Tertullian, On the Apparel of Women Book II
Servants of the living God, my fellow servants and sisters, by what right am I placed over you? I am, in fact, the least among you by right of our shared servitude and brotherhood, yet I dare to address you—not from affectation, but from affection for your salvation. That salvation belongs not only to women but also to men, and it is grounded especially in the display of purity. Since we are all the temple of God, the Holy Spirit having been brought in and consecrated in us, purity is the caretaker and priest of this temple; it allows nothing impure or profane to enter, lest the God who inhabits it, offended, abandon the defiled seat. But now I speak not of purity itself—divine precepts everywhere are sufficient to command and exact that—but of the things that pertain to it: how you ought to conduct yourselves. Many women—and I reprove them; may God permit me to reprove them—either ignorantly or boldly feigning ignorance, act as if purity consisted only in bodily integrity and the avoidance of sexual sin, as though nothing internal were required regarding dress and adornment. Yet they persist in their old pursuits of beauty and brilliance, parading the same appearance as women of the nations who lack the consciousness of true purity, because there is nothing true in those who do not know God as the guardian and master of truth. Even if some purity can be believed to exist among the pagans, it is nonetheless imperfect and unformed; although it may hold on somewhat in the mind, it dissolves in the license of habits, chasing the perversity of the pagans while avoiding its effect. How many women do not even desire to please outsiders? Who does not want to paint herself in order to deny desire? Yet this too is characteristic of pagan purity: not to sin, yet to will it; or even not to will it, yet not to deny it. What is surprising? All things not from God are perverse. Let them see, then, what they easily obtain and what they obtain mixed with evil. You, however, must turn away from them—as in other things, so also in your walk—because you ought to be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). And you who are perfect—that is, Christian and pure women—must know that desire for yourselves is not only not to be desired but to be execrated: first, because the effort to please through beauty does not spring from a clean conscience, and we know beauty naturally invites lust. So what evil are you stirring up in yourself? What are you inviting, when you profess to be a stranger to it? Then, because we must not open the way to temptations, which sometimes, even when God drives them off, still accomplish their purpose by insisting, and certainly stir the spirit to scandal. We must walk so holily and with the whole substance of faith that we are confessed and secure in our conscience, wishing to persevere in this, yet not presuming. For whoever presumes fears less, guards less, and endangers himself more. Fear is the foundation of salvation; presumption blocks fear. It is more useful, therefore, to hope that we cannot sin than to presume we cannot; for by hoping we fear, by fearing we guard, by guarding we are saved; but if we presume, neither fearing nor guarding, we will hardly be saved. Whoever acts securely is not watchful and does not possess true, firm security; but whoever is watchful can truly be secure. And the Lord, out of his mercy, will care for his servants so that they may even presume upon their good happily. But what danger do we bring to another? What desire do we import into another? If the Lord, expanding the law, does not distinguish the act of sexual sin in punishment, I do not know whether the woman who caused someone's perdition goes unpunished. For he perishes in your appearance at the same moment—if he desires, he has already admitted in his mind what he desired, and you have become a sword to him. So that you may be free from guilt, you will not escape envy; just as when a robbery is committed in someone's field, the crime does not touch the owner, yet his estate is stained with shame and he himself is sprinkled with infamy. Shall we adorn ourselves so that another may perish? Where then is the command: Love your neighbor as yourself; do not care only for your own, but also for another's? (Matthew 22:39). No utterance of the Holy Spirit ought to be directed and received only for the present matter and not for every occasion of utility. Since, therefore, both our own cause and another's are at stake in the pursuit of the most dangerous beauty, you must know that not only the suggestion of artificial and elaborate beauty is to be rejected, but even natural beauty is to be obliterated by concealment and neglect, so that it may not be troublesome to the eyes that invade it. For even if beauty is not to be blamed—as the felicity of the body, as the addition of divine craftsmanship, as some urban garment of the soul—yet it is to be feared because of the injury and violence of