Traduction
Masquer
On the Apparel of Women
Chapter 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 1 their skin with medicaments, stain their cheeks with rouge, make their eyes prominent with antimony, 2 sin against Him. To them, I suppose, the plastic skill 3 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. 4 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 5 (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 6 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 7 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, 8 (you,) who make modesty your study! Think, 9 blessed (sisters), how will you keep God's precepts if you shall not keep in your own persons His lineaments?
Edition
Masquer
De Cultu Feminarum
V.
[1] Haec utique non ad crudam in totum et ferinam habitudinem insinuandam uobis suggeruntur, nec de bono squaloris et paedoris suademus, sed de modo et cardine et iustitia corporis excolendi. Non supergrediendum ultra quam quod simplices et sufficientes munditiae concupiscunt, ultra quam Deo placere.
[2] In illum enim delinquunt quae cutem medicaminibus urgent, genas rubore maculant, oculos fuligine porrigunt. Displicet nimirum illis plastica Dei; in ipsis redarguunt et reprehendunt artificem omnium. Reprehendunt enim cum emendant, cum adiciunt, utique ab aduersario artifice sumentes additamenta ista, [3] id est a diabolo. Nam quis corpus mutare monstraret nisi qui et spiritum hominis malitia transfigurauit? Ille indubitate huiusmodi ingenia concinnauit ut in nobis quodam modo manus Deo inferret. [4] Quod nascitur opus Dei est. Ergo quod infingitur diaboli negotium est. Diuino operi Satanae ingenia superducere quam scelestum est! Serui nostri ab inimicis nostris nihil mutuantur; milites ab hoste imperatoris sui nihil concupiscunt. De aduersario enim eius in cuius manu sis aliquid usui postulare transgressio est. Christianus a malo illo adiuuabitur? Nescio an hoc nomen ei perseueret. Erit enim eius de cuius doctrinis instrui concupiscit. [5] Quantum autem a uestris disciplinis et professionibus aliena sunt, quam indigna nomini christiano faciem fictam gestare quibus simplicitas omnis indicitur, effigie mentiri quibus lingua non licet, appetere quod datum non sit quibus alieni abstinentia traditur, adulterium in specie exercere quibus studium pudicitiae est! Credite, benedictae, quomodo praecepta Dei custodietis, liniamenta eius in uobis non custodientes?