While the most prominent Mozarabic writings are those of Eulogius and Álvaro of Córdoba, there are other minor authors whose works should be of great interest to scholars. One example is the work Liber De Habitu Clericorum ('Book Concerning the Habit of the Clerics') by Leovigildus. The work is also simply called De Habitu Clericorum. The work- dated to the ninth century CE- explains ten aspects related to the habit (i.e. dress and conduct) of the Christian clergy, intending in particular to explain the 'mystery' aspect of certain features of habit.
It should be noted that there are multiple references to a 'Leovigildus' (a name of Germanic origin) in the literature during this period, but it is not entirely clear whether they all refer to the same person. Juan Gil comments in his Latin preface to De Habitu Clericorum in his compilation Corpus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum:
'Albarus reports that a codex of Bybliorum was written by order of a certain Leovigildus (Carmina IX 144). Samson makes mention of Leovigildus the son of Ansefredus as opposing the anthropomorphists (Ap. II 4). Finally Amoinius testifies that Leovigildus by the cognomen Abadsolomes supported Odilardus and Usuardus as they spent time at Córdoba (Pl. 115: c. 943-946). But now the great question arises whether this is about one Leovigildus or multiple Leovigildi. While Florez (ES, XI, 1753, p. 521) suspects that those things which are handed about Leovigildus Abadsolomes are distinct from ours, I should hold that all things concord with one for similarity.'
Gil also notes that the text of this work as we have it is incomplete:
'However these things are, now the codex of the Heredia-Spinola library preserves this little work concerning the habit of the clerics...The apograph of this book- from there the exemplar- was procured by Florez through the office of Iulianus de Villegas. Since he had found several things contrary to the dignity of both the Christian faith and the state, he thought nothing more essential than that he should tear out from within and condemn to the fire the pages that seemed disgraceful, with the plan communicated with F. de Ravago. Thus it has most inconveniently turned out today that both the codex and apograph are read mutilated and most savagely lacerated.'
The work can be summarised in the following sections:
. Preface on the purpose of the work
.
. Chapter One: Why clerics everywhere perform conformationes on themselves and dress themselves in a distinct habit. That is, why the clerics not only dress in a distinct way but also why they must live upright lives devoid of luxury and be an example to the faithful.
. Chapter Two: Why clerics universally shave their heads.
. Chapter Three: Why clerics specifically perform the round-style of shaving on the head.
. Chapter Four: Why European clerics shave the beard while the Asian and Libyan priests let their beards grow.
. Chapter Five: Why deacons and subdeacons go into the church on festive days wearing the albae (white tunic garments) cut from the left and right-hand sides, while the priests wear garments similar to the albae but of black colour.
. Chapter Six: Why the deacons and clerics beneath their grade use the enebladium (amice) to cover the neck and the chest.
. Chapter Seven: Why subdeacons wear the orares (stoles) on the left arm, deacons on the shoulders, and priests over the neck and chest.
. Chapter Eight: Why the bishop wears the cetharis (the mitre, which was also in this case embellished with ribbons) when ordaining other bishops and on the most celebrated occasions.
. Chapter Nine: Why bishops in Spain cover their heads with casulae (i.e. hooded chasubles), whereas the priests also wear the casulae but do not cover their heads with it.
. Chapter Ten: Why Eastern priests and deacons marry, whereas Western clergy remain celibate after the subdeaconship.
The gaps in the text are specifically found in chapter four. The result is that we do not actually have the full elaboration and culmination of the author's explanation for the contrast between the Asian/Libyan clerical practice of allowing beards to grow while the European clerics shave their beards.
Arguably one of the most interesting chapters for the historian is the preface, which explains that the work is being written amid a time of oppression by the Muslims. The author notes the observation of 'foolishness' (fatuitas: also 'fatuity') displayed by some of the clerics, and a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the Christians (because of the Muslim oppression) for discerning the authority of the habit of the clerics and the mysteries behind the garments that are intended to convey an example to the faithful. It is possible, as Kenneth Baxter Wolf has suggested, that one should tie Leovigildus' words to the testimony of Eulogius in the first book of the Memoriale Sanctorum (among lines of evidence), where he mentions the insults and humiliations that Muslims heaped upon Christians wearing clerical garments when they saw those Christians in public. Interestingly, both Leovigildus and Eulogius make reference to the jizya tax that was being paid on a monthly basis. Leovigildus' concern above all is to prevent anyone of the clerical class from 'adopting the appearance of the impious and imitating the habits of the infidels, in whom there is no wisdom.' It may be that the mockeries Muslims made of the Christian clerics' garments pushed some or many of them to dress like the Muslim masses when going out into the public. This is at least how I understand Leovigildus' warning against imitating the impious and infidels in appearance and habits, though Wolf argues that the Christian and Muslim laypeople must have looked rather alike at this point, a trend perhaps reinforced by intermarriage.
But the work is notable in other regards. We develop a clear picture of how Iberian Christian clergy were supposed to dress during this period. Further, there are interesting traces of an early 'European' sense of identity, as Leovigildus describes Rome as the 'capital of Europe' and draws (for example) the contrast between the practice of 'European' clergy who shave their beards while the 'Asians' and 'Libyans' (i.e. clergy of the East and North Africa) let their beards grow. This sense of a 'European' identity is more explicitly asserted than in the earlier Mozarabic Chronicle of 754, which refers to 'Europeans' solely in describing the Battle of Tours but is not clearly using this term to define a continent or Western world in the way that Leovigildus is using it. At the end of the mangled fourth chapter in Leovigildus' work, we see a reference to the 'European toga': not referring to the garment in the literal sense but denoting the civilised nature of Europe, which is contrasted with the 'Asian and Libyan group.'
Iván Pérez Marinas also argues that 'from the text of Leovigildus one can deduce that Córdoba was a cosmopolitan city, given that this Mozarab also deals with distinguishing the autochthonous clerical habits from those coming from other parts of the world. On explaining the reasons for the difference in customs and pointing out which of them are the correct ones, which are always the autochthonous ones, it is perceived that his full knowledge is due to the presence of outsider clerics in al-Andalus and Córdoba and to the wide contact between the distinct regions of the Arab Caliphate. Also the demonyms used by Leovigildus call to denote outsiders and autochthonous.' In the broad sense I agree with this argument. For example, we have seen in the Memoriale Sanctorum the case of the martyr Georgius, who was not from Spain but actually came from the Bethlehem area and arrived in Spain via North Africa. Clearly there were some foreign Christian clerics who came to Córdoba and Spain, and Leovigildus mentions his own interactions with the 'Asians' in the debate about the marriages clergymen.
Some comments should also be made on the style of the Latin of this book. In comparison with the work of Eulogius, I feel that the Latin of this book is less refined. At this point in time, the 'Mozarabs' (i.e. the Christians living under Muslim rule) spoke various Iberian Romance dialects derived from Vulgar Latin, though they may have thought of their vernacular languages as still constituting 'Latin.' For readers who know, the analogy is that these vernacular languages could be considered an 'amiya form of Latin contrasted with the fusha Latin of high culture and literature. The everyday vernacular is undoubtedly interfering with the language of this work. Besides some of the more familiar orthographic issues (e.g. the b-v confusion, e for the diphthong ae and insertion or omission of h), we also find what would be considered inflectional and syntactical errors in more refined classical Latin. The most noteworthy aspects are listed below:
. Confusion of the nominative and accusative cases. Examples:
a) quod aliqui tantum ad conpositjonem corporis eorum antiqui patres putaberunt exercere
'Because some have thought that the old fathers merely exercised it [i.e. various dress practices] for the composition of their body'- (i.e. some thought that the old fathers merely dressed in particular ways for purposes of appearance with no deeper meanings).
