E06539: Aldhelm, in his prose On Virginity, names the *Three Hebrew Youths of the Old Testament Book of Daniel (S01198) as exemplary virgins, rejecting a Jewish tradition that they were eunuchs. Written in Latin in southern Britain, for the nuns at the monastery at Barking (south-east Britain), c. 675/686.

Aldhelm, prose On Virginity, 21

Ea tempestate etiam tres pueri avita Ebreorum stirpe progeniti et in transmigratione Babiloniae ad Chaldeos abducti nequaquam carnalis copulae voluptatibus operam dedidisse leguntur, sed in arto spontaneae virginitatis proposito permansisse memopantur, quamvis importuna Iudeorum garrulitas fribula falsitatis deleramenta confingat asserens, nequaquam eosdem puberes aut praefatum collegam externae peregrinationis participem ultroneos castitatis caelibes, sed invitos spadones extitisse, qui secundo eunuchorum gradui evangelica veritatis astipulatione deputantur. Hi denique in tantum paternae traditionis regulam et divinae sanctionis censuram servasse scribuntur, ut etiam ad obtinendam integritatis et continentiae gloriam opulentas regalium ferculorum dilicias et principalis alimoniae pulmentum in tenerrima pubertate contempserint; vilibus tantum leguminibus vitam sustentare contenti lascivam iuventutis petulantiam refrenarunt. Quamobrem inorme Chaldaici regnatoris simulacrum, quod colosi sublimitatem centenis ac septenis pedibus in alto porrectam bis tricena cubitorum proceritate vincebat, licet horrendus salpicum clangor increpuerit et musica sambucorum armonia persultans insonuerit simulque flammivoma camini incendia naptarum fomite sarmentorumque nutrimine succensa terribiliter torruerint, flexis poplitibus suspicere refragabantur et pro inflexibili rigidae mentis constantia angelico fulti suffragio ambustas malleoli machinas crepitantesque clibani globos fide invicta vicerunt.


'... Also at that time three youths [sc. Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego] born of the ancestral race of the Hebrews and carried off to the Chaldeans in the transmigration to Babylon, are read to have devoted themselves in no wise to the pleasures of carnal copulation, even though the troublesome chattering of the Jews fabricates frivolous absurdities of falsehood, asserting that in no way were these youths, or their aforementioned fellow [Daniel], the sharer of their journey into foreign lands, voluntary devotees of chastity, but rather unwilling eunuchs – who are accordingly assigned to the second rank of eunuchs by the evangelical affirmation of the truth [Matth. 19:12]. These (youths) in fact are recorded as having kept the rule of their paternal tradition and the law of divine sanction to such an extent, that for (the purpose of) obtaining the glory of integrity and continence they even spurned the opulent delights of regal feasts and the sauces of princely food in their tenderest youth; content to sustain their life merely with humble pulse, they curbed the playful high spirits of their youth.

As a result of this, they refused to behold on bended knees the enormous statue of the Chaldean tyrant – which exceeded the height of the Colossus of Rhodes, lifted 170 feet high with its (immense) stature of 60 cubits – even though the horrendous blaring of trumpets thundered and the musical harmony of psalteries echoed resoundingly, and at the same time the flame-belching volcano of the furnace, stoked up with the kindling of naphtha and the fuel of firewood, blazed fearfully; and, supported by angelic assistance because of the inflexible constancy of their fixed resolve, they conquered with their unconquerable faith the scorching engines of incineration and the crackling flames of the furnace.'

Text: Ehwald 1919, 252. Translation: Lapidge and Herren 1979, 78.