life. Even,
however, in Gregory of Tours's charming story of "The Two Lovers
of Auvergne," in which this attitude is clear, the pleasures of
chaste love in this life are brought out as clearly as in any of
the early romances (_Historia Francorum_, lib. i, cap. XLII). Two
senators of Auvergne each had an only child, and they betrothed
them to each other. When the wedding day came and the young
couple were placed in bed, the bride turned to the wall and wept
bitterly. The bridegroom implored her to tell him what was the
matter, and, turning towards him, she said that if she were to
weep all her days she could never wash away her grief for she had
resolved to give her little body immaculate to Christ, untouched
by men, and now instead of immortal roses she had only had on her
brow faded roses, which deformed rather than adorned it, and
instead of the dowry of Paradise which Christ had promised her
she had become the consort of a merely mortal man. She deplored
her sad fate at considerable length and with much gentle
eloquence. At length the bridegroom, overcome by her sweet words,
felt that eternal life had shone before him like a great light,
and declared that if she wished to abstain from carnal desires he
was of the same mind. She was grateful, and with clasped hands
they fell asleep. For many years they thus lived together,
chastely sharing the same bed. At length she died and was buried,
her lover restoring her immaculate to the hands of Christ. Soon
afterwards he died also, and was placed in a separate tomb. Then
a miracle happened which made manifest the magnitude of this
chaste love, for the two bodies were found mysteriously placed
together. To this day, Gregory concludes (writing in the sixth
century), the people of the place call them "The Two Lovers."

Although Renan (_Marc-Aurele_, Ch. XV) briefly called attention
to the existence of this copious early Christian literature
setting forth the romance of chastity, it seems as yet to have
received little or no study. It is, however, of considerable
importance, not merely for its own sake, but on account of its
psychological significance in making clear the nature of the
motive forces which made chastity easy and charming to the people
of the early Christian world, even when it involved complete
abstinence from sexual