In this phrase the form of the verb putare ('to think') would be expected to govern an accusative and infinitive construction and so we would expect antiquos patres ('old fathers') but here we have antique patres: i.e. the nominative form.
b) et non negavit beatus Paulus peccatorum omnium primus esse
'And the blessed Paul did not deny he was the first of all sinners'.
Here we should expect an accusative and infinitive construction after the form of the verb negare ('to deny') with se following Paulus and primum (the accusative masculine singular form of primus) as the complement that goes with the copula esse ('to be'). Instead there is no se and we have the nominative masculine singular form of primus.
c) qui corporee delectatjones plene fecit cedere
'Who has fully made the corporeal delectations yield.'
Here corporee delectatjones should be in the accusative as the object of the verb fecit ('made'): i.e. corporeas delectationes. Instead we have the nominative form.
d) quod Asiani disputando dixisse mihi recolo
'That which I recall that the Asians said to me in dispute.'
Here we expect an accusative and infinitive construction with the form Asianos (accusative masculine plural of Asianus). Instead we have the nominative masculine plural form Asiani.
f) nisi causam exordii eius plenius exponatur
'Unless the cause of its beginning is explained more fully.'
Here we expect the nominative form of causa as the subject of the passive verb form exponatur. Instead we have the accusative form.
f) qum ab apostolis scilicet universum divideretur orbem
'Of course when the whole world was divided by the apostles.'
Here we expect the nominative case forms for universum and orbem (universus and orbis respectively) since 'the whole world' is the subject of a passive verb form in this clause. Instead we have the accusative cases.
. Nominative forms in apposition.
a) cum albis a dextris sinistrisque prescise et sacerdotes in albarum similibus, sed pullate
'[The deacons and subdeacons]...with their albae cut from the right and left-hand sides, and the priests in garments similar to the albae, but clothed in black.'
Here prescise and pullate are nominative feminine plural forms of past participles in apposition to albis and similibus, but normal rules would dictate that the past participle forms should be prescisis and pullatis (ablative plural).
. Intransitive verbs used as transitive verbs.
a) cur subdiacones utuntur orares
'Why the subdeacons use the orares.'
b) et devotam semper uteri volumtatem
'And to use always the devoted will.'
c) cur talia non nostri sacerdotes utuntur?
'Why do our priests not make use of such things?'
These are just three examples of the shift in the use of the verb uti ('to use'), which can be considered an intransitive verb in classical Latin because the noun affected by the verb takes the ablative case. In these examples (and note the form uteri in the second example for the infinitive as opposed to classical infinitive form uti) the noun affected by the verb takes the accusative case, and so is now a direct object of the verb. Thus the shift from the intransitive to the transitive. In one case, however, we appear to see the verb used simultaneously in a transitive and intransitive sense, as per below.
d) propter quod Atticos apices ac Grecisco eloquio utuntur
'Because of the fact that they use Attic letters and the Greek language.'
Here Atticos apices ('Attic letters': i.e. the Greek alphabet) is in the accusative case but 'Grecisco eloquio' ('the Greek language') is in the ablative case. Both nouns are governed by the verb form utuntur.
e) obtimam purificationem putato nocere neminem
'Consider that the best purification harms no one.'
The verb nocere ('to harm') can be considered intransitive because the noun affected by it takes the dative case in classical Latin. Here though the noun form neminem ('no one') is in the accusative case and is thus a direct object of the verb.
. Confusion regarding deponent verbs and active/passive forms.
a) quo usque sui penitus oblibiscat
'To the point he should forget himself within.'
Here the form of the verb oblivisci (deponent in classical Latin: i.e. apparently passive in form but active in meaning) is represented as an active form.
b) cur necessarium...fuit enebladium utere
'Why it has been necessary [for the deacons etc.] to use the enebladium.'
Here we have the form of the verb uti (deponent) represented as an active infinitive. Note again the application of this verb to a noun in the accusative case as direct object.
c) et propterea renascimus ut Deo placeamus
'And moreover we are renewed so that we may please God.'
The form renascimus ('we are renewed') is a first person plural present indicative active form. The original verb is renasci, which is passive in form.
For a fuller overview of Latin syntax in Leovigildus' work, I recommend (for those who read Spanish) the excellent study Notas Sobre La Sintaxis Del Mozárabe Leovigildo by Pedro Pablo Herrera Roldán, who notes some of the same examples I have described above.
Before proceeding to the translation of the text with notes, I would like to dedicate this work to five Phoenician musketeers: Faysal Itani, Anthony El-Ghossain, Emile Hokayem, Bachar El-Halabi and Joseph Bahout. How could I not dedicate this work to them when Leovigildus mentions the Phoenician and Eastern clergy's customs on marriage in contrast with the Western clergy? These dear friends of mine have touched my life positively in various ways. Though we do not necessarily agree on everything, they are all better analysts than I am and are very kind people. Of their qualities I note in particular:
Faysal: he was recently exposed as a supposed Muslim Brotherhood operative (hilarious, right?). Social media would be a much better place if it followed Faysal's example of avoiding pettiness and treating people online as one would in person.
Anthony: I sometimes like to troll him by writing to him in Latin. He once told me that 'tweeting in Latin may not be the most monstrous look right now.' Anthony's wit knows no bounds, and he could probably come up with a Twitter thread of insights on any topic I could think of, including this work by Leovigildus.
Emile: a talented multi-lingual analyst who has always been supportive of my work. I could learn from his abilities to formulate analysis in a much more articulate manner than I can.
Bachar: who has described himself as attempting to be a 'cheese-eating, wine-drinking centrist' (a general political position I personally despise, but never mind). Bachar has always been willing to stand up for what he believes in and has spoken eloquently on Lebanese politics.
Joseph: an old friend I often jokingly call 'Lebanese neocon' (though he is actually no such thing). His staunch adherence to his moral principles is admirable.
I strongly suggest convening a panel of these Phoenician musketeers to discuss this work by Leovigildus.
Below is the full translation of the text with notes. I primarily rely on the text as produced in Corpus Scriptorum Muzarabicorum and have also used its footnotes to check the Biblical references in the text. I reproduce the Biblical citation footnotes. As always, I welcome any suggestions for corrections and improvements to the translation.
