Chapter 7.—How Man is the Image of God. Whether the Woman is Not Also the Image of God. How the Saying of the Apostle, that the Man is the Image of God, But the Woman is the Glory of the Man, is to Be Understood Figuratively and Mystically.

9. We ought not therefore so to understand that man is made in the image of the supreme Trinity, that is, in the image of God, as that the same image should be understood to be in three human beings; especially when the apostle says that the man is the image of God, and on that account removes the covering from his head, which he warns the woman to use, speaking thus: “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man.” What then shall we say to this? If the woman fills up the image of the trinity after the measure of her own person, why is the man still called that image after she has been taken out of his side? Or if even one person of a human being out of three can be called the image of God, as each person also is God in the supreme Trinity itself, why is the woman also not the image of God? For she is instructed for this very reason to cover her head, which he is forbidden to do because he is the image of God.748    1 Cor. xi. 7, 5

10. But we must notice how that which the apostle says, that not the woman but the man is the image of God, is not contrary to that which is written in Genesis, “God created man: in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them: and He blessed them.” For this text says that human nature itself, which is complete [only] in both sexes, was made in the image of God; and it does not separate the woman from the image of God which it signifies. For after saying that God made man in the image of God, “He created him,” it says, “male and female:” or at any rate, punctuating the words otherwise, “male and female created He them.” How then did the apostle tell us that the man is the image of God, and therefore he is forbidden to cover his head; but that the woman is not so, and therefore is commanded to cover hers? Unless, forsooth, according to that which I have said already, when I was treating of the nature of the human mind, that the woman together with her own husband is the image of God, so that that whole substance may be one image; but when she is referred separately to her quality of help-meet, which regards the woman herself alone, then she is not the image of God; but as regards the man alone, he is the image of God as fully and completely as when the woman too is joined with him in one. As we said of the nature of the human mind, that both in the case when as a whole it contemplates the truth it is the image of God; and in the case when anything is divided from it, and diverted in order to the cognition of temporal things; nevertheless on that side on which it beholds and consults truth, here also it is the image of God, but on that side whereby it is directed to the cognition of the lower things, it is not the image of God. And since it is so much the more formed after the image of God, the more it has extended itself to that which is eternal, and is on that account not to be restrained, so as to withhold and refrain itself from thence; therefore the man ought not to cover his head. But because too great a progression towards inferior things is dangerous to that rational cognition that is conversant with things corporeal and temporal; this ought to have power on its head, which the covering indicates, by which it is signified that it ought to be restrained. For a holy and pious meaning is pleasing to the holy angels.749    1 Cor. xi. 10 For God sees not after the way of time, neither does anything new take place in His vision and knowledge, when anything is done in time and transitorily, after the way in which such things affect the senses, whether the carnal senses of animals and men, or even the heavenly senses of the angels.

11. For that the Apostle Paul, when speaking outwardly of the sex of male and female, figured the mystery of some more hidden truth, may be understood from this, that when he says in another place that she is a widow indeed who is desolate, without children and nephews, and yet that she ought to trust in God, and to continue in prayers night and day,750    1 Tim. v. 5 he here indicates, that the woman having been brought into the transgression by being deceived, is brought to salvation by child-bearing; and then he has added, “If they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with sobriety.”751    1 Tim. ii. 15 As if it could possibly hurt a good widow, if either she had not sons, or if those whom she had did not choose to continue in good works. But because those things which are called good works are, as it were, the sons of our life, according to that sense of life in which it answers to the question, What is a man’s life? that is, How does he act in these temporal things? which life the Greeks do not call ξωή but βίος; and because these good works are chiefly performed in the way of offices of mercy, while works of mercy are of no profit, either to Pagans, or to Jews who do not believe in Christ, or to any heretics or schismstics whatsoever in whom faith and charity and sober holiness are not found: what the apostle meant to signify is plain, and in so far figuratively and mystically, because he was speaking of covering the head of the woman, which will remain mere empty words, unless referred to some hidden sacrament.

