Edition Masquer
De Cultu Feminarum

VII.

[1] Quid enim tanta ornandi capitis operositas ad salutem subministrat? Quid crinibus uestris quiescere non licet, modo substrictis, modo relaxatis, modo suscitatis, modo elisis? Aliae gestiunt in cincinnos coercere, aliae ut uagi et uolucres elabantur, non bona simplicitate. Affigitis praeterea nescio quas enormitates sutilium atque textilium capillamentorum, nunc in galeri modum quasi uaginam capitis et operculum uerticis, nunc in ceruicum retro suggestum. [2] Mirum quod non contra domini praecepta contenditur! Ad mensuram neminem sibi adicere posse pronuntiatum est. Vos sane adicitis ad pondus, collyridas quasdam uel scutorum umbilicos ceruicibus adstruendo. Si non pudet enormitatis, pudeat inquinamenti, ne exuuias alieni capitis forsitan immundi, forsan nocentis et gehennae destinati sancto et christiano capiti supparetis. Immo, omnem hanc ornatus seruitutem a libero capite propellite. Frustra laboratis ornatae uideri, frustra peritissimos quosque structores capillaturae adhibetis: Deus uos uelari iubet, credo ne quarumdam capita uideantur.

[3] Atque utinam miserrimus ego in illo die christianae exultationis uel inter calcanea uestra caput eleuem! Videbo an cum cerussa et purpurisso et croco et in illo ambitu capitis resurgatis, an taliter expictas angeli in nubila subleuent obuiam Christo [in aere]. Si nunc bona et Dei sunt, tunc quoque oecurrent resurgentibus corporibus et sua loca agnoscent. Sed non potest resurgere nisi caro et spiritus solus ac purus. Damnata sunt igitur quae in carne et spiritu non resurgunt, quia Dei non sunt. Damnatis hodie abstinete; hodie uos Deus tales uideat quales tunc uidebit.

Traduction Masquer
On the Apparel of Women

Chapter 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. ¹ 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 ² of some one else's ³ head, unclean perchance, guilty perchance and destined to hell. ⁴ Nay, rather banish quite away from your "free" ⁵ 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." ⁶ I believe (He does so) for fear the heads of some should be seen! And oh that in "that day" ⁷ 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: ⁸ whether it will be women thus tricked out whom the angels carry up to meet Christ in the air! ⁹ 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. ¹⁰ Whatever, therefore, does not rise in (the form of) ¹¹ 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.