulse; then there is the gift of chastity (cf. the example of St. Thomas Aquinas, in L. H. Petitot, S. Thomas d'A., Paris 1923, p. 32).

2. Virtues concomitant with chastity

a) The first guardian of chastity is the sentiment of modesty, which is a delicate sensitivity to everything that can lower human dignity and a restraint in the face of any manifestation that hints at sexual relations; it is, however, fundamentally a gift of nature, something instinctive and not a conquest of the will. The will, nonetheless, can influence it to the point of weakening it and even making it disappear, as well as refining it and directing it so as to increase its efficacy (cf. J. de la Vaissière, La pudeur instinctive, Paris 1935). - b) Above sentiment and already in the realm of virtue there are: 1) pudicity, whose object is discretion, reserve and respect for everything, especially when manifested in exterior acts, that concerns generation (Sum. theol., 2a-2ae, q. 151, a. 4); 2) continence, which is the constant will to preserve chastity by overcoming any contrary difficulty; 3) abstinence, which, although distinct from chastity in its immediate object, which is to regulate the pleasures of the nutritive function, is nonetheless of great help to chastity, both because it preserves it from the dangers that derive from intemperance, and because it tends to strengthen, given the interdependence of human acts and habits, the soul's dominion over the senses (ibid., a. 3).

3. Motives and advantages

The virtue of chastity can rest on motives of a merely rational order as well, such as the commandment of the natural law, respect for the dignity of the human person, order in social life, the pride of holding the flesh subject to the spirit and of overcoming, by conquering, the eternal antagonism that divides them (cf. Rom. 7, 14-25), the advantages that accrue from it to the individual for body and soul; to the family, which thus remains better bound by a higher and more serene love; to society, which is thus preserved from the weakening and decadence produced by biers that outnumber cradles and by dissoluteness, a spreader of diseases and of material and moral ruin. Reasons, these, which even amid an almost universal corruption did not escape the pagans, who knew and extolled the merits of chastity in their literature and their philosophy (cf. Cicero, De nat. deorum, II, 28; Tuscul. disput., I, 30; Sallust, De bello Iugurt., 1-2; Catullus, Carmen, 62, 39-58; and they knew how to demand from those who approached the divinity and handled sacred things a greater purity, which they designated by the particular term castimonia; and they surrounded with greater respect, for example, the Vestals. Moreover the maxim casta placent superis is common, in its inner meaning, to all peoples.

But faith offers to the practice of chastity other reasons far higher and more valid and more efficacious: a) respect for the body, which through Baptism, with the infusion of sanctifying Grace, becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit; it is then, so to speak, consecrated by the real presence of Jesus in Eucharistic Communion; it is destined, finally, to the glory of the resurrection; b) the dignity of the Christian, who becomes a member of the mystical body, of which Jesus is the head; c) to this must be added the example and the tea-

the teaching of the Savior (it suffices to cite the sixth beatitude: "blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" [Mt. 5, 8]), and a whole series of praises proclaimed by Sacred Scripture either to the virtue itself (Tob. 3, 16; Wis. 3, 13; Sir. 42, 9-10; Is. 56, 4-5) or to the persons who distinguished themselves in it (Joseph [Gen. 39, 6-12]; Judith [*Jud. 16, 26]; Susanna [Dan.* 13, 63]); d) chastity was commonly called in patristics and ascetics the "angelic virtue," because it makes man like the angel. And it is true; yet in reality it is a specifically human virtue, because the angel has no body, nor senses to dominate, whereas man must conquer this dominion for himself.

4. The education to chastity

Chastity is a delicate and fragile virtue, and on the other hand the struggle is arduous and at times painful and heroic (we carry within ourselves the fomes of concupiscence; we often live surrounded by an environment dense with provocations; we are subject to the temptations of the devil); therefore vigilance and the timely use of the means that religion and also science suggest to us are extremely necessary. The means suggested by science will be indicated further on; as for the means suggested by theology and ascetics, they can be divided into positive and negative.

a) Negative means. - The education to chastity entails the flight from occasions: idleness; solitude; melancholy and sadness; bad reading that overexcites the imagination and the passions; dangerous spectacles and entertainments; compromising company; situations that favor weaknesses and easy compliances, which little by little make one lose self-control (promiscuity and exaggerated communal living, love affairs, "flirtations," particular friendships).