 Useful illustrations by Marinas in his article on Leovigildus' work regarding the vestments/garments described in the book. Note though that the casula should have a hood. |
The Book of Leovigildus Concerning the Habit of the Clerics
In the name of the Lord begins the author of the same book:
Your Leubegildus,[i] your follower everywhere: to the excellent and mentoring clerics who serve Christ the Lord under the care of the blessed Ciprianus the pontifex and martyr.[ii]
Your serenity found foolishness in some of the clerics, and saw that the Christians through all of Esperia,[iii] on account of the oppression of the Smaelites,[iv] lacked the ardour through which they had been able to discern the authority of the habit of the clerics, because some have thought that the old fathers only exercised it for the composition of their body and did not make any appearance accessible for our sights in a mystical sense as an example for the faithful. In this regard, it has pleased your clemency that I should arrange the exposition of the meaning of the habit of the clerics and note it down, since the savage cruelty of the heathens saw that the church of God stood out in our parts, and on account of the continual dispute with us our simplicity had been somewhat lacerated regarding the habit of this order. And whatever I recall to mind with the notifications of the fathers concerning these duties, before we should slip more fully from our senses, I will recite it. This is so that the one among us who is unable to direct his steps to the remaining teachers because the weakness of the body impedes, or is held back by the taxing inquisition of the properties, which we are compelled to pay in the name of Christ on every lunar month,[v] may at least read at night amid the ecclesiastical duties as he has considered to be necessary, lest perhaps in his ignorance about the mystery of his habit anyone should put on the appearance of the impious and imitate the habits of the infidels, in whom there is no wisdom.
Oh how pious has been the devotion of your excellence, if there has been apt locution in the one commanded about such things. Who will dare to bring forth the mystery of the habit of the priests without wavering or reveal the secret of its exposition far removed from fear? It was better for me to hear this work from you cautiously than to bring forth words to men regarding it without caution. And if I were certainly not considering the true admonitions of my Lord that say- 'Open your mouth and I will fill it'[vi] and 'It is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father who speaks in you'[vii]- indeed I would hardly be bending my knee to such things. But since I have been trusting in the divine help on account of your intercession, it is not that my tongue should be turned with audacity to what is illicit, but in obedience, in proclaiming and saying with the intention of the mind: 'This way of your justifications, oh Lord, make me understand it.'[viii] But that which my rusticity has diminished concerning the things sought, may your most dear holiness not ask me to revise,[ix] feeling pity for the one who has abandoned completion of the sought-out things not because of laziness, but rather on account of the opposition of transgression he has succumbed to the slowness of the mind. Goodbye.
1. Why everywhere the clerics perform conformationes[x] on themselves and adorn themselves from dissimilar habit.
The priests of our Lord Jesus Christ are known to be the vicars of the apostles, to whom it was said: 'Go: baptize all peoples, teaching them to keep all things I have mandated to you.'[xi] And: 'You are the salt of the earth. If this salt loses its savour, in what will it be salted? It is worth nothing beyond except that it should be sent out and trodden by men.'[xii] Also: 'You are the light of the world. The city placed over the mountain cannot be hidden, nor do they light the lamp and place it under a corn-measure, but over a candle stick, so that it may provide light for all who are in the house.'[xiii] Therefore if they are the vicars of the apostles and moreover knowledge has been given to them, so that they benefit all, already they are under obligation to all Christians- prudent ones and idiots- as the blessed apostle Paul testifies when he says: 'I am under obligation to all: wise and unwise.'[xiv] So if the priests are sent as people under obligation and to enlighten all who are in the home, so they will lie under and be useless for nothing, as they have been threatened to be sent out the doors and trampled, unless they legitimately strive and through the hidden paths they draw away prudently the darkness from the souls of the faithful and pour the light of knowledge on their minds. Thus the vessel of election[xv] commanded Timothy the bishop and his own disciple to insist on such things as he chose him in exhortation saying: 'Be the example of the faithful in word, in conversation, in kindness, in faith and in chastity.'[xvi] And again: 'Attend to yourself and your doctrine, insist on these things. For in doing this you will make yourself saved as well as those who hear you.'[xvii] So if it does not suffice for the priests to live soberly and chastely, if they are not an example to all, it is necessary for those, who are known to be doctors of the souls, to hand over spiritually the divine law that they have learnt to those who are of prudence in rational terms and to apply conformationes on their habit as a remedy for the idiots, through which conformations, when they have begun to dispute, they may find the salvation of their own souls by extracting their mystery. For such purposes in the Old Testament were stones led out from the Jordan and placed in the forum,[xviii] and the priests utilised the rational and the superhumeral etc. So if anyone says: 'Why do our priests not use such things?' It should be said in reply to them that the old priests under the appealing earthly garment declared the spiritual things and mysteries to remain, but the priests of the New Testament, having removed the earthly cover, say to all openly: 'If anyone loves the world, the kindness of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world is the desire of flesh and desire of the eyes and the arrogance of life, which is not of the Father, but of the world. And the world passes as does its desire. But he who does the will of God, remains forever just as God remains forever.'[xix]
He who declares these things, it has not suited for him to choose the mystery for spiritual things in gold and precious gems, but in the reviling of his body and in cheap vestments, especially since they had the certain dictum from the most faithful apostle Jacob,[xx] when he said to all: 'Voluntarily did He beget us in the word of truth, so that we should be in the beginning something of His creation.'[xxi] So if the apostles are a beginning for us, how we will be able to take the example from others? Moreover every priest ought to intend that he should faithfully hold the conformationes, which he has taken up from the apostles, and whatever any appearance informs, he should impart more fully to those who dispute.
2. Why the crowns of the heads of the clerics are frequently shaven in the universal church.
If anyone wants to recognise the mystery of the crown, let him first sharpen the ingenuity of his mind, because indeed in the top of the man it is elevated because of the fact that a higher sacrament is imposed, and unless the whole person is inquiring with himself, not with decency will he reach his peak. But so that he may consider more fully that which is imposed, let him first recognise his own composition, as has been said: 'So that you can get to know God, first get to know yourself.' Man should know that he is constituted from two dissimilar substances: the invisible soul and the tangible body. But the more precious part of the body is the head, in which all the human senses respire. But the more precious lot of the soul is the mind, from which the ingenuities emanate. Thus it was said to man: 'Love the Lord God from all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.'[xxii] That is: love through the efficient powers of the body and the delights of the soul and the ingenuities of the mind and let nothing be higher for your mind than love of the Lord, because if you put at the forefront of your mind the love of this world or your sons or your parents, you will not be worthy to enjoy Christ, who is the life of the living and the rest of all the faithful. But from that begin to love God and intend to cleanse your mind frequently, in which the blessed apostle Paul served God and exclaimed with proclaiming voice saying: 'I myself serve the law of God in mind, but the law of sin in flesh.'[xxiii] But in flesh the holy apostle served the law of sin, by suffering beforehand, not by accomplishing, as he indicates in another place when he says: 'The flesh desires what is against the soul and the soul what is against the flesh.'[xxiv] Again: 'I see another law fighting in my limbs against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that is in my limbs.'[xxv] I see, says the apostle, who leads the church under his own persona, a law fighting back, not conquering, and making prisoner the limbs, not the mind, which always ought to serve God freely. And however much the flesh fights back against the soul, it sins, because it does not love what is congruous for it. So the mind, which has been made higher in the condition of man and sharper, to which it has been given to separate the precious from the cheap, if it often expels delectations through its limbs and only clings to its Creator, it will grow old saying in particular: 'My mind has adhered to you, oh Lord. Your right hand will undertake me.'[xxvi] And in faith it deserves to hear: 'Near is the Lord to all who invoke him in the truth of their will.'