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[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.]
BOOK I.
If there dwelt upon earth a faith as great as is the reward of
faith which is expected in the heavens, no one of you at all, best
beloved sisters, from the time that she had first "known the Lord,"[2]
and learned (the truth) concerning her own (that is, woman's)
condition, would have desired too gladsome (not to say too
ostentatious) a style of dress; so as not rather to go about in humble
garb, and rather to affect meanness of appearance, walking about as Eve
mourning and repentant, in order that by every garb of penitence[3] she
might the more fully expiate that which she derives from Eve,—the
ignominy, I mean, of the first sin, and the odium (attaching to her as
the cause) of human perdition. "In pains and in anxieties dost thou
bear (children), woman; and toward thine husband (is) thy inclination,
and he lords It over thee."[4] And do you not know that you are (each)
an Eve? The sentence of God on this sex of yours lives in this age:[5]
the guilt must of necessity live too. You are the devil's gateway: you
are the unsealer[6] of that (forbidden) tree: you are the first
deserter of the divine law: you are she who persuaded[7] him whom the
devil was not valiant enough to attack. You destroyed so easily God's
image, man. On account of your desert—that is, death—even the Son of
God had to die. And do you think about adorning yourself over and above
your tunics of skins?[8] Come, now; if from the beginning of the
world[9] the Milesians sheared sheep, and the Serians[10] spun trees,
and the Tyrians dyed, and the Phrygians embroidered with the needle,
and the Babylonians with the loom, and pearls gleamed, and onyx-stones
flashed; if gold itself also had already issued, with the cupidity
(which accompanies it), from the ground; if the mirror, too, already
had licence to lie so largely, Eve, expelled from paradise, (Eve)
already dead, would also have coveted these things, I imagine! No more,
then, ought she now to crave, or be acquainted with (if she desires to
live again), what, when she was living, she had neither had nor known.
Accordingly these things are all the baggage of woman in her condemned
and dead state, instituted as if to swell the pomp of her funeral.
For they, withal, who instituted them are assigned, under
condemnation, to the penalty of death,—those angels, to wit, who
rushed from heaven on the daughters of men; so that this ignominy also
attaches to woman. For when to an age[12] much more ignorant (than
ours) they had disclosed certain well-concealed material substances,
and several not well-revealed scientific arts—if it is true that they
had laid bare the operations of metallurgy, and had divulged the
natural properties of herbs, and had promulgated the powers of
enchantments, and had traced out every curious art,[1] even to the
interpretation of the stars—they conferred properly and as it were
peculiarly upon women that instrumental mean of womanly ostentation,
the radiances of jewels wherewith necklaces are variegated, and the
circlets of gold wherewith the arms are compressed, and the medicaments
of orchil with which wools are coloured, and that black powder itself
wherewith the eyelids and eyelashes are made prominent.[2] What is the
quality of these things may be declared meantime, even at this
point,[3] from the quality and condition of their teachers: in that
sinners could never have either shown or supplied anything conducive to
integrity, unlawful lovers anything conducive to chastity, renegade
spirits anything conducive to the fear of God. If (these things) are to
be called teachings, ill masters must of necessity have taught ill; if
as wages of lust, there is nothing base of which the wages are
honourable. But why was it of so much importance to show these things
as well as[4] to confer them? Was it that women, without material
causes of splendour, and without ingenious contrivances of grace, could
not please men, who, while still unadorned, and uncouth and—so to
say—crude and rude, had moved (the mind of) angels? or was it that the
lovers[5] would appear sordid and—through gratuitous
use—contumelious, if they had conferred no (compensating) gift on the
women who had been enticed into connubial connection with them? But
these questions admit of no calculation. Women who possessed angels (as
husbands) could desire nothing more; they had, forsooth, made a grand
match! Assuredly they who, of course, did sometimes think whence they
had fallen,[6] and, after the heated impulses of their lusts, looked up
toward heaven, thus requited that very excellence of women, natural
beauty, as (having proved) a cause of evil, in order that their good
fortune might profit them nothing; but that, being turned from
simplicity and sincerity, they, together with (the angels) themselves,
might become offensive to God. Sure they were that all ostentation, and
ambition, and love of pleasing by carnal means, was displeasing to God.
And these are the angels whom we are destined to judge:[7] these are
the angels whom in baptism we renounce:[8] these, of course, are the
reasons why they have deserved to be judged by man. What business,
then, have their things with their judges? What commerce have they who
are to condemn with them who are to be condemned? The same, I take it,
as Christ has with Belial.[9] With what consistency do we mount that
(future) judgment-seat to pronounce sentence against those whose gifts
we (now) seek after? For you too, (women as you are,) have the
self-same angelic nature promised[10] as your reward, the self-same sex
as men: the self-same advancement to the dignity of judging, does (the
Lord) promise you. Unless, then, we begin even here to prejudge, by
pre-condemning their things, which we are hereafter to condemn in
themselves, they will rather judge and condemn us.
I am aware that the Scripture of Enoch,[12] which has assigned
this order (of action) to angels, is not received by some, because it
is not admitted into the Jewish canon either. I suppose they did not
think that, having been published before the deluge, it could have
safely survived that world-wide calamity, the abolisher of all things.
If that is the reason (for rejecting it), let them recall to their
memory that Noah, the survivor of the deluge, was the great-grandson of
Enoch himself;[13] and he, of course, had heard and remembered, from
domestic renown[14] and hereditary tradition, concerning his own
great-grandfather's "grace in the sight of God,"[15] and concerning all
his preachings;[16] since Enoch had given no other charge to Methuselah
than that he should hand on the knowledge of them to his posterity.
Noah therefore, no doubt, might have succeeded in the trusteeship of
(his) preaching; or, had the case been otherwise, he would not have
been silent alike concerning the disposition (of things) made by God,
his Preserver, and concerning the particular glory of his own house.