b) Positive means. - 1) Educating the sense of modesty, refining it and keeping it in the proper middle course, which differs according to age, profession, and the various customs and habits, so as to avoid false prudishness that makes one ridiculous and is sometimes even dangerous. 2) Educating the will to will resolutely, cost what it may, reflecting however that this often amounts to willing what one would not will. Therefore one must train oneself to conquer oneself when the waters are calm, so that victory may then be easy during the storm. Otherwise one falls into weakness and mere wishfulness: "I had asked you for purity in these words: Give me purity and chastity, but not now. I was afraid that you would grant it too soon and too soon cure me of the disease of sensuality; I preferred to give it vent rather than extinguish it" (St. Augustine, Confess., VIII, ch. 7: PL 32, 757). 3) Educating the intellect, by appealing to high ideals, forming sound convictions to be continually deepened through frequent reflection (one's own dignity, the beauty of chastity, preparation for marriage, the ideal of virginity or of marriage or of an active apostolate). 4) Guarding the senses and the heart. The example of David is a powerful lesson: "vidit mulierem... erat autem pulchra nimis... et tulit eam" (II Sam. 11, 2-4). 5) Corporal mortification, expressly recalled by Jesus Christ when chastity is at stake: "This kind of demon is cast out only by prayer and fasting" (Mk. 9, 28); to which the Church echoes in the preface of Lent, making us turn to the Lord, "qui corporali ieiunio vitia comprimis, mentem elevas". 6) Finally, one may recall the great advantages that derive from good spiritual direction, in order to have a guide in temptations, in possible falls, and in the efforts to be made to rise again and persevere.

c) Supernatural means. - All merely natural means, however good, are not sufficient to form a perfectly chaste soul and give it that splendor and that grace which conquers; it is necessary to have recourse to supernatural means: 1) an ever greater awareness of our supernatural greatness: Grace, the presence of God in the soul in a state of grace; 2) a constant prayer to obtain the strength necessary to conquer, turning especially to the mediation of the Ver-

Virgin; 3) a frequent practice of Confession and above all of Eucharistic Communion, called precisely the bread of angels and the wine that germinates virgins.

5. The educator of chastity

In those who deal with this delicate and difficult problem: parents, educators, confessors: a) a clear knowledge is necessary of what biology teaches concerning the various phases of development, the various ages, and the physiological and psychological phenomena that accompany them. For the method to be employed must differ according to the various phases, because the tendencies, thoughts, aspirations, and cognitions to which minds open are different: and different again are the situations of environment and company. The right word is needed for each particular case, limited to the needs that it entails—of knowing, of correcting oneself, of orienting oneself (v. below: II. MEDICINE). b) Even more necessary is a great sense of understanding and compassion, indeed of an anticipated waiting already discounted, which stifles all astonishment before hearts that open and await a word that may animate or reanimate them, a counsel that may orient or recall them. Nothing is more illegitimate than surprise and distrust in the educator, because hearts could close and fatal consequences could result. c) On the ever-debated problem of "sex education," v. SEXUAL, EDUCATION.

6. Chastity is neither impossible nor harmful

To excuse defeats in the field of chastity, a whole dense web of pretexts and excuses has been woven. But they are nothing but an attempt to palliate the lack of self-discipline and self-mastery, and they betray only the accommodating weakness that recoils from effort. Two pretexts, however, have been sought to be cloaked with the tinsel of a false science: "chastity is impossible; chastity is harmful to health and to character." Neither the one nor the other pretext has any scientific foundation whatsoever. "The whole history of the Church testifies through its saints, its popes, its founders of religious Orders, its missionaries, its innumerable works, that continence is a factor neither of physical weakening nor of moral diminishment. Continence creates a reserve of forces. Sexual economy favors longevity and the various forms of intellectual activity" (cf. E. Bon, Medicina e religione, Italian trans., 2nd ed., Turin 1946, pp. 650-51). The same observation emerges from numerous surveys conducted among physicians and among young people themselves (cf., for example, F. Olgiati, I nostri giovani e la purezza, Milan 1918; L. Scremin, La continenza sessuale giovanile e l'igiene, Turin 1944). It may therefore be said that the battle for chastity is difficult and at times borders on heroism; but for this the means offered especially by religion come to aid; it may also be observed that there can be particular cases in which the warning of St. Paul is to be applied: "I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is good if they remain as I am; but if they cannot contain themselves, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn" (I Cor. 7, 9); but one can never advise yielding to the sexual impulse, just as one does not advise killing oneself to one who feels driven to suicide, because impulses must be corrected and not indulged.

