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De Oratione
XIII.
[1] Ceterum quae ratio est manibus quidem ablutis, spiritu uero sordente orationem obire, quando et ipsis manibus spiritales munditiae sint necessariae, ut a falso, a caede, a saeuitia, a ueneficiis, ab idololatria ceterisque maculis, quae spiritu conceptae manuum opera transiguntur, purae alleuentur? Hae sunt uerae munditiae, non quas plerique superstitiose curant, ad omnem orationem, etiam cum a lauacro totius corporis ueniunt, aquam sumentes. [2] Id cum scrupulosis percunctarer et rationem requirerem, comperi commemorationem esse Pilati:
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On Prayer
Chapter XIII.--Of Washing the Hands.
But what reason is there in going to prayer with hands indeed washed, but the spirit foul?--inasmuch as to our hands themselves spiritual purities are necessary, that they may be "lifted up pure" 1 from falsehood, from murder, from cruelty, from poisonings, 2 from idolatry, and all the other blemishes which, conceived by the spirit, are effected by the operation of the hands. These are the true purities; 3 not those which most are superstitiously careful about, taking water at every prayer, even when they are coming from a bath of the whole body. When I was scrupulously making a thorough investigation of this practice, and searching into the reason of it, I ascertained it to be a commemorative act, bearing on the surrender 4 of our Lord. We, however, pray to the Lord: we do not surrender Him; nay, we ought even to set ourselves in opposition to the example of His surrenderer, and not, on that account, wash our hands. Unless any defilement contracted in human intercourse be a conscientious cause for washing them, they are otherwise clean enough, which together with our whole body we once washed in Christ. 5