Dress and adornment in the early church

Clothing, cosmetics, jewellery, hair, and modesty. Part of Ethics.

Fragment 1 (Hypotyposes 4; on 1 Cor 11:10)Clement of Alexandria · late 2nd-early 3rd century
The Instructor 2.8.61Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Garlands and perfumes are unnecessary; the sinful woman who anointed Jesus's feet honored him with what she had, and her perfume symbolizes his teaching spreading to the ends of the earth.
The Instructor 2.8.69Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Moderate use of ointment for health is allowed, as Sirach commends the physician and perfumer; but lavish perfume is effeminate, and even makes hair gray sooner.
The Instructor 2.8.70Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Garlands belong to revels; flowers are best enjoyed in the meadow and by sight, glorifying the Creator, not worn on the head where they chill it and give no pleasure.
The Instructor 2.8.73Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Garlands are for the dead and for idols; the Christian awaits the unfading crown of heaven; the Lord's crown of thorns is a type of the church, of faith, and of the cost of discipleship.
The Instructor 2.10.104Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · If the Lord removes anxiety even about food and clothing, he condemns cosmetics and finery all the more; the “grass” thrown into the oven is the crowd that loves display.
The Instructor 2.10.105Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The rich man in purple and Lazarus illustrate the fate of the lovers of finery; Sparta allowed ornaments only to courtesans, while effeminate Athenians wore gold.
The Instructor 2.10.107Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Since clothing serves a need common to men and women, it should be similar for both; women may have softer fabrics, but not silks and transparent fabrics that reveal the body.
The Instructor 2.10.108Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Dyed clothing is useless and suggestive; white suits those pure within, as Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days and the martyrs' white robes in Revelation show.
The Instructor 2.10.109Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Embroidered and dyed clothing is for display; Scripture forbids boasting in clothing; the faithful are clothed with incorruption; a wife who loves finery falls away from God and her husband, like Eriphyle.
The Instructor 2.10.111Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women's clothing may be soft but not ornate; it is shameful to spend wealth on covering the body, which Adam covered with leaves; wool is only sheep's hair.
The Instructor 2.10.114Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women should not bare any part of the body; Scripture commands the head to be veiled; purple clothing draws the eyes of men and inflames vanity.
The Instructor 2.12.118Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Precious stones and pearls fascinate the foolish like fire fascinates children; the true pearl is Christ, the pure Word, through whom the flesh, reborn in water, becomes precious.
The Instructor 2.12.121Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Costly things are for no one's pride; ornaments should be thrown away, since true beauty is inner virtue: justice, self-control, courage, and godliness.
The Instructor 2.12.122Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Love of finery teaches deceit; women loaded with gold chains are like rich prisoners in fetters.
The Instructor 2.12.123Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Gold ornaments are chains and even the bonds of Aphrodite's adultery; serpent-shaped jewelry recalls the serpent that deceived Eve.
The Instructor 2.12.125Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women waste their wealth on burdensome ornaments; the Lord called the hoarding rich man a fool; Apelles mocked a pupil who painted Helen rich instead of beautiful.
The Instructor 2.12.126Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Hebrews melted their women's ornaments into the golden calf; the prophets condemn ornaments as the trappings of idolatry and unfaithfulness.
The Instructor 2.12.128Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Natural beauty needs no ornament and ugliness is only exposed by it; Christian women should embrace simplicity, which is sufficiency, born of justice.
The Instructor 2.12.129Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The Christian woman's jewelry should be generosity, good works, modesty, self-control, and wisdom; the ears should not be pierced for earrings but opened to true teaching.
The Instructor 3.2.4Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Adorned women who neglect the soul are like Egyptian temples: magnificent outside, but with only a cat or crocodile in the inner shrine.
The Instructor 3.2.5Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Made-up women are like Egyptian temples: behind the curtain of cosmetics is no image of God but a harlot and the serpent; love of finery turns wives into courtesans.
The Instructor 3.2.6Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women who spend the day on cosmetics destroy their natural beauty and health and dishonor the Creator, as even the comic poet Menander said.
