(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all mistakes found.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing intially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.

TERTULLIAN.

ON THE APPAREL OF WOMEN.[1]

[TRANSLATED BY THE REV. S. THELWALL.]

BOOK I.

CHAP. I.--INTRODUCTION. MODESTY IN APPAREL BECOMING TO WOMEN, IN MEMORY OF
THE INTRODUCTION OF SIN INTO THE WORLD THROUGH A WOMAN.

   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.

CHAP. II.--THE ORIGIN OF FEMALE ORNAMENTATION, TRACED BACK TO THE ANGELS
WHO HAD FALLEN.[11]

   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.

CHAP. III.--CONCERNING THE GENUINENESS OF "THE PROPHECY OF ENOCH."[11]

   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]

CHAP. IV.--WAIVING THE QUESTION OF THE AUTHORS, TERTULLIAN PROPOSES TO
CONSIDER THE THINGS ON THEIR OWN MERITS.

   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.

CHAP. V.--GOLD AND SILVER NOT SUPERIOR IN ORIGIN OR IN UTILITY TO OTHER
METALS.

   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.

CHAP. VI.--OF PRECIOUS STONES AND PEARLS.

   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 allurement. 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?

CHAP. VII.--RARITY THE ONLY CAUSE WHICH MAKES SUCH THINGS VALUABLE.

   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.

CHAP. VIII.--THE SAME RULE HOLDS WITH REGARD TO COLOURS. GOD'S CREATURES
GENERALLY NOT TO BE USED, EXCEPT FOR THE PURPOSES TO WHICH HE HAS APPOINTED
THEM.

   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!

CHAP. IX.--GOD'S DISTRIBUTION MUST REGULATE OUR DESIRES, OTHERWISE WE
BECOME THE PREY OF AMBITION AND ITS ATTENDANT EVILS.

   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:

BOOK II.

CHAP. I.--INTRODUCTION. MODESTY TO BE OBSERVED NOT ONLY IN ITS ESSENCE, BUT
IN ITS ACCESSORIES.

   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)

CHAP. II.--PERFECT MODESTY WILL ABSTAIN FROM WHATEVER TENDS TO SIN, AS WELL
AS FROM SIN ITSELF. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRUST AND PRESUMPTION. IF SECURE
OURSELVES, WE MUST NOT PUT TEMPTATION IN THE WAY OF OTHERS. WE MUST LOVE
OUR NEIGHBOUR AS OURSELF.

   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)

CHAP. III.--GRANT THAT BEAUTY BE NOT TO BE FEARED: STILL IT IS TO BE
SHUNNED AS UNNECESSARY AND VAINGLORIOUS,

   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)

CHAP. IV.--CONCERNING THE PLEA OF "PLEASING THE HUSBAND,"

   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?

CHAP. V.--SOME REFINEMENTS IN DRESS AND PERSONAL APPEARANCE LAWFUL, SOME
UNLAWFUL. PIGMENTS COME UNDER THE LATTER HEAD.

   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?

CHAP. VI.--OF DYEING THE HAIR.

   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!

CHAP. VII.--OF ELABORATE DRESSING OF THE HAIR IN OTHER WAYS, AND ITS
BEARING UPON SALVATION.

   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.

CHAP.VIII.--MEN NOT EXCLUDED FROM THESE REMARKS ON PERSONAL ADORNMENT.

   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?

CHAP. IX.--EXCESS IN DRESS, AS WELL AS IN PERSONAL CULTURE, TO BE SHUNNED.
ARGUMENTS DRAWN FROM I COR. VII.

   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.

CHAP. X.--TERTULLIAN REFERS AGAIN TO THE QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF ALL
THESE ORNAMENTS AND EMBELLISHMENTS.(18)

   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?

CHAP. XI.--CHRISTIAN WOMEN, FURTHER, HAVE NOT THE SAME CAUSES FOR APPEARING
IN PUBLIC, AND HENCE FOR DRESSING IN FINE ARRAY AS GENTILES. ON THE
CONTRARY, THEIR APPEARANCE SHOULD ALWAYS DISTINGUISH THEM FROM SUCH.

   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?

CHAP. XII.--SUCH OUTWARD ADORNMENTS MERETRICIOUS, AND THEREFORE UNSUITABLE
TO MODEST WOMEN.

   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.

CHAP.XIII.--IT IS NOT ENOUGH THAT GOD KNOW US TO BE CHASTE: WE MUST SEEM SO
BEFORE MEN. ESPECIALLY IN THESE TIMES OF PERSECUTION WE MUST INURE OUR
BODIES TO THE HARDSHIPS WHICH THEY MAY NOT IMPROBABLY BE CALLED TO SUFFER.

   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!


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 4, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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