7. Vow of chastity

The vow of chastity entails two things: a) the renunciation of marriage; b) the prohibition, for a second reason deriving from the virtue of religion, of what is already prohibited by the VI and IX commandments.

a) Vow of chastity and marriage. - 1) The solemn vow of chastity, pronounced by religious men and women, and the reception of a sacred Order constitute a diriment impediment to marriage, that is, they render it invalid (CIC cann. 1072-73); 2) the attempt at marriage, after solemn vows or sacred Orders, entails an excommunication reserved simpliciter to the Holy See (can. 2388 § 1); 3) the simple vow of c., pronounced by the majority of religious men and women (and also by some who live in the world) constitutes for marriage only an impedient impediment, that is, it leaves it valid, but renders it illicit (can. 1058); and it entails an excommunication reserved to the Ordinary (can. 2388 § 2).

b) The violation of the vow of c. - For one who is bound by the vow of c., simple or solemn, every sin against the Sixth and Ninth commandment takes on a second malice, that is, it is also a sin against the virtue of religion.

c) The conditions of the vow of c. - 1) This can be perpetual or temporary; for persons who live in the world it can have as its object perfect c. or even only common c. in its various states; 2) it always requires, however, for validity, to be a fully voluntary act, which supposes that one knows, at least as to substance, the object of the vow.

Celestino Testore

II. MEDICINE

1. Natural means

As regards the preservation of the virtue of chastity, for the Christian there apply in the first place, in an absolute sense, the moral means that direct and sustain the will with the supernatural help of divine Grace. Bearing in mind, however, our nature, the natural aids placed at our disposal by medicine and pedagogy are not to be neglected. From this derives the necessity that the work of the priest or the educator, particularly if the vicious inclination is violent, be flanked by that of a surely Christian physician; this condition is absolute, because « nisi doctor vere christianus sit, gravium malorum causa esse potest » (G. Antonelli, Medicina pastoralis, I, Rome 1905, n. 547).

The natural means that medicine can place at the service of morals for the preservation of chastity are of a hygienic, medicamentous, and psychological order; the study and application of medicamentous means falls within the competence of the physician.

2. Hygienic means

In normal and rationally educated subjects, the virtue of chastity (understood as freely willed continence) can be facilitated by general hygiene, without resorting to direct therapeutic interventions. If general hygienic norms prove insufficient, the doubt arises that one is dealing with systematic incontinence due to some mental illness (e.g., dementia praecox) or with an abnormal stimulus, in the clearly morbid forms of hypergenitalism. In these cases the "cure" of the incontinence is the cure of the mental illness itself and of the "hypergenital temperament" that accompanies endocrine disorders, and it falls within the competence of the general practitioner or the specialist.

With regard to a favorable general hygiene, it is necessary to insist on the exclusion or the most moderate use of coffee and alcohol, particularly as regards aromatized spirits or those with a high alcohol content (liqueurs, aperitifs, distillates). From the standpoint of quality, a well-regulated and well-chosen diet can prove of great help for the preservation of chastity. A diet poor in protein substances, particularly those of animal origin (v. ASTINENZA), combined with a regimen of life in which work and rest, exercise and sport in the open air, sufficient sleep that does not degenerate into laziness and softness, on a cool and hard bed (a mattress of corn husks is excellent), are regulated by sound criteria of balance, respecting the natural needs of our being; such a hygienic regimen represents an aid far more valid than it might seem at first sight.