[xxvii] So on account of this matter the clerics have practised this sign in the tops of their hands, so that they may prepare to purge the minds of those who dispute from every contagion of crimes. But if the person of little thought says: 'We can cleanse this visible top through a razor, so how can we manage to cleanse the invisible top of the mind, which is neither seen nor touched?' One should respond to him: 'Consider that the best purification harms no one, as the evangelist testifies when he says: 'What you do not want for yourself, do not do to another.'[xxviii] He who perseveres in this has been purified and does not need cleansing. And since it is difficult for us to remain always in such things, when we have ignored this precept, we are purified by doing the alms, as the holy Daniel testifies and says to Nabucosnosor[xxix]: 'Let my counsel be pleasing to you and redeem your sins through alms.'[xxx] And our Lord Jesus Christ to the Pharisees: 'Give alms and let all things be clean to you.'[xxxi] This is the razor through which we can cleanse the top of the mind.' But if an assertor, tottering and inquiring about the reason for such things, says: 'If Nabuquodnosor and the Pharisees, who are believed to be infidels, can be cleansed by performing alms even as they remain in infidelity, therefore the heathen distributors of largess are undoubtedly to receive the reward of their works.' One should say to the one who brings forth this inappropriate question: 'Know that alms requires mercy. So he who wants to be merciful ought to begin concerning himself and first have mercy on himself, since it is most truly said: 'Pity your soul, pleasing God.'[xxxii]
Moreover we are renewed in heart in order to please God, who is justifiably displeased about that which in being born we have contracted. Therefore let not the one who strives to redeem himself through any of the most lavish alms deceive himself, when he has remained in infidelity or has desired to persevere in the crimes and misdeeds that he has renounced in washing, since it has been said: 'He who loves iniquity hates his own soul.'[xxxiii] And he who hates his own soul is not merciful towards it. But first it is necessary to offer to God that which He fashioned in us in His own image, so that we may rightfully observe that true opinion of our Lord through which He demonstrated the way of life to the Jewish tempters,[xxxiv] saying: 'Bring me the denarius.' And having seen it he said: 'Whose image does it have?' They said: 'That of Caesar.' Then the Lord ordered them to render to Caesar his image and to render the image of God to God. The holy David was seen to have observed this precept in spirit, when he prayed on the day of tribulation saying: 'For if You had willed sacrifice, oh Lord, I would have certainly given it. You will not delight in burnt offerings, but an afflicted spirit is a sacrifice to God.'[xxxv] So David was able to grant many victims of sacrifice to God and to pay alms for the poor, exactly as he also did, but he considered that there was nothing more precious than for him to offer his humble spirit to God, as he knew that he was made in His image. Because of this our Lord Jesus Christ chided the Pharisees giving alms, saying: 'Woe to you, hypocrite Pharisees, you who tithe mint, dill and cumin and have abandoned those things that are the heavier aspects of the law: judgement, mercy and faith. It has been obligatory to do these things and not to lose them.'[xxxvi]That is, it is necessary first to observe the faith, through which the judgement is feared and the mercy is implemented, then to grant these alms for the purging of crimes. This kind of alms the Lord ordered the Pharisees to perform, when He had said to them originally: 'Give alms and let all things be clean for you.' Similarly also Daniel did not merely say to Nabucodnosor: 'Redeem your sins with alms.' But he placed before that the following words: 'May my counsel be pleasing to you.' For if he had delighted to hear his counsel or had merited to accept such things, he would have given a greater sacrament than alms to him, through which he would have disavowed the cult of idols more quickly.'
Thus it behoves every faithful one to know that there are two kinds of alms, through which man, when he has been purified, will hold the palm of victory more fully: first is the love of God and of the next thing, which we call kindness, and that is a foundation without which no one can reach the peak of perfection, as the apostle testifies and says: 'If I hand over my body that I should be eager, but I do not have kindness, I am nothing.'[xxxvii] So also the same one: 'But the end of the precept is kindness from a pure heart, good conscience and faith that is not feigned.'[xxxviii] The second emends if it is placed on top of the prior one, which is called a foundation, and it is the support for the poor, searching for those confined and visiting the weak, through which the Lord Jesus Christ on the day of examination will manifest himself to grant the kingdom of the heavens to the faithful, when he said: 'Come, blessed ones of my Father, seize the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the origin of the world, for I was hungry and you have given me something to eat,'[xxxix] etc. Through these two kinds of things has man reached perfection through God's help, and the one without the other is of minimal help. So it is just for man, if he is not able to place gold, silver and the most precious stones over a precious foundation, that he should at least not cease to toss cheaper things only, so that he may consider himself among the builders, as the Lord said that He will render the reward for the chalice of cold water.[xl] So if one asking adds and prefers to draw the more liquid mystery of kindness, saying: 'I heard the blessed apostle Paul testifying and thus saying- 'The end of the precept is kindness'- as has been determined above, and man of course must know the beginning of the cause whose end is kindness.' So one must declare to that person the opinion of the blessed Peter the apostle when he began regarding the faith, which is known as the beginning of the precepts, and continued the conversation all the way to the end, declaring these things to the faithful and teaching them of this sword. So he said: 'Minister virtue in your faith, indeed knowledge in your virtue, but continence in your knowledge, but patience in your continence, indeed piety in patience, but the love of brotherhood in piety, and kindness in the love of brotherhood.'[xli] This is the scale through which the faithful man reaches the true kindness.
3. Why similarly all shave their heads in roundness.
This most sacred sign has in itself a bipartite mystery, through which the priest can bring forth the twin instigation for the people of God and the remedy for himself; in the first instance, so that he can notify the godly group that the sinning flesh permeates every human kind and overcomes the mind if the grace of the Creator does not help it, lest anyone should dare to trust in his very self or anyone should say through the fortitude of the mind that he is cutting away the vices of the flesh rather fully. But it behoves us to perform all virtue for God and each one should strenuously proclaim: 'I am an unhappy man. Who will liberate me from the body of this death?'[xlii] So that he should merit to hear the apostle saying: 'Not the fortitude of your spirit nor the ingenuities of your mind, but the grace of God that has been given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ.' The true words and those worthy of all veneration, that the brother will not redeem his brother, that is, the soul the flesh, but rather that man who is Jesus Christ- true God and true man- will redeem through the free grace that he will diffuse in the hearts of men. If the spirit of man clings to Him and obeys, immediately the evil desires of his body yield as the delight of justice overcomes, but they are not more fully separated because often they strive to fight back. Therefore the clerics everywhere, so that the servants of God may enjoy serene minds, cleanse the crowns rather frequently on the top of their hands, and since they harbour flesh that fights back, they allow the fibres to extend themselves under the crowns, not as much as they can and so that they cover the whole heads, so that through this mystery the faithful learn to reject carnal desires and minister to them less than they need. For if the full licit desires become preferable to them, immediately they will lead their minds into illicit ones. But if anyone wants rightly to subject his flesh, let him be the imitator of that person about whom the psalmist sang saying: 'I have humbled my soul in fasting and have put on haircloth as my clothing.'[xliii] And: 'I kept vigil and have become as a lone sparrow in a building.'[xliv] Or the follower of the apostle who says: 'I chastise my body and subject it in servitude, lest by chance, when I preach to others, I should be found to be dishonourable.'[xlv] Since indeed we have been imitators of the saints, then in roundness do we cut the delights of the fleshes, lest their intoxicating fat strangle our minds through suffocation and shut off the paths of their breathings. I conjecture that this is its first mystery. But the second mystery was explained by Saint Gregorius the outstanding teacher in the Moralia book,[xlvi] as this person says: indeed under the crown are the filaments of the cleric allowed to grow, so that the one placed in responsibility should not only devote care about himself, but also take care of those subjected as himself, so that he can fulfil that which the Truth commands us in saying: 'Love your Lord God and your neighbour as yourself.'[xlvii] And lest by chance the one placed in responsibility should extoll himself all this time in caring for his neighbours, to the point he forgets himself within, thus, before the filaments should cover his head more fully, they are cut, so that thus everyday in seeing his own top and the tops of his brothers he should care for himself and his people equally in directing, lest he should be similar to the lamp, which rises while forsaking others.
