De Bono Coniugali and De Sancta Virginitate

"De Bono Coniugali" and "De Sancta Virginitate" were written in the same year. These book rebuff the Manichees, who argued that marriage was evil, and the followers of Jovinian, who argued that the married state was as meritorious as that of virginity. The first work analyses why marriage is good, and the second why virginity is a higher good.