Chapter 30
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churches, awake at the signal of God, arise at the angel's trumpet, glory in the palms of martyrdom.4
(4) If the literary accomplishments of the stage delight you, we have sufficient literature of our own, enough verses and maxims, also enough songs and melodies;5 and ours are not fables, but truths, not artful devices, but plain realities. (5)
Do you want contests in boxing and wrestling? Here they are -—contests of no slight account, and plenty of them. Behold impurity overthrown by chastity, faithlessness slain by faith, cruelty crushed by mercy, impudence put in the shade by modesty. Such are the contests among us, and in these we win our crowns. Do you have desire for blood, too? You have the blood of Christ.
Chapter 30 (1) Moreover, what a spectacle is already at hand—the second coming of the Lord, now no object of doubt, now exalted, now triumphant! What exultation will that be of 4 Tertullian makes a bold comparison between the pagan circus games and 'the circus games' of the Christians. One feature deserves special mention. In his day there began the slow amalgamation of the circus parties, the factions becoming more and more things of the past. The Christian counterpart of this fusion, Tertullian urges, must be the unity of the universal Church, obtained by the communion of the local churches among themselves. A similar comparison is found in one of the sermons of St. John Chrysostom, Oratio de circo
(PG 59.568-569) : Elias with his fiery chariot is the charioteer; the four Gospels form the four-horse team; starting-point and final goal of the race are earth and heaven respectively; the spectators are God and the inhabitants of heaven; the prize of victory is heaven itself.
5 The singing of hymns served in the early Church as a useful vehicle for the propagation of orthodox ideas against the heretics.
SPECTACLES
the angels, what glory of the saints as they rise again! What a kingdom, the kingdom of the just thereafter! What a city, the new Jerusalem!1
(2) But there are yet other spectacles to come—that day of the Last Judgment with its everlasting issues, unlooked for by the heathen, the object of their derision, when the hoary age of the world and all its generations will be con sumed in one fire. (3) What a panorama of spectacle on that day! Which sight shall excite my wonder? Which, my laughter? Where shall I rejoice, where exult—as I see so many and so mighty kings, whose ascent to heaven used to be made known by public announcement, now along with Jupiter himself, along with the very witnesses of their ascent, groaning in the depths of darkness?2 Governors of provinces, too, who persecuted the name of the Lord, melting in flames fiercer than those they themselves kindled in their rage against the Christians braving them with contempt? (4) Whom
1 Tertullian gives here a colorful description of the millennium, picturing the feverish expectation of an early return of Christ to establish an earthly kingdom of the just, whose duration is frequently given as one thousand years. The deceased saints will rise again to participate in this gloriousreign, during which all powers hostile to God will be rendered impotent. The millennialists thought to find a confirmation of their belief in the description of the New Jerusalem in Apocalypse 20-21. Millenarian expectations were especially strong in the post-apostolic age, but grew less and less in the course of the third century. The reign of Christ on earth with His saints will be followed by the universal resurrection and the Last Judgment which Tertullian describes in the remaining part of this chapter.
2 Since the apotheosis of Julius Caesar it was a common practice of Roman statecraft to recognize departed emperors as gods. The deification was made known by an official decree of the senate. There were always witnesses who vouched for having actually observed the ascension of the deceased emperor. An ex-prateor, for instance, testified by oath to have seen the form of Emperor Augustus on its way from the funeral pyre to heaven (Suetonius, Augustus 100).
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else shall I behold? Those wise philosophers blushing before their followers as they burn together, the followers to whom they taught that the world is no concern of God's, whom they assured that either they had no souls at all or that what souls they had would never return to their former bodies? The poets also, trembling, not before the judgment seat of Rhadamanthus or of Minos,3 but of Christ whom they did not expect to meet. (5) Then will the tragic actors be worth hearing, more vocal in their own catastrophe; then the comic actors will be worth watching, much lither of limb in the fire; then the charioteer will be worth seeing, red all over on his fiery wheel; then the athletes will be worth observing, not in their gymnasiums, but thrown about by fire—unless I might not wish to look at them even then but would prefer to turn an insatiable gaze on those who vented their rage on the Lord. (6) 'This is He,' I will say, 'the son of the carpenter and the harlot,4 the sabbath-breaker,5 the Samaritan who had a devil.6 This is He whom you pur chased from Judas,7 this is He who was struck with reed and fist, defiled with spittle,8 given gall and vinegar to drink.9
This is He whom the disciples secretly stole away to spread the story of His resurrection,10 or whom the gardener
3 In ancient mythology Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, the three just men of early days, are the judges of the dead in the lower regions.