12. For, as not only most true reason but also the authority of the apostle himself declares, man was not made in the image of God according to the shape of his body, but according to his rational mind. For the thought is a debased and empty one, which holds God to be circumscribed and limited by the lineaments of bodily members. But further, does not the same blessed apostle say, “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which is created after God;”752    Eph. iv. 23, 24 and in another place more clearly, “Putting off the old man,” he says, “with his deeds; put on the new man, which is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him?”753    Col. iii. 9, 10 If, then, we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and he is the new man who is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him that created him; no one can doubt, that man was made after the image of Him that created him, not according to the body, nor indiscriminately according to any part of the mind, but according to the rational mind, wherein the knowledge of God can exist. And it is according to this renewal, also, that we are made sons of God by the baptism of Christ; and putting on the new man, certainly put on Christ through faith. Who is there, then, who will hold women to be alien from this fellowship, whereas they are fellow-heirs of grace with us; and whereas in another place the same apostle says, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus; for as many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ: there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus?”754    Gal. iii. 26–28 Pray, have faithful women then lost their bodily sex? But because they are there renewed after the image of God, where there is no sex; man is there made after the image of God, where there is no sex, that is, in the spirit of his mind. Why, then, is the man on that account not bound to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God, while the woman is bound to do so, because she is the glory of the man; as though the woman were not renewed in the spirit of her mind, which spirit is renewed to the knowledge of God after the image of Him who created him? But because she differs from the man in bodily sex, it was possible rightly to represent under her bodily covering that part of the reason which is diverted to the government of temporal things; so that the image of God may remain on that side of the mind of man on which it cleaves to the beholding or the consulting of the eternal reasons of things; and this, it is clear, not men only, but also women have.

CAPUT VII.

9. Homo imago Dei, quomodo. Annon et mulier imago Dei. Dictum Apostoli, quod vir imago Dei sit, mulier autem gloria viri, quomodo figurate ac mystice intelligendum. Non itaque ita debemus intelligere hominem factum ad imaginem summae Trinitatis, hoc est ad imaginem Dei, ut eadem imago in tribus intelligatur hominibus: praesertim cum Apostolus virum dicat esse imaginem Dei, et propterea velamentum ei capitis demat, quod mulieri adhibendum monet, ita loquens: Vir quidem non debet velare caput, cum sit imago et gloria Dei. Mulier autem gloria viri est. Quid ergo dicemus ad haec? Si pro sua persona mulier adimplet imaginem Trinitatis, cur ea detracta de latere viri adhuc ille imago dicitur? Aut si et una persona hominis ex tribus potest dici imago Dei, sicut in ipsa summa Trinitate, et unaquaeque persona Deus est, cur et mulier non est imago Dei? Nam et propterea caput velare praecipitur, quod ille quia imago Dei est prohibetur (I Cor. XI, 7, 5).

10. Sed videndum est quomodo non sit contrarium quod dicit Apostolus, non mulierem, sed virum esse imaginem Dei, huic quod scriptum est in Genesi, Fecit Deus hominem, ad imaginem Dei fecit eum; masculum et feminam fecit eos, et benedixit eos. Ad imaginem Dei quippe naturam ipsam humanam factam dicit, quae sexu utroque completur, nec ab intelligenda imagine Dei separat feminam. Dicto enim quod fecit Deus hominem ad imaginem Dei, Fecit eum, inquit, masculum et feminam: vel certe alia distinctione, masculum et feminam fecit eos. Quomodo ergo per Apostolum audivimus virum esse imaginem Dei, unde caput velare prohibetur, mulierem autem non, et ideo ipsa hoc facere jubetur? nisi, credo, illud quod jam dixi , cum de natura humanae mentis agerem, mulierem cum viro suo esse imaginem Dei, ut una imago sit tota illa substantia: cum autem ad adjutorium distribuitur, quod ad eam ipsam solam attinet, non est imago Dei; quod autem ad virum solum attinet, imago Dei est, tam plena atque integra, quam in unum conjuncta muliere. Sicut de natura humanae mentis diximus, quia et si tota contempletur veritatem, imago Dei est; et cum ex ea distribuitur aliquid, et quadam intentione derivatur ad actionem rerum temporalium, nihilominus ex qua parte conspectam consulit veritatem, imago Dei est; ex qua vero intenditur in agenda inferiora, non 1004 est imago Dei. Et quoniam quantumcumque se extenderit in id quod aeternum est, tanto magis inde formatur ad imaginem Dei, et propterea non est cohibenda, ut se inde contineat ac temperet; ideo vir non debet velare caput. Quia vero illi rationali actioni quae in rebus corporalibus temporalibusque versatur, periculosa est nimia in inferiora progressio; debet habere potestatem super caput, quod indicat velamentum quo significatur esse cohibenda. Grata est enim sanctis Angelis sacrata et pia significatio. Nam Deus non ad tempus videt, nec aliquid novi fit in ejus visione atque scientia, cum aliquid temporaliter ac transitorie geritur, sicut inde afficiuntur sensus vel carnales animalium et hominum, vel etiam coelestes Angelorum.

