§2Sed nolo interim hunc morem veritati deputare.
But meanwhile I do not wish to attribute this custom to truth.
Consuetudo sit tantisper, ut consuetudini etiam consuetudinem opponam.
Let it be a custom for the time being, so that I may oppose custom even to custom.
Per Graeciam et quasdam barbarias eius plures ecclesiae virgines suas abscondunt.
Throughout Greece and certain of its barbarian lands, many churches veil their virgins.
Est et sub hoc caelo institutum istud alicubi, ne qui gentilitati Graecanicae aut barbaricae consuetudinem illam adscribat.
There is also this institution somewhere under this sky, lest anyone should ascribe that custom to Greek paganism or barbarian custom.
Sed eas ego ecclesias proposui quas et ipsi apostoli vel apostolici viri condiderunt, et puto ante quosdam.
But I have proposed those churches which the apostles themselves or apostolic men founded, and I think before certain others.
Habent igitur et illas eandem consuetudinis auctoritatem, tempora et antecessores opponunt magis quam posterae istae.
Therefore, those also have the same authority of custom; they oppose times and predecessors rather than these later ones.
Quid observabimus, quid deligemus? Non possumus respuere consuetudinem, quam damnare non possumus, utpote non extraneam, quia non extraneorum, cum quibus scilicet communicamus ius pacis et nomen fraternitatis.
What shall we observe, what shall we choose? We cannot reject a custom which we cannot condemn, inasmuch as it is not foreign, because it is not of foreigners, with whom indeed we share the right of peace and the name of brotherhood.
Una nobis et illis fides, unus deus, idem Christus, eadem spes, eadem lavacri sacramenta, semel dixerim, una ecclesia sumus.
There is to us and to them one faith, one God, the same Christ, the same hope, the same sacraments of washing; to say it once for all, we are one church.
Ita nostrum est quodcunque nostrorum est.
Thus, whatever belongs to our people is ours.
Ceterum dividis corpus.
Otherwise, you divide the body.
Tamen 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.
Nevertheless here, as is wont to be done in all variously established and doubtful and uncertain matters, an examination had to be applied, as to which of the two so diverse customs would more agree with the discipline of God.
Et utique ea deligenda quae virgines includit, soli deo notas, quibus, praeter quod a deo non ab hominbus captanda gloria est, etiam ipsum bonum suum erubescendum est.
And by all means that one is to be chosen which shuts up the virgins, known to God alone, for whom, besides the fact that glory is to be sought from God and not from men, even their own good itself is a thing to blush at.
Virginem magis laudando quam vituperando confundas; quia delicti durior frons est, ab ipso et in ipso delicto impudentiam docta.
You would confound a virgin more by praising her than by blaming her; because the brow of sin is harder, having been taught impudence by and in the sin itself.
Nam illam consuetudinem, quae virgines negat dum ostendit, nemo probasset, nisi aliqui tales quales virgines ipsae.
For that custom, which denies virgins while it displays them, no one would have approved except some who are such as the virgins themselves.
Tales enim oculi volent virginem visam, quales habet virgo quae videri volet.
For such eyes will want a virgin who is seen, as the virgin has who wants to be seen.
Invicem se eadem oculorum genera desiderant.
In turn, the same kinds of eyes desire each other.
Eiusdem libidinis est videri et videre.
It belongs to the same lust to be seen and to see.
Tam sancti viri est subfundi, si virginem viderit, quam sanctae virginis, si a viro visa sit.
It is as much the part of a holy man to blush if he has seen a virgin, as it is of a holy virgin if she has been seen by a man.
§3Sed nec inter consuetudines dispicere voluerunt illi sanctissimi antecessores.
But neither did those most holy predecessors wish to distinguish between the customs.
Tamen tolerabilius apud nos ad usque proxime utrique consuetudini communicabatur.
Yet among us, until very recently, communion was shared with both customs more tolerably.
Arbitrio permissa res erat, ut quaeque voluisset aut tegi aut prostitui, sicut et nubere, quod et ipsum neque cogitur neque prohibetur.
The matter was left to free choice, so that each woman as she wished might either be covered or be exposed, just as also to marry, which itself is neither forced nor forbidden.
Contenta erat veritas pacisci cum consuetudine, ut tacite sub consuetudinis nomine frueretur se vel ex parte.
