§2#3Video quasdam capillum croco vertere.
I see certain women changing the color of their hair with saffron.
Pudet eas etiam nationis suae, quod non Germaniae atque Galliae sint procreatae, ita iam capillos transferunt.
They are even ashamed of their own nation, because they were not born in Germany and Gaul, and so they now transfer their hair.
Male ac pessime sibi auspicantur flammeo capite, et decorum putant quod inquinant.
They portend evil and the worst for themselves with a flaming head, and they think that beautiful which they defile.
Atquin et detrimentum crinibus medicaminum vis inurit, et cerebro perniciem etiam cuiuslibet sinceri humoris assiduitas reservat, tum solis animando simul et siccando capillo exoptabilis ardor nocet.
And yet, the force of cosmetics burns damage into the hair, and the constant application of even any pure liquid reserves ruin for the brain, while the desirable heat of the sun, in both enlivening and drying the hair, does harm.
Quis decor cum iniuria? quae cum inmunditiis pulchritudo? Crocum capiti suo mulier Christiana ingeret ut in aram? Quodcunque enim immundo spiritui excremari solet, id nisi probis et necessariis et salutaribus usibus adhibetur, ad quod dei creatura prospecta est, sacrificium videri potest.
What beauty is there with injury? what comeliness with uncleanness? Shall a Christian woman heap saffron upon her head as if upon an altar? For whatever is accustomed to be burned to an unclean spirit, unless it is applied to honest, necessary, and salutary uses, for which God's creature was designed, can be seen as a sacrifice.
Sed enim deus ait, Quis vestrum potest capillum album atrum facere, aut album ex atro? Itaque revincunt dominum.
But indeed God says: "Which of you can make a white hair black, or a white one out of black?" And so they refute the Lord.
Ecce, inquiunt, pro albo vel atro flavum facimus, gratia faciliorem. Quamvis et atrum ex albo conantur, quas paeniteat ad senectam usque vixisse.
"Behold," they say, "instead of white or black we make it yellow, which is more easy in grace." Although they also attempt black out of white, those women who regret having lived even to old age.
Pro temeritas! Erubescit aetas exoptata votis, furtum conficitur, adulescentia, in qua deliquimus, suspiratur, occasio gravitatis interpolatur.
What temerity! The age desired in prayers is blushed at, a theft is committed, youth in which we sinned is sighed for, and the occasion of gravity is corrupted.
Absit a sapientiae filiabus stultitia tanta.
Far be such foolishness from the daughters of wisdom.
Senectus cum plus occultari studuerit, plus detegetur.
Old age, the more it studies to be hidden, the more it will be detected.
Haec est aeternitas vera de capilli iuventute.
This is the true eternity concerning the youth of hair.
Hanc incorruptibilitatem habemus superinduere ad novam domum domini, quam monarchia pollicetur.
We have to superindue this incorruptibility for the new house of the Lord, which the monarchy promises.
Bene properatis ad dominum, bene festinatis excedere de isto iniquissimo saeculo, quibus ad finem propinquare deforme est.
Well do you hasten to the Lord, well do you make speed to depart from this most wicked world, you to whom it is ugly to approach the end.
Quid item tanta ordinandi crinis operositas ad salutem subministrat? Quid crinibus vestris quiescere non licet, modo substrictis, modo relaxatis, modo suscitatis, modo elisis? Aliae gestiunt in cincinnos coercere, aliae ut vagi et volucres elabantur, non bona simplicitate.
Likewise, what does such great laboriousness in arranging the hair minister to salvation? Why is it not permitted for your hair to rest, now bound up, now let down, now raised up, now pressed flat? Some eager to force them into curls, others that they should escape like wandering and flying things, not with a good simplicity.
Affigitis praeterea nescio quas enormitates subtilium atque textilium capillamentorum, nunc in galeri modum quasi vaginam capitis et operculum verticis, nunc in cervicem retro suggestum.
Moreover, you attach I know not what monstrosities of fine and woven false hair, now in the manner of a cap, as it were a sheath of the head and cover of the crown, now as a platform back upon the neck.
Mirum, quod non contra dominica praescripta contenditur.
It is a wonder that there is no struggle against the Lord's precepts.
Ad mensuram neminem sibi adicere posse pronumtiatum est.
It was pronounced that no one can add to his stature.
Vos vero adicitis ad pondus colluras quasdam vel scuti umbilicos cervicibus adstruendos.
Yet you add to your weight some kinds of rolls or the bosses of shields to be built up upon your necks.
Si non pudet enormitatis, pudeat inquinamenti, ne exuvias alieni capitis forsan immundi, forsan nocentis et gehennae destinati, sancto et Christiano capiti supparetis.
If you are not ashamed of the monstrosity, be ashamed of the defilement, lest you subject to a holy and Christian head the spoils of another's head, perhaps unclean, perhaps guilty and destined for Gehenna.
Immo omnem hanc ornatus servitutem a libero capite depellite.
Rather, drive away all this servitude of adornment from a free head.