11. In isto quippe manifesto sexu masculi et feminae apostolus Paulus occultioris cujusdam rei figurasse mysterium, vel hinc intelligi potest, quod cum alio loco dicat, veram viduam esse desolatam, sine filiis et nepotibus, et tamen eam sperare debere in Dominum, et persistere in orationibus nocte et die (I Tim. V, 5), hic indicat mulierem seductam in praevaricatione factam, salvam fieri per filiorum generationem: et addidit, si permanserint in fide, et dilectione, et sanctificatione cum sobrietate (Id. II, 15). Quasi vero possit obesse bonae viduae, si vel filios non habuerit, vel ii quos habuerit, in bonis operibus permanere noluerint. Sed quia ea quae dicuntur opera bona, tanquam filii sunt vitae nostrae, secundum quam quaeritur cujus vitae sit quisque, id est, quomodo agat haec temporalia, quam vitam Graeci non ζωήν, sed βίον vocant; et haec opera bona maxime in officiis misericordiae frequentari solent; opera vero misericordiae nihil prosunt, sive Paganis, sive Judaeis qui Christo non credunt, sive quibuscumque haereticis vel schismaticis ubi fides et dilectio et sobria sanctificatio non invenitur: manifestum est quid Apostolus significare voluerit; ideo figurate ac mystice, quia de velando mulieris capite loquebatur, quod nisi ad aliquod secretum sacramenti referatur, inane remanebit.

12. Sicut enim non solum veracissima ratio, sed etiam ipsius Apostoli declarat auctoritas, non secundum formam corporis homo factus est ad imaginem Dei, sed secundum rationalem mentem. Cogitatio quippe turpiter vana est, quae opinatur Deum membrorum corporalium lineamentis circumscribi atque finiri. Porro autem nonne idem beatus apostolus dicit, Renovamini spiritu mentis vestrae, et induite novum hominem, eum qui secundum Deum creatus est (Ephes. IV, 23, 24); et alibi apertius, Exuentes vos, inquit, veterem hominem cum actibus ejus, induite novum qui renovatur in agnitionem Dei secundum imaginem ejus qui creavit eum (Coloss. III, 9, 10)? Si ergo spiritu mentis nostrae renovamur, et ipse est novus homo qui renovatur in agnitionem Dei secundum imaginem ejus qui creavit eum; nulli dubium est, non secundum corpus, neque secundum quamlibet animi partem, sed secundum rationalem mentem, ubi potest 1005 esse agnitio Dei, hominem factum ad imaginem ejus qui creavit eum. Secundum hanc autem renovationem efficimur etiam filii Dei per baptismum Christi, et induentes novum hominem, Christum utique induimus per fidem. Quis est ergo qui ab hoc consortio feminas alienet, cum sint nobiscum gratiae cohaeredes; et alio loco idem apostolus dicat, Omnes enim filii Dei estis per fidem in Christo Jesu. Quicumque enim in Christo baptizati estis, Christum induistis. Non est Judaeus neque Graecus, non est servus neque liber, non est masculus neque femina: omnes enim vos unum estis in Christo Jesu (Galat. III, 26-28)? Numquidnam igitur fideles feminae sexum corporis amiserunt? Sed quia ibi renovantur ad imaginem Dei, ubi sexus nullus est, ibi factus est homo ad imaginem Dei, ubi sexus nullus est, hoc est in spiritu mentis suae. Cur ergo vir propterea non debet caput velare, quia imago est et gloria Dei; mulier autem debet, quia gloria viri est, quasi mulier non renovetur spiritu mentis suae, qui renovatur in agnitionem Dei secundum imaginem ejus qui creavit illum? Sed quia sexu corporis distat a viro, rite potuit in ejus corporali velamento figurari pars illa rationis, quae ad temporalia gubernanda deflectitur; ut non maneat imago Dei, nisi ex qua parte mens hominis aeternis rationibus conspiciendis vel consulendis adhaerescit , quam non solum masculos, sed etiam feminas habere manifestum est.