4 One of the numerous slanders that were circulated against Christ; see Matt. 13.55.
5 Cf. John 5.18.
6 Cf. John 8.48.
7 Cf. Matt. 26.14,15; Luke 22.4,5.
8 Cf. Matt. 26.67; Mark 14.65.
9 Cf. John 19.29.
10 According to Matt. 28.11-15, the chief priests and elders bribed the soldiers of the guard to spread the story that the disciples had come by night and stolen the body of Christ. Tertullian mentions and refutes the often-repeated story in his Apology 21.20-22.
SPECTACLES
removed lest his lettuces be trampled by the throng of curious idlers.'11
(7) What praetor or consul or quaestor or priest with all his munificence will ever bestow on you the favor of be holding and exulting in such sights? Yet, such scenes as these are in a measure already ours by faith in the vision of the spirit. But what are those things which 'eye has not seen nor ear heard and which have not entered into the heart of man'?12 Things of greater delight, I believe, than circus, both kinds of theater, and any stadium.
11 The story of the gardener removing the body of Christ may ultimately go back to John 20.15. Tertullian is the only ancient writer to mention it.
12 1 Cor. 2.9.
THE APPAREL
OF WOMEN Translated by
EDWIN A. QUAIN, S.J., Ph.D.
Fordham University
INTRODUCTION
| n writing his two books on The Apparel of Women {De' cultu feminarum) Tertullian addresses himself especially to women who have lately become con verts to the Christian faith.1 With solemn sternness, and often with caustic wit, he castigates the luxury and extravagance of dress and adornment which fashion and convention have imposed on the fair sex of his day. He describes these eccentricities of feminine vanity as fitting only for harlots and immodest women, and contrasts them with the virtues with which alone it becomes Christian women to embellish themselves.
The two books do not'form a coherent whole in the sense that the second book is a continuation of the first. The second is rather a new and more comprehensive treatment of the subject of the first book which the author left unfinished, apparently considering it unsatisfactory. Originally, the two books were distinct works, the first being entitled De habitu muliebri, the second De cultu feminarum.2
1 'Blessed' (benedictae; cf. Book 2.4.1; 5.5; 9.4; 13.5) was an appellation given especially to catechumens and neophytes. See above, p. 17 n.l.
2 See the critical apparatus in Kroymann's edition. Corpus Christianorum. Series Latina 1.343.
Ill
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The contents of the first book can be summed up as follows. In the introductory chapter, Tertullian reminds the Christian women that it was through Eve, the first woman, that sin entered into the world; hence, it is rather a penitential garb that is best suited to the daughters of Eve.
According to the Book of Henoch, ornaments and cosmetics are the inventions of the fallen angels and, therefore, of diabolical origin (Ch. 2). Chapter 3 is devoted to a defense of the genuineness of this apocryphal work. With Chapter 4 the author resumes the treatment of his topic. He proposes to examine female toilet itself, distinguishing between cultus
(dress which consists of gold, silver, jewels, and clothes) and ornatus (make-up which includes care of the hair, skin, etc.).
To the first he imputes the crime of ambition; to the second, that of prostitution. In dealing with the first (Ch. 5-7) he tries to show that gold and silver are merely earthy materials like others and hence, in themselves, possess no greater value than other metals. The same is true concerning precious stones and pearls. It is solely their rarity that makes them so desirable. In like manner the dyeing of materials for clothing is unnatural. God is not pleased by' what He Himself did not produce. We cannot suppose that God was unable to produce sheep with purple or sky-blue fleeces. If He was able, then He chose not to do it; and what God refused to do certainly can not be lawful for men to make. Therefore, those things can not be the best by nature which do not come from God, who is the author of nature. Hence, they must be understood to be from the Devil, who is the corrupter of nature' (Ch. 8). The use of God's creatures must be regulated by the distribution the Creator Himself has made of them. Out of immoderate desire for possessing them there grows ambition which, with other vices in its train, may become so powerful 'that one
THE APPAREL OF WOMEN
damsel carries the whole income from a large fortune on her small body' (Ch. 9).
Here Tertullian breaks off suddenly, without having even touched upon the second part of his topic (ornatus—
'make-up'). The topic of the second book is the same, but the author has reversed the arrangement of the subject matter.
He deals first with the question of cosmetics, ostentatious dressing of the hair, etc. [ornatus), and then with jewelry and dress (cultus). He prefaces the book by pointing out that an excessive desire to please does not agree with a Christian woman's principal virtue, which is modesty (Ch. 1). By an inordinate love of admiration the woman can become the object of sinful desires and thus be an accessory to the sins of others (Ch. 2). As 'pursuers of things spiritual,' Christian women may safely scorn all glory that is 'in the flesh' (Ch. 3).