The Instructor 3.2.8Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Cosmetics made of vile substances deserve contempt; even the comic poet Alexis ridicules women's tricks to disguise their bodies.
The Instructor 3.2.10Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Love of finery is insatiable and blind like Wealth itself; women who adorn themselves to be seen betray adultery, and Jeremiah calls their beautifying vain.
The Instructor 3.2.13Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Paris's finery and effeminate luxury seduced Helen and brought the Trojan War: without an Instructor to check desire, adornment ruined two continents.
The Instructor 3.3.15Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Men too have caught the disease of luxury, dressing effeminately and removing their body hair in public shops, betraying adultery and perversion.
The Instructor 3.3.17Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Only God can make hair white or black; dyeing gray hair counterfeits his work; Christians are to put off the old man, not their gray hair, and men should not groom themselves like women.
The Instructor 3.3.19Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The beard is a sign of manhood older than Eve, who was taken from Adam's side; to remove it is to transgress nature; smoothing marks the effeminate and the adulteress.
The Instructor 3.3.23Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · The old Roman laws punished effeminacy; the beard is natural beauty, anointed like Aaron's; effeminate men betray their character by their dress, walk, and look, as Sirach says.
The Instructor 3.11.53Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Soft clothing and gold need not be wholly forbidden, but the Instructor, as charioteer, must rein in the passions; Christians should wear plain white clothing, witnessing by good conduct among the Gentiles.
The Instructor 3.11.55Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · White and simple dress reflects a pure character; plain undressed wool keeps warm in winter and suits an easy, sufficient life.
The Instructor 3.11.56Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Women may wear softer but plain clothing; Christians should put on Christ; ears should not be pierced; whoever thinks gold adorns him is worth less than gold.
The Instructor 3.11.62Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Short hair toughens a man's head; women should tie their hair simply with a plain pin, since elaborate braiding damages the hair and makes them fearful of spoiling it.
The Instructor 3.11.63Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–200 · Wigs are godless: when the presbyter lays on hands in blessing he blesses someone else's hair; wives who wear false hair deceive their husbands and shame Christ; gray hair should not be dyed.
Prophetic Extracts 39.1Clement of Alexandria · ca. 200 · An elder taught that there are punishments for evil words, and that women who adorn their hair for immorality are punished by the power set over hair, which gave Samson his strength.
Apology 6Tertullian · ca. 197 · The Romans who accuse Christians of abandoning ancestral custom have themselves abandoned their ancestors' laws on luxury, women's modesty, marriage, and the gods.
On the Dress of Women 1.1Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Tertullian tells Christian women that, as daughters of Eve bearing the guilt of the first sin, they should dress in penitence rather than finery.
On the Dress of Women 1.2Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · The fallen angels of Genesis 6 taught women jewelry, dyes, and cosmetics; Christians, who will judge those angels, should not covet their gifts.
On the Dress of Women 1.4Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Tertullian distinguishes “dress” (gold, jewels, clothes), which shows ambition, from “adornment” (hair and skin), which invites lust.
On the Dress of Women 1.5Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Gold and silver are only earth, mined by convicts, and less useful than iron and bronze; their prestige is baseless.
On the Dress of Women 1.6Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Gems are mere pebbles and pearls a shellfish's wart; a Christian woman who wears a gem from a serpent's head cannot tread on the devil's head.
On the Dress of Women 1.8Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Dyed cloth is an “adultery of colors” God did not make; that materials come from God no more justifies vanity than it justifies spectacles or idolatry.
On the Dress of Women 2.1Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Addressing Christian women, Tertullian argues that chastity, the guardian of the Spirit's temple, requires modest outward dress, not merely bodily integrity.
On the Dress of Women 2.2Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Women should not seek to be desired, both for their own safety and because a man who lusts after them sins in his heart; even natural beauty should be downplayed.
On the Dress of Women 2.3Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Even harmless beauty is useless to chaste women and not a proper object of glory; Christians glory in the flesh only when it suffers for Christ.
On the Dress of Women 2.5Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Cosmetics criticize God's workmanship and borrow the devil's art; they are a lie of the face and an adultery of appearance.
