Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] So far is it from bringing an offering of idolatry to his own head — or rather, I should now say, to Christ's, since Christ is the head of the man — that his head is as free as Christ is, not even subject to a veil, let alone a binding. And further, that which is subject to a veil, the woman's head, is by that very fact already occupied and has no room left for a binding besides. It carries the burden of its own humility. [2] If a woman ought not to be seen bare-headed, because of the angels, far less crowned. Perhaps then it is the crown, not the bareness, that would scandalize them. For what is a crown on a woman's head but a pimp for her looks, a badge of the height of wantonness, the final abolition of modesty, a distillation of allurement? That is exactly why, on the apostle's own reckoning, a woman is not to be got up too elaborately either — not even crowned with an artful arrangement of her hair. [3] And yet he who is both the head of man and the face of woman — Christ Jesus, the bridegroom set over the church — what sort of garland, I ask you, did he put on, for the sake of both sexes? Thorns, I think, and briars: a picture of the sins that our earthly flesh yielded up, sins which the cross's own might then stripped away, dulling death's every sting in the Lord's head as he endured it — a picture only, mind you; the outrage itself stands plain before the eyes, along with the disgrace, the shame, and the cruelty woven through it. [4] And are you now going to crown yourself with laurel and myrtle and olive and whatever showier greenery, and — more to your taste — with roses by the hundredweight picked from the garden of Midas, and lilies of both kinds, and every violet there is, gems too perhaps, and gold — those very things that once defiled and tore apart the Lord's temples — as if to rival that other crown of Christ's, the one that came to him afterward? And yet he tasted the honeycomb only after the gall, and was not hailed king of glory by the powers of heaven until, on the cross, the placard first named him 'king of the Jews' — he having been made, before that, a little lower than the angels by the Father — and only afterward crowned with glory and honor. If it is on this account that you owe him your head, then pay him back, if you can, in kind — the kind he offered for you; or else do not crown yourself with flowers if you cannot bear thorns for him, since by flowers you cannot repay him at all.