Married women have no valid reason for enhancing their natural beauty, since they have to please no one else but their own husbands (Ch. 4). Though there is no virtue in squalor and filth, and proper care ought to be taken of the body, the use of skin creams, rouges, powders and other kinds of cosmetics to improve complexion, amounts to criticizing God's creative workmanship. These artificial devices for enhancing personal appearance have been invented by the Devil, who in his own wily way tempts man to do violence to God Himself
(Ch. 5). The same holds true concerning the foolish custom of dyeing the hair and the elaborate styles of head-dress
(Ch. 6-7). In order to avoid any accusation of bias against the fair sex, Tertullian makes it clear that his remarks apply in like manner to males. As a matter of fact, he finds any excessive care bestowed by men on their personal appearance more blameworthy, because it is inconsistent with that gravity which is the distinctive mark of the Christian man (Ch. 8).
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The Christian woman must not only shun any artificiality in her toilet, but, because of the tribulations of the times, also renounce that elegance in clothing and finery which is allowed and in keeping with her social rank (Ch. 9). After describing the origin of the desire for expensive clothes and jewelry in the same manner as in the first book, the author suggests 'that all these things have been provided by God at the beginning and placed in the world in. order that they should now be means of testing the moral strength of His servants so that, in being permitted to use things, we might have the opportunity of showing our self-restraint' (Ch. 10).
Simplicity in clothing becomes the Christian woman, because it edifies her fellow men and serves the glorification of God
(Ch. 11). Even the mere resemblance of coquetry must be avoided. A Christian woman always wears a modest garb and never that of a harlot (Ch. 12). Passionate love for finery weakens the strength of our faith, makes us reluctant to fulfil our duties as Christians, and renders us incapable of remaining steadfast in persecution. Reminding his readers of the afflictions visited upon the Church of his day, but at the same time holding out to them the stirring hope of final victory, Tertullian exclaims: 'The lives of the Christians are never spent in gold, and now less than ever, but in iron. The stoles of martyrdom are being prepared, and the angels who are to carry us [to heaven] are being awaited.' The book ends with an exhortation that is distinguished by great rhetorical refinement: 'Go forth to meet those angels, adorned with the cosmetics and ornaments of the Prophets and Apostles. Let your whiteness flow from simplicity, let modesty be the cause of your rosy complexion, paint your eyes with reserve, your mouth with silence, hang on your ears the words of God,
THE APPAREL OF WOMEN
bind on your neck the yoke of Christ . . . Dress yourselves in the silk of probity, the fine linen of holiness, and the purple of chastity. Decked out in this manner, you will have God Him self for your lover' (Ch. 13).
As we may expect, exaggerations are not lacking in either of the two books. But the second is much milder in tone and more tolerant in its views. The leading idea of both occurs in two of Tertullian's earlier writings, namely, his exhortation
To the Martyrs and his treatise Spectacles: to be a Christian means renunciation of everything pagan and complete surrender to the divine Master whose teachings must be the sole and supreme norm of a Christian's conduct in everyday life. The first book was written after Spectacles, since
Tertullian explicitly refers to the latter (8.4). Moreover, the way in which he speaks of the dress of women in Chapter 20 of Prayer, without mentioning that he has treated the same topic in two special works, seems to indicate that The Apparel of Women was composed after the treatise on Prayer. There is no trace of Montanistic ideas in either of the two books. They were the main source of St. Cyprian's treatise, The Dress of Vifgins (De habitu virginum).
The text followed in the present translation is that of Aem.
Kroymann in Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 1 (Turnholti 1954) 341-370.
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SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts:
A. Kroymann, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina 1 (Tumholti 1954) 341-370; also, CSEL 70 (1942) 59-95.
J. Marra, De corona, De cultu feminarum (Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum Paravianum; Turin 1951) .
Secondary Sources:
G. Cortellezzi. 'II concetto della donna nelle opere di Tertulliano/ Didaskaleion (1923) 1.5-29; 2.57-79; 3.43-100.
H. Koch, 'Tertullianisches,' Theologische Studien und Kritiken 101 (1929) 469-471.
L. B. Lawler, 'Two Portraits from Tertullian,' Classical Journal 25 (1929) 19-23.
J. Quasten, Patrology 2 (Westminster, Md. 1953) 294-296.
THE APPAREL OF WOMEN
BOOK ONE Chapter 1 f there existed upon earth a faith in proportion to the reward that faith will receive in heaven, no one
_ of you, my beloved sisters, from the time when you came to know the living God and recognized your own state, that is, the condition of being a woman, would have desired a too attractive garb, and much less anything that seemed too ostentatious. I think, rather, that you would have dressed in mourning garments and even neglected your exterior, acting the part of mourning and repentant Eve in order to expiate more fully by all sorts of penitential garb that which woman derives from Eve—the ignominy, I mean, of original sin and the odium of being the cause of the fall of the human race.
'In sorrow and anxiety, you will bring forth, O woman, and you are subject to your husband, and he is your master.'1 Do you not believe that you are [each] an Eve?
1 Cf. Gen. 3.16.