On the Dress of Women 2.6Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Dyeing the hair blond or black harms it, resembles offering to idols, and contradicts Christ's word; hiding old age is foolish for those who long to depart to the Lord.
On the Dress of Women 2.7Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Elaborate hairstyles and wigs defy Christ's word and may use hair from the damned; God commands women to be veiled, and nothing artificial will rise at the resurrection.
On the Dress of Women 2.8Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Men too are tempted to vanity in grooming, and must likewise renounce it, since chastity requires gravity in face and dress.
On the Dress of Women 2.9Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Rich clothing serves vanity; like those who renounce marriage or wine for God, Christian women should use wealth as if not using it, since the time is short.
On the Dress of Women 2.10Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · God did not invent dyes, jewelry, or pierced ears; these came from the fallen angels, and even permitted things are tests best met by abstaining.
On the Dress of Women 2.11Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Christian women go out only for grave purposes, such as visiting the sick, the Eucharist, or hearing the word, and need no finery; the fear that plainness brings blasphemy is misplaced.
On the Dress of Women 2.12Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Christian women dressed like courtesans invite just blame; Scripture describes the harlot city in purple and gold, and Tamar was taken for a harlot by her dress.
On the Dress of Women 2.13Tertullian · ca. 197–206 · Christian chastity must be visible, like a light on a hill; women should shed luxuries that would weaken them for chains and martyrdom and adorn themselves with modesty, God's word, and Christ's yoke.
On Prayer 20Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian turns to women's dress, following Peter and Paul, who both forbid ostentatious clothes, gold, and elaborate hairstyles.
On Prayer 22Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian argues that Paul's command to veil “women” includes virgins, from the use of the word in Genesis and in Greek, from “every woman,” from the angels, and from nature; at the least, betrothed girls and consecrated virgins should be veiled.
On Repentance 11Tertullian · ca. 198–206 · Tertullian mocks those who shrink from the discomforts of penance, comparing them to candidates for office who endure worse for a single year's honor.
Didascalia 1.3Anonymous · first half of the third century
Didascalia 1.8 (English)Anonymous · first half of the third century
On the Pallium 1Tertullian · ca. 205–211 · Tertullian tells the Carthaginians, who mock him for wearing the Greek cloak (pallium), that it was once their own dress before Rome gave them the toga, and that they have simply forgotten it.
On the Pallium 2Tertullian · ca. 205–211 · All of nature, from the heavens to the seas, lands, and peoples of the world, constantly changes its “dress,” so it is unreasonable to blame a man for changing his.
On the Pallium 3Tertullian · ca. 205–211 · Animals such as the peacock, serpent, and chameleon change their coverings, and man himself, naked at creation, came to be clothed through the fall and through the invention of clothing, of which the pallium is one widely used form.
On the Pallium 4Tertullian · ca. 205–211 · Tertullian mocks the Romans for adopting Greek athletic fashions and for effeminate changes of dress, from Achilles and Hercules to Alexander and Roman matrons, and argues that the pallium, now worn by Christian wisdom, deserves respect rather than ridicule.
On the Pallium 5Tertullian · ca. 205–211 · The pallium is simple to wear, unlike the laborious toga; it withdraws from public life yet serves the public by lancing the luxury and cruelty of famous men of the toga.
On the Veiling of Virgins 3Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Veiling had been left to choice in Carthage until unveiled virgins, claiming to be scandalized, demanded that veiled virgins be uncovered; Tertullian condemns stripping a consecrated virgin of her veil as a kind of violation.
On the Veiling of Virgins 4Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Paul's rule that “women” be veiled includes virgins: he distinguishes virgins from married women only where the subject requires it, and “woman” is the general term that covers every female, as “body” covers every limb.
On the Veiling of Virgins 7Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · All Paul's reasons for veiling women apply equally or more to virgins: the man as head, the shame of a shorn head, woman as man's glory, and above all the angels, who fell through desire for the daughters of men, that is, for virgins.