spectators; even Abraham, the father of faith, feared for his wife's appearance, and by lying that she was his sister, redeemed his safety with contempt. Now the dignity of beauty ought not to be feared, so that it is not burdensome to those who possess it, nor destructive to those who desire it, nor perilous to those joined in marriage; it ought not to be considered exposed to temptations nor surrounded by scandals: it is enough that it is not necessary for the angels of God. For where purity is, there beauty is empty, because the proper use and fruit of beauty is luxury, unless someone thinks there is another harvest of bodily beauty. Let those women extend the beauty given them and seek what is not given, who think they can provide for themselves what another demands when they provide it for another. Someone will say: What then? With luxury excluded and chastity admitted, is it not allowed to enjoy the praise of beauty alone and glory in the good of the body? Let him see to it who delights to glory in the flesh. But for us, first, there is no pursuit of glory, because glory is the spirit of exaltation. Further, exaltation does not suit those who profess humility by God's precepts. Next, if all glory is vain and foolish, how much more that which is only in the flesh! For even if we ought to glory, we ought to wish to please in the good things of the spirit, not in the flesh, because we are followers of spiritual things; in these we work, in these we rejoice; from these we gather glory, from which we hope for salvation. Certainly the Christian will also glory in the flesh—but when it has been lacerated for Christ's sake and endured, so that the spirit may be crowned in it, not so that it draws the eyes and sighs of young people after it. So whatever is empty in you, you ought to despise with merit, both having it and not having it. Let the holy woman be naturally beautiful, but not so as to be an occasion; certainly, if she is, she ought not to be ignorant, but also to hinder herself. As if I were speaking to pagans, addressing you with a pagan and common precept of all: you ought to please only your husbands. And you will please them to the extent that you do not care to please others. Be secure, blessed women; no wife is ugly to her husband; it is enough that she pleased him when she was chosen, either by character or by commended beauty. Let none of you think that if she moderates her adornment, she will be pursued by the hatred and aversion of her husband. Every husband is an exactor of chastity; the faithful husband does not demand beauty, because we are not taken by the same goods pagans think; the unfaithful husband, on the contrary, even suspects it, on account of that wicked opinion of pagans against us. To whom, then, do you nourish your beauty? If to the faithful, he does not demand it; if to the pagan, he does not believe it. What are you doing trying to please either the suspect or the undesiring?
Latin
Ancillae Dei vivi, conservae et sorores meae, quo jure deputor vobiscum, postremissimus equidem meo jure conservitii et fraternitatis, audeo ad vos facere sermonem, non utique affectationis, sed affectioni procurans in caussa vestrae salutis. Ea salus nec foeminarum modo, sed etiam virorum, in exhibitione praecipue pudicitiae statuta est. Nam cum omnes templum Dei simus, illato in nos et consecrato Spiritu Sancto, ejus templi aedituus et antistes pudicitia est, quae nihil immundum nec profanum inferri sinat, ne Deus ille, qui inhabitat, inquinatam sedem offensus derelinquat. Sed modo nos non de pudicitia, cui indicendae et exigendae sufficiunt instantia ubique divina praecepta, verum de pertinentibus ad eam, id est qualiter vos incedere oporteat. Pleraeque enim, quod ipsum mihi utique [reprehendendo in omnibus] reprehendere Deus permittat, aut ignorantes simpliciter aut dissimulantes audacter ita ingrediuntur, quasi pudicitia in sola carnis integritate et stupri aversione consistat, nec quicquam intrinsecus opus sit, de cultus et ornatus dispositione. Sed enim perseverant in pristinis studiis formae et nitoris, eamdem sui speciem circumferentes, quam foeminae nationum, a quibus abest conscientia verae pudicitiae, quia nihil verum in his, qui Deum nesciunt praesidem et magistrum veritatis. Nam etsi qua in gentilibus pudicitia credi potest, usque adeo eam imperfectam et inconditam constat, ut licet in animo aliquatenus tenax sui agat, in habitus tamen licentia sese dissolvat, pro perversitate gentilium appetendo, cujus rei devitat effectum. Quota denique est, quae nec placere quidem extraneis concupiscat? quae non velit idcirco se expingere, ut neget appetitum? Quanquam et hoc gentili pudicitiae familiare sit, non delinquere, attamen velle; vel etiam nolle, attamen non denegare. Quid mirum? perversa sunt omnia, quae a Deo non sunt. Videant igitur, quae non totum bonum obtinendo facile et quod obtinent malo commiscent. Vos ab illis, ut in caeteris, incessu quoque devertere necessarium est, quoniam perfectae esse debetis, sicut Pater vester