Chapter XI.—The Rule of Veiling Not Applicable to Children.

But what we intermitted above for the sake of the subsequent discussion—not to dissipate its coherence—we will now discharge by an answer.  For when we joined issue about the apostle’s absolute definition, that “ every woman” must be understood (as meaning woman) of even every age, it might be replied by the opposite side, that in that case it behoved the virgin to be veiled from her nativity, and from the first entry of her age (upon the roll of time).

But it is not so; but from the time when she begins to be self-conscious, and to awake to the sense of her own nature, and to emerge from the virgin’s (sense), and to experience that novel (sensation) which belongs to the succeeding age.  For withal the founders of the race, Adam and Eve, so long as they were without intelligence, went “naked;” but after they tasted of “the tree of recognition,” they were first sensible of nothing more than of their cause for shame.  Thus they each marked their intelligence of their own sex by a covering.37    Gen. ii. 25; iii. 7 (in LXX. iii. 1, iii. 7).  But even if it is “on account of the angels” that she is to be veiled,38    See ch. vii. above. doubtless the age from which the law of the veil will come into operation will be that from which “the daughters of men” were able to invite concupiscence of their persons, and to experience marriage.  For a virgin ceases to be a virgin from the time that it becomes possible for her not to be one.  And accordingly, among Israel, it is unlawful to deliver one to a husband except after the attestation by blood of her maturity;39    See Deut. xxii. 13–21. thus, before this indication, the nature is unripe.  Therefore if she is a virgin so long as she is unripe, she ceases to be a virgin when she is perceived to be ripe; and, as not-virgin, is now subject to the law, just as she is to marriage.  And the betrothed indeed have the example of Rebecca, who, when she was being conducted—herself still unknown—to an unknown betrothed, as soon as she learned that he whom she had sighted from afar was the man, awaited not the grasp of the hand, nor the meeting of the kiss, nor the interchange of salutation; but confessing what she had felt—namely, that she had been (already) wedded in spirit—denied herself to be a virgin by then and there veiling herself.40    Gen. xxiv. 64, 65.  Comp. de Or., c. xxii. ad fin.  Oh woman already belonging to Christ’s discipline!  For she showed that marriage likewise, as fornication is, is transacted by gaze and mind; only that a Rebecca likewise some do still veil.  With regard to the rest, however (that is, those who are not betrothed), let the procrastination of their parents, arising from straitened means or scrupulosity, look (to them); let the vow of continence itself look (to them).  In no respect does (such procrastination) pertain to an age which is already running its own assigned course, and paying its own dues to maturity.  Another secret mother, Nature, and another hidden father, Time, have wedded their daughter to their own laws.  Behold that virgin-daughter of yours already wedded—her soul by expectancy, her flesh by transformation—for whom you are preparing a second husband!  Already her voice is changed, her limbs fully formed, her “shame” everywhere clothing itself, the months paying their tributes; and do you deny her to be a woman whom you assert to be undergoing womanly experiences?  If the contact of a man makes a woman, let there be no covering except after actual experience of marriage.  Nay, but even among the heathens (the betrothed) are led veiled to the husband.  But if it is at betrothal that they are veiled, because (then) both in body and in spirit they have mingled with a male, through the kiss and the right hands, through which means they first in spirit unsealed their modesty, through the common pledge of conscience whereby they mutually plighted their whole confusion; how much more will time veil them?—(time) without which espoused they cannot be; and by whose urgency, without espousals, they cease to be virgins.  Time even the heathens observe, that, in obedience to the law of nature, they may render their own rights to the (different) ages.  For their females they despatch to their businesses from (the age of) twelve years, but the male from two years later; decreeing puberty (to consist) in years, not in espousals or nuptials.  “Housewife” one is called, albeit a virgin, and “house-father,” albeit a stripling.  By us not even natural laws are observed; as if the God of nature were some other than ours!

CAPUT XI.

Sed quod supra intermisimus, ex parte subsecutae disputationis, ne cohaerentiam ejus dispergeremus, nunc responso expungemus. Ubi enim gradum fiximus de Apostoli absoluta definitione, omnem mulierem etiam omnis aetatis intelligendam (I Cor., XI, 5), responderi ex diverso habebat, ergo a nativitate et a primo nomine aetatis virginem operiri oportere. Non ita est autem, sed ex quo se intelligere coeperit, et censum naturae suae intrare, et de virginis exire, et pati novum illud quod alterius aetatis est. Nam et principes generis Adam et Eva (Gen. II), quamdiu intellectu carebant, nudi agebant (Gen. II). At ubi de arbore agnitionis gustaverunt, nihil primum 0904B senserunt quam erubescendum. Itaque sui quique sexus intellectum tegmine notaverunt. Sed et si propter angelos velanda est, sine dubio ab ea aetate lex velaminis operabitur, a qua potuerunt filiae hominum concupiscentiam sui adducere, et nuptias pati. Ex illo enim virgo desinit, ex quo potest non esse. Et ideo penes Israel illicitum est ad virum tradere, nisi post contestatam sanguine maturitatem: ita ante hunc indicem acerba res est. Igitur si tamdiu virgo, quamdiu acerba est, desinit virginem cum matura cognoscitur, et ut non virgo jam legi applicatur, sicut et nuptiis. Et desponsatae quidem habent exemplum Rebeccae (Gen. XXIV, 64), quae cum ad sponsum ignotum adhuc ignota perduceretur, simul ipsum cognovit esse, quem de longinquo prospexerat 0904C , non sustinuit dexterae colluctationem, nec osculi congressionem, nec salutationis communicationem , sed confessa quod senserat, id est spiritu nuptam, negavit virginem velata ibidem. O mulierem jam de Christi disciplina! Ostendit enim 0905A etiam nuptias de aspectu et animo fieri, quemadmodum stuprum. Nisi quod etiam Rebeccam quidam adhuc velant. De caeteris vero, id est, quae desponsatae non sunt, viderit parentum procrastinatio ex angustiis vel scrupulositate descendens, viderit et ipsum continentiae votum. Nihil pertinet ad aetatem sua spatia currentem, suaque debita maturitati luentem. Alia in occulto mater, natura, et alius in latenti pater, tempus, filiam suam legibus suis maritarunt. Aspice nuptam jam illam tuam virginem, et animam expectatione, et carnem transfiguratione , cui tu secundum paras maritum. Jam et vox obsolefacta est, et membra completa sunt, et pudor ubique vestitur, et menses tributa dependunt : ac tu mulierem negas, quam muliebria 0905B pati dicis! Si congressio viri mulierem facit, non tegantur, nisi post ipsam nuptiarum passionem. Atquin etiam apud ethnicos velatae ad virum ducuntur. Si autem ad desponsationem velantur, quia et corpore et spiritu masculo mixtae sunt per osculum et dexteras, per quae primum resignarunt pudorem spiritus , per commune conscientiae pignus, quo totam condixerunt confusionem, quanto magis tempus illas velabit, sine quo sponsari non possunt, et quo urgente sine sponsalibus virgines desinunt esse! Tempus etiam ethnici observant, ut ex lege naturae jura sua aetatibus reddant. Nam foeminas quidem a duodecim annis, masculum vero a duobus amplius ad negotia mittunt, 0906A pubertatem in annis, non sponsalibus aut nuptiis decernentes. Materfamiliae vocatur licet virgo, et paterfamiliae licet investis. A nobis nec naturalia observantur, quasi alius sit Deus naturae quam noster.