The Soldier Who Became a Monk

“A certain soldier had laid down his soldier’s belt in the church and professed himself a monk. He had built himself a cell far out in the wilderness, meaning, it seemed, to live the life of a hermit. But in the course of time the crafty enemy troubled his unspiritual heart with various thoughts, so that he changed his mind and wanted his wife, whom Martin had ordered to live in the monastery of the young women, to come and live with him instead. So this bold hermit goes to Martin and tells him what he has in mind. But Martin firmly denied that a woman could, against all consistency, be joined again to a man who was now a monk and not a husband. The soldier kept pressing his point. He insisted that no harm would come of carrying out his plan. All he wanted was the comfort of his wife’s company, and there was no fear that he would go back to his old ways. He added that he was a soldier of Christ, and that she too had taken the oath of loyalty in the same service, so the bishop ought to let people who were saints serve as soldiers together, people who by their faith paid no attention at all to the difference between the sexes. Then Martin (I am going to give you his very words) exclaimed: ‘Tell me, have you ever been in a war? Have you ever stood in the line of battle?’ He answered: ‘Often. I have often stood in the line of battle and been in war.’ To this Martin replies: ‘Well, then, tell me: in a line drawn up under arms for battle, or one that had already advanced and was fighting an enemy army with drawn swords, did you ever see any woman standing there, or fighting?’ [a]

“Then at last the soldier was confused and blushed. He gave thanks that he had not been allowed to follow his own bad plan, and also that he had been set right, not by harsh words, but by a true and reasonable comparison drawn from a soldier’s own life. Martin, for his part, turned to us (for a great crowd of brothers had gathered around him) and said: ‘Do not let a woman enter the camp of the men. Let the line of soldiers stay separate, and let the women live in their own tent, far from that of the men. For it makes an army ridiculous if a crowd of women is mixed in with the men’s regiments. Let the soldier hold the line, let the soldier fight on the field, but let the woman keep herself within the protection of the walls. She too certainly has her own glory if she keeps herself chaste while her husband is away; and the first virtue and the complete victory of that chastity is that she should not be seen.’