On the Veiling of Virgins 8Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Paul's reasons for leaving men uncovered apply to boys as well as grown men, and his “every woman” likewise includes virgins; the Corinthians, to whom he wrote, still veil their virgins.
On the Veiling of Virgins 11Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Virgins should be veiled not from birth but from puberty, when, like Adam and Eve after the fall, they become aware of their sex; Rebecca veiled herself on first seeing her bridegroom, and nature and time make a girl a woman whether or not she is betrothed.
On the Veiling of Virgins 12Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · A grown girl's body and her own grooming declare that she is a woman; it is inconsistent for her to claim virginity only by going bareheaded.
On the Veiling of Virgins 16Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Scripture, nature, and discipline all point to the veil; Tertullian urges every virgin to veil her head, since she is already married to Christ.
On the Veiling of Virgins 17Tertullian · ca. 208–213 · Tertullian warns married women against token head-coverings, citing Arabian women, a sister's vision of an angel, and the ostrich, and closes with a blessing.
On the Crown 1Tertullian · 211 · A Christian soldier refused to wear the laurel crown at a donative, confessed “I am a Christian,” and was imprisoned; Tertullian defends him against Christians who called him reckless and asked where Scripture forbids the crown.
On the Crown 5Tertullian · 211 · Nature itself forbids the crown: God gave flowers to be enjoyed by sight and smell, and to wear them on the head, where they cannot be perceived, is against nature.
On the Crown 10Tertullian · 211 · The crown belongs to idols and to the dead; created things are clean, but using them with the rites and dress of idolatry defiles them, and Christians must flee idolatry in every form.
On the Crown 14Tertullian · 211 · A man's head belongs to Christ and a woman's is veiled, so neither may be crowned; Christ wore thorns for us, and the Christian should not wear flowers where he wore thorns.
Homilies on Numbers 2.1Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · The command that each Israelite march in his own order teaches that clergy, ascetics, and all Christians must live in a way that fits the order they profess.
Instructions 2.18Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Christian matrons should give up jewelry, cosmetics, and dyed hair and show their wealth in almsgiving, like Tabitha.
Instructions 2.19Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Paul and Isaiah condemn women who adorn themselves; the holy woman shows her riches in her heart.
On the Good of Modesty 12Novatian · mid-3rd cent. (disputed) · Chastity includes modesty in appearance: women should not dye their hair, paint their faces, or load themselves with gold and jewels.
To Quirinus 3.36Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Christian women should not adorn themselves with worldly finery, which Scripture associates with the harlot, but with modesty and good conduct.
To Quirinus 3.83Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · Christians should not wear the pagan-style topknot of hair.
On the Dress of Virgins 5Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · A virgin should be chaste not only in body but also in dress, so that no one could doubt she is a virgin; she has no husband to please.
On the Dress of Virgins 8Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Paul and Peter restrict women's adornment; if married women may not excuse finery by their husbands, a virgin has still less excuse.
On the Dress of Virgins 9Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Not everything lawful is expedient; a virgin who adorns herself and walks conspicuously stirs desire in others and cannot excuse herself by claiming a chaste mind.
On the Dress of Virgins 12Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Costly finery suits prostitutes, as the Apocalypse's harlot shows; chaste virgins should flee such adornment.
On the Dress of Virgins 13Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Isaiah condemns the adorned daughters of Zion; what has destroyed others should be shunned like poison, not sought.
On the Dress of Virgins 15Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · All women should avoid cosmetics, for altering what God made in his image is an insult to the divine artist.
On the Dress of Virgins 17Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · At the resurrection God may not recognize a face he did not make; virgins who use cosmetics should be kept apart from the others lest they corrupt them.
On the Dress of Virgins 21Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 249 · Cyprian urges virgins to stay as God made them, avoid jewelry, cosmetics, mixed baths, and wedding feasts, and take the narrow way to their sixtyfold reward.
On the Lapsed 30Cyprian of Carthage · 251 · Cyprian rebukes lapsed men and women who live in luxury, bathing, feasting, and adorning themselves, instead of mourning their spiritual death with true penance.
