Chapter XXIII.

Seeing, then, man’s own reflections, even in spite of the sweetness of pleasure, lead him to think that people such as these should be condemned to a hapless lot of infamy, losing all the advantages connected with the possession of the dignities of life, how much more does the divine righteousness inflict punishment on those who give themselves to these arts! Will God have any pleasure in the charioteer who disquiets so many souls, rouses up so many furious passions, and creates so many various moods, either crowned like a priest or wearing the colours of a pimp, decked out by the devil that he may be whirled away in his chariot, as though with the object of taking off Elijah? Will He be pleased with him who applies the razor to himself, and completely changes his features; who, with no respect for his face, is not content with making it as like as possible to Saturn and Isis and Bacchus, but gives it quietly over to contumelious blows, as if in mockery of our Lord? The devil, forsooth, makes it part, too, of his teaching, that the cheek is to be meekly offered to the smiter. In the same way, with their high shoes, he has made the tragic actors taller, because “none can add a cubit to his stature.”20    Matt. vi. 27. His desire is to make Christ a liar. And in regard to the wearing of masks, I ask is that according to the mind of God, who forbids the making of every likeness, and especially then the likeness of man who is His own image? The Author of truth hates all the false; He regards as adultery all that is unreal.  Condemning, therefore, as He does hypocrisy in every form, He never will approve any putting on of voice, or sex, or age; He never will approve pretended loves, and wraths, and groans, and tears. Then, too, as in His law it is declared that the man is cursed who attires himself in female garments,21    Deut. xxii. what must be His judgment of the pantomime, who is even brought up to play the woman! And will the boxer go unpunished? I suppose he received these cæstus-scars, and the thick skin of his fists, and these growths upon his ears, at his creation! God, too, gave him eyes for no other end than that they might be knocked out in fighting! I say nothing of him who, to save himself, thrusts another in the lion’s way, that he may not be too little of a murderer when he puts to death that very same man on the arena.

CAPUT XXIII.

Quum igitur humana recordatio, etiam obstrepente gratia voluptatis, damnandos eos censeat, ademptis bonis dignitatum in quemdam scopulum famositatis, quanto magis divina justitia in ejusmodi artifices animadvertit? An Deo placebit auriga ille tot animarum inquietator, tot furiarum minister, 0655A tot statuum, ut sacerdos coronatus, vel coloratus ut leno, quem curru rapiendum diabolus adversus Heliam exornavit? Placebit et ille , qui vultus suos novacula mutat? infidelis erga faciem suam, quam non contentus Saturno et Isidi et Libero proximam facere, insuper contumeliis alaparum sic objicit, quasi de praecepto Domini ludat? Docet scilicet et diabolus verberandam maxillam patienter offerre (Matth. VI). Sic et tragoedos cothurnis extulit, quia nemo potest adjicere cubitum unum ad staturam suam (Luc XII): mendacem facere vult Christum. Jam vero ipsum opus personarum, quaero an Deo placeat, qui omnem similitudinem vetat fieri, quanto magis imaginis suae. Non amat falsum auctor veritatis (Exod. XX): adulterium est apud illum omne 0655B quod fingitur. Proinde vocem, sexus, aetates mentientem, amores, iras, gemitus, lacrymas adseverantem non probabit, qui omnem hypocrisin damnat. Caeterum cum in lege praescribit, maledictum esse qui muliebribus vestietur (Deut. XXII), quid de pantomimo judicabit, qui etiam muliebribus curatur ? Sane et ille artifex pugnorum impunitus ibit? Tales enim cicatrices caestuum, et callos pugnorum, et aurium fungos a Deo cum suo plasmate accepit. Ideo illi oculos Deus plasmavit, ut vapulando deficiant. Taceo de illo, qui hominem leoni prae se opponit, ne parum sit homicida , qui eumdem postmodum jugulat.