Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
In this place, out of the fear which faith presses upon us and the love which brotherhood demands, I think it necessary to warn not virgins alone, or widows, but also married women, indeed every woman whatsoever, that the work of God and his making and his shaping must in no way be adulterated by the application of yellow dye or black powder or rouge, or by any cosmetic at all that corrupts the native lines. As it stands written, the Creator declared: let humankind be fashioned after our likeness, in our image — yet who dares to alter and overturn what God has made! They lay hands on God when they strive to reshape and transform what he has formed, not knowing that whatever is born is the work of God, and whatever is changed is the devil's work. If some skilled painter had rendered a man's face and features and bodily proportions in matching colors, and then, once the likeness was finished and complete, another came and laid hands on it, and, as though more skillful, reworked what was already shaped and already painted, it would seem a grave injury to the first artist and a just cause for indignation; and do you suppose you will bear unpunished so shameless and reckless an audacity, an offense against God the artist? So that you may not be shameless and unchaste toward men through the enticements of paint, corrupting and violating what belongs to God, you are held fast as an adulteress worse than any other. What you think adornment, what you think elegance, is an assault upon the divine work, a betrayal of the truth.
It is the voice of the apostle warning us: purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened; for indeed Christ our passover has been sacrificed. So let us celebrate the feast free of the old leaven — free too of the ferment born from malice and wickedness — relying instead on the unleavened loaf that is sincerity and truth. Does sincerity and truth endure when what is sincere is defiled by the adulteries of color, when by the deceits of cosmetics true things are turned into a lie? Your Lord says: you cannot make one hair white or black — and do you wish to be more powerful than your Lord's own voice, and by a bold and sacrilegious contempt dye your hair, foreboding for yourself, by an evil omen, hair already flame-colored for the future, and sin against that which is, so to speak, the better part of the body, the head! And although Scripture tells us that the Lord's head and hair were white as wool or snow, you curse gray hair, you detest whiteness — the very likeness of the Lord's own head!
Do you not dread, I wonder, given what you have become, that on the day the resurrection dawns, the one who fashioned you may fail to recognize you, and, as you come for your rewards and promises, turn you away and shut you out, and rebuking you with the force of a censor and a judge, say: this body is not mine, nor is this the image that is ours. A counterfeit dye has fouled your skin, an adulterous tint has transformed your hair, a lie has overthrown your face, your shape stands corrupted, your countenance is no longer your own. You will not be able to see God, since the eyes you have are not those God made but those the devil has infected. Him you followed; the serpent's reddened, painted eyes you copied, decked out by your own enemy, bound to burn alongside him. Are these things, I ask, not to be considered by the handmaids of God, not to be feared always, by day and by night? Let married women see for themselves what they flatter themselves in, for the sake of pleasing, from the comfort of a husband — while they offer this in their own defense, they draw others into partnership in the same guilty consent. As for virgins — and it is not to them that this discourse speaks — those who deck themselves out with such contrivances should not, in my judgment, be counted among virgins at all; rather, like a diseased sheep or a rotten head of cattle, they ought to be shut out from virginity's flock, pure and undefiled, lest their contagion spread while they dwell among the rest, lest corruption already at work destroy others too.
And since we seek the good of continence, let us avoid all things ruinous and hostile to it. Nor do I pass over those things which, through negligence coming into use, have taken for themselves a license against chaste and sober conduct. Some women are not ashamed to be present at weddings and, amid that freedom of wanton talk, to mingle in indecent conversation, to hear what is unfitting, to say what is unlawful, to be present and to look on amid shameful words and drunken feasts, by which the tinder of lust is kindled, the bride is emboldened to endure the loss of her chastity, the groom to boldness. What place is there in a wedding for one whose mind is not set on marriage, or how can things be pleasurable and joyful there, where aims and wishes differ? What is learned there, what is seen? How far the virgin falls short of her own purpose! How much less chaste she departs who came chaste! Though in body and mind she remains a virgin, in eyes, ears, and tongue she diminishes what she had.
But what of those who go to public baths together and prostitute bodies dedicated to modesty and chastity to eyes curious for lust? Those who, naked, both see men shamefully and are seen by men — do they not themselves supply an enticement to vice? Do they not, to their own corruption and injury, provoke and invite the desires of those present? You say, let each see with what mind he comes there; my only concern is refreshing and washing my poor body. That defense does not cleanse you, nor does it excuse the charge of wantonness and impudence. That washing soils, it does not cleanse; it does not purify the limbs but stains them. Shameless one, you look upon no one, but you yourself are shamelessly looked upon; you do not defile your own eyes with a base delight, but while you delight others, you yourself are defiled. You make a spectacle of the bathhouse; more shameful than the theater is the place where you gather. All modesty is stripped off there; together with the covering of clothing the honor and shame of the body is laid aside, and virginity, to be marked and handled, is laid bare. Consider now whether she who is modest when clothed is modest among men, once she has advanced to such boldness of nakedness.
Thus the church often mourns her virgins, thus she groans over their shameful and detestable stories: thus the flower of virgins is quenched, the honor and modesty of continence is cut down, all glory and dignity is profaned. Thus the enemy who overthrows insinuates himself by his arts; thus by hidden and deceiving snares the devil creeps in; while virgins crave finer adornment and looser wandering, virginity itself slips away from them, undone by a hidden shame — they become widows before ever being brides, adulteresses not of a husband but of Christ — as great as were the rewards for which they were destined as virgins, so great will be the punishments they will feel for lost virginity.