Constipation and insomnia are to be taken into serious consideration and eliminated with care. Physical activity and an appropriate diet combined with habitual regularity of schedule and of emptying of the intestine are worth far more than many laxatives without presenting their harms. If there is insomnia, in the sense that the subject has difficulty falling asleep and if this does not depend on a bad arrangement of the evening hours (the habit of staying up late, or of devoting the last hours of the evening to amusements that exhaust and overexcite the nervous system, or the bad practice of trying to induce sleep by reading in bed), it is advisable to resort to some mild sedative of the nervous system (chamomile or lemon-bark tea, possibly with the addition of 20-60 drops of ethereal tincture of valerian, or alcoholic tincture of passionflower, or fluid extract of hawthorn flowers, or 1/4-1 tablet of luminal or gardenal of 0.10); in the more stubborn cases, the physician will suggest some more energetic sleeping drug. Sexual overexcitation is sometimes favored by local causes (urinary infections, metabolic alterations, parasites) and by minor malformations, of which the most troublesome is phimosis, for which in mild cases cleansing with warm water is sufficient, while in severe cases surgical treatment is required.

3. Medicamentous means

The hygienic precautions advised to make easier the struggle for the attainment of chastity unfold particularly on a negative plane, directed at excluding or at least reducing to the maximum the contribution of "aphrodisiac causes," that is, of whatever, in the form of foods, drugs, voluptuary substances, sensory excitations (smell, hearing, sight), images and mental recollections with sexual content, excites the erotic sense, promoting the sexual reflexes (erection, ejaculation). The action of "aphrodisiacs" can be indirect, through modifications of the general state, or direct, by raising the excitability of this or that part of the reproductive apparatus (encephalic centers, spinal centers, peripheral reflexogenic zones). Knowledge of the substances and circumstances with aphrodisiac action and a reasonable abstinence from them can prove very useful in the struggle to preserve chastity. Morally, it is not lawful for the physician to prescribe and for the individual to take aphrodisiacs in the case in which the latter is not in a condition to be able to use the sexual function legitimately (marriage). In the case that the substances used, besides the aphrodisiac one, also have other actions necessary or simply useful for the general good of the organism, their administration, by virtue of the principle of double effect, is lawful. Treatments with testicular extracts are not morally prohibited, in view of their prevailing general tonic and sthenic action (v. SESSUALI, GLANDOLE ENDOCRINE).

A positive action, on the contrary, can be exerted by medicamentous "anaphrodisiacs" that tend to diminish the irritability of the genital reflexogenic zones and the reflex nervous excitability of the spinal sexual centers (sacral and lumbar centers of erection and ejaculation), of the cortical sensory and psychic zones, of the subcortical nuclei of gray matter, particularly the "optic thalami" in which the affective and emotional content of sensations is elaborated and utilized.

Drugs that specifically diminish sexual sensitivity were advised in the past, from camphor "per nares," according to the aphorism of the Salernitan school, to plants such as agnus castus and flax (for hairshirts and garments); but in reality, if sexual sedatives exist, these coincide with the general sedatives of the nervous system, such as the bromides, alone or combined with camphor (monobromated camphor: 0.20-0.40 two or three times a day). Hops and lupulin, highly esteemed at one time as anaphrodisiacs, are held today to be almost devoid of efficacy.

The only true specific therapy of incontinence, when the contracted habit causes the periphery to impose itself urgently on the nervous centers and to put a hard test on good will and sincere resolve, is the surface anesthesia of the glans in man, according to S. Baglioni and G. Amantea, with solutions of stovaine or percaine, and of the female erogenous zone with cold applications.

4. Psychological means

These can be of a high efficacy, not in the form of suggestion, which is always a form of violence, but as persuasion. The causes (or lively pretexts) of incontinence can be deep; if one reaches their root, one sometimes finds a certain coherence in them by which they impose themselves on the subject. Sometimes there is lacking the rational conviction that the pursuit of sexual pleasure as an end in itself is a grave moral evil (a lack, unfortunately, sometimes cultivated by those who fear that, by removing it, they would change a material sin into a formal sin). To this is added the idea that it is advisable to use the function early in order to develop the sexual organs sooner or better, and to prevent the onset of diseases. At other times an imperfection, or one believed to be such, distances one from the idea and hope of marriage and turns the individual inward, creating a condition favorable to unnatural forms of incontinence. Or it is the uncertainty of life or of vocation, or a kind of "virile protest" (Adler) that the young man in his subconscious believes to be a duty for his sexual dignity. Far more and better than physical and pharmacological treatments, it is here psychic therapy, sustained by faith, that triumphs over vice and makes of chastity, understood also in its natural value, desired and consciously practiced, an affirmation of character and dignity.