If (Noah) had not had this (conservative power) by so short a
route, there would (still) be this (consideration) to warrant[17] our
assertion of (the genuineness of) this Scripture: he could equally have
renewed it, under the Spirit's inspiration,[18] after it had been
destroyed by the violence of the deluge, as, after the destruction of
Jerusalem by the Babylonian storming of it, every document[1] of the
Jewish literature is generally agreed to have been restored through
Ezra.
But since Enoch in the same Scripture has preached likewise
concerning the Lord, nothing at all must be rejected by us which
pertains to us; and we read that "every Scripture suitable for
edification is divinely inspired.[2] By the yews it may now seem to
have been rejected for that (very) reason, just like all the other
(portions) nearly which tell of Christ. Nor, of course, is this fact
wonderful, that they did not receive some Scriptures which spake of Him
whom even in person, speaking in their presence, they were not to
receive. To these considerations is added the fact that Enoch possesses
a testimony in the Apostle Jude.[3]
Grant now that no mark of pre-condemnation has been branded on
womanly pomp by the (fact of the) fate[4] of its authors; let nothing
be imputed to those angels besides their repudiation of heaven and
(their) carnal marriage:[5] let us examine the qualities of the things
themselves, in order that we may detect the purposes also for which
they are eagerly desired.
Female habit carries with it a twofold idea—dress and ornament.
By "dress" we mean what they call "womanly gracing;"[6] by "ornament,"
what it is suitable should be called "womanly disgracing."[7] The
former is accounted (to consist) in gold, and silver, and gems, and
garments; the latter in care of the hair, and of the skin, and of those
parts of the body which attract the eye. Against the one we lay the
charge of ambition, against the other of prostitution ; so that even
from this early stage[8] (of our discussion) you may look forward and
see what, out of (all) these, is suitable, handmaid of God, to your
discipline, inasmuch as you are assessed on different principles (from
other women),—those, namely, of humility and chastity.
Gold and silver, the principal material causes of worldly[9]
splendour, must necessarily be identical (in nature) with that out of
which they have their being: (they must be) earth, that is; (which
earth itself is) plainly more glorious (than they), inasmuch as it is
only after it has been tearfully wrought by penal labour in the deadly
laboratories of accursed mines, and there left its name of "earth" in
the fire behind it, that, as a fugitive from the mine, it passes from
torments to ornaments, from punishments to embellishments, from
ignominies to honours. But iron, and brass, and other the vilest
material substances, enjoy a parity of condition (with silver and
gold), both as to earthly origin and metallurgic operation; in order
that, in the estimation of nature, the substance of gold and of silver
may be judged not a whit more noble (than theirs). But if it is from
the quality of utility that gold and silver derive their glory, why,
iron and brass excel them; whose usefulness is so disposed (by the
Creator), that they not only discharge functions of their own more
numerous and more necessary to human affairs, but do also none the less
serve the turn of gold and silver, by dint of their own powers,[10] in
the service of juster causes. For not only are rings made of iron, but
the memory of antiquity still preserves (the fame of) certain vessels
for eating and drinking made out of brass. Let the insane plenteousness
of gold and silver look to it, if it serves to make utensils even for
foul purposes. At all events, neither is the field tilled by means of
gold, nor the ship fastened together by the strength of silver. No
mattock plunges a golden edge into the ground; no nail drives a silver
point into planks. I leave unnoticed the fact that the needs of our
whole life are dependent upon iron and brass; whereas those rich
materials themselves, requiring both to be dug up out of mines, and
needing a forging process in every use (to which they are put), are
helpless without the laborious vigour of iron and brass. Already,
therefore, we must judge whence it is that so high dignity accrues to
gold and silver, since they get precedence over material substances
which are not only cousin-german to them in point of origin, but more
powerful in point of usefulness.
But, in the next place, what am I to interpret those jewels to be
which vie with gold in haughtiness, except little pebbles and stones
and paltry particles of the self-same earth; but yet not necessary
either for laying down foundations, or rearing party-walls, or
supporting pediments, or giving density to roofs? The only edifice
which they know how to rear is this silly pride of women: because they
require slow rubbing that they may shine, and artful underlaying that
they may show to advantage, and careful piercing that they may hang;
and (because they) render to gold a mutual assistance in meretricious
allure- ment. But whatever it is that ambition fishes up from the
British or the Indian sea, it is a kind of conch not more pleasing in
savour than—I do not say the oyster and the sea-snail, but—even the
giant muscle.(1) For let me add that I know conchs (which axe) sweet
fruits of the sea. But if that (foreign) conch suffers from some
internal pustule, that ought to be regarded rather as its defect than
as its glory; and although it be called "pearl," still something else
must be understood than some hard, round excrescence of the fish. Some
say, too, that gems are culled from the foreheads of dragons, just as
in the brains of fishes there is a certain stony substance. This also
was wanting to the Christian woman, that she may add a grace to herself
from the serpent! Is it thus that she will set her heel on the devil's
head,"(2) while she heaps ornaments (taken) from his head on her own
neck, or on her very head?
It is only from their rarity and outlandishness that all these
things possess their grace; in short, within their own native limits
they are not held of so high worth. Abundance is always contumelious
toward itself. There are some barbarians with whom, because gold is
indigenous and plentiful, it is customary to keep (the criminals) in
their convict establishments chained with gold, and to lade the wicked
with riches—the more guilty, the more wealthy. At last there has
really been found a way to prevent even gold from being loved! We have
also seen at Rome the nobility of gems blushing in the presence of our
matrons at the contemptuous usage of the Parthians and Medes, and the
rest of their own fellow-countrymen, only that (their gems) are not
generally worn with a view to ostentation. Emeralds(3) lurk in their
belts; and the sword (that hangs) below their bosom alone is witness to
the cylindrical stones that decorate its hilt; and the massive single
pearls on their boots are fain to get lifted out of the mud! In short,
they carry nothing so richly gemmed as that which ought not to be
gemmed if it is (either) not conspicuous, or else is conspicuous only
that it may be shown to be also neglected.