Symposium 5.6Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The virgin must avoid not only wine but everything intoxicating, including luxury and adornment; the chaste are God's golden altar of incense in the holy of holies.
Canons of Hippolytus, canon 17Anonymous · 4th century · Rules for women in church: head covering and plain hair, nursing their own children, submission and humility toward their husbands, silence in church, purification after childbirth, and separate places for women; with directions for catechumens.
Church History 5.18.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Apollonius: a prophetess who takes gold, silver, and fine clothes must be rejected.
Homilies 13.16Anonymous · 4th century (reworking earlier material) · Peter describes the adornment of the chaste wife in spiritual terms and her love and obedience to her husband, except against God.
Demonstration 6.8Aphrahat · 337-345
Moralia 73.73.5Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's rule that women should adorn themselves with good works rather than finery, from 1 Timothy 2.
Letter 387Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 360–390 · Gregory ends his precepts to Basilissa: true wealth is needing little, and a woman's proper adornment is modesty, dignity and self-control.
Oration 8.10Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Gorgonia rejected cosmetics and finery; she was wise, silent about doctrine, generous to the church and the poor, and outstanding in fasting, vigils, prayer, and tears.
Tractates 1.5.4Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes widows who seek a second marriage, setting their earlier grief against their haste to adorn themselves for a new husband.
Tractates 1.10.3Zeno of Verona · ca. 362-380 · Zeno rebukes Christian women who condemn idols yet come to church loaded with gold, whose coins bear the images of kings.
Homilies 7.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · The rich who adorn walls and horses but neglect the poor will have no answer at the judgment; greed is insatiable, swallows up neighbors like Naboth, and knows no bounds.
Homilies 22.6Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · Athletes endure everything for a perishable crown; we must labor for far greater prizes, caring for the soul and giving the body only what it needs, shunning luxury, finery, corrupting music and sensual pleasure.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:8–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The 'power' on a woman's head is the veil, and the 'angels' are bishops; the woman is to be veiled and silent before the bishop as Christ's vicar because transgression began through her.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:13Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Corinthians had let women go unveiled against Paul's tradition, so he now argues from nature.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:14–15Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Nature gives women long hair as a sign that they should be veiled.
Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Women should pray in humble dress, not displaying wealth, and should learn in silence, subject to men and not teaching or exercising authority.
Letter 22.27Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium against vainglory, especially the subtle pride of ostentatious humility and showy asceticism.
Letter 22.28Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome warns Eustochium against fraudulent male ascetics and worldly clergy who frequent the houses of rich women, describing one notorious example.
Letter 38.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome defends Blesilla's plain dress and food as a widow, contrasting them with painted society women.
Letter 54.7Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome tells Furia that cosmetics and fine dress are unfitting for a Christian widow, whose adornment is penitence and perseverance.
Letter 107.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome forbids jewels, cosmetics, and dyed hair for the consecrated girl, and tells how Praetextata, who dressed up the young Eustochium against her vow, died after a warning vision.
Letter 127.3Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Marcella keeps her reputation spotless in slanderous Rome, and her modest dress and conduct show the pagans what Christian widowhood is.
Letter 128.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Two views on dressing a girl vowed to virginity: plainly from the start, or with finery so that she learns to despise it; Jerome reports the second side's arguments.
Letter 148.27Jerome · ca. 370–419 · The writer, citing Peter and Paul, tells Celantia to dress simply and to adorn herself with a quiet spirit and good works.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 52.2.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Adamians are said to worship naked.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 52.3.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam and Eve were always naked and unashamed; the Adamians are not.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 52.3.2Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · The Adamians have lost modesty.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 52.3.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Adam and Eve received clothing only gradually.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · A husband should seek to please his own wife only and not adorn himself to attract other women.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.4Anonymous · ca. 380 · Even a man who refuses has sinned by having attracted the woman through his adornment.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.6Anonymous · ca. 380 · A man whose adornment caused a woman to stumble shares guilt for her sin and inherits the woe on those who cause stumbling.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.8Anonymous · ca. 380 · Men must not enhance their natural beauty, but keep their hair cut short and avoid perfume.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.3.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Men must avoid luxurious dress, rings, styled or dyed hair, and shaving the beard, since the Law forbids them and God hates them.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.8.9Anonymous · ca. 380 · Proverbs on the capable wife is completed; wives must not adorn themselves to attract others, since that leads to sin, but should please their husbands, veil in public and not paint their faces.
