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De Virginibus Velandis

II.

[1] Sed nolo interim hunc morem veritatis deputare; consuetudo sit tantisper, ut consuetudini etiam consuetudinem opponam. Per Graeciam et quasdam barbarias eius plures ecclesiae virgines suas abscondunt; est et sub hoc caelo institutum istud alicubi, ne qui gentilitati Graecanicae aut barbaricae consuetudinem illam ascribat. [2] Sed eas ego ecclesias proposui, quas et ipsi apostoli vel apostolici viri condiderunt et puto, ante quosdam. Habent igitur et illae eandem consuetudinis auctoritatem; tempora et antecessores opponunt magis quam posterae istae. Quid observabimus, quid eligimus? [3] Non possumus respuere consuetudinem, quam damnare non possumus, utpote non extraneam, quia non extraneorum, cum quibus communicamus scilicet ius pacis et nomen fraternitatis. Una nobis et illis fides, unus deus, idem Christus, eadem spes, eadem lavacri sacramenta, semel dixerim, una ecclesia sumus. Ita nostrum est, quodcumque nostrorum est, ceterum dividis corpus. [4] Tam hic, sicut in omnibus varie institutis et dubiis et incertis fieri solet, adhibenda fuit examinatio, quae magis ex duabus tam diversis consuetudinibus disciplinae dei conveniret, et utique ea deligenda, quae virginis includit, soli deo notas -- quibus, praeter quod a deo, non ab hominibus captanda gloria est, etiam ipsum bonum suum erubescendum est: virginem magis laudando quam vituperando confundas, quia delicti durior frons est, ab ipso et in ipso delicto impudentiam docta --; nam illam consuetudinem, quae virgines negat, dum ostendit, nemo probasset nisi aliqui talis quales virgines ipsae. [5] Tales enim oculi volent virginem visam, quales habet virgo, quae videri volet; invicem se eadem oculorum genera desiderant; eiusdem libidinis est videri et videre. Tam sancti viri est subfundi, si virginem viderit, quam sanctae virginis, si a viro visa sit.

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On the Veiling of Virgins

Chapter II.--Before Proceeding Farther, Let the Question of Custom Itself Be Sifted.

But I will not, meantime, attribute this usage to Truth. Be it, for a while, custom: that to custom I may likewise oppose custom.

Throughout Greece, and certain of its barbaric provinces, the majority of Churches keep their virgins covered. There are places, too, beneath this (African) sky, where this practice obtains; lest any ascribe the custom to Greek or barbarian Gentilehood. But I have proposed (as models) those Churches which were founded by apostles or apostolic men; and antecedently, I think, to certain (founders, who shall be nameless). Those Churches therefore, as well (as others), have the self-same authority of custom (to appeal to); in opposing phalanx they range "times" and "teachers," more than these later (Churches do). What shall we observe? What shall we choose? We cannot contemptuously reject a custom which we cannot condemn, inasmuch as it is not "strange," since it is not among "strangers" that we find it, but among those, to wit, with whom we share the law of peace and the name of brotherhood. They and we have one faith, one God, the same Christ, the same hope, the same baptismal sacraments; let me say it once for all, we are one Church. ¹ Thus, whatever belongs to our brethren is ours: only, the body divides us.

Still, here (as generally happens in all cases of various practice, of doubt, and of uncertainty), examination ought to have been made to see which of two so diverse customs were the more compatible with the discipline of God. And, of course, that ought to have been chosen which keeps virgins veiled, as being known to God alone; who (besides that glory must be sought from God, not from men ² ) ought to blush even at their own privilege. You put a virgin to the blush more by praising than by blaming her; because the front of sin is more hard, learning shamelessness from and in the sin itself. For that custom which belies virgins while it exhibits them, would never have been approved by any except by some men who must have been similar in character to the virgins themselves. Such eyes will wish that a virgin be seen as has the virgin who shall wish to be seen. The same kinds of eyes reciprocally crave after each other. Seeing and being seen belong to the self-same lust. To blush if he see a virgin is as much a mark of a chaste ³ man, as of a chaste ⁴ virgin if seen by a man.