4. Why thus the Asian and Libyan clerics grow beards and on the contrary the Europeans cut at the root.
This bipartite mystery may be seen by many to be contrary. For if anyone weighs his dispensation, he will see that it is not oblique, but has been composed rightly by the apostles. Nonetheless, unless the cause of its foundation is explained more fully, it will be understood very little by the people of little thought. And although its discourse is prolonged in its extraction, it will not be indecent, when reason thus requires prolixity. Since indeed the whole world was divided by the apostles, such that each one should operation according to his lot, so the lot of Simon Peter happened to be Rome, which is known to be the capital of Europe. And when he strove to reach it, he had a journey through Antioch, and delaying in the same place, exhorting the faithful and instructing them, he was met by Paul the apostle, who rejected the contrary doctrines of the Jerusalemites, who wanted to impose on the faithful the burdens of the Old Testament, saying that they were sent by the apostles. And resisting him [Peter], he said to him as he stipulated to the Galatians saying: 'When I had seen that these people who tried to impose the burden of the Old Testament on the faithful were not walking rightly, I said to Peter in the presence of all: if you, although you are Jewish, live as a Gentile and not a Jew, how can you compel the Judaization of the Gentiles? We by nature are Jews and not sinners from the Gentiles: but we know that man is not justified from the works of the law except through the faith of Jesus Christ. And we believe in Jesus Christ, so that we may be justified through the faith of Christ and not from the works of the law, because from the works of the law not all flesh will be justified. But as I now live in flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and handed himself over for me. I do not cast side the grace of God. For if justice is through the law, then Christ died for nothing.'[xlviii] But as the scripture provides that God justifies the Gentiles from faith, He declared to Abraham that 'all peoples will be blessed in you.'[xlix] Therefore those who are of faith, will be blessed with the faithful Abraham. But those who are of the works of the law, are under a curse. For it has been written: 'Cursed is every person who does not remain in all things that have been written in the book of the law in order that he should do them.'[l] But as no one is justified in the law with God, it is manifest that the just lives from faith, but Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, as he became a curse on our behalf.[li] For if the law had been given that could justify, truly there would be justice from the law, but the scripture has concluded all things under sin, so that the promise of the faith of Jesus Christ should be given to the believers. The blessed Peter, hearing that those of the Jews who had reached the faith had dared in the name of the apostles to impose the burdens of the law on the Gentiles, for the refutation of those who preach such things he chose a sign on the top that was known to be forbidden in the Old Testament, so that it may be known to all faithful that one is not to be under the law, but under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then shaving his beard and his hair into a round-shape, when it had been said through Moses- 'Do not shave the hair into roundness, and do not shave the beard'[lii]- he took away the impositions of the Jerusalemites, thus with the sign imposed he continued among the nations to Rome. And when there he nurtured through the divine grace very many sons for our Lord Jesus Christ and ordained deacons and priests among them through all the cities, villages and towns, it suited for them to become imitators of the apostle both preaching the true sect of god and the sign[...][liii]: '...Herod was about to bring him, on that very night Peter was sleeping bound between two soldiers with two chains, and the guards were guarding the prison before the door. And behold the angle of the Lord stood and light shone in the room, and with Peter's side struck he roused him saying: get up quickly. And he got up and the chains fell from his hands. But the angel said to him: put on your clothes and put on your sandals. And he did thus. And he said to him: wrap your cloak around yourself and follow me. And going out he followed and did not know that this was truly the work of the angel. For he feared that he was seeing a vision'[liv] [...].[lv]Of the followers of the apostle Peter, by whom they had been imbued, they have left very little. This is the cause of the mystery for which the European toga acts in one way and the Asian and Libyan group in another.
5. Why the deacons and subdeacons proceed in the presence of the Lord on feast days with the albae cut off in front from the right and left-hand sides, and the priests in garments similar to the albae, but clothed in black.
The deacons with the lower grades are known to be messengers of the oracles of God in the church of Christ, and those who declare fine things, it is befitting for them to put on beautiful things not for the cause of elation, but with the habit of monition, so that they may rightly say to themselves and the viewers: 'Let us cast away from ourselves the works of darkness and put on the arms of light. Also let us walk in the day with decency, not in feastings and revelries, not in beds and vices, not in contention and envy, but let us put on our Lord Jesus Christ.'[lvi] On account of this meaning do the clerics put on albae. But from the right hand-sides it is made apparent that our modesty should be known to all, just as Saint Peter instructed us saying: 'Keep yourselves away from the carnal desires that militate against the soul, having your conversation[lvii] good among the peoples, so that in that which they detract from you as though from doers of evil, but considering you from good works, they may glorify God on the day of visitation.'[lviii] From the left-hand sides it is made apparent that we should confess our sins, as Saint Jacob instructs us in saying: 'You confess to each other your sins and pray for each other.'[lix] And the blessed John: 'But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just that He should remit the sins for us and purify us from every iniquity.'[lx] But when it is cut from the right and left-hand sides, not all the way to the disgrace of the flesh is the cutting led, because both parts are decently covered by the textile tunic, which fully enjoys the sign of putting on the baptism. And since moreover we put on the baptism so that we may bury the old man with his acts and we may arise as new men with our new Lord of Heaven Jesus Christ, so he who tries to open the alba from the right-hand side and wants to note his justice, let him not begin from the disgrace of the flesh that he has buried in baptism, but from the textile tunic, which has the sign of faith in which he may also truly believe that the just lives from faith and not from deeds. And he who wants to cut the alba from the left-hand side, let him not declare the arrogance of flesh in dancing, lest it be said to him: 'The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul'[lxi]- but in repenting and demanding mercy from God let him bring forth the crimes that he sent out after the grace of baptism, so that we following masters of the peoples can be His imitators in all things, just as He has commanded the faithful to be imitators of Christ. And if you do not know what the holy apostle did in such things, hear that he cut the alba from the right-hand side and brought forth the straight discourse from the tunic of faith, not from the old flesh, saying: 'I am what I am by the grace of God and the grace of God has not been empty in me, but I have laboured more than all.'[lxii] That is, what is seen as good in me, I have not taken from the original parent, but from the grace of God. From there so that he might urge on the rest, he showed with the grace of faith that he took up work, lest anyone- while he is seen to be fighting in the struggle- should become neglectful and think himself victor before the transit, because of what has been said: 'He who perseveres all the way to the end, this person will be saved.'[lxiii] And when he thus opened the alba from the left-hand side, he said: 'A faithful declaration and worthy of all acceptance: that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the sinners, of whom I am the first.'[lxiv] But so I have pursued mercy so that Jesus Christ may show in me first all patience to inform those who are to be believe in Him for eternal life. The blessed Paul made manifest and did not deny he is the first of all sinners, and thus he pursued mercy that our Lord Jesus Christ should make his patience a mark to the faithful, because in no way from his own acts did he think that he merited justifications.