Similarly, too, do even the servants(4) of those barbarians cause
the glory to fade from the colours of our garments (by wearing the
like); nay, even their party-walls use slightingly, to supply the place
of painting, the Tyrian and the violet-coloured and the grand royal
hangings, which you laboriously undo and metamorphose. Purple with them
is more paltry than red ochre; (and justly,) for what legitimate honour
can garments derive from adulteration with illegitimate colours? That
which He Himself has not produced is not pleasing to God, unless He was
unable to order sheep to be born with purple and sky-blue fleeces! If
He was able, then plainly He was unwilling: what God willed not, of
course ought not to be fashioned. Those things, then, are not the best
by nature which are not from God, the Author of nature. Thus they are
understood to be from the devil, from the corrupter of nature: for
there is no other whose they can be, if they are not God's; because
what are not God's must necessarily be His rival's.(5) But, beside the
devil and his angels, other rival of God there is none. Again, if the
material substances are of God, it does not immediately follow that
such ways of enjoying them among men (are so too). It is matter for
inquiry not only whence come conchs,(6) but what sphere of
embellishment is assigned them, and where it is that they exhibit their
beauty. For all those profane pleasures of worldly(7) shows—as we have
already published a volume of their own about them(8)—(ay, and) even
idolatry itself, derive their material causes from the creatures(9) of
God. Yet a Christian ought not to attach himself(10) to the frenzies of
the racecourse, or the atrocities of the arena, or the turpitudes of
the stage, simply because God has given to man the horse, and the
panther, and the power of speech: just as a Christian cannot commit
idolatry with impunity either, because the incense, and the wine, and
the fire which feeds(11) (thereon), and the animals which are made the
victims, are God's workmanship;(12) since even the material thing which
is adored is God's (creature). Thus then, too, with regard to their
active use, does the origin of the material substances, which descends
from God, excuse (that use) as foreign to God, as guilty forsooth of
worldly(13) glory!
For, as some particular things distributed by God over certain
individual lands, and some one particular tract of sea, are mutually
foreign one to the other, they are reciprocally either neglected or
desired:(desired) among foreigners, as being rarities; neglected
(rightly), if anywhere, among their own compatriots, because in them
there is no such fervid longing for a glory which, among its own
home-folk, is frigid. But, however, the rareness and outlandishness
which arise out of that distribution of possessions which God has
ordered as He willed, ever finding favour in the eyes of strangers,
excites, from the simple fact of not having what God has made native to
other places, the concupiscence of having it. Hence is educed another
vice—that of immoderate having; because although, perhaps, having may
be permissible, still a limit(1) is bound (to be observed). This
(second vice) will be ambition; and hence, too, its name is to be
interpreted, in that from concupiscence ambient in the mind it is born,
with a view to the desire of glory,—a grand desire, forsooth, which
(as we have said) is recommended neither by nature nor by truth, but by
a vicious passion of the mind,—(namely,) concupiscence. And there are
other vices connected with ambition and glory. Thus they have withal
enhanced the cost of things, in order that (thereby) they might add
fuel to themselves also; for concupiscence becomes proportionably
greater as it has set a higher value upon the thing which it has
eagerly desired. From the smallest caskets is produced an ample
patrimony. On a single thread is suspended a million of sesterces. One
delicate neck carries about it forests and islands.(2) The slender
lobes of the ears exhaust a fortune; and the left hand, with its every
finger, sports with a several money-bag. Such is the strength of
ambition—(equal) to bearing on one small body, and that a woman's, the
product of so copious wealth:
Handmaids of the living God, my fellow-servants and sisters, the
right which I enjoy with you—I, the most meanest(1) in that right of
fellow-servantship and brotherhood—emboldens me to address to you a
discourse, not, of course, of affection, but paving the way for
affection in the cause of your salvation. That salvation—and not (the
salvation) of women only, but likewise of men—consists in the
exhibition principally of modesty. For since, by the introduction into
an appropriation(2) (in) us of the Holy Spirit, we are all" the temple
of God,"(3) Modesty is the sacristan and priestess of that temple, who
is to suffer nothing unclean or profane to be introduced (into it), for
fear that the God who inhabits it should be offended, and quite forsake
the polluted abode. But on the present occasion we (are to speak) not
about modesty, for the enjoining and exacting of which the divine
precepts which press (upon us) on every side are sufficient; but about
the matters which pertain to it, that is, the manner in which it
behoves you to walk. For most women (which very thing I trust God may
permit me, with a view, of course, to my own personal censure, to
censure in all), either from simple ignorance or else from
dissimulation, have the hardihood so to walk as if modesty consisted
only(4) in the (bare) integrity of the flesh, and in turning away from
(actual) fornication; and there were no need for anything extrinsic to
boot—in the matter (I mean) of the arrangement of dress and
ornament,(5) the studied graces of form and brilliance:—wearing in
their gait the self-same appearance as the women of the nations, from
whom the sense of true modesty is absent, because in those who know not
God, the Guardian and Master of truth, there is nothing true.(6) For if
any modesty can be believed (to exist) in Gentiles, it is plain that it
must be imperfect and undisciplined to such a degree that, although it
be actively tenacious of itself in the mind up to a certain point, it
yet allows itself to relax into licentious extravagances of attire;
just in accordance with Gentile perversity, in craving after that of
which it carefully shuns the effect.(7) How many a one, in short, is
there who does not earnestly desire even to look pleasing to strangers?
who does not on that very account take care to have herself painted
out, and denies that she has (ever) been an object of (carnal)
appetite? And yet, granting that even this is a practice familiar to
Gentile modesty—(namely,) not actually to commit the sin, but still to
be willing to do so; or even not to be willing, yet still not quite to
refuse—what wonder? for all things which are not God's are perverse.
