LETTER LXIX. 

IN this Letter S. Ambrose answers a question propounded to him as to the ground of the severity of the Mosaic Law against those who disguised their sex.

AMBROSE TO IRENAEUS, GREETING.

1. You have referred to me, as to a father, the inquiry which has been made of you, why the Law was so severe in pronouncing those unclean who used the garments of the other sex, whether they were men or women, for it is written,  The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment; for all that do so are an abomination unto the Lord. 

 2. Now, if you will consider it well, that which nature herself abhors must be incongruous. For why do you not wish to be thought a man, seeing that you are born such? why do you assume an appearance which is foreign to you? why do you play the woman, or you, O woman, the man? Nature clothes each sex in their proper raiment. Moreover in men and women, habits, complexion, gestures, gait, strength and voice are all different.

3. So also in the rest of the animal creation; the form, the strength, the roar of the lion and lioness, of the bull and heifer are different. Deer also differ as much in form as they do in sex, so that you may distinguish the stag from the hind even at a distance. But in the case of birds the similitude between them and men, as regards covering, is still closer; for in them Nature distinguishes their sex by their very plumage. The peacock is beautiful, but the feathers of its consort arc not variegated with equal, beauty. Pheasants also have different colours to mark the difference of the sexes. And so with poultry. How sonorous is the cock's voice, night by night performing his natural office of calling us from sleep by crowing. They do not change their form; why then do we desire to change ours?

4. A Greek custom has indeed prevailed for women to wear men's tunics as being shorter. Be it allowed however that they should imitate the nature of the more worthy sex; but why should men choose to assume the appearance of the inferior? A falsehood is base even in word, much more in dress. So in the heathen temples, where there is a false faith, there also is a false nature. It is there considered holy for men to assume women's garments, and female gestures. And therefore the Law says that every man who puts on a woman's garment is an abomination unto the Lord.

5. I conceive however that it is spoken not so much of garments as of manners, and of our habits and actions, in that one kind of act becomes a man, the other a woman. Wherefore the Apostle also says, as the interpreter of the Law,  Let your women keep silence in the Churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are to be under obedience, as also saith the Law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home.  And to Timothy:  Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection; but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man. 

6. But how unseemly is it for a man to do the works of a woman! As for those who curl their hair, like women, let them conceive also, let them bring forth. Yet the one sex wears veils, the other wages war. Let them however be excused who follow their national usages, barbarous though they be, the Persians and Goths and Armenians. Nature is superior to country.

7. And what shall we say of others who think it belongs to luxury to have in their service slaves wearing curls and ornaments of the neck? It is but just that chastity should be lost where the distinction of sexes is not preserved, a point wherein the teaching of nature is unambiguous, according to the Apostle's words;  Is it comely that a woman  pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you that if a man have long hair it is a shame unto him: but if a woman hath long hair, it is a glory unto her: for her hair is given her for a covering.  Such is the answer which you may make to those who have referred to you.

Farewell; love me as a son, for I love you as a father.

1061 EPISTOLA LXIX.

 Roganti quare Lex viros veste muliebri, ac mulieres   1232B   virili uti prohibeat; respondet a natura id abhorrere, ut ex brutis ipsis intelligitur; feminas tamen virorum, quam viros feminarum cultum sumere tolerabilius: at legem potius esse de moribus, quam de vestibus. Post quae in eos, qui capillos crisparent, invehitur. 

AMBROSIUS IRENAEO, salutem.

1. Pertulisti ad me quasi filius quaesivisse aliquos de te, quid sibi velit quod tam severe Lex immundos eos dixerit, qui alieni sexus uterentur vestibus, vel viros scilicet vel mulieres; sic enim scriptum est:  Non erit res viri super mulierem, neque inductur vir stolam muliebrem; quia immundus est Domino omnis, qui fecerit haec (Deut. XXII, 5).

2. Et si vere discutias, incongruum est, quod ipsa etiam abhorret natura. Cur enim homo non vis videri  1232C esse, quod natus es? cur alienam tibi assumis speciem? cur mentiris feminam: vel tu, femina, virum? Suis unumquemque sexum induit natura indumentis. Denique diversus usus, diversus color, motus, incessus, diversae vires, diversa vox est in viro et femina.

3. Sed etiam in reliqui generis animantibus alia species leonis, alia leaenae, alia vis, alius sonus: alia tauri, alia vitulae. In cervis quoque quantum distat sexus, tantum discrepat species; ut eos etiam eminus possis discernere. In avibus vero etiam propius ad vestitum est inter eos et homines comparatio; in illis enim sexum naturalia ipsa indumenta discernunt. Pavi mares speciosi, feminae non item pennarum vario pinguntur decore. Fasianis quoque  1232D diversus color, qui distinguat sexus discretionem. Quid in pullis? Quam canora vox galli, nocturnis  1233A vicibus solemne munus ad excitandum et canendum ministrans? Numquid illa mutant speciem suam? Cur nos mutare desideramus?

4. Et quidem Graeco more influxit ut feminae virilibus quasi succinctioribus tunicis utantur. Esto tamen ut illae imitari videantur melioris sexus naturam, quid viri inferioris sexus mentiri speciem volunt? Mendacium et in verbo turpe est, nedum in habitu. Denique in templis, ubi mendacium fidei, ibi mendacium naturae. Illic assumere viros muliebrem vestem, gestumque femineum, sacrum putatur. Unde Lex dicit quia immundus est Domino omnis vir qui stolam muliebrem induerit.

5. Arbitror autem quod non tam de veste, quam de moribus dixerit, vel de usibus nostris atque actibus,  1233B quo alius virum, alius feminam deceat actus. Unde et Apostolus ait, quasi interpres Legis:  Mulieres vestrae in Ecclesia taceant 1062.  Non enim permittitur eis loqui, sed subditas esse, sicut Lex dicit. Si quid autem volunt discere, domi viros suos interrogent (I Cor. XIV, 35, 36). Et ad Timotheum:  Mulier in silentio discat   cum omni subjectione. Docere autem mulieri non permitto, neque dominari in virum (I Tim. II, 11, 12).

6. Quam deforme autem virum facere opera muliebria? Ergo et pariant, ergo parturiant, qui crispant comam sicut feminae. Et tamen illae velantur, isti belligerantur. Verum habeant excusationem, qui patrios usus sequuntur, sed tamen barbaros, ut Persae, ut Gothi, ut Armenii: major quidem est natura, quam  1233C patria.

7. Quid de aliis dicemus, qui hoc ad luxuriam derivandum putant: ut calamistratos et torquatos habeant in ministerio, ipsi promissa barba, illos remissa coma? Merito illic non servatur castimonia, ubi non tenetur sexus distinctio; in quo evidentia naturae magisteria sunt, dicente Apostolo:  Decet mulierem non velatam orare Deum? Nec ipsa natura docet vos quod vir quidem   si comam nutriat, ignominia est illi: mulier vero si capillos habeat, gloria est illi; quoniam quidem capilli pro velamine ei dati sunt  (I Cor. XI, 13-15). Haec sunt quae referas requirentibus. Vale, et nos ut filius dilige; quia nos te ut parentes diligimus.