Hear, then, virgins, as you would a parent: hear, I beg you, one who fears for you and warns you alike: hear one who faithfully considers your advantages and interests. Remain as your maker, God, shaped you to be; stay as the Father's own hand formed you: let an unspoiled countenance, a pure neck, a sincere form remain in you. Let no wounds be inflicted on your ears, let no precious chain enclose your arms or neck with bracelets and necklaces; let your feet be free of golden fetters, your hair dyed with no color, your eyes worthy to look upon God. Let baths be attended together with women whose bathing in your presence is chaste. Let the shameless festivities of weddings and wanton feasts be shunned, whose contagion is dangerous. Conquer clothing, you who are a virgin; conquer gold, you who conquer flesh and the world. It is not the same thing to be unable to be conquered by greater things and to be found unequal to lesser ones. Narrow and strait is the way that leads to life, hard and steep the path that stretches toward glory. Along this narrow path the martyrs press on, the virgins go, and all the righteous walk. Shun the broad and spacious roads: there deadly enticements and death-bringing pleasures lie in wait; there the devil flatters in order to deceive, smiles in order to harm, entices in order to kill. The hundredfold fruit belongs to the martyrs first; the sixtyfold is yours. Just as martyrs give no thought to flesh or world, feeling no trivial, soft, or tender contest, so too in you — recipients of a second grace's reward — the strength suited to steadfastness should remain near at hand. Climbing toward greatness is never effortless: consider the sweat and toil spent merely scaling hills and mountain peaks. What then to climb to heaven? If you consider the reward of the promise, the labor is the lesser thing. Immortality is given to the one who perseveres, everlasting life is promised, the kingdom the Lord pledges.
Keep, virgins, keep what you have begun to be. Keep what you will be. You have earned something great: a rich prize for your virtue, chastity's highest reward. As for the power of self-restraint � shall I tell you the harm it escapes and the blessing it secures? I will multiply, God says to the woman, your sorrows and your groanings, and in sorrow you shall bring forth children, and your turning shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you. You are free from this sentence; you fear not the sorrows and groanings of women; no fear of childbirth concerns you: nor is a husband your lord — your Lord and head is Christ, in the place and likeness of the man; your lot and condition is a common one with the angels. This is the Lord's own teaching: those who belong to this age take husbands and wives and are given in marriage; but whoever is judged worthy of that coming age, worthy of rising from the dead, will neither take a spouse nor be given to one — death itself no longer having any claim on them. Such people match the angels of God, for they belong to the resurrection. That future state toward which we look, you have already stepped into. Even now, in this present age, you hold the glory that resurrection brings; you move through this age untouched by its taint: staying chaste, staying virgins, you stand level with God's angels. See only that your virginity stays intact and undamaged, and — having begun courageously — carries that same courage through to the end, seeking not the ornaments of jewelry or clothing but of character. Let it look to God and heaven, and not let eyes lifted high be brought down to the lust of flesh and world, cast down to earthly things.
The first pronouncement commanded to increase and multiply; the second urged continence as well. While the world was still young and empty, we were multiplied and increased by fruitfulness, propagating for the growth of the human race; but now that the earth is filled and the world entices, those who can receive continence are made eunuchs, living as such, for the kingdom's sake. The Lord does not command this, but urges it, nor does he force it upon anyone like some unavoidable burden, for free will's choice still stands untouched. But since he says that there are many dwellings in his Father's house, he points to the lodging of a better habitation. In seeking these superior dwellings and cutting away fleshly desire, you gain in heaven a grace far greater as your reward. Everyone who arrives at this divine, fatherly gift through baptism's sanctifying power sheds the former self there, thanks to the saving bath's grace, and — made new by the Holy Spirit — is washed clean of old corruption's stain through a second birth. Yet a deeper holiness, a fuller truth in that second birth, is yours alone, since for you the cravings of flesh and body now count for nothing. In you, only the things of virtue and of spirit remain, unto glory. These are the words of the apostle — the one the Lord named his chosen instrument, dispatched by God to carry his heavenly instructions. The first man, so he tells us, came from earth's dust; the second came from heaven. Those made of dust resemble the dusty man; those who are heavenly resemble the heavenly one. Just as we once carried the likeness of the dust-born man, so let us now carry the likeness of the one who comes from heaven. This image virginity bears, integrity bears it, holiness and truth bear it; those bear it who are mindful of God's discipline, who hold fast to righteousness with reverence, steadfast in faith, humble in fear, strong for every endurance, gentle in bearing injury, ready for showing mercy, of one mind and heart in brotherly peace.
Every one of these duties, virtuous virgins, calls for your attention, your devotion, your fulfillment — you who, given over to God and Christ, lead the way to the Lord to whom you are consecrated, holding the greater and finer share. You who are advanced in years, be teachers to the younger; you who are younger in age, offer to your equals an incitement. Rouse one another with mutual encouragements, provoke one another to glory by rival examples of virtue. Hold fast bravely, advance in spirit, arrive in happiness. Only remember us then, when virginity begins to be honored in you.