5. The education of chastity and the physician

Anyone who knows how things unfold knows that the true and irreplaceable educator of chastity is the mother. But here, it falls to the physician to combat the prejudice widespread in the feminine world that male youth cannot, for physiological reasons, live chastely while awaiting marriage. The mother, free from this prejudice, will with more conscious strength educate the children of both sexes in a single sexual morality, drawing the aids for such an education from religion. Only religion opens the mind to understand and savor the motives of premarital continence and, by making known the sanction against transgressors, reinforced the personal responsibility of individuals and clearly shows the gravity of the natural and divine law; but it is necessary that parents be comforted in their work by the word of the physician who demolishes erroneous interpretations regarding the meaning of certain physiological phenomena that appear in the course of normal sexual development; thus, for example, spontaneous seminal emissions which in adolescents are a source of confusion and errors unfavorable to continence, in parents a cause of apprehension due to the erroneous belief that they represent a harm to health and a warning about the necessity of sexual use. The physician, not misled by prejudices or dishonesty, but strong in his experience, can affirm that chastity can be lived and practiced uninterruptedly from puberty, or regained if lost, without harm to the physical and mental health of the individual.

It is the physician's task to answer the question whether sexual renunciation is or can be harmful to nervous or mental equilibrium. This question is dominated by psychological and moral factors more than organic ones, because chastity is all the more harmless the more it expresses a purpose and a "purity of heart" to which not continence but incontinence is grave and repugnant. Medicine that wishes to be only pathological physiology poorly understands this problem, for which those medico-psychological attitudes that do not recognize the objective validity of the moral law are also unequal; therefore "those physicians who consider continence harmful are ignorant of the powerful significance of the ethical moment" (Monakov); an "ethical moment," which is not fear, aesthetics or mysticism, but rational conviction that sexuality is not autonomous or anarchic, and that there exists a sexual morality as part of a general morality. The truth is that renunciation is less difficult when the instinct has not been artificially solicited or diverted at its birth, and that the task of education is to prevent solicitations and deviations.

The relations between continence and psychic hygiene present themselves differently according to ages and circumstances. After Freud, who set out on the offensive against sexual morality, it is indispensable to mention infantile continence in its three phases: the first which precedes the "Oedipus complex," the second when the subject is subject to it (toward the end of the 3rd year in the male), the third when at last he frees himself from it (v. PSICANALISI). According to the "sexual metaphysics" of psychoanalysis, in this last phase the cause of conflicts and consequent psychoneuroses is placed in the subconscious, with which later chastity will come into collision. Taking into account the criticisms of Sachs and Jung, from the elements of truth submerged in the Freudian construction one derives that curiosity and sexual interest awaken early; hence the pedagogical conclusion not to exasperate the former and not to elude the latter with tales too far from the truth, with drastic prohibitions, threats or inconsiderate punishments. The prepubertal period is the most suitable for correcting any sexual defects that could later badly complicate the problem of continence (phimosis, cryptorchidism, adiposogenital dystrophy). Chastity in adolescence is certainly not harmful (pathogenetic), but it can become a nucleus of obsessive ideas and scruples (pathoplastic), when pubertal phenomena pose the first lively questions to the adolescent. Nature, which disposes itself to the function and makes it understood, indicates the useful time for the first concrete clarifications, without which continence does not find its motive and those phenomena remain, that is, become, mysterious: if disclosed, the exact interpretation would state the motives of chastity and would prevent the establishment of scruple; if concealed (because of the discomfort the adolescent feels at the mere thought of manifesting them), they can create an "inferiority complex," unfavorable to continence and in any case they prevent the attainment of that equilibrium between intellectual virtue and moral virtue that alone makes youthful chastity healthy, joyful and fruitful. Only insufficient education is the cause of those psychological disturbances that unfortunately pass as "diseases from continence." Of course, such instruction must be imparted with much wisdom and deference to the concrete situations of the various subjects. Harmful, then, is not continence, but the false ideas that adolescents form about the meaning of sexual attraction, about periodic hemorrhages, about seminal emissions during sleep and possibly about the consequences of masturbation (which are sometimes even confused with venereal diseases). If the false concepts about the consequences of masturbation persist even when the bad habit has ceased, the fear or terror that these persist or manifest themselves at a distance takes away the tranquility and serenity that is the fruit of continence without itself.

