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This time from Tertullian, in his treatise on the veiling of virgins.
Christian women, he says, ought to "go about in humble garb, and rather to affect meanness of appearance, walking about as Eve mourning and repentant, in order that by every garb of penitence she might the more fully expiate that which she derives from Eve - the ignominy, I mean, of the first sin and the odium (attaching to her as the cause) of human perdition."
For Tertullian, "even natural grace must be obliterated by concealment and negligence, as equally dangerous to the glances of (the beholder's) eyes."
He put forward an example for Christian women: "Arabia's heathen females will be your judges, who cover not only the head, but the face also, so entirely, that they are content, with one eye free, to enjoy rather half the light than to prostitute the entire face."
Like Reuben, he believed he had this on heavenly authority: "To us the Lord has, even by revelations, measured the space for the veil to extend over. For a certain sister of ours was thus addressed by an angel, beating her neck, as if in applause: 'Elegant neck, and deservedly bare! It is well for you to unveil yourself from the head right down to the loins, lest withal this freedom of your neck profit you not!'"
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, September 08, 2007 at 07:00 PM
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