Apostolic Constitutions 1.9.0Anonymous · ca. 380 · A believing woman must not bathe with men, and should bathe modestly, rarely, and at the tenth hour.
On Virgins 1.6Ambrose · ca. 377 · Marriage is not condemned, but virginity is better: Ambrose sets the troubles of married women (childbirth, servitude, cosmetics) against the lasting beauty and spiritual fruitfulness of virgins, and the virgin Church, mother of many.
On Virgins 1.10Ambrose · ca. 377 · Virgins are spared greed and the burdens of brides, who load themselves with jewels like chains and are auctioned to suitors like slaves.
Life of Macrina, part 9Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 380 · Gregory turns the virgins' wailing into psalmody; the widow Vetiana and the deaconess Lampadia help prepare the body, revealing Macrina's iron cross, a ring holding a relic of the cross, and the scar of a healed tumour.
Fragment 3Nicetas, bishop of Remesiana · ca. 380–414 · Nicetas teaches that before confessing the faith the candidate must sincerely renounce the devil and his works, including pagan cults, shows and vices, and condemns vain male and female adornment.
On Naboth 26Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · Women spend fortunes on jewels and silks that burden and chill them; polished stones should teach the polishing of hard minds.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.18Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Modesty governs speech, silence, prayer, gait, and the covering of the body, as Susanna, Mary, the tax collector, and the law of priestly breeches show.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.19Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Seemliness requires a consistent order of life and a natural, unaffected bearing, dress, and voice; beauty adds grace but is not virtue.
On the Duties of the Clergy 1.46Ambrose · ca. 386–390 · Seemliness is general (the consistency of a whole life) and special (in particular acts), and it consists in living according to nature, as in creation and the human body.
Letter 211.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine instructs the nuns on modest dress and conduct in public, warning that unchaste looks destroy chastity even without bodily sin.
Letter 245.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine advises Bishop Possidius not to forbid married women all ornaments, but to forbid uncovered hair and cosmetics, since true adornment is good character.
Letter 262.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says Ecdicia should not have adopted widow's dress against her husband's will, since matronly dress is compatible with religious life.
Homilies on Matthew 10.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · John's ascetic life in the wilderness from childhood recalled Elijah and anticipated freedom from the curse; his hair garment taught detachment, unlike the vain Cynic philosophers; his belt was the dress of active saints; Christ praised his rejection of soft clothing.
Homilies on Matthew 17.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Plucking out the offending eye means cutting off friends or relatives who lead us into sin, which serves both parties; the theater is condemned, and the next lemma on divorce is introduced.
Homilies on Matthew 20.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ forbids fasting for show, which some Christians outdo the hypocrites in by feigning fasts; anointing the head means hiding the fast, as Christ himself fasted unseen, and the actor’s glory lasts only while the theater sits.
Homilies on Matthew 22.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The lilies, mere grass thrown into the oven, are clothed more gloriously than Solomon, so God will much more clothe those he values above all creation; the Father who made human nature needy knows its needs and will provide, and anxiety for these things is the mark of the Gentiles.
Homilies on Matthew 30.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ answers the Pharisees and John’s disciples on fasting with gentleness, calling himself the bridegroom and sparing the weak disciples heavy commands; so too a husband should correct a wife fond of cosmetics little by little and gently.
Homilies on Matthew 49.5John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom ridicules young men who sew silk into their shoes while Christ goes hungry in the poor, calling the fashion effeminate, cruel, and a device of the devil to turn their eyes from heaven.
Homilies on Matthew 49.6John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Love of finery makes young men petty, greedy, cruel to the poor and vainglorious; Chrysostom asks fathers to train them in small things and prays that the young may be chaste like Joseph.