Particularly, according to Marañón, chastity in adolescence, until complete sexual development and differentiation in the male, avoids the risk of putting sexuality on a false path; indeed, according to the Spanish clinician, youthful continence, until age 25 in our climates, is a good condition for effectively combating the attenuated forms of psychic intersexuality that has great importance in the conduct of so many men.

In youth, for both sexes, continence is for the most part continence of waiting, and as such it does not preclude the path of "occasions" that are often inevitable and can put it to a hard test, which does not happen to that continence which announces itself from that time as perpetual and as such takes delight in itself. It is certain that the continence of waiting during engagement can be troublesome, particularly in the male, because the "occasion" here is necessarily near at hand, and not indecorous; here one will sometimes arrive, even among persons who are morally healthy and pure of heart, at a critical moment in which the intensity of love is close to exceeding the threshold value of modesty, and love more urgently seeks union. Self-discipline can, as it must, impose itself, but the conflict between nature and will becomes acute and gives rise in man to more or less intense pains in the sexual sphere which seminal emission would make disappear. These "pains of the betrothed" are not dangerous and, when the patient knows their meaning, they have no repercussions in the psychic sphere.

A continence imposed by extrinsic circumstances even on one who had the matrimonial vocation is easily borne by a normal person, who knows how to organize his activity, and more easily by a woman. The psychological problem can instead become painful for one who is or believes himself to be homosexual, repugnant at the same time to marriage and even to the design of following his deviation. This continence is lived without satisfaction, as a "destiny," and the patient takes refuge in it as in the only solution that is granted to him. It is asserted that a connection may exist between repressed homosexuality and paranoia; but Hastings inclines to believe that the paranoid symptoms are less serious when the resistance to the deviation is conscious. This example would demonstrate once again that the psychological and psychic consequences of continence, even in extreme hypotheses, are not always less unfavorable when the conscience grasps well the terms of the conflict, and the moral virtue of continence must not be separated from the intellectual life (knowledge of the motives for which the will chooses continence).

ICONOGRAPHY

Some of the most ancient Christian writers (Hermas, Tertullian) imagined her as an Amazon; Prudentius, in the Psychomachia, in the act of fighting against lust. In some 9th-century miniatures she is represented with helmet and breastplate (manuscript of Bern, Bible of Charles the Bald in the National Library of Paris); and likewise later painters and sculptors from beyond the Alps (portals of the churches of Amiens, Paris, Aulnay, Reims). One of the few medieval depictions of chastity in a peaceful attitude, as a crowned queen with a flowering scepter, is in the transept of the cathedral of Chartres (13th century); sometimes it has as its emblem a bird with a ring of flames.

Less common in Italy (St. Mark's, Venice), during the Middle Ages it often falls within the depiction of Temperance. Among the oldest depictions of the Triumph of C. is to be placed that of the "Master of the Vaults" in St. Francis of Assisi. Petrarch's Triumphs had great influence on later depictions (15th century), frequent especially on nuptial cassoni, and C. appeared on a chariot drawn by unicorns, in the guise of a young woman, sometimes leaning against a column, with or without wings, with or without a halo.

At the beginning of the 16th century Perugino (Louvre), Luca Signorelli (National Gallery, London), Lorenzo Lotto (Galleria Pallavicini, Rome) show absolute independence from the traditional models which, by contrast, continued to be followed in miniatures. To the elegant Italian depictions the French preferred emblems (in the stained-glass windows of the church of Ercy, early 16th century, the chariot of C. is drawn by an owl and an elephant), while the depiction of it in a fortress still persisted (miniatures of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris).

The Flemish sometimes depicted it as a wrinkled old woman in the act of brandishing an aspergillum (Prints by Martin Heemskerk, 16th century).

Fabia Borroni