Let those women therefore look to it, who, by not holding fast the
whole good, easily mingle with evil even what they do hold fast.
Necessary it is that you turn aside from them, as in all other things,
so also in your gait; since you ought to be "perfect, as (is) your
Father who is in the heavens."(1)
You must know that in the eye of perfect, that is, Christian,
modesty, (carnal) desire of one's self (on the part of others) is not
only not to be desired, but even execrated, by you: first, because the
study of making personal grace (which we know to be naturally the
inviter of lust) a mean of pleasing does not spring from a sound
conscience: why therefore excite toward yourself that evil (passion)?
why invite (that) to which you profess yourself a stranger? secondly,
because we ought not to open a way to temptations, which, by their
instancy, sometimes achieve (a wickedness) which God expels from them
who are His; (or,) at all events, put the spirit into a thorough tumult
by (presenting) a stumbling-block (to it). We ought indeed to walk so
holily, and with so entire substantiality(2) of faith, as to be
confident and secure in regard of our own conscience, desiring that
that (gift) may abide in us to the end, yet not presuming (that it
will). For he who presumes feels less apprehension; he who feels less
apprehension takes less precaution; he who takes less precaution runs
more risk. Fear(3) is the foundation of salvation; presumption is an
impediment to fear. More useful, then, is it to apprehend that we may
possibly fail, than to presume that we cannot; for apprehending will
lead us to fear, fearing to caution, and caution to salvation. On the
other hand, if we presume, there will be neither fear nor caution to
save us. He who acts securely, and not at the same time warily,
possesses no safe and firm security; whereas he who is wary will be
truly able to be secure. For His own servants, may the Lord by His
mercy take care that to them it may be lawful even to presume on His
goodness! But why are we a (source of) danger to our neighbour? why do
we import concupiscence into our neighbour? which concupiscence, if
God, in "amplifying the law,"(4) do not(5) dissociate in (the way of)
penalty from the actual commission of fornication,(6) I know not
whether He allows impunity to him who(7) has been the cause of
perdition to some other. For that other, as soon as he has felt
concupiscence after your beauty, and has mentally already committed
(the deed) which his concupiscence pointed to,(8) perishes; and you
have been made(9) the sword which destroys him: so that, albeit you be
free from the (actual) crime, you are not free from the odium
(attaching to it); as, when a robbery has been committed on some man's
estate, the (actual) crime indeed will not be laid to the owner's
charge, while yet the domain is branded with ignominy, (and) the owner
himself aspersed with the infamy. Are we to paint ourselves out that
our neighbours may perish? Where, then, is (the command), "Thou shall
love thy neighbour as thyself?"(10) "Care not merely about your own
(things), but (about your) neighbour's?"(11) No enunciation of the Holy
Spirit ought to be (confined) to the subject immediately in hand
merely, and not applied and carried out with a view to every occasion
to which its application is useful.(12) Since, therefore, both our own
interest and that of others is implicated in the studious pursuit of
most perilous (outward) comeliness, it is time for you to know(13) that
not merely must the pageantry of fictitious and elaborate beauty be
rejected by you; but that of even natural grace must be obliterated by
concealment and negligence, as equally dangerous to the glances of (the
beholder's) eyes. For, albeit comeliness is not to be censured,(14) as
being a bodily happiness, as being an additional outlay of the divine
plastic art, as being a kind of goodly garment(15) of the soul; yet it
is to be feared, just on account of the injuriousness and violence of
suitors:(16) which (injuriousness and violence) even the father of the
faith,(17) Abraham,(18) greatly feared in regard of his own wife's
grace; and Isaac,(19) by falsely representing Rebecca as his sister,
purchased safety by insult!(1)
Let it now be granted that excellence of form be not to be
feared, as neither troublesome to its possessors, nor destructive to
its desirers, nor perilous to its compartners;(2) let it be thought (to
be) not exposed to temptations, not surrounded by stumbling-blocks: it
is enough that to angels of God(3) it is not necessary. For, where
modesty is, there beauty is idle; because properly the use and fruit of
beauty is voluptuousness, unless any one thinks that there is some
other harvest for bodily grace to reap.(4) Are women who think that, in
furnishing to their neighbour that which is demanded of beauty, they
are furnishing it to themselves also, to augment that (beauty) when
(naturally) given them, and to strive after it when not (thus) given?