Homilies on Matthew 69.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The parable shows the call widened to all comers, but warns believers too: the wedding garment is a life kept clean after the grace of the call, and the man without it is cast into darkness; Chrysostom urges his hearers to adorn the soul rather than the body.
Homilies on Matthew 73.4John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Chrysostom rebukes Christian women for vanity and both spouses for neglecting each other’s virtue, condemns marriages contracted for money, urges men to seek a pious wife rather than a rich one, and rejects the proverb that pleasure is worth choking for, citing Sirach and Proverbs.
Homilies on Matthew 89.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ rose within the three days while his enemies guarded the tomb, so that their precautions proved the resurrection; the angel and then Christ himself send the women, the first witnesses, to the disciples. We may still hold his feet in the mysteries, but women who load themselves with gold while the poor go hungry cannot.
Hexameron (Exameron) 6.47Ambrose · ca. 387-390 · God has painted the soul in his image; women who paint their faces with cosmetics deface God's work.
Sermon 161.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Marriage is lawful and suffices, but consecrated virgins, out of greater love, take Paul's counsel and give up even marriage, adorning the inner person rather than the outer.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine explains the precept on fasting: ostentation can lurk even in squalor, and anointing the head and washing the face mean inward joy and a pure heart.
Against Jovinianus 2.21Jerome · 393 · Jerome accuses Jovinian of turning Stoic in teaching equal merits, and turns the argument against Jovinian's own change from ascetic to luxurious life.
Against Jovinianus 2.36Jerome · 393 · Jerome turns on Jovinian's followers, contrasting their luxury with the ascetics, and charges that his teaching has led virgins to marry.
On Christian Doctrine 4.21Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Augustine illustrates the three styles from Cyprian and Ambrose: the subdued in Cyprian on the eucharistic cup and Ambrose on the Holy Spirit, the temperate in their praises of virginity, and the grand in their attacks on cosmetics.
On the Work of Monks 39Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Some monks wear long hair against Paul's command in 1 Cor 11, claiming the example of Samuel and Samson and a show of humility, though the veil of the old covenant has been removed in Christ.
On the Work of Monks 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400–401 · Augustine entreats the long-haired monks, whom he otherwise admires, to stop causing disputes among the brothers, and asks Aurelius to circulate or correct the treatise.
On the Good of Marriage 14Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Some married people also think of the things of the Lord, as Peter's instructions to wives and husbands show, but such marriages are rare.
Dialogues 1.21Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Postumianus contrasts this humility with clerics in the West who grow proud of small honors and live in luxury; Gallus asks for the lesson on false righteousness.
City of God 14.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Adam and Eve were not blind before the fall; their eyes were opened to the shame of the flesh's new disobedience, a penalty in kind, so they covered their genitals, as all nations still do.
City of God 19.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine says that the Christian city is indifferent to dress and manner of life so long as they do not conflict with God's law, and that leisure should serve the search for truth and action the good of others, as the office of bishop is a work, not an honour.
On the Good of Widowhood 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Mother, virgin daughter, and aged grandmother should together please Christ with inward beauty, the grandmother guiding the others in perseverance.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 4.20.14Orosius · ca. 417–418 · The Oppian law was repealed.
The Institutes 1.1John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monk, a soldier of Christ, wears a girdle like Elijah, John the Baptist, Peter, and Paul, as the Scriptures show.
The Institutes 1.2John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · A monk's clothing should be plain and common to all; conspicuous hair shirts are rejected as a source of vanity.
The Institutes 1.4John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monks' short-sleeved linen tunics signify that they are dead to the works of this world.
The Institutes 1.6John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · A small cheap cape (mafors) covers the monks' shoulders instead of costly cloaks.
The Institutes 1.7John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The monks' goatskin recalls the prophets of Heb 11 and signifies that carnal passions have been put to death.
The Institutes 1.10John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · In Gaul monks should adopt only those Egyptian customs of dress that suit the climate and do not cause ridicule.
The Institutes 1.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The girdle signifies readiness for work and the mortification of sexual desire.