So whoever does not imitate this mystery of salvation, will be judged profane, fatuous or an infidel, because if he only wants to cut the alba from the right-hand side and tries to attain glory from the works of the flesh, not from the tunic, he will immediately be compared to the Pharisee who gave thanks in the temple, and did not know that he received from His power that which was, so with elated mind he brought forth these words: 'That I am not as the rest of men.'[lxv] He did not say: 'That You did not make me like the rest of men'- as if he had formed himself just as he saw himself, he rejoiced even as he was still placed in the struggle and put trust for himself in himself, not wishing to understand that he should do well and shout with David in recognition: 'Your hands have made me, oh Lord, and they formed me. Give me understanding that I may learn Your commands.'[lxvi] And: 'Help me, oh Lord, and I will be saved, and I will always meditate on Your justifications.'[lxvii] So after he went out from the temple, there turned out for him that which the prophet had long ago announced beforehand saying: 'Cursed is the man who places his own hope in man.'[lxviii] And he who only wishes to cut from the left-hand side, will be seen as similar to Nabuquodnosor, who in extolling himself and making all virtue in himself brought in these words: 'Surely this is great Babylon, which I built in the home of my kingdom and in the glory of my décor?'[lxix] Immediately he was met by the divine word, casting him forth from men and made him converse with the beasts in those times.[lxx] But a publican, who stood afar in the temple and beat his chest strongly, had cut his alba from the left-hand side as far as it appears and had covered himself with the tunic of faith. But it seems to me that from both parts he cut the alba, from the right-hand side even if not because of showing good works, at least on account of demonstrating his great faith and making known his hope, as only the one in whom there is hope can have faith, and there can be hope only in the one in whom there is love [/the one who is loved[?]]. Therefore, he went out from the temple justified, as he was found full of faith, hope and kindness. Justified he ascended, because it has been said to those like him: 'Your faith has made you saved, go in peace.'[lxxi]
But the priests use black tunics, because they will feed their flocks, which are coloured scarlet and red, through their composition, not nature, and they carry their sins on their backs. And just as by sinning we turn the candour of our nature in dirtying, so the priests will turn the nature of their albae in darkening, so that what we badly experience by erring within, we may often see in the garments of the priests. This is so that whenever they pray for us in lamentation between the vestibule and the altar and in beseeching on account of our sins they ask for the clemency of the Trinity of God, they may merit to be heard more easily. For they have advised us in encouraging the way of ablution and saying these things: 'Wash, be clean, avert the evil of your thoughts from the eyes of the Lord, rest from acting perversely, learn to do good, seek judgement, help the oppressed, judge for the orphan, plead the case of the widow and come and reason with us, [says] the Lord our God.'[lxxii] And when we have done these things, at the same time believe truly that if our sins are dark like one of these scarlet tunics, they will be made white like snow, and if they are red like these scarlet worms, they will be clean like spin wool.
6. Why it has been necessary for deacons and the inferior grades to use the enebladium and to surround with its whiteness the chests along with the necks.
This type of clothing is used so that the pureness of the heart may be loved, because of what has been said: 'Blessed are those with pure heart, for they will see God.'[lxxiii] For he who still enjoys a corvine heart, it is fitting for him to ask God that he be made similar to the dove and pray with the psalmist saying: 'Create a pure heart in me, God, and renew the righteous spirit in my entrails.'[lxxiv] And just as the heart is covered by the flesh and is hidden in its interiors, so the enebladium is covered by lucid arms so that it may be proven to be similar to the heart: also the neck is covered by the same enebladium and is led all the way to the upper part of the throats of the clerics, so that they may be approved to bear forth the good things from the good treasure of their heart and fully extinguish the appearance of hypocrisy, lest it should be said to them: 'This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far removed from me.'[lxxv] And that: 'They blessed with their mouth and cursed with their heart.'[lxxvi] So the holy fathers, when they had already known this kind of prophecy was said, they ruled to decorate both the heart and the upper parts of the throat at the same time with one garment, lest they should let themselves be seen as two minds and two tongues. But because the heart believes and loves, let the mouth also openly bring forth and announce this, so that each one truly retaining his innocence may say- 'In my heart I have hidden Your words so that I should not sin against You'[lxxvii]- and in bringing forth the doctrine may say: 'On my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth.'[lxxviii]
7. Why subdeacons use orares on their left forearms, deacons on the shoulders, priests over the necks and chests.
Indeed the orares of the clerics resemble the yoke of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which it is said: 'For my yoke is sweet and my burden light.'[lxxix] So they are chosen small so that they signify levity, and thin that they may inform of sweetness. Indeed they are placed on the left sides of the clerics, so that in rejecting the juvenile desires all the right hands are accomplished. For first the oraris is led in over the forearms of the subdeacons, so that with their exertions they may deny the first campaigns of this world and learn the new kind of struggle from the apostle who says these things: 'The corporal exertion is somewhat useful. But piety is useful for all things, having the promise of life that is now and of the future.'[lxxx] So the hands of the subdeacons are first consecrated so that they may make use minimally of the strike of the blow, but having been made imitators of the composer of the psalms they may be known to proclaim as individuals: 'I have raised my hands in Your commandments, oh Lord, which I have loved, and I was exercising in Your wonders and I have chosen the way of truth, and I have commemorated Your judgements. So lead me into the law of Your mandates, because I have willed it.'[lxxxi] So when the subdeacon has persevered in these things without wandering and has legitimately tamed the first youth after boyhood has been transacted, then he is seen to be worthy to enact the acts of obedience of the deacons and to lead over his shoulder the oraris that he was using on his forearms, so that he may consider himself, even if not fully, then in part to expend gladly care for the church of Christ and to bear this sign for the duty of admonition to himself and the whole common people: that is, so that the one who sees it hanging over the lower parts of the deacon, may hurry to weep over the past things with haste, saying these words: 'Oh God, do not remember the crimes of my youth and ignorance.'[lxxxii] And the one who looks at his shoulder and anterior parts, may bring forth for the present and future things these words, immediately singing: 'You have taught me, oh God, from my youth and up to now I will proclaim Your wonders, and all the way to my old age and elderliness, oh God, do not abandon me.'[lxxxiii] And when in part the deacon guides well the godly group and decently abstains from mortal vices, then his neck is fully subjected to the yoke of Christ and he is rightly made pastor of the church of God,[lxxxiv] and it becomes right for him to teach the subdued and to sing these things: 'Oh sons, obtain for yourselves wisdom without silver and subject your neck to the yoke and let your soul undertake discipline. For finding it is at hand.'[lxxxv]
8. Why in the ordination of the bishops and the most renowned festivities the bishop uses a white cetharis also embellished with ribbons.
