Neither Covered Nor Bare

But we have a warning for you as well, women of the second rank of modesty, who have fallen into marriage. Do not outgrow the discipline of the veil so far — not even for a moment of an hour — that, since you cannot refuse it outright, you find some other way of cancelling it, by going neither covered nor bare. Some, with their turbans and their woolen bands, do not veil the head at all; they tie it up. They are protected in front, and bare exactly where the head properly lies. Others cover the region over the brain to a certain extent with small linen caps — for fear of pressing on the head, I suppose — which do not quite reach the ears. If their hearing is so weak that they cannot hear through a covering, I am sorry for them. Let them learn that the whole head is what makes “the woman.” Its limits and its boundaries run as far as the place where the robe begins. The territory of the veil is as wide as the space the hair covers when it is let down, so that the necks are encircled too. For it is the necks that have to be brought under, the necks for whose sake “authority ought to be had on the head.” The veil is their yoke. [a]

The pagan women of Arabia will be your judges. They cover not only the head but the face as well, and so completely that they are content to leave one eye free and enjoy half the daylight rather than prostitute the whole face. A woman would rather see than be seen. That is why a certain Roman queen said they were the most miserable of women, since they could more easily fall in love than be fallen in love with — when in fact they are the happier, being spared that second and far more frequent misery, seeing that women are more often fallen in love with than in love. Pagan discipline’s modesty, of course, is simpler, and, so to speak, more barbaric. To us the Lord has measured out the space the veil is to cover, and has done it even by revelations. One of our sisters was addressed like this by an angel, who beat her on the neck as though he were applauding: “An elegant neck, and deservedly bare! It is a fine thing for you to strip yourself from the head right down to the waist — or this free neck of yours will do you no good at all!” And of course, what you have said to one you have said to all.

But how heavy a punishment will they deserve as well, the ones who stay uncovered right through the Psalms and at every mention of the name of God — who, even when they are about to spend time in prayer itself, are perfectly ready to lay a fringe, or a tuft, or a thread of any kind on the crown of the head and suppose that they are covered? That is how small they falsely imagine their head to be! Others, who think the palm of the hand is plainly larger than any fringe or thread, abuse their head no less. They are like a certain creature, more beast than bird for all its wings, with a small head, long legs, and an upright carriage besides. When she has to hide, they say, she thrusts her head away into a thicket — the whole of it, at least — and leaves all the rest of herself out in the open. So, secure in the head but bare in her larger parts, she is taken whole, head and all. That will be their case too, covered as they are with less than is useful.

So it is a duty, at all times and in every place, to walk mindful of the law, ready and equipped to meet every mention of God — who, if he is in the heart, will be recognized in the head of women as well. To all who read these appeals with good will, to all who prefer what is useful to what is customary, may peace and grace from our Lord Jesus Christ overflow — and to Septimius Tertullianus as well, whose treatise this is.