Teaching Christianity
words; looking to God, not any man, as the arbiter of her mind; insulting nobody to the face, wishing all people well, standing up in the presence of her elders, never jealous of her peers; shunning boastfulness, following reason, loving virtue. When did she ever hurt her parents even by so much as her expression? When did she ever wrangle with her companions, ever turn up her nose at the lowly, ever laugh at a cripple, ever turn her back on the needy? Punctiliously attending only those gatherings of men which mercy would not blush at nor modesty pass by. Nothing wild in her eyes, nothing pert in her talk, nothing shameless in her demeanor; not too feeble in her gestures, too loose in her gait, too petulant in her tone of voice, so that the very aspect of her body was an image of her mind, and a picture of her probity. It ought, of course, to be possible to tell a good house by its forecourt, so that it assures you on your first step inside that there is no darkness lurking within, as by the light of a lamp placed inside and shining outside.
Why should I run through the meanness of her diet, the generous abundance of her duties, the one going far beyond what nature requires, the other falling considerably short of what nature needs? In the one case no time was left idle, in the other days were joined together in fasting—and if ever the will to take some refreshment seemed to triumph, food was forthcoming simply to stave off death, not to provide any pleasure, and so on.
The reason I have quoted this as an example of the moderate style is that he is not here urging his readers to take a vow of virginity, which they have not yet taken, but telling those who have already taken their vow what kind of lives they should live. For the human spirit, after all, to undertake such a great and daunting purpose, it needs to be roused and fired by the grand mode of speaking. But the martyr Cyprian wrote about the dress of virgins, not about undertaking a life of virginity. This bishop, on the other hand, also fired them to this with great eloquence.[57]
49. But I will quote examples of the grand style of speaking from the works of both of them. Both, that is to say, inveighed against women who color their faces with paints, or rather discolor them. The first of the two, when dealing