So the pontifical bishop is known to climb the peak and is seen to procure the greatest grade of the people of the church, so it is not right for us merely to choose bishops advanced in age, but it is important to put in charge those marked with the light of knowledge and marked with the customs of old age, just as the vessel of election imbued its follower Titus thus narrating: 'For the bishop must be without crime, as the dispensator of God, not arrogant, not given to anger, not a drunkard, not a bandit, not greedy for disgraceful gain, but hospitable, kind, sober, just, holy, continent, embracing the faithful words that are in accordance with the doctrine, so that he may be capable of exhorting in the sound doctrine and refuting those who contradict.'[lxxxvi] As the holy fathers considered these things, it did not suit for them merely to raise holy rusticity into the pontifical peak, but those whom they knew resist the contrarians in a rational way with holiness, as it is said thus in the proverbs: 'He who allows the home of his lord to be infringed is manifestly of the number of the thugs.' So when there has been such in the clergy as the found apostle designated, the pure cetharis embellished with ribbons is placed over his head, so that he may be seen to use the honour of old age fully among his colleagues and the veneration of old age, as has been said, may be given to him by men. Thus said the book of Sirac: 'Old age is venerable not by long-time and is not reckoned by the number of years, but grey hairs are the senses of man and the time of old age an immaculate life.'[lxxxvii] For this reason something similar to the grey hair of the bishop is placed on the head and it is just to decorate his top from its candour. In the ordination of the bishops, the pontifices use the cetharis, so that the unknown person may be seen to be ordained by the known old men, and in the most celebrated festivities it is placed on their heads so that the bishop wearing it may be made known to all those asking questions and each one may deserve to receive the response to his question from him.
9. Why everyday throughout Hispania[lxxxviii] the bishops cover their heads with the casulae,[lxxxix] when the apostle says: 'When man prays, he should minimally cover his head, which he will truly believe was made in God's image.'[xc]
Not indeed is it allowed to believe that this visible head of ours was made in God's image nor is it right to compare God disgracefully with visible corporeal things, because incorporeal and invisible He is worthy of being considered everywhere, but the mind, which is known to be the head of the soul, to whose authority the efficiencies of its body yield and men cannot comprehend and appreciate, is itself worthy for us to profess as having been made in God's image and always to offer it to God far removed from the covering of desire, as we have brought forth in the mystery of the crown. This head indeed which is seen is of the body. But it is pleasing for us to mortify the while body, by considering the precepts of the blessed apostle speaking in this way to us: 'For you have died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God.' [xci] So if we are dead to this life, it is necessary for the governor of the church, from whom we all take the example, to put on the clothing of the dead and cover the head along with the body by means of the casula, as though already he has been placed in a mound, so that his preaching may mollify the hearts of the faithful and his aspect may terrify their sight, in so far as he says with tearful spirit when he beholds himself or anyone of the followers behold him: 'I have been humbled all over. Revive me according to Your word. I have inclined my heart to perform Your justifications on account of the eternal retribution.'[xcii] And this sort of clothing the bishops did not adopt from themselves through Esperia,[xciii] but as I think they took up the example from the blessed Torquatus[xciv] and his companions, who minimally left the monastic simplicity with the accepted pontifical grade, but they always covered their heads with the sheepskins, which resemble the casulae. So the bishops through Spain strive to convey the norm from those from whom they merited to accept the considered faith. But the priests are covered with the casulae, because they are known to be the limb of the bishop, and not thus do they cover their heads, so that not all the highest, but rather all may learn the exemplary things from the highest pastor.
10. Why the Eastern priests along with the deacons take wives, but the Western ones remain celibate after the sub-deaconship.
Of these two customs I dare to corroborate one more fully and to extoll with decency the title of glorification for the one that I think the vessel of election said was better,[xcv] especially as our Lord said with His own mouth: 'If anyone ministers to Me, let him follow Me.'[xcvi] So it is not right except for the perfect to minister to Christ, and it is necessary for the perfect to abstain rather than to marry, voluntarily, not in coercion, capably speaking, and not gasping, because each one has his own gift. So the apostle brought forth this opinion saying: 'If anyone stands firmly in his heart not having necessity, but having the power of his will, and he has judged this in his heart, to keep his virgin, he has done well. Therefore also he who joins his virgin to marriage has done well, and he who does not join, has done better.'[xcvii] Indeed he who is known to have power over his will enjoys the great gift from the omnipotent Lord, and it has suited the one who has made the corporeal delights yield to adhere rather to his Creator. But if such a person neglects to remain celibate, let him know that he hardly has whole perfection. Thus the teacher of the peoples testifies saying these things: 'He who is without wife, he has been concerned how to please God; but he who takes a wife, he has been concerned how to please his wife and has been divided.'[xcviii] But what is divided concerning the married man? The mind certainly, not the body. But if he who takes a wife is divided, already he does not utilise the most whole perfection. And if he is not a whole man, he ought not to deal with the body of the saint of saints, because moreover it has been said regarding the figure of this mystery in the Old Testament: 'May the honour of the priesthood be denied to the one who enjoys diminution in the body.'[xcix] So those to whom the prophets declared these carnal things, ruled to keep the precepts in flesh, but for us spiritual ones it is necessary to shape this in the mind rather than in body. The Western fathers, considering these things and things similar to them, deemed it just in most of the synods, as you have known, to sanction that the cleric, after he is seen to have overcome necessity and to have always devoted will, should thus accept the grade of sub-deaconship, so that he should not cease to remain celibate afterwards, so that he should enjoy the while perfection and be approved as suitable among the ministers of Christ.
Indeed the second things, which the Phoenicians and the Eastern faithful have led into the godly group, I dare neither to curse nor praise, indeed I do not know the assembly of their fathers because they use the Attic letters and Greek language. But I do not hesitate to note to you that which I recall the Asians said to me in dispute: in short when I had asked from them speaking in assembly why the priests with inferior grades marry among them and hardly remain celibate after the rank, they said:
'If only they had been able to find for the pontifical grade those who are known to determine their own wills! For the vessel of election, when it argued more fluently about the order of virginity, said: 'If anyone stands firmly in his heart not having necessity, but having the power of his will, and he has judged this in his heart, to keep his virgin, he has done well.' Strengthened by these admonitions the fathers sanctioned most fully, knowing that those who lack the necessity of the flesh and have power over the will of the mind are small in number, that he who manifests himself to their gazes away should at least lead a life away from the passion of longing and the desire of the eyes and should be bound by the bond of marriage, saying: 'It is more useful for the one of these people who endures to accept the division that the apostle warned of, and one half of him should remain in the positive kind, the other half in the comparative grade, rather than bind his vessel with the bond of abstinence and commit fornication with the openings of the eyes everyday, lest perhaps while he considers himself continent as he leaps in exultation, he should be destroyed among the adulterers in the future with the fatuous virgins.' And they have not merely made this by themselves, as they say, but they have taken up the example from the apostle who says these words: 'He who joins his virgin in marriage, has done well, and he who does not join, has done better.' While the adverbs 'well' and 'better' are a meaning of one kind, and although one is placed over the other for the sake of comparison, the one divided in terms of goodness in these things is never rejected. Moreover some of the priests take wives in the same place with the inferiors, lest they manifest in one way to God, and in another way to men, for he who defiles himself and his mind with illicit desires (even if he is able to abstain), there is no benefit to him, as the apostle says: 'For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from fornication and each of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of desire.'[c] And indeed fornication not merely operates in the acts of sex, but also in the eyes, as the Truth says: 'Whosoever looks at a woman to lust for her, has already committed fornication with her in his heart.'[ci] So to remove the occasion they will hand over some wife to the one who has sight, because when the cleric commits fornication and makes his original vow void, he will be an adulterer, but the adulterers and greedy will not possess the kingdom of God. For this reason their fathers have considered it better, as they say, to lead some without the décor of virginity into the eternal life rather than throw them headlong into the eternal punishment through feigned virginity, for it has been said: 'It is better for you that one of your limbs should perish than all your body should be sent into Gehennam."[cii]
I have laid out for you and handed over to your judgement these opinions that were sought: as I recall, partly from the admonitions of the old fathers, and partly that which I learnt from the masters of this time.
