On the Crown

​And how long shall we saw back and forth along this line, having an ancient observation which, by anticipating, has established its position? If no Scripture has determined this, custom has certainly strengthened it, which without doubt flowed from tradition. For how can anything be used, if it has not been handed down first? “Even in the plea of tradition, written authority is to be demanded,” you say. Therefore let us inquire whether even tradition ought not to be received unless it is written. Clearly we shall deny that it should be received, if no precedents of other observations prejudge the case, which we maintain without the instrument of any Scripture, by the title of tradition alone, and thence by the patronage of custom. Finally, to begin with baptism, when we are about to enter the water, on that very spot, but also somewhat earlier in the church under the hand of the bishop, we solemnly declare that we renounce the devil and his pomp and his angels. Thereafter we are immersed three times, answering somewhat more than the Lord has defined in the gospel. Having been received therefrom, we taste beforehand the concord of milk and honey, and from that day we abstain from the daily bath for a whole week. The sacrament of the Eucharist, commanded by the Lord both at the time of food and to all, we receive even in assemblies before dawn, and from the hand of none other than those who preside. We make offerings for the deceased, and for the birthdays on an annual day. On the Lord’s day we deem it a transgression to fast or to worship on our knees. We enjoy the same immunity from the day of Easter even unto Pentecost. We suffer with anxiety any part of our cup or even of our bread to be cast to the ground. At every forward step and movement, at every entry and exit, at clothing and putting on shoes, at baths, at tables, at lights, at beds, at seats, whatever conversation occupies us, we wear away our forehead with the sign.

​If you demand a law of the Scriptures for these and other such disciplines, you will read none. Tradition will be held out to you as the author, custom as the strengthener, and faith as the observer. You will either perceive yourself, or learn from someone who has perceived, the reason which will patronize tradition, custom, and faith. Meanwhile, you will believe that there is some reason to which obedience is due. I add one more example, in so far as it is also fitting to teach from ancient things. Among the Jews it is a solemn custom for their women to have a veil on their head, so that they may be recognized by it. I look for the law. I set aside the apostle for the moment. If Rebecca, when her bridegroom was seen from afar, snatched her veil, private modesty could not have made a law, or she did it for her own particular case. Let virgins alone be covered, and that when coming to be married, and not before they have known their bridegrooms. If Susanna also, being unveiled in her trial, furnishes an argument for veiling, I can say: here too the veil was a matter of choice. She had come as an accused person, blushing at her infamy, deservedly hiding her beauty, or because she was afraid of pleasing now. Otherwise, in her husband’s walking-place, I should not think that she who pleased him walked about veiled. Let her then have been veiled always. In her case also I require a law of dress, or in any other case whatever. If I find no law anywhere, it follows that tradition has given this practice to custom, which was to have in time the apostle’s authority from the interpretation of reason. By these examples, therefore, it will have been declared that even an unwritten tradition can be defended in its observation, being strengthened by custom, a suitable witness of the then approved tradition from the perseverance of the observation. Moreover, custom is accepted as law even in civil affairs when law is wanting, nor does it matter whether it consists in writing or in reason, since reason commends even law. Furthermore, if law consists in reason, everything that shall consist in reason will already be law, by whomsoever produced. Or do you not think that it is permitted to every believer to conceive and to establish, provided only that it is agreeable to God, conducive to discipline, and profitable to salvation, since the Lord says, “But why do you not also of yourselves judge what is right?” And not of judgment only, but of every opinion on matters to be examined, the apostle also says, “If you are ignorant of anything, God will reveal it to you,” being accustomed himself also to afford counsel when he had no commandment of the Lord, and to speak of himself, having the Spirit of God as the guider of all truth. Therefore his counsel obtained the likeness of a divine commandment from the patronage of divine reason. Demand this now, with respect for tradition preserved, by whatever hander-down it is reckoned; and do not look at the author, but at the authority, and especially of the custom itself, which for this reason is to be cherished, lest it should not be the interpreter of reason, so that, if God should grant this too, you may then learn, not whether custom is to be observed by you, but why.