Truth was content to make a pact with custom, so that tacitly under the name of custom it might enjoy itself, even if only in part.
Sed quoniam coeperat agnitio proficere, ut per licentiam utriusque moris indicium melioris partis emergeret, statim ille adversarius bonorum multoque institutorum opus suum fecit.
But since acknowledgment had begun to progress, so that through the freedom of both customs the indication of the better part might emerge, immediately that adversary of good things and of many institutions did his work.
Ambiunt virgines hominum adversus virgines dei nuda plane fronte temerariam in audaciam excitatae, et virgines videntur quae aliquid a viris petere possunt, nedum tale factum, ut scilicet aemulae earum, tanto magis liberae quanto Christi solius ancillae, dedantur illis.
The virgins of men go about against the virgins of God, excited to reckless audacity with a completely bare forehead, and they seem to be virgins who can ask something from men, let alone such a deed, namely that their rivals, who are so much freer as they are handmaids of Christ alone, should be surrendered to them.
Scandalizamur, inquiunt, quia aliter aliae incedunt, et malunt scandalizari quam provocari, Scandalum, nisi fallor, non bonae rei, sed malae exemplum est, aedificans ad delictum.
"We are scandalized," they say, "because some walk differently from others," and they prefer to be scandalized than to be provoked. Scandal, unless I am mistaken, is an example not of a good thing, but of a bad one, edifying to sin.
Bonae res neminem scandalizant, nisi malam mentem.
Good things scandalize no one, except a bad mind.
Si bonum est modestia, verecundia, fastidium gloriae, soli deo captans placere, agnoscant malum suum quae de tali bono scandalizantur Quid enim, si et incontinentes dicant se a continentibus scandalizari, continentia revocanda est? Et ne multinubi scandalizentur, monogamia recusanda est? Cur non magis hae quaerantur scandalo sibi esse petulantiam, impudentiam ostentaticiae virginitatis? Propter eiusmodi igitur capita nundinaticia trahantur virgines sanctae in ecclesiam, erubescentes quod cognoscantur in medio, paventes quod detegantur accersitae quasi ad stuprum.
If modesty, bashfulness, the disdain of glory, striving to please God alone is a good thing, let those who are scandalized by such a good acknowledge their own evil. For what if the incontinent also should say they are scandalized by the continent, is continence to be recalled? And lest the multi-married be scandalized, is monogamy to be rejected? Why do they not rather complain that the petulance and impudence of ostentatious virginity are a scandal to themselves? On account of such market-like heads, then, are holy virgins to be dragged into the church, blushing because they are recognized in public, trembling because they are uncovered as if summoned to defilement?
Non minus enim et hoc pati nolunt.
For they are no less unwilling to suffer this.
Omnis publicatio virginis bonae stupri passio est, et tamen vim carnis pati minus est, quia de officio naturae venit.
Every exposure of a good virgin is the suffering of defilement; and yet, to suffer violence of the flesh is less, because it comes from the course of nature.
Sed cum spiritus ipse violatur in virgine sublato velamine, didicit amittere quod tuebatur.
But when the spirit itself is violated in a virgin by the removal of the veil, she learns to lose what she was protecting.
O sacrilegae manus, quae dicatum deo habitum detrahere potuerunt! Quid peius aliquis persecutor fecisset, si hoc a virgine electum cognovisset? Denudasti puellam a capite, et tota iam virgo sibi non est, alia est facta.
O sacrilegious hands, which were able to drag off the dress dedicated to God! What worse would any persecutor have done, if he had known this was chosen by a virgin? You have stripped the girl from her head, and now the entire virgin is not herself to herself, she has been made another.
Exsurge igitur veritas, exsurge et quasi de patientia erumpe! Nullam volo consuetudinem defendas; nam iam et illa, sub qua te fruebaris, expugnatur.
Arise, therefore, O truth, arise and break forth as if from patience! I wish you to defend no custom; for now even that one, under which you used to enjoy yourself, is being stormed.
Te esse demonstra quae virgines tegit.
Demonstrate that it is you who cover the virgins.
Ipsa scripturas tuas interpretare, quas consuetudo non novit.
Interpret your own scriptures yourself, which custom does not know.
Si enim nosset, nunquam esset.
For if it had known them, it would never have been.