Notes
[i] Leovigildus.
[ii] Saint Cyprianus: bishop and martyr of the third century CE, based at Carthage.
[iii] Spain.
[iv] The Ishmaelites: i.e. the Arabs and by extension the Muslims.
[v] The jizya poll-tax, in this case paid on a monthly basis (lunar month per the Islamic calendar).
[vi] Psalm 80:11.
[vii] Matthew 10:20.
[viii] Psalm 118:27.
[ix] The original Latin reads: vestra carissima cudere non repedat sanctitas. Arguably, there are two ways to read this phrase: one is to suppose the verb form here as deriving from repedare ('recoil'), which would then give the sense 'do not hesitate to revise.' That said, the appropriate present subjunctive active form here would be repedet and not repedat (which is a present indicative active form), and I do not know of an example of the use of this verb with an infinitive. The alternative reading, proposed by Gil and also noted by Roldán, is that repedat actually stands for repetat, and so the sense then becomes 'do not ask me to revise.' I go with this latter interpretation.
[x] I decided to leave this term untranslated. The word conformatio has various meanings such as 'shaping' and even 'personification.' Here the concept seems to mean the shaping of the clergy's behaviour in an upright manner in accordance with the demands of the faith and the church, and providing an example of upright behaviour to the faithful.
[xi] Matthew 28:19-20.
[xii] Matthew 5:13.
[xiii] Matthew 5:4-15.
[xiv] Romans 1:14.
[xv] Latin: vas electionis, a title referring to Paul.
[xvi] 1 Timothy 4:12.
[xvii] 1 Timothy 4:16.
[xviii] The Biblical reference is not noted in Gil. This phrase refer to Joshua 4, in which God commanded Joshua to have twelve men appointed from the people of Israel (representing its twelve tribes) who should go into the river Jordan and bring out twelve stones to be a memorial for the people of Israel, as the waters of the Jordan river were cut off before the ark of the covenant.
[xix] 1 John 2:15-17.
[xx] James.
[xxi] James 1:18.
[xxii] Deuteronomy 6:5.
[xxiii] Romans 7:25.
[xxiv] Galatians 5:17.
[xxv] Romans 7:23.
[xxvi] Psalm 62:9.
[xxvii] Psalm 144:18-19.
[xxviii] Cf. Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31, though it should be noted that in these verses the rule is framed in a positive way. Thus:
παντα οὐν ὁσα ἐαν θελητε ἱνα ποιωσιν ὑμιν οἱ ἀνθρωποι, οὑτως και ὑμεις ποιειτε αὐτοις (Matthew 7:12)
'All things that you wish that men should do unto you, do so likewise unto them.'
και καθως θελετε ἱνα ποιωσιν ὑμιν οἱ ἀνθρωποι, ποιειτε αὐτοις ὁμοιως (Luke 6:31)
'And just as you wish that men should do unto you, do likewise unto them.'
[xxix] Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
[xxx] Daniel 4:24.
[xxxi] Luke 11:41.
[xxxii] Ecclesiasticus 30:24.
[xxxiii] Psalm 10:6.
[xxxiv] Cf. Mark 12:15-17.
[xxxv] Psalm 50:18-19.
[xxxvi] Matthew 23:23.
[xxxvii] 1 Corinthians 13:3.
[xxxviii] 1 Timothy 1:5.
[xxxix] Matthew 25:34-35.
[xl] Cf. Matthew 10:42.
[xli] 2 Peter 1:5-7.
[xlii] Romans 7:24.
[xliii] Psalm 34:13.
[xliv] Psalm 101:8.
[xlv] 1 Corinthians 9:27.
[xlvi] It should be noted that this citation cannot be traced back to the Moralia as we have it.
[xlvii] Matthew 22:37.
[xlviii] Galatians 2:14-16 and 20-21.
[xlix] Genesis 26:4.
[l] Deuteronomy 27:26.
[li] Cf. Galatians 3:13, not noted in Gil.
[lii] Leviticus 19:27.
[liii] Here is a gap in the original text.
[liv] Acts 12:6-9.
[lv] Another gap in the original text.
[lvi] Romans 13:12-13.
[lvii] Note that the sense of 'conversation' here is archaic in the sense of 'conduct' (cf. original Greek word: ἀναστροφη).
[lviii] 1 Peter 2:11-12.
[lix] James 5:16.
[lx] 1 John 1:9.
[lxi] Psalm 9:3.
[lxii] 1 Corinthians 15:10.
[lxiii] Matthew 10:22.
[lxiv] 1 Timothy 1:15.
[lxv] Luke 18:11.
[lxvi] Psalm 118:73.
[lxvii] Psalm 118:117.
[lxviii] Jeremiah 17:5.
[lxix] Daniel 4:27.
[lxx] Cf. Daniel 4:29, not noted in Gil. Note again the sense of 'converse' is archaic: 'live with.'
[lxxi] Mark 5:34.
[lxxii] Isaiah 1:16-18. Note though in Leovigildus' text the 'says' that is present in most translations of Isaiah 1:18 (including the Latin Vulgate) with God as the subject is not there. Instead the verse as presented here reads as though 'the Lord our God' (Dominum Deum nostrum, which is curiously in the accusative) is the object of the verb form arguite (second person plural imperative). Perhaps this was an error on the part of the author or a later scribe.
[lxxiii] Matthew 5:8.
[lxxiv] Psalm 50:12.
[lxxv] Matthew 15:8.
[lxxvi] Psalm 61:5.
[lxxvii] Psalm 118:11.
[lxxviii] Psalm 118:13.
[lxxix] Matthew 11:30.
[lxxx] 1 Timothy 4:8.
[lxxxi] Psalm 118:48, 30 and 35.
[lxxxii] Psalm 24:7.
[lxxxiii] Psalm 70:17-18.
[lxxxiv] i.e. He becomes a priest/presbyter.
[lxxxv] Ecclesiasticus 51:33-34.
[lxxxvi] Cf. Titus 1:6 ff.
[lxxxvii] Book of Wisdom 4:8-9.
[lxxxviii] Spain.
[lxxxix] It is important to note here Saint Isidore of Seville's description of the casula as a vestis cucullata ('hooded garment'). Further, the New Advent encyclopaedia says that 'in many early chasubles, as depicted in the drawings of the eighth and ninth centuries, we see clear traces of a primitive hood.'
[xc] Cf. 1 Corinthians 11 (not noted in Gil).
[xci] Colossians 3:3.
[xcii] Psalm 118:107 and 112.
[xciii] Spain.
[xciv] Spanish saint of the first century CE.
[xcv] i.e. Leovigildus considers the Western practice of celibacy better, but wishes to provide a more detailed rationale for the Eastern practice.
[xcvi] John 12:26.
[xcvii] 1 Corinthians 7:37-38.
[xcviii] 1 Corinthians 7:32-33.
[xcix] Cf. Leviticus 21:17 ff.
[c] 1 Thessalonians 4:3-5.
[ci] Matthew 5:28.
[cii] Matthew 5:29.