qui est in coelis. Perfectae autem, id est, christianae pudicae, appetitionem sui, non tantum non appetendam, sed etiam exsecrandam vobis sciatis: primo quod non de integra conscientia venit studium placendi per decorem, quem naturaliter invitatorem libidinis scimus; quid igitur in te excitas malum istud? Quid invitas, cujus te profiteris extraneam? Tum quod tentationibus viam aperire non debemus, quae nonnunquam quod Deus a suis abigat instando perficiunt, certe vel spiritum scandalo permovent. Debemus quidem ita sancte et tota fidei substantia incedere, ut confessae et securae simus de conscientia nostra optantes perseverare id in nobis, non tamen praesumentes. Nam qui praesumit, minus veretur, minus praecavet, plus periclitatur. Timor fundamentum salutis est, praesumptio impedimentum timoris Utilius ergo, si speremus non posse delinquere, quam si praesumamus non posse; sperando enim timebimus, timendo cavebimus, cavendo salvi erimus; contra si praesumamus neque timendo neque cavendo, difficile salvi erimus. Qui securus agit, non est sollicitus, non possidet tutam et firmam securitatem. At qui sollicitus est, is vere poterit esse securus. Et de suis quidem servis Dominus pro misericordia sua curet, ut etiam praesumere illis de bono suo feliciter liceat. Quid autem alteri periculo sumus? quid alteri concupiscentiam importamus? quam si Dominus ampliando legem a facto stupri non discernit in poena, nescio an impune habeat, quae alicui fuerit caussa perditionis. Perit enim ille simul in tua forma, si concupierit, et admisit jam in animo, quod concupivit, et facta es tu gladius illi. Ut a culpa vaces, ab invidia non liberaberis; ut cum in alicujus agro latrocinium gestum est, crimen quidem dominum non contingit; dum rus tamen ejus ignominia notatur, ipse quoque infamia aspergitur. Expingamus nos, ut alteri pereant? Ubi est ergo: Diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum; nolite vestra tantum curare, sed alterius? Nulla enuntiatio Spiritus Sancti ad praesentem tantum materiam et non ad omnem utilitatis occasionem dirigi et suscipi debet. Cum igitur et nostra et aliorum caussa versetur in studio periculosissimi decoris, jam non tantum confictae et elaboratae pulchritudinis suggestum recusandum a vobis sciatis, sed etiam naturalis speciositatis obliterandum dissimulatione et incuria, ut proinde oculorum incursibus molestum. Nam etsi accusandus decor non est, ut felicitas corporis, ut divinae plasticae accessio, ut animae aliqua vestis urbana; timendum tamen est vel propter injuriam et violentiam spectatorum, quae etiam pater fidei Abraham in uxoris suae specie pertimuit, et sororem mentitus Saram, salutem contumelia redemit. Nunc non sit timenda dignitas formae, ut nec possidentibus gravis, nec appetentibus exitiosa, nec conjunctis periculosa; non exposita tentationibus, non circumdata scandalis existimetur: sufficit, quod angelis Dei non est necessaria. Nam ubi pudicitia, ibi vacua pulchritudo, quia proprie usus et fructus pulchritudinis luxuria, nisi si quis aliam messem decori corporis arbitratur. Illae sibi formositatem et datam extendant et non datam conquirant, quae quod ab illa flagitatur, sibi quoque praestare se putant, cum alteri praestant. Dicet aliquis: Quid ergo non, et exclusa luxuria, et admissa castitate, laude formae sola frui et de bono corporis gloriari licet? Viderit, quem juvat de carne gloriari. Nobis autem primo quidem nullum gloriae studium, quia gloria exaltationis ingenium est. Porro exaltatio non congruit professoribus humilitatis ex praescriptis Dei. Deinde si omnis gloria vana et stuporata, quanto magis quae in carne nobis duntaxat! Nam etsi gloriandum est, in spiritus bonis, non in carne placere velle debemus, quia spiritualium sectatores sumus; in quibus operamur, illis et gaudeamus; de his gloriam carpamus, de quibus salutem speramus. Plane gloriabitur Christianus etiam in carne, sed cum propter Christum lacerata duraverit, ut et spiritus in ea coronetur, non ut oculos et suspiria adolescentium post se trahat. Ita quod ex omni parte in vobis vacat, merito et non habentes fastidiatis et habentes negligatis. Sancta foemina sit naturaliter speciosa, non adeo sit occasioni; certe si fuerit, non ignorare, sed etiam impedire se debet. Quasi gentilibus dicam, gentili et communi omnium praecepto alloquens vos, solis maritis vestris placere debetis. In tantum autem placebitis eis, in quantum alteris placere non curaveritis. Securae estote, benedictae; uxor nulla deformis est marito suo; satis placuit, cum electa est, seu moribus, seu forma commendata. Ne qua vestrum putet, si temperaverit a compositione sui, se odium et aversionem maritorum prosecuturam. Omnis maritus castitatis exactor est; formam vero fidelis non expostulat, quia non iisdem bonis, quae gentiles putant, capimur; infidelis contra etiam suspectam habet, vel propter illam sceleratam in nos opinionem gentilium. Cui ergo pulchritudinem tuam nutris? Si fidelis, non exigit; si gentilis, non credit. Quid gestis aut suspecto aut non desideranti placere?