Frustra laboratis ornatae videri, frustra peritissimos quosque structores capillaturae adhibetis.
In vain do you labor to seem adorned, in vain do you employ the most skilled builders of hair-styling.
Deus vos velari iubet.
God commands you to be veiled.
Credo, ne quarundam capita videantur.
I believe, lest the heads of some women should be seen.
Atque utinam miserrimus ego in illa die Christianae exultationis vel infra calcanea vestra caput elevem! videbo, an cum cerussa et purpurisso et croco et in ille ambitu capitis resurgatis; an taliter expictas angeli in nubila sublevent obviam Christo in aere.
And would that I, most miserable, might raise my head in that day of Christian exultation even below your heels! I shall see whether you rise again with white lead, and rouge, and saffron, and in that surrounding of the head; whether the angels will lift up women so painted into the clouds to meet Christ in the air.
Si nunc bona et dei sunt, tunc quoque occurrent resurgentibus corporibus et sua loca agnoscent.
If they are now good and of God, they will also occur to the rising bodies and recognize their own places.
Sed non potest resurgere, nisi caro et spiritus solus ac purus.
But nothing can rise again except the flesh and spirit alone and pure.
Damnatum est igitur quod in spiritu et carne non resurgit, quia dei non est.
Therefore, that which does not rise again in spirit and flesh is condemned, because it is not of God.
Damnatis hodie abstinete.
Abstain today from condemned things.
Hodie vos tales deus videat, quales tunc videbit.
Today let God see you such as He will see you then.
Videlicet nunc vir ut sexu aemulus feminas a suis depello.
Clearly, now as a man, as if rivaling in sex, I am driving women away from their adornments.
An et nobis quaedam respectu obeundae gravitatis propter metum debitum deo detrahuntur? Siquidem et viris propter feminas, ut feminis propter viros, vitio naturae ingenita est placendi voluntas, propriasque praestigias formae et hic sexus sibi agnoscit, barbam acrius caedere, intervellere, circumradere, capillum disponere, et decolorare canitiem, primam quamque subducere totius corporis lanuginem, pigmento quoque muliebri distringere, cetera pulveris cuiusdam aspritudine laevigare, tum speculum omni occasione consulere, anxie inspicere, cum tamen cognito deo adempta placendi voluntate per luxuriae occasionem omnia illa ut otiosa, ut hostilia pudicitiae recusantur.
Or are certain things also taken away from us, in respect of observing gravity because of the fear due to God? Since indeed in men for the sake of women, as in women for the sake of men, by a vice of nature, the desire to please is implanted, and this sex also recognizes its own deceits of beauty: to cut the beard too sharply, to pluck it out, to shave around it, to arrange the hair, to discolor gray hair, to remove every first downy hair of the whole body, to smear oneself even with womanly pigment, to smooth other parts with the roughness of a certain powder, then to consult the mirror on every occasion, to inspect it anxiously; when yet, once God is known, the desire to please through the occasion of luxury having been taken away, all those things are rejected as idle, as hostile to modesty.
Nam ubi deus, ibi pudicitia, ibi gravitas adiutrix et socia eius.
For where God is, there is modesty, there is gravity, its helper and companion.
Quo ergo pacto pudicitiam sine instrumento suo, id est sine gravitate tractabimus? Quomodo autem gravitatem administrandae pudicitiae adhibebimus, nisi et in facie et in cultu et in totius hominis contemplatione severitas circumferatur?
Quamobrem erga vestitum quoque et reliqua compositionis vestrae impedimenta perinde vobis curanda est amputatio et decussio redundantioris nitoris.
By what means, therefore, shall we treat modesty without its instrument, that is, without gravity? And how shall we apply gravity to the administration of modesty, unless severity is carried about both in the face, and in the dress, and in the contemplation of the whole man? Wherefore, concerning clothing also, and the rest of the hindrances of your adornment, in like manner must you take care of the cutting off and shaking off of superfluous luster.
Nam quid prodest faciem quidem frugi et expeditam et simplicitatem condignam divinae disciplinae exhibere, cetera vero corporis laciniosis pomparum et delitiarum ineptiis occupare? Hae pompae quam de proximo curent luxuriae negotium et obstrepant pudicitiae disciplinis dinoscere in facile est, quod gratiam decoris cultus societate prostituant: adeo, si desinant, inritam et ingratam reddunt, velut exarmatam et naufragam.
For what does it profit to exhibit a face indeed frugal and unencumbered, and a simplicity worthy of divine discipline, but to occupy the rest of the body with the fringed absurdities of pomps and delicacies? How closely these pomps care for the business of luxury and obstruct the disciplines of modesty is easy to discern, because they prostitute the grace of beauty by the association of adornment: to such an extent that, if they cease, they render it void and thankless, as if disarmed and shipwrecked.
Contra si forma deficit, adminiculum nitoris quasi de suo gratiam supplet.
On the contrary, if beauty is lacking, the aid of luster supplies grace, as if from its own.