Some one will say, "Why, then, if voluptuousness be shut out and
chastity let in, may (we) not enjoy the praise of beauty alone, and
glory in a bodily good ?" Let whoever finds pleasure in "glorying in
the flesh"(5) see to that. To us in the first place, there is no
studious pursuit of "glory," because "glory" is the essence of
exaltation. Now exaltation is incongruous for professors of humility
according to God's precepts. Secondly, if all "glory" is "vain" and
insensate,(6) how much more (glory) in the flesh, especially to us? For
even if "glorying" is (allowable), we ought to wish our sphere of
pleasing to lie in the graces(7) of the Spirit, not in the flesh;
because we are "suitors''(8) of things spiritual. In those things
wherein our sphere of labour lies, let our joy lie. From the sources
whence we hope for salvation, let us cull our "glory." Plainly, a
Christian will "glory" even in the flesh; but (it will be) when it has
endured laceration for Christ's sake,(9) in order that the spirit may
be crowned in it, not in order that it may draw the eyes and sighs of
youths after it. Thus (a thing) which, from whatever point you look at
it, is in your case superfluous, you may justly disdain if you have it
not, and neglect if you have. Let a holy woman, if naturally beautiful,
give none so great occasion (for carnal appetite). Certainly, if even
she be so, she ought not to set off (her beauty), but even to obscure
it.(10)
As if I were speaking to Gentiles, addressing you with a Gentile
precept, and (one which is) common to all, (I would say,) "You are
bound to please your husbands only."(11) But you will please them in
proportion as you take no care to please others. Be ye without
carefulness,(12) blessed (sisters): no wife is "ugly" to her own
husband. She "pleased" him enough when she was selected (by him as his
wife); whether commended by form or by character. Let none of you think
that, if she abstain from the care of her person,(13) she will incur
the hatred and aversion of husbands. Every husband is the exactor of
chastity; but beauty, a believing (husband) does not require, because
we are not captivated by the same graces(14) which the Gentiles think
(to be) graces:(15) an unbelieving one, on the other hand, even regards
with suspicion, just from that infamous opinion of us which the
Gentiles have. For whom, then, is it that you cherish your beauty? If
for a believer, he does not exact it: if for an unbeliever, he does not
believe in it unless it be artless.(16) Why are you eager to please
either one who is suspicious, or else one who desires it not?
These suggestions are not made to you, of course, to be developed
into an entire crudity and wildness of appearance; nor are we seeking
to persuade you of the good of squalor and slovenliness; but of the
limit and norm and just measure of cultivation of the person. There
must be no overstepping of that line to which simple and sufficient
refinements limit their desires—that line which is pleasing to God.
For they who rub(17) their skin with medicaments, stain their cheeks
with rouge, make their eyes prominent with antimony,(18) sin against
HIM. To them, I suppose, the plastic skill(19) of God is displeasing!
In their own persons, I suppose, they convict, they censure, the
Artificer of all things! For censure they, do when they amend, when
they add to, (His work;) taking these their additions, of course, from
the adversary artificer. That adversary artificer is the devil.(1) For
who would show the way to change the body, but he who by wickedness
transfigured man's spirit? He it is, undoubtedly, who adapted ingenious
devices of this kind; that in your persons it may be apparent that you,
in a certain sense, do violence to God. Whatever is born is the work of
God. Whatever, then, is plastered on(2) (that), is the devil's work. To
superinduce on a divine work Satan's ingenuities, how criminal is it!
Our servants borrow nothing from our personal enemies: soldiers eagerly
desire nothing from the foes of their own general; for, to demand
for(your own) use anything from the adversary of Him in whose hand(3)
you are, is a transgression. Shall a Christian be assisted in anything
by that evil one? (If he do,) I know not whether this name (of
"Christian") will continue (to belong) to him; for he will be his in
whose lore he eagerly desires to be instructed. But how alien from your
schoolings(4) and professions are (these things)! How unworthy the
Christian name, to wear a fictitious face, (you,) on whom simplicity in
every form is enjoined!—to lie in your appearance, (you,) to whom
(lying) with the tongue is not lawful!—to seek after what is
another's, (you,) to whom is delivered (the precept of) abstinence from
what is another's!—to practise adultery in your mien,(5) (you,) who
make modesty your study! Think,(6) blessed (sisters), how will you keep
God's precepts if you shall not keep in your own persons His lineaments?
I see some (women) turn (the colour of) their hair with saffron.
They are ashamed even of their own nation, (ashamed) that their
procreation did not assign them to Germany and to Gaul: thus, as it is,
they transfer their hair(7) (thither)! Ill, ay, most ill, do they augur
for themselves with their flame-coloured head,(8) and think that
graceful which (in fact) they are polluting! Nay, moreover, the force
of the cosmetics burns ruin into the hair; and the constant application
of even any undrugged moisture, lays up a store of harm for the head;
while the sun's warmth, too, so desirable for imparting to the hair at
once growth and dryness, is hurtful. What "grace" is compatible with
"injury?" What "beauty" with "impurities?" Shall a Christian woman heap
saffron on her head, as upon an altar?(9) For, whatever is wont to be
burned to the honour of the unclean spirit, that—unless it is applied
for honest, and necessary, and salutary uses, for which God's creature
was provided—may seem to be a sacrifice. But, however, God saith,
"Which of you can make a white hair black, or out of a black a
white?"(10) And so they refute the Lord! "Behold!" say they, "instead
of white or black, we make it yellow,—more winning in grace."(11) And
yet such as repent of having lived to old age do attempt to change it
even from white to black! O temerity! The age which is the object of
our wishes and prayers blushes (for itself)! a theft is effected!
youth, wherein we have sinned,(12) is sighed after! the opportunity of
sobriety is spoiled! Far from Wisdom's daughters be folly so great! The
more old age tries to conceal itself, the more will it be detected.
Here is a veritable eternity, in the (perennial) youth of your head !
Here we have an "incorruptibility" to "put on,"(13) with a view to the
new house of the Lord(14) which the divine monarchy promises! Well do
you speed toward the Lord; well do you hasten to be quit of this most
iniquitous world,(15) to whom it is unsightly to approach (your own)
end!
What service, again, does all the labour spent in arranging the
hair render to salvation? Why is no rest allowed to your hair, which
must now be bound, now loosed, now cultivated, now thinned out? Some
are anxious to force their hair into curls, some to let it hang loose
and flying; not with good simplicity: beside which, you affix I know
not what enormities of subtle and textile perukes; now, after the
manner of a helmet of undressed hide, as it were a sheath for the head
and a covering for the crown; now, a mass (drawn) backward toward the
neck. The wonder is, that there is no (open) contending against the
Lord's prescripts! It has been pronounced that no one can add to his
own stature.(16) You, however, do add to your weight some kind of
rolls, or shield-bosses, to be piled upon your necks! If you feel no
shame at the enormity, feel some at the pollution; for fear you may be
fitting on a holy and Christian head the slough(17) of some one
else's(1) head, unclean perchance, guilty perchance and destined to
hell.(2) Nay, rather banish quite away from your "free"(3) head all
this slavery of ornamentation. In vain do you labour to seem adorned:
in vain do you call in the aid of all the most skilful manufacturers of
false hair. God bids you "be veiled."(4) I believe (He does so) for
fear the heads of some should be seen! And oh that in "that day"(5) of
Christian exultation, I, most miserable (as I am), may elevate my head,
even though below (the level of) your heels! I shall (then) see whether
you will rise with (your) ceruse and rouge and saffron, and in all that
parade of headgear:(6) whether it will be women thus tricked out whom
the angels carry up to meet Christ in the air(7) If these (decorations)
are now good, and of God, they will then also present themselves to the
rising bodies, and will recognise their several places. But nothing can
rise except flesh and spirit sole and pure.(8) Whatever, therefore,
does not rise in (the form of)(9) spirit and flesh is condemned,
because it is not of God. From things which are condemned abstain, even
at the present day. At the present day let God see you such as He will
see you then.
Of course, now, I, a man, as being envious(10) of women, am
banishing them quite from their own (domains). Are there, in our case
too, some things which, in respect of the sobriety(11) we are to
maintain on account of the fear(12) due to God, are disallowed?(13) If
it is true, (as it is,) that in men, for the sake of women (just as in
women for the sake of men), there is implanted, by a defect of nature,
the will to please; and if this sex of ours acknowledges to itself
deceptive trickeries of form peculiarly its own,—(such as) to cut the
beard too sharply; to pluck it out here and there; to shave round about
(the mouth); to arrange the hair, and disguise its hoariness by dyes;
to remove all the incipient down all over the body; to fix (each
particular hair) in its place with (some) womanly pigment; to smooth
all the rest of the body by the aid of some rough powder or other:
then, further, to take every opportunity for consulting the minor; to
gaze anxiously into it:-while yet, when (once) the knowledge of God has
put an end to all wish to please by means of voluptuous attraction, all
these things are rejected as frivolous, as hostile to modesty. For
where God is, there modesty is; there is sobriety? her assistant and
ally. How, then, shall we practise modesty without her instrumental
mean,(15) that is, without sobriety?(16) How, moreover, shall we bring
sobriety(17) to bear on the discharge of (the functions of) modesty,
unless seriousness in appearance and in countenance, and in the general
aspect(18) of the entire man, mark our carriage?
Wherefore, with regard to clothing also, and all the remaining
lumber of your self-elaboration,(19) the like pruning off and
retrenchment of too redundant splendour must be the object of your
care. For what boots it to exhibit in your face temperance and
unaffectedness, and a simplicity altogether worthy of the divine
discipline, but to invest all the other parts of the body with the
luxurious absurdities of pomps and delicacies? How intimate is the
connection which these pomps have with the business of voluptuousness,
and how they interfere with modesty, is easily discernible from the
fact that it is by the allied aid of dress that they prostitute the
grace of personal comeliness: so plain is it that if (the pomps) be
wanting, they render (that grace) bootless and thankless, as if it were
disarmed and wrecked. On the other hand, if natural beauty fails, the
supporting aid of outward embellishment supplies a grace, as it were,
from its own inherent power.(20) Those times of life, in fact, which
are at last blest with quiet and withdrawn into the harbour of modesty,
the splendour and dignity of dress lure away (from that rest and that
harbour), and disquiet seriousness by seductions of appetite, which
compensate for the chili of age by the provocative charms of apparel.
First, then, blessed (sisters), (take heed) that you admit not to your
use meretricious and prostitutionary garbs and garments: and, in the
next place, if there are any of you whom the exigencies of riches, or
birth, or past dignities, compel to appear in public so gorgeously
arrayed as not to appear to have attained wisdom, take heed to temper
an evil of this kind; lest, under the pretext of necessity, you give
the rein without stint to the indulgence of licence. For how will you
be able to fulfil (the requirements of) humility, which our (school)
profess,(1) if you do not keep within bounds(2) the enjoyment of your
riches and elegancies, which tend so much to "glory?" Now it has ever
been the wont of glory to exalt, not to humble. "Why, shall we not use
what is our own?" Who prohibits your using it? Yet (it must be) in
accordance with the apostle, who warns us "to use this world(3) as if
we abuse it not; for the fashion(4) of this world(5) is passing away."
And "they who buy are so to act as if they possessed not."(6) Why so?
Because he had laid down the premiss, saying, "The time is wound
up."(7) If, then he shows plainly that even wives themselves are so to
be had as if they be not had,(8) on account of the straits of the
times, what would be his sentiments about these vain appliances of
theirs? Why, are there not many, withal, who so do, and seal themselves
up to eunuchhood for the sake of the kingdom of God,(9) spontaneously
relinquishing a pleasure so honourable,(10) and (as we know) permitted?
Are there not some who prohibit to themselves (the use of) the very
"creature of God,"(11) abstaining from wine and animal food, the
enjoyments of which border upon no peril or solicitude; but they
sacrifice to God the humility of their soul even in the chastened use
of food? Sufficiently, therefore, have you, too, used your riches and
your delicacies; sufficiently have you cut down the fruits of your
dowries, before (receiving) the knowledge of saving disciplines. We are
they "upon whom the ends of the ages have met, having ended their
course."(12) We have been predestined by God, before the world(13) was,
(to arise) in the extreme end of the times.(14) And so we are trained
by God for the purpose of chastising, and (so to say) emasculating, the
world.(15) We are the circumcision(16)—spiritual and carnal—of all
things; for both in the spirit and in the flesh we circumcise
worldly(17) principles.
It was God, no doubt, who showed the way to dye wools with the
juices of herbs and the humours of conchs! It had escaped Him, when He
was bidding the universe to come into being,(19) to issue a command for
(the production of) purple and scarlet sheep! It was God, too, who
devised by careful thought the manufactures of those very garments
which, light and thin (in themselves), were to be heavy in price alone;
God who produced such grand implements of gold for confining or parting
the hair; God who introduced (the fashion of) finely-cut wounds for the
ears, and set so high a value upon the tormenting of His own work and
the tortures of innocent infancy, learning to suffer with its earliest
breath, in order that from those scars of the body—born for the
steel!—should hang I know not what (precious) grains, which, as we may
plainly see, the Parthians insert, in place of studs, upon their very
shoes! And yet even the gold itself, the "glory" of which carries you
away, serves a certain race (so Gentile literature. tells us) for
chains! So true is it that it is not intrinsic worth,(20) but rarity,
which constitutes the goodness (of these things): the excessive labour,
moreover, of working them with arts introduced by the means of the
sinful angels, who were the revealers withal of the material substances
themselves, joined with their rarity, excited their costliness, and
hence a lust on the part of women to possess (that) costliness. But, if
the self-same angels who disclosed both the material substances of this
kind and their charms—of gold, I mean, and lustrous(21) stones—and
taught men how to work them, and by and by instructed them, among their
other (instructions), in (the virtues of) eyelid-powder and the dyeings
of fleeces, have been condemned by God, as Enoch tells us, how shall we
please God while we joy in the things of those (angels) who, on these
accounts, have provoked the anger and the vengeance of God?
Now, granting that God did foresee these things; that God
permitted them; that Esaias finds fault with no garment of purple,(22)
represses no coil,(23) reprobates no crescent-shaped neck
ornaments;(24) still let us not, as the Gentiles do, flatter ourselves
with thinking that God is merely a Creator, not likewise a Downlooker
on His own creatures. For how far more usefully and cautiously shall we
act, if we hazard the presumption that all these things were indeed
provided(25) at the beginning and placed in the world(26) by God, in
order that there should now be means of putting to the proof the
discipline of His servants, in order that the licence of using should
be the means whereby the experimental trials of continence should be
conducted? Do not wise heads of families purposely offer and permit
some things to their servants(1) in order to try whether and how they
will use the things thus permitted whether (they will do so) with
honesty, or with moderation? But how far more praiseworthy (the
servant) who abstains entirely; who has a wholesome fear(2) even of his
lord's indulgence! Thus, therefore, the apostle too: "All things," says
he, "are lawful, but not all are expedient."(3) How much more easily
will he fear(4) what is unlawful who has a reverent dread(5) of what is
lawful?
Moreover, what causes have you for appearing in public in
excessive grandeur, removed as you are from the occasions which call
for such exhibitions? For you neither make the circuit of the temples,
nor demand (to be present at) public shows, nor have any acquaintance
with the holy days of the Gentiles. Now it is for the sake of all these
public gatherings, and of much seeing and being seen, that all pomps
(of dress) are exhibited before the public eye; either for the purpose
of transacting the trade of voluptuousness, or else of inflating
"glory." You, however, have no cause of appearing in public, except
such as is serious. Either some brother who is sick is visited, or else
the sacrifice is offered, or else the word of God is dispensed.
Whichever of these you like to name is a business of sobriety(6) and
sanctity, requiring no extraordinary attire, with (studious)
arrangement and (wanton) negligence.(7) And if the requirements of
Gentile friendships and of kindly offices call you, why not go forth
clad in your own armour; (and) all the more, in that (you have to go)
to such as are strangers to the faith? so that between the handmaids of
God and of the devil there may be a difference; so that you may be an
example to them, and they may be edified in you; so that (as the
apostle says) "God may be magnified in your body."(8) But magnified He
is in the body through modesty: of course, too, through attire suitable
to modesty. Well, but it is urged by some, "Let not the Name be
blasphemed in us,(9) if we make any derogatory change from our old
style and dress." Let us, then, not abolish our old vices! let us
maintain the same character, if we must maintain the same appearance
(as before); and then truly the nations will not blaspheme! A grand
blasphemy is that by which it is said, "Ever since she became a
Christian, she walks in poorer garb!" Will you fear to appear poorer,
from the time that you have been made more wealthy; and fouler,(10)
from the time when you have been made more clean? Is it according to
the decree(11) of Gentiles, or according to the decree of God, that it
becomes Christians to walk?
Let us only wish that we may be no cause for just blasphemy! But
how much more provocative of blasphemy is it that you, who are called
modesty's priestesses, should appear in public decked and painted out
after the manner of the immodest? Else, (if you so do,) what
inferiority would the poor unhappy victims of the public lusts have
(beneath you)? whom, albeit some laws were (formerly) wont to restrain
them from (the use of) matrimonial and matronly decorations, now, at
all events, the daily increasing depravity of the age(12) has raised so
nearly to an equality with all the most honourable women, that the
difficulty is to distinguish them. And yet, even the Scriptures suggest
(to us the reflection), that meretricious attractivenesses of form are
invariably conjoined with and appropriate(13) to bodily prostitution.
That powerful state(14) which presides over(15) the seven mountains and
very many waters, has merited from the Lord the appellation of a
prostitute.(16) But what kind of garb is the instrumental mean of her
comparison with that appellation? She sits, to be sure, "in purple, and
scarlet, and gold, and precious stone." How accursed are the things
without (the aid of) which an accursed prostitute could not have been
described! It was the fact that Thamar "had painted out and adorned
herself" that led Judah to regard her as a harlot,(17) and thus,
because she was hidden beneath her "veil,"—the quality of her garb
belying her as if she had been a harlot,—he judged (her to be one),
and addressed and bargained with (her as such). Whence we gather an
additional confirmation of the lesson, that provision must be made in
every way. against all immodest associations(1) and suspicions. For why
is the integrity of a chaste mind defiled by its neighbour's suspicion?
Why is a thing from which I am averse hoped for in me? Why does not my
garb pre-announce my character, to prevent my spirit from being wounded
by shamelessness through (the channel of) nay ears? Grant that it be
lawful to assume the appearance of a modest woman:(2) to assume that of
an immodest is, at all events, not lawful.
Perhaps some (woman) will say: "To me it is not necessary to be
approved by men; for I do not require the testimony of men:(3) God is
the inspector of the heart."(4) (That) we all know; provided, however,
we remember what the same (God) has said through the apostle: "Let your
probity appear before men."(5) For what purpose, except that malice may
have no access at all to you, or that you may be an example and
testimony to the evil? Else, what is (that): "Let your works shine?"(6)
Why, moreover, does the Lord call us the light of the world; why has He
compared us to a city built upon a mountain;(7) if we do not shine in
(the midst of) darkness, and stand eminent amid them who are sunk down?
If you hide your lamp beneath a bushel,(8) you must necessarily be left
quite in darkness, and be run against by many. The things which make us
luminaries of the world are these—our good works. What is good,
moreover, provided it be true and full, loves not darkness: it joys in
being seen,(9) and exults over the very pointings which are made at it.
To Christian modesty it is not enough to be so, but to seem so too. For
so great ought its plenitude to be, that it may flow out from the mind
to the garb, and burst out from the conscience to the outward
appearance; so that even from the outside it may gaze, as it were, upon
its own furniture,(10)—(a furniture) such as to be suited to retain
faith as its inmate perpetually. For such delicacies as tend by their
softness and effeminacy to unman the manliness(11) of faith are to be
discarded. Otherwise, I know not whether the wrist that has been wont
to be surrounded with the palmleaf-like bracelet will endure till it
grow into the numb hardness of its own chain! I know not whether the
leg that has rejoiced in the anklet will suffer itself to be squeezed
into the gyve! I fear the neck, beset with pearl and emerald nooses,
will give no room to the broadsword! Wherefore, blessed (sisters), let
us meditate on hardships, and we shall not feel them; let us abandon
luxuries, and we shall not regret them. Let us stand ready to endure
every violence, having nothing which we may fear to leave behind. It is
these things which are the bonds which retard our hope. Let us cast
away earthly ornaments if we desire heavenly. Love not gold; in which
(one substance) are branded all the sins of the people of Israel. You
ought to hate what mined your fathers; what was adored by them who were
forsaking God.(12) Even then (we find) gold is food for the fire.(13)
But Christians always, and now more than ever, pass their times not in
gold but in iron: the stoles of martyrdom are (now) preparing: the
angels who are to carry us are (now) being awaited! Do you go forth (to
meet them) already arrayed in the cosmetics and ornaments of prophets
and apostles; drawing your whiteness from simplicity, your ruddy hue
from modesty; painting your eyes with bashfulness, and your mouth with
silence; implanting in your ears the words of God; fitting on your
necks the yoke of Christ. Submit your head to your husbands, and you
will be enough adorned. Busy your hands with spinning; keep your feet
at home; and you will "please" better than (by arraying yourselves) in
gold. Clothe yourselves with the silk of uprightness, the fine linen of
holiness, the purple of modesty. Thus painted, you will have God as
your Lover! ELUCIDATION.
(The Prophecy of Enoch, p. 15.)
DR. DAVIDSON is the author of a useful article on "Apocalyptic
Literature," from which we extract all that is requisite to inform the
reader of the freshest opinion as seen from his well-known point of
view. He notes Archbishop Lawrence's translation into English, and that
it has been rendered back again into German by Dillman (1853), as
before, less accurately, by Hoffmann. Ewald, Lucke, Koestlin, and
Hilgenfeld are referred to, and an article of his own in Kitto's
Cyclopoedia. We owe its re-appearance, after long neglect, to
Archbishop Lawrence (1838), and its preservation to the Abyssinians. It
was rescued by Bruce, the explorer, in an AEthiopic version; and the
first detailed announcement of its discovery was made by De Sacy, 1800.
Davidson ascribes its authorship to pre-Messianic times, but thinks it
has been interpolated by a Jewish Christian. Tertullian's negative
testimony points the other way: he evidently relies upon its
"Christology" as genuine; and, if interpolated in his day, he could
hardly have been deceived.
Its five parts are: I. The rape of women by fallen angels, and
the giants that were begotten of them. The visions of Enoch begun. II.
The visions continued, with views of the Messiah's kingdom. III. The
physical and astronomical mysteries treated of. IV. Man's mystery
revealed in dreams from the beginning to the end of the Messianic
kingdom. V. The warnings of Enoch to his own family and to mankind,
with appendices, which complete the book. The article in Smith's
Dictionary of the Bible is accessible, and need only be referred to as
well worth perusal; and, as it abounds in references to the entire
literature of criticism respecting it, it is truly valuable. It seems
to have been written by Westcott.(1)
The fact that St. Jude refers to Enoch's prophesyings no more
proves that this book is other than apocryphal than St. Paul's
reference to Jannes and Jambres makes Scripture of the Targum. The
apostle Jude does, indeed, authenticate that particular saying by
inspiration of God, and doubtless it was traditional among the Jews.
St. Jerome's references to this quotation may be found textually in
Lardner.(2) Although the book is referred to frequently in the
Patrologia, Tertullian only, of the Fathers, pays it the respect due to
Scripture.