Edition
Masquer
De Cultu Feminarum
IV.
[1] Nulla nunc muliebri pompae nota inusta sit praedamnationis de exitu auctorum; nihil angelis illis imputetur praeter repudium caeli et matrimonium carnis: rerum ipsarum qualitates examinemus, ut consilia quoque concupiscentiae earum deprehendamus.
Habitus feminae duplicem speciem circumfert, cultum et ornatum. [2] Cultum dicimus quem mundum muliebrem uocant, ornatum quem immundum muliebrem conuenit dici. Ille in auro et argento et gemmis et uestibus deputatur, iste in cura capilli et cutis et earum partium corporis quae oculos trahunt. Alteri ambitionis crimen intendimus, alteri prostitutionis, ut iam hinc prospicias, Dei ancilla, quid ex his disciplinae tuae conueniat, quae de diuersis institutis censearis, scilicet humilitatis et castitatis.
Traduction
Masquer
On the Apparel of Women
Chapter IV.--Waiving the Question of the Authors, Tertullian Proposes to Consider the Things on Their Own Merits.
Grant now that no mark of pre-condemnation has been branded on womanly pomp by the (fact of the) fate 1 of its authors; let nothing be imputed to those angels besides their repudiation of heaven and (their) carnal marriage: 2 let us examine the qualities of the things themselves, in order that we may detect the purposes also for which they are eagerly desired.
Female habit carries with it a twofold idea--dress and ornament. By "dress" we mean what they call "womanly gracing;" 3 by "ornament," what it is suitable should be called "womanly disgracing." 4 The former is accounted (to consist) in gold, and silver, and gems, and garments; the latter in care of the hair, and of the skin, and of those parts of the body which attract the eye. Against the one we lay the charge of ambition, against the other of prostitution; so that even from this early stage 5 (of our discussion) you may look forward and see what, out of (all) these, is suitable, handmaid of God, to your discipline, inasmuch as you are assessed on different principles (